Psychedelics Helped Triathlete In Her 40s Rediscover Marriage
Artem SmirnovSummary of Adrienne’s Experience
Adrienne Smith, a yoga studio owner and former triathlete, shares her transformative experiences with psychedelics. She delves into how her perspective on life and relationships changed after rowing across the Pacific Ocean and subsequent experiences with psilocybin and MDMA. She focuses on how psychedelics helped her rediscover marriage and improve the overall environment of her household.
Adrienne discusses the impact of psychedelics on her marriage, personal growth, and the importance of normalizing these substances for mental and emotional healing. She highlights the significance of creating intentional downtime, feeling emotions deeply, and how these practices have enhanced her connection with herself and others. Adrienne advocates for the responsible use of psychedelics.
Adrienne is the owner of Power Of Your Om Yoga studio in Santa Barbara, California.
Normalizing psychedelics is important because we’re having conversations about so many other things and methods of healing and this one should be included. If something that occurs in nature can help, in my opinion, heal our entire planet. Why aren’t we using it?
-Adrienne
Watch: Triathlete Shares How MDMA Revived Her Marriage
There is no amount of therapy that could have got us to this point. All the walls, the years of resentment, like, just issues and problems and disconnection that was present just dropped in an instant
Describe your first MDMA experience?
We cleared our schedule. My daughter was with my sister and we took some MDMA and went to the beach. And it was fascinating because it took quite a while to feel anything. And I was like, is anything happening?
And we’re laying there and my head’s up like the side of the ocean. My feet are facing shore where my husband and I are kind of facing each other. And he’s sitting in this chair and I asked him, I had my hand on my heart and I’m just laying there. We’re listening to music. And I said, how are you feeling?
And he’s like, nothing. I knew this would happen. And I said to him, I go, well, interestingly, I said, I’ve never seen you sit still for so long. And, classically people think of MDMA as like dance vibes. I had no expectations, really didn’t really do any research. I just trusted my friend.
And 10 minutes later, we’re laying down next to each other. And I said to him. There is no amount of therapy that could have got us to this point. All the walls, the years of resentment, like, just issues and problems and disconnection that was present just dropped in an instant and I mean, we had gone to therapists.
We were trying everything, but we couldn’t let go of stuff that was in the way. So no matter what kind of talk therapy or tools or skills or books that we were reading just like didn’t get through to us, like actually. feeling.
If I look back now, it’s like I felt whole and complete at that moment. And there was nothing else that I needed to do in order to feel that way. Like it was already present. And then he simultaneously having the same personal experience. And then we’re experiencing that together. And that was just the beginning of a completely new relationship, like what I now term is like, this is the real us.
that was just the beginning of a completely new relationship, like what I now term is, this is the real us.
The other way that we operate is just, When we get into our default patterns of operating so what started to shift from that day was the ability to go back and connect to each other to connect to that moment. And that’s just shifted the whole entire tone and energy of our house, even when I’m helping my daughter put her clothes on for school and I’m starting to get feeling having that feeling of, I don’t have enough time. She’s going to be late. We’re rushing. I’m able to really quickly and I know these are certain skills that we can learn just in a meditation practice and a yoga practice where you take a deep breath.
But there’s like an innate feeling that is remembered in the body, I can tap into instantly because of the experiences that I’ve had on psychedelics
Its just shifted the whole entire tone and energy of our house
How have psychedelics helped you as an athlete?
They’ve helped me feel my feelings and I’ve been an athlete since I was four. I’m 44 now, never in my wildest dreams thought that this would be a conversation that I would be having. Even one year ago today, I never could have even forecasted being interviewed for a normalizing psychedelics interview.
I did triathlon for a long time and I kept signing up for races. Because it was just what I was used to it was what I was good at and it’s what I got acknowledged for. The ego felt so good about that.
When I stopped doing it because I was like, I don’t like it anymore But I don’t have anything else to fill the space I started to realize that in a way just existing and giving myself this downtime has allowed me to see like, oh my god I like music.
I love dancing. I like going to concerts. I don’t even know how this came to be something that I practiced, but I would take a 500 milligrams or a gram of mushrooms and I would go on a walk just outside of my house, take maybe like 45 minutes to an hour, and then I would come home, I’d put in headphones, and I’d turn on a sound healing.
I would lay on my floor and just feel. And that would be the time of like the most intense sensory experience. Sound was louder. I could feel my body more. I would always put something over my eyes because I always noticed that during that time I do want to go internal and feel what’s happening.
Then all of a sudden, I just gave myself intentional downtime, different from watching movies and Netflix and scrolling on Instagram downtime. I like to call that, like, creative time. And, and then all of a sudden, that creation of space gives me ideas later. Like, the next day, I’m listening to people differently.
I’m able to listen. I think truly being able to identify that I’m feeling a physical sensation that I can then tie to feeling overwhelmed. So it’s like, oh, I’m feeling a tightness in my chest or my stomach is all weird.
And I can check and be like, yeah, I am feeling a little overwhelmed and overworked and irritated. And then as a result, I can look at my schedule for what I have to do over the course of a day and then prioritize what’s actually important today that I have to get done.
