Aya Camp - Big breakthrough!

Wow. Travelled all night to get here. Cusco and then the Sacred Valley. Had a massive breakdown today. Sat in the shower and cried. Had a nap, cried somemore. Total fucking breakdown. I didn't know what to do, under the effects of Medicine and then 8 hours of travelling with the biggest breakdown ever, I literally thought I wouldn't stop crying and would also maybe die (this emotion thing new to me). I started reaching out, trying to distract myself instead of just let it out. Istarted missing the boys from the jungle, started hating it here. Then I reached out to Sarah (a girl that came from the jungle with me). Best move ever. Went to her room and broke the fuck down while she held me. Shared some of my story with her and had the biggest breakthrough!

Just to add to the story, last night I went to see my friends and say goodbye. I ended up in conversation with one that went deep. I talked about wondering if I was addicted to sex, why did I always have this insatiable appetite for it and based all my relationship success in the quantity and quality of relations? B en told me I was more of a love addict than anything. I disagreed. Lol. I don't want love. We talked about meaningless sex being meaningless and a waste of time. He said, trust me darlin, you like the connection.

Back to the breakdown..... I was sharing with Sarah all of the this while she rubbed me and lovedme and held me and I was telling her stories of my past and I could feel a release at my core. My body let go of years and years of holding back, 39 years of tears. At first it felt like death. I was trying to do whatever I could to get away from it and when I listened to my intuition and leaned into it, it was amazing. Deep release. Complete let go.

What came through was the need I don't want to see. The need for touch, love, connection. This is why I have sex. It has been the only time I have allowed others to touch me or me touch others and I crave it, but don't want to admit it. I spend so much time not cuddling, not hugging, not showing affection, not holding hands or even kissing. And I feel deep apologies to all for that - friends, family and partners.

The barriers have been broken. I am open. No need to ever hold back tears again. No need to tense up when someone touches me. No need to not touch. And ask for help! Deep work today.

Aya Camp Entry #4 -

Ceremony #4

Journal entry :
Judgement. Inner monologue. Hatred. Failure. The last 3 ceremonies have been exactly the same but completely different. Everything highlighting this crazy war I have going on 24/7 with myself. The blame for not loving me shifts from one worthy opponent to another. For so long the physical aspectof me. All parts. The mirror my favourite companion to pick out daily every single one of my million flaws. I was so focused externally that I have allowed myself, my inner dialogue to beat the fuck out of me, and not subtly.

My curse is guilt. The catalyst is failure. This voice in my head relentless. What a fuck up you are. Said in so many different ways. All these feelings brought to the surface, left to boil for the next few days of travel. How can I find balance in all of this? This entire journey has come to a place of exhaustion.

Acceptance. Love. Integration. Deep deep down, I know I am ok. I just feel weary. And this leg of the journey has just begun.

Aya Camp Entry #2 - All the things

What I wrote after my second ceremony.

This night I journeyed into "All the things."

The medicine came on fast and came on strong. I realized I spend a significant amount of time labelling myself - I am this, I am not that and tonight the labels went away.

I can not really tell you what happened as I could not comprehend the unfolding of events, images and sensations I went through in such a short time (something I will refer to as the terribles, coined by Anton) and then the time loop.

The time loop was like an unfolding and deconstruction of my who and all of my mindless thinking. How hard I truly have to work to NOT know what's going on. How hard I truly have to work in everyday interactions to see a sign or make meaning out of the words and actions of others. How hard I have to work to discover all of the things I already know.

Tonight I discovered CHOICE. Literally everything comes down to choice.

How long will I self destruct? As long as I choose to.

How long will I continue to not have a morning routine or get serious about my business again? As long as I choose to.

How long until I stop beating myself up for my choices?

How long until I choose differently?

How long until I am ok?

How long until I am good enough?

How long until I love myself?

All choice my friend. Last night Ben's words rang so loud in my ears. "You are forgetting about 1 very important person - YOURSELF" and by doing that it's easy to forget that everything is a choice.

Ayahuasca Camp Journal Entry #1

This is from my journal the day after my first journey.

5 years ago ish, I had an urge. A crazy urged to head to the jungle to drink jungle juice and find and connect to a deeper part of my soul. Last night that dream came true. I have spent the last 5 years full of anticipation and trying to stave off expectation.

Last night I drank the bitter brew and meet the grandmother I have been fantasizing about for years and I was so happy to meet her. The journey was long and beautiful and mild and expelatory. I went to many surface areas of my mind and the answers were thrown at me immediately. Lose the princess and find the Queen. Let go of your falsities and love who and what you are just as you are. Own your greatness and stop searching for your purpose. You already hold it, you already know it, now do it.

And take that shit off your face. Stop the eyelashes, the nails, the makeup, get dirty, enjoy nature and remember who you are. Stop searching ~ for you, for your purpose, for the answers, for your life partner, for meaning in everything. ENJOY ~ the world around you, life, your adventure, your children and your work.

Nobody ever said it would be easy, they just said it would be worth it.

This is me

This is me.

No filter. No make up. No eyelash extensions. No gel nails. No faces to cover up my hatred for selfies.

This is the girl I love to hate and hate to love. This is the girl I cover in make up and falseness because I can't seem to find her beauty without it. And right now I just don't want to do that anymore.

Right now I base my worth on what others say about me, not what I see when I look in the mirror or just feel as a sense of self.

This is me raw and unapologetic in this moment. The one afraid she will be alone or dating for the rest of her adult life. Afraid to be seen as she truly is, with stretch marks and a chubby belly and no thigh gap. Afraid her perfect partner will be disgusted by how she presents physically.

This is me.

Arriving

So yesterday was a big day. The start of the retreat. We were to all meet up for the shuttle. There we all get to check each other out, size each other up and see who we are with for thenext at least 7 days. Well of course my group is the coolest. 2 ex-navy seals, an expert in artificial emotional intelligence, a married couple from California, 2 cute boys fromOntario, a sweetheart on his 40th+ journey and the coolest chick I could dare to hang out with, with 5 more people to meet at the centre.

2 hours of driving through the country side, with the best meal ever and then 1.5 hours by boat on the largest river I have ever seen. Good conversation and deep connection right off the bat and a fuck ton of laughs. I nicknamed3people immediately. Lol.

We arrived at this isolated village on stilts to music and dancers. It was surreal. Intros, orientation, our rooms and food! We heard about kambo and what that ceremony would look like at 6am and finished the day off with a nunu ceremony. Wow.

Spiders, mosquitoes and then crazy rain throughout the night meant barley any sleep. Upat sunrise for the kambo. Wow. Again. I think I know what death feels like, lol. A bit of purgingand everyone says I look like a different person.... Hmmm.

A one on one with the shamans where I share my deepest traumas and history and ayahauscaceremony #1 tonight. Anticipation without expectation. A difficult space to hold. Tonight is establishing a connection with the medicine. Wish me luck, let's hope she likes me. ❤️

Landing in Peru

After 22 hours of travel,I landed in Iquitos, I left the airport in a tuk tuk, and as I sat in the 35• weather headed to town and checked out the scenery, it finally it hit me. Here I am doing this alone. I travel alone quite regularly, but often to meet people. Go on a retreat with friends or to Tony Robbins where I know people, and, I am going on a retreat and meeting with people in Costa Ricabut at this moment the reality of everything that has been building for the last 6 months came to light.

I talked with so many single travellers, all male. Everyone surprised by my journey mainly because of my vagina. Well fuck it (but not really because the ayahausca diet forbids it for 2 weeks prior, during and 2 weeks after lol). I am detoxing here with no coffee, or sugar, or dairy, or as mentioned sex OR alcohol. And other than the dull headache, I feel... I don't want to fill in anymore because I think that sentence says more than any label could. I feel.

A newer feeling for me. Feeling in general. And those of you that knew me even a year ago knew I didn't even feel comfortable with physical touch. I would rather not hug or cuddle or hold hands and now here I am. The hugger with emotions lol... Wtf?

As I talk to more people and hear about their experiences with the medicine, the anticipation right now is at an all time high. I literally can not wait to get to the jungle. I have to remind myself to stay present. To enjoy the cooking. * cooking is what happens basically from the time that you make the decision to partake in the medicine, it's literally all of your shit starting to boil to the surface * And that has been happening to me and I am well aware of it. The closer to the time of actual ingestion, the more intense.

When I was in Chilliwack last weekend there was a lot for me to stew about. One thing that stands out is my issues around rejection and how I let that effect me. In fact, in sharing, I recognized how it effects most people (I want to say everyone but God knows there will be that one person in denial). The fear of rejection seems to stop us from reaching out to others and saying the things that we really want to say. What I've recognized is that it's a pitiful excuse. To not tell someone you like them or love them because you are afraid they won't say the same back is also bottling your emotions. And it causes stress, emotional pain and, eventually, physical ailments. Add up all the things you haven't said in your life (both positive and negative) and tell me your healthy, lol.

I know I said fuck it last weekend. I reached out to my mom a while ago, I cyber-stalked a cute boy and called him, I told almost every person in my life I loved them and I have shared a bit of my upset with those I needed to (carefully as that can be a slippery slope of blame as opposed to personal responsibility). Let me tell you, not one of those things worked out the way I wanted them to. Lol. Not one. All of them went in the way of rejection. My Mom has not responded when I thought she would jump all over it, the boy didn't meet me and no one said sorry or owned their shit with explanation. Fuck.

But I did it anyway and I didn't make it mean anything about me. Because really I think that is what we are worried about,right? If I say I love you and you don't say it back, that means I am unloveable. If I chase after that boy or girl and they don't like me back that means I am ugly or fat or insert your flaws here. And it's not the truth. What is the truth you ask? The truth is objective and without emotion. The truth is you said I love you to someone and they didn't say it back. That's it. It doesn't mean you are unloveable or even that they don't love you back, you never know what is going on with someone else, it just means at that moment, they didn't say it back.

So fuck rejection. Seriously. You know I speak on living out of your comfort zone.... Well that doesn't mean sell everything you own and move to the jungle, it just means say something that scares you, everyday. Or start with once a week. Say I love you or no or yes or hi, my name is. Feel the fear and do it anyway.

Goodbye Colynn!

This is how I feel today as I sit at the airport, ready to fly!

Today I set off for who knows how long. To go do who knows what, who knows where lol. Well I know a bit. Tomorrow at this time I will be landing in Iquitos, Peru. I will be whisked off into the Amazon for an incredible journey into myself. As mentioned I have battled loneliness and just want to let it go. I want to love ME as much as I loved Paul when I met him. And I will. In fact I sometimes wonder if just by setting that intention, I already do.

Sitting here at Vino Volo, not drinking wine and just wanting to be in Peru already I am reminded about the journey in general. In life, and in flight, it's important not to forget about how important the journey is.

This morning on the ferry I met a woman that I talked to for the entire ferry ride. She was older, super kind and had experienced very little trauma in her life. She was a wealth of positive knowledge and she reminded me of realities I sometimes forget about because I don't often intact with them. I would have missed her if I was in a hurry.

So I imagine there will be some interesting posts to come, but for now you get a goodbye. And a nervous smile. ❤️

Friendship

Friendship.

I needed a ride to the ferry a month ago and was at a loss for who to ask. All my friends are busy, have their own lives and are often business oriented - meaning the reason I know them is because of my work. I definitely learned 2 things. I have trouble asking for help and looking back I have not fostered my friendships.

This whole divorce thing has been hard but also very great for clearing space in my life. At first my partner was reaching out to anyone that would listen and filling them with some pretty good stories. I watched my friend count on Facebook drop and some followers on Instagram disappear. Even some family went to the dark side, lol. I went quiet. I went inside. I drank Prosecco. And that is when it hit me. Everything has been about business for me. The reason I knew I was losing friends was a number on social media, not anything to do with physical reality. This made me take a long, hard look at everything, including my business.

By letting people go and healing some energy leaks with important people in my life, I started to clear space. I recognized the friends I do have and started to attract some new ones. This weekend I came home to teach some classes and ended up getting offers to stay with my amazing students (and friends) and at first just kept saying no. I felt guilty imposing. But Erika basically told me I was staying with her and I have to be honest, I was relieved. We stayed up late talking, had morning coffee staring onto the lake, talking, and just plain enjoyed each others company.

I take away from this the beautiful and feminine skill of receiving. I have resisted accepting help from others for so long. What up with that? I definitely don't mind helping but receiving, unless you're helping me move I don't need anything. Yet, here I am. Homeless, carless, and therefore in need of assistance. I am so grateful for everyone. Everyone that encourages me in continuing to post my most vulnerable feelings and realizations. I am grateful for those that won't let me be without shelter. To Tim for lending me a car! And to each and every one of you for your support and encouragement.

I think of that quote, "No one ever said it would be easy, they just said it would be worth it." Amen.