It’s natural for big, and sometimes hard emotions to surface during (and after) your psychedelic experience.

Here is a simple exercise for when these emotions are present:

• Take three breaths.

• Place one hand on your heart and the other on your belly.

• Say to yourself, internally or out loud, “It’s okay. These feelings, all and any of them, are here with me right now. You belong here. I am here with you and I am listening.”

• Breathe into your heart, belly, and hands.

• What do you notice?

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a unique empirically based psychological intervention that uses acceptance and mindfulness strategies, together with commitment and behavior change strategies, to increase psychological flexibility.

A short and practical ACT exercise, in about 12 minutes, to focus on the breath.

The handshake method is made up of four steps: meeting, being, waiting, and communicating. The goal, says Goleman, is to let the emotions dissipate by making friends and accepting whatever comes. Paying attention to what comes up in the mind and body, without judgment, is the essence of mindfulness.

A ten-minute guided ‘handshake’ meditation can be found here.