“Let’s All Just Take A Nice, Deep Breath.”

It’s one of the most comfortable moments I’ve ever experienced. And I got the pleasure to experience it a handful of times, in different cities even.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the shaman – a Maetsro Ayahuascero and Australian living Peru – who was and is a key piece of my journey with plants.

He helped establish my foundation with them.

And I hear – especially lately – his voice in my head when things are chaotic. Lately it’s been the energy of others (in both work and personal life) who have been bringing a swirling purge of emotions. Unnecessarily.

But what I realized is that this is how these people operate nearly 24/7. This is how they are currently living their lives on the regular.

And I am a calming influence. At least I try to be. You know… “The logical one”. But I’m finding that people don’t realize that the calming influence is merely meant to help them understand they need to breathe and find a moment of stillness to see things from a neutral point of view. Accept what is, and then choose to do something about it.

Not continue to swirl in chaos.

It was what. the shaman brought to my life… Always mid-ceremony, while in darkness inside the circular hut. The icaro symphony would decrescendo till it was only the nocturnal insects outside the screened windows still singing.

That’s when the shaman would break our swirling internal conversations with, “Let’s all just take a nice, deep breath.”

He would say it loudly and draw it out a little. And all of the energies in the room would oblige.

And I would feel comfortable. And seek deeper into accepting whatever the plants were telling me in the space. Making a mental note of how to take action, or at least how to begin to process the information.

Sometimes I could walk out of the jungle camp knowing exactly what I needed to do next. Often it would take quite some time to fully process things.

In some instances, I am still processing things.

And in one instance (the snake from my Vision Quest three years ago), I haven’t begun to process it.

But I know that no matter what, the processing of the chaotic energy involves that deep breathing.

And I encourage everyone, when they are feeling chaos, to stop… And take that deep breath.

Maybe over and over again.

Because that’s all I got for you.