How to Prepare for Ayahuasca Ceremony: Practical Steps for Mind, Body & Spirit

Let’s start here: you do not need to have everything figured out to sit with the medicine. In fact, most people come to ayahuasca because something in their life feels off—grief, confusion, heartbreak, burnout, or the sense that something deeper is calling. This work doesn’t require perfection. It just asks for honesty, humility, and a willingness to meet yourself as you are. You don’t need to live like a monk for two weeks beforehand—preparation is about softening, clearing, and aligning with intention, not chasing purity.

1. Preparing the Body: Dieta as Energetic Alignment

The dieta is a sacred clearing, not a punishment or restriction. The idea isn’t to deprive yourself—it’s to lighten the load your body carries so the medicine can move through you with clarity and power.

From our Dieta Guidelines, here’s what to keep in mind:

What to Avoid:

• Pork, red meat, turkey

• Fried foods, processed sugar, fermented foods

• Caffeine (or reduce to minimal), spicy foods, heavily salted meals

• Alcohol and recreational drugs (including cannabis)

Light, plant-forward meals are best—vegetables, fruits, rice, quinoa, legumes, and gentle proteins like chicken, eggs or fish.

Medications, Herbs & Supplements:

It’s critical to avoid any substances contraindicated with ayahuasca, especially due to its interaction with MAOIs. Speak with us and your healthcare provider to confirm your safety.

In addition to medications, we ask guests to pause all non-essential supplements and herbs unless medically required. Letting your body return to its natural baseline can reveal hidden imbalances and allows the medicine to meet you in your true state.

Contraindicated natural substances include:
St. John’s Wort
Kava, Kratom
Ephedra
Ginseng
Yohimbe
Sinicuichi
Rhodiola Rosea
Kanna
Boswellia
Nutmeg
Scotch Broom
Licorice Root.

Please discontinue use of these at least two weeks prior to ceremony.

Sexual Energy:

We also recommend abstaining from sex and self-pleasure during the lead-up to ceremony. Not as a moral stance—but as a way to conserve energy, reclaim focus, and enter the container with a sense of sovereignty and clarity.

2. Preparing the Mind: Intentions, Not Expectations

Ayahuasca works beyond logic and often beyond words. You don’t need to come in with a perfectly articulated intention—but it helps to reflect.

Try journaling on:

• What’s been stirring or troubling me lately?

• What am I ready to release?

• What am I afraid of?

• What do I long to understand or become?

As your ceremony approaches, we encourage you to create a little buffer around your mental space. This is a sacred time to turn inward.

Avoid:

• News media, TV, and emotionally intense movies

• Online ayahuasca documentaries or “trip reports”

• Heated debates or strong interpersonal conflict

• Situations that stir fear, anxiety, or reactivity

This is not about hiding from reality—it’s about creating a calm inner environment where your own voice, and the voice of the medicine, can be heard more clearly.

Hold your reflections lightly. It’s beautiful to come with a prayer in your heart—but don’t grip it too tightly. The medicine often reveals what’s beneath what you think you came for.

3. Preparing the Spirit: Centering, Cleansing, Calling In

There’s no one “right” way to spiritually prepare—just ways to attune your energy and call yourself back into wholeness.

Some practices to consider:

• Time in nature: barefoot walks, listening to birdsong, touching the earth

• Energetic cleansing: using gentle sacred smoke like copal, frankincense, myrrh, or palo santo

• Sacred conversation: speak aloud to your guides, your higher self, the spirit of the plants—invite support and surrender with humility

Let these rituals be invitations, not obligations. This is about arriving, not performing.

4. Practical Steps: What to Bring & How to Arrive

At Gaian Rhythm, we provide each guest with:

• A 4-inch memory foam mat, fitted sheet, pillow, and blanket for ceremony

Still, you’re welcome to bring:

• Your own pillow and blanket if you’d feel more comfortable with them

• A water bottle (we supply Berkey-filtered water, with additional fluoride filters, in on-site glass dispensers)

• Loose, comfortable layers

• A journal and any sacred object that helps you feel anchored

Before arriving:

• Rest well

• Stay hydrated

• Don’t overschedule yourself—leave space before and especially after ceremony for reflection and quiet integration

5. Integration Begins Before Ceremony

Healing doesn’t end when the cup is empty. Integration begins with how you show up before ceremony.

Start asking:

• What kind of support will I need after this?

• What feels nourishing and stabilizing for me?

• Who can I talk to about what comes up?

We are deeply committed to helping our guests land gently. Each retreat group receives two integration calls with our integration guide, Kate—one one week and another one month after your retreat. In addition, Kate hosts weekly community integration calls every Wednesday at 7pm EST, open to anyone who has sat with us.

Kate is also available for one-on-one preparation or integration work. Her approach weaves internal family systems, somatic presence, and gentle spiritual insight. Learn more here:
👉 Inner Alchemy Integration

You can also explore our Integration Support Page for additional resources.

In Closing: Come As You Are

Don’t wait until you feel “ready.” Ready is a myth. The work begins when you say yes.

If you’re walking through grief, uncertainty, heartbreak, transition—you are not disqualified. You are the very reason this medicine exists. Let preparation be a way to honor your courage, not question it.

Come as you are. The medicine is waiting.