Orient Yourself Not Around Your Traumas, But Around Your Pleasure

By Shiri Godasi

As I write this I’m sitting between boxes settling into a brand new home in Costa Rica, after nearly 2 full months of traveling/switching between multiple realities. I tried to make sense of it and here’s what it looked like:


9 flights
8.8 lion’s gate portal and a fire Leo season (feeew!)
7 weeks
6 visits to my favorite Thai restaurant in Oregon
5 Suitcases
4 year old
3 continents
2 new programs created
1 purpose to all of this... 

To live free. 

But, hold the healing. All I wanted was a vacation. 

This trip has been unexpectedly and utterly transformational - I shared about the first Israel leg in a previous blog, and honestly, still in awe of and integrating USA leg 2. Some experiences cannot be put into words, and don’t need to be. 

But, I will say - despite my view of every lived minute, every life situation as a potential ceremony/learning/growth opportunity, no inner “work” was planned to take place on my behalf. In fact, I’m incredibly disenchanted with the “healing” and “do the work” narratives that are perpetuated within the collective, including in the psychedelic sphere. 

Not to say these ideas are not important - they are, spent many years in that healing leg myself. It was a vital part of my integration journey. 

But, I do feel I have been trapped in that story way longer than necessary, key word being trapped. 

So much that it became my entire world. As a devout psychedelic practitioner, every single moment of my day was oriented around doing my integration work, self development and becoming a better human. To do my damned shadow work and heal that boatload of trauma already.

And much to my dismay, this constant chase to “be better” was causing me much destabilization, suffering and splitting - NOT integration. 

I was wrapped in some twisted idea that to be good enough, I must work my inner a$$ off with receipts to show. 

BUT there was an internal conflict, because this idea was not aligning with my inner spiritual dialogues that we are not here to work - we are here to play, thrive and live abundantly. NO ONE IS HERE TO SUFFER. 

And as I soon learned, after becoming “psychedelic-sober” by choice nearly a year ago, that this idea wasn’t just coming from me nor was it my own trauma that I was spinning in - it was an indoctrination coming straight from the mouths of the most powerful psychedelic/personal improvement/spiritual influencers of our time. 

Whut!

To be clear: this is MY subjective truth. 

It’s been months that I have been swimming with this realization and “waking up” from the vacuum reality that is the psychedelic renaissance. 

So much has been coming up for me... too much for this one blog. For today - 

Just imagine what would happen if we orient ourselves not around our traumas, but around pleasure. 

Read that again. 

And, maybe make a decision **right now** to hop off that trauma pole and orient yourself around a pole that brings you joy. 

What could it look like? 
Dance in your living room. 
Pet your pup. 
Cook while drinking wine and fresh beats in the background. 
Put on a facial mask and sit in the tub. 
Get a fun new lipstick color. 
Hum. 
Watch a movie. 
‘Spend’ an entire hour speaking with a good friend, maybe take a walk outside while you’re at it. 
Whatever feels light and loving. 

The greatest gift this summer trip has provided me is an immense mindset/soulset shift: once and for all, I’ve been throttled/hopped off that trauma pole. Now, I’m spinning around the pleasure pole and immersed in pampering myself in ways I was not aware were possible. Practicing loving this human as an art form and not working on myself like I’m some project that needs constant improvement. 

And let me tell you - it’s divine! In some ways, way more divine than the mystical states I achieved through the use of psychedelics. Maybe because there is no third medium, and it is not an altered state of consciousness - it is my every day, my life. 

So - what pole do You choose to spin around? 

Author’s Bio
Shiri Godasi (She/Her) is a teacher, visionary creatrix, depth poet and mother. She is best known for her pioneering methods in the field of psychedelic integration and community bridging, including founding 5 psychedelic harm reduction organizations. She is passionate about creating a decolonized, psychedelic-positive counterculture and empowering others to step into radical authenticity/radical action to co-create a just world. Her professional certification program The Psyched Soul PlaySkool of Integration & Soulpreneurship trains people to become creative system disruptors through expert psychedelic support and heart-centered leadership. Her approach draws from transpersonal psychology, New-Earth sacred commerce, Eastern philosophy and multidisciplinary arts, fusing ancient wisdom with modern practices for a ‘Psyched’ lifestyle.