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Ep.133 Emotional Liberation with Cannabis with Becca Williams
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Let's remember how to feel again.
In this soul-expanding conversation with Becca Williams, emotions therapist and founder of Emotional Liberation, we explore how working with plant teachers like cannabis and psilocybin can help you build true emotional resilience.
Together, we dive into the fine line between USING plants for escape and working WITH THEM as conscious allies — and how emotional healing is really about strengthening your nervous system to move through life’s waves with grace.
Whether you’ve done the inner work and now crave deeper embodiment, or you’re learning to trust your emotions again, this episode will remind you: Nature doesn’t numb — Nature teaches you how to feel safely.
In this episode about Emotional Liberation with Cannabis, you’ll learn:
🌿 What emotional liberation truly means and how to cultivate it daily
🌿 The difference between escapism and conscious collaboration with plant medicine
🌿 How cannabis can support nervous system resilience and emotional release
🌿 Why the root of trauma healing lies in rebuilding your ecosystem — not just your mindset
✨ Next Step ✨
Bring these insights into LIVED PRACTICE inside the Naturally Conscious Community (NCC). 🌿
Let’s turn reflection into integration — and make it real in your ecosystem. JOIN HERE FOR FREE
✨ Resources
🌱 Expanded Show Notes
🌱 Learn More about Becca Williams
🌱 Make it REAL in your ecosystem. TRY NCC HERE FOR FREE
👤 Guest Spotlight 👤
Becca Williams is an Emotions Therapist and creator of Emotional Liberation, a pioneering approach to healing that blends sacred teachings, meditation, breathwork, and expressive movement to help people process and release trauma.
With a background as a Registered Dietitian, clinical nutritionist, and former NPR journalist, Becca brings both science and spirit into her work. She supports individuals in understanding emotions as an intuitive guidance system — using plant allies like cannabis and psilocybin to strengthen the nervous system and access true emotional resilience.
🔗 Connect & Explore More
🌿 Website
🌿 Contact
🌿 Shop Eco-Conscious Partner: The Shift Network
Socials
📸 Instagram
📘 Facebook
💼 LinkedIn
▶️ YouTube
🎵 Credits
Opening + Closing music by @Cyberinga and Poinsettia
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to 'Reconnect with Plant Wisdom'
00:00:00
Speaker
Hello, hello, hello, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of Reconnect with Plant Wisdom. It's me, Tierra Gardenia. How you doing today? it has been a very odd, um it's morning time for me. It's been a very odd morning. I have very weird lighting, but you know, that's what happens this time of year.
00:00:19
Speaker
Luckily, i had a delightful conversation with Becca Williams, and I'm very, very excited to share this with you.
Exploring Plant Relationships in Life
00:00:29
Speaker
We went through so many aspects of emotions and what it means to be kind of resilience and cannabis and oh my goodness there's just so many different pieces so I'm excited to be able to share this with you to bring it to you because I feel like so I have a difficult time sometimes trying to find the right um what's the right word I'm
00:01:00
Speaker
Look, this podcast is all about relationships, all about relationships with plants and how it is that those relationships with plants informs the way that we live our lives. That's the part that I'm most interested in.
00:01:12
Speaker
And so... um I'm always looking to, and hopefully for you, it's it's working, that i to get into that relationship that a specific person has with any given plant or with plants as a whole or with nature or even with other beings of nature. i mean, we've talked about rivers, we've talked about fire, we've had all these things.
00:01:33
Speaker
It's about how that connection with the natural world and the realization that you are nature really changes the way that you expect.
Audience Engagement and Topic Navigation
00:01:40
Speaker
And this part here gets into something that we feel is totally human.
00:01:46
Speaker
And yet I'm not so convinced that it is totally human. I feel like it can be partially human. Like, I don't know. It's a really good question about it.
00:01:57
Speaker
So with that, I'm going to let you decide how it is. I'd love to hear your thoughts in the show notes. And please, while I'm here, remember to like, subscribe, share, you know, all those types of things that let whatever it is that you're listening to know that there are people that are very interested in this podcast and in what we have to say, because that's really what supports and what allows this podcast to continue forward.
00:02:26
Speaker
It is your support and also your comments, your comments, your questions. I love receiving comments and questions from you because I'm always so curious as to how you approach it. And given that this is a topic that's a little bit harder sometimes for me to navigate, um especially all of the work with, there's a very fine line, very, very fine line between using plants as medicine, whether whatever plant we're talking about, whether we're talking about, you know, cannabis like we are in this episode, or whether we're talking about um fungi of all sorts.
00:03:01
Speaker
There's a very, very fine line between just using and blindly using in order for escapism and all this stuff and working with. And I'm looking always to find the working with. But I need your help to find where that line is.
Episode 133 Introduction: Emotional Liberation with Cannabis
00:03:14
Speaker
So the more feedback I get from you, the more questions I get, the easier it is for me to know what it is that you're most interested when I have a wonderful guest like this today. So that's my little spiel for now.
00:03:24
Speaker
I'm going to stop and I'm going to introduce you to episode 133, Emotional Liberation with Cannabis. And this is with Becca Williams.
00:03:37
Speaker
Welcome to Reconnect with Plant Wisdom. I'm your host, Tigria Gardenia, nature-inspired mentor, certified life coach, and the founder of the Naturally Conscious Community. For over a decade, I've been known as a world ambassador for plant advocacy, working closely with plants to share their practical wisdom to help you consciously embody the elements of life that nourish your evolution.
Meeting Becca Williams: Emotions Therapist
00:03:58
Speaker
In this podcast, I delve into ancient and modern knowledge from biology to spirituality about the wondrous ways of plants. Together, we'll explore how ecosystem thinking helps you overcome limiting beliefs, understand the true nature of relationships, and live an authentic, impactful life.
00:04:20
Speaker
Becca, Becca, Becca. We've already been talking for about an hour, to be honest. We had all these things we wanted to get out of the conversation, but now we're going to get into the meaty part of the conversation. And I'm just so excited to share with everyone.
00:04:34
Speaker
But before we start, can you tell everybody who is Becca Williams? Well, I am Becca Williams and i um i'm I'm what we call an emotions therapist. So I'm not a a traditionally trained therapist. um i so I focus on emotions and we can talk a little bit ah more about that. But why do I do that?
00:04:55
Speaker
So I help people with emotional and trauma release. So I help stressed, stuck, traumatized people process and release the self-defeating emotions and pain. Of course, I mean, emotional pain is huge ah so that they can effectively and gracefully handle any personal or interpersonal situation.
00:05:19
Speaker
And so the bottom line is that I support people in becoming emotionally resilient. And then, um as I like to say, you know, we were able to surf the waves of uncertainty with grace and perseverance.
00:05:34
Speaker
And that's everything. And, you know, you don't start out it's It's like getting on it on a surfboard and trying to surf and you're falling down all the time, but you keep doing it because you want to excel at this. So you want, we all want to excel or the people who come to me want to excel at emotional resilience.
00:05:55
Speaker
And so this is what it's about. um You know, emotional resilience in your personal relationships, your professional relationships, Most importantly, your inner relationship with yourself.
Building Emotional Resilience for Psychedelic Journeys
00:06:10
Speaker
And just to throw it out ah throw it in the pot also, um it it helps preparing individuals. It helps individuals cultivate the inner clarity and psychological flexibility necessary to engage with psychedelic experiences in a meaningful, intentional way.
00:06:30
Speaker
So if someone comes to me and says, um I'm planning on on doing a psychedelic, macro psychedelic journey, you know, in a couple of months, three months, whatever.
00:06:42
Speaker
So then we actually go about equipping that person, strengthening their nervous system, letting them understand what they're feeling and why they're feeling it.
00:06:53
Speaker
And this is a practice, right? and And then to be able to have all of that and move in to the the journey, ah they in which a journey is where you let the plant, I work with psilocybin, you know magic mushrooms, um and also cannabis.
00:07:11
Speaker
um But in whatever people do, whether it's acid or MDMA or ayahuasca or whatever, they let the plant have, ah or the substance have their way with them. So people usually lay down They have a covering over their eyes and they move through this.
00:07:28
Speaker
And in working through the work I offer them in the support called emotional liberation, they have things coming up and they know yeah they the the plant is having their, the substance is having their way with them, but um they know that they're,
00:07:47
Speaker
fear doesn't need to be there. Fear, anxiety does not need to be there. They'll go, oh, look what's coming up. It's that anxiety that I experienced earlier in this training.
00:08:00
Speaker
And so ah what I believe, if we're just on this piece for the moment, is that nobody has to have a bad trip. You know,
Managing Bad Trips and Emotional Understanding
00:08:10
Speaker
the the line is historically, there's no such thing as a bad trip that they're all productive, but um and in intimating that, yeah, you might have a really shitty, horrific trip, but it's good. You know, it's good.
00:08:26
Speaker
And I'm saying to people, you don't need that. You don't need to face that or hand ring about that possibility. So there are so many things in there that I want to unpack. I'm going to go back to the beginning and then hopefully we'll work our way through. Cause I love this. There's so many,
00:08:43
Speaker
pieces that I want to get into, especially because the episode right before this, i actually did an and ah did an entire episode about grass, grass in this case intending as your traditional prairie grasses and crab grasses and grasses that grow in that way.
00:08:57
Speaker
and And it was all about resilience, right? Like grass as a mentor and a model to help you understand being trampled on and stepped on and how it is that that can become something really amazing.
00:09:09
Speaker
But so this this concept of resilience, I feel like is really important. And um I, but as you just said, sometimes there are things that to become resilient,
00:09:20
Speaker
you need to be You need to get in touch with certain aspects of yourself and learn how to work with those, release those, as you said, kind of take them from outside of yourself, place them so that you can look at them and understand them.
00:09:34
Speaker
I'm curious in the work that you do, as you said, is that preparation for whatever it is that you might experience, Where do you see, let me try to figure out the right way to word this.
00:09:46
Speaker
How do you see like this emotional container? This was, I guess maybe let me ask it this way, an easy way. How do you define resilience?
00:09:57
Speaker
Oh, well, I, um, I, I believe, uh, being resilient is being able to surf the waves of uncertainty with grace and perseverance. And what does that mean? Anything that comes up, if there is something, you know, we're going along and something, ah comes up out of left field, somebody says something or somebody does something, or you have this errant thought and then you are triggered and you are off to the races.
00:10:24
Speaker
Right. And that may go down a path of fear and anxiety, depression, anger, sadness, um, ah feeling needy, you know, a lot of shame, self-doubt, guilt.
00:10:36
Speaker
So what we do in this work is when that thing comes up out of left field, instead of reacting, we respond and we respond saying, what, what is that?
Exploring Emotional Resilience and Recognition
00:10:50
Speaker
What? Oh, you know, I, I feel, ah feel something coming up because that something, somebody said something or did something, or I had this thought and,
00:11:00
Speaker
Why was that? And then we actually pull that thread or I teach people to pull that thread and go, oh, that's coming up because um yeah i still wrestle with with this, Tagrilla, oftentimes where I perceive people disapproving of me or rejecting me.
00:11:22
Speaker
And so I can say, oh, thats that that feeling, that unsettling feeling is because ah, this this this person I was getting to know has totally ghosted me.
00:11:33
Speaker
And so I have a history of of of rejection in my life and in my childhood. And so that little that rears its little thorny head. But for me to be able to go, oh I see that. Yeah, I see that.
00:11:48
Speaker
And so then we have practices that are able to bring us back to the center and bring us back to a place of where we can just move on from there.
00:11:59
Speaker
That's resilience. I love that. and And that's what i oftentimes, you know, there's this entire movement in psychology called positive mental health, because every time we say the word mental health, we're almost always referring to negative mental health, when in reality, there is this entire positive mental health.
00:12:16
Speaker
And resilience is a very big part of that, right? Positive mental health means It doesn't mean I don't experience moments of depression. It doesn't mean I don't get triggered. It means, though, that I am able to deal with it. I'm able to know that I can deal with it.
00:12:30
Speaker
I know that I'm going to be able to bounce back or I'm going to be able to find my way through it. I have this inner trust because I'm actually overall in a good space. I am flourishing rather than languishing.
00:12:42
Speaker
And then from that flourishing state, I can go into the pits, into the darkness, into the shadows into whatever it is that I'm experiencing in that moment with the assurance, the inner assurance that I'm going to walk out of it. And that's that resilience that you just talked about, right? Of knowing that I'm going to get it into it.
00:13:01
Speaker
And that's a perfect framing. And at the same time, that does not happen overnight. You know, we, we all have, we know now all of us have been traumatized certain to a certain degree, either, uh, a little or a lot. And I, you know, look at it, um,
00:13:19
Speaker
on ah on a scale. and And I was way down here. i mean, I had a lot of trauma growing up um in a very dysfunctional family, and it was very dangerous. There was abuse involved um and unpredictability.
00:13:34
Speaker
um So i I grew up, I went into adulthood, and I carried that with me. Now, there are others who, you know, I mean, we found that um maybe the parenting was wonderful and ah mom and dad were busy with something and the infant ah something happened and the infant started crying and nobody came to comfort the infant.
00:13:58
Speaker
That's trauma. That can be trauma depending on the individual. We are all so different. So what you have said and how you respond, how you learn to respond can take a little or it can take a lot. And um and that's okay.
00:14:13
Speaker
and And the work that I do in emotional liberation, it's a set of, um It's a set of tools that we put into place so that we continually strengthen our nervous system while learning. So the nervous system. So when these insults come, we we're just not bowled over.
00:14:34
Speaker
um You know, I taught ah a class earlier this year, the Shift Network, which is the largest platform for wisdom teachers, asked me to teach a seven week course yeah in regard to this. And as as it related to using cannabis as a tool.
00:14:50
Speaker
And so, you know, ah when we're calling up the the the difficult emotions through the, and I also ah bring in kundalini practices that stir up, it it it stirs up the trauma so that it can, so that we can actually invite it up.
00:15:08
Speaker
and ah And that is so close for a lot of people. The trauma is so close to the surface that even a slight breathing brings it up. And if we don't have, if we haven't, if we haven't strengthened our nervous system, conditioned it to the point of where we can go, Oh, here it comes.
00:15:26
Speaker
I feel it. I feel it. Okay. Oh, Oh, I feel so awful that I'm going to do it. I'm going let it come through. As opposed to, oh, I can't do it.
00:15:39
Speaker
I can't. Oh, my God, I can't do So, you know, the difference in the seven-week course where people were like that, and then at the end um the seven-week course, they were writing me and, you know, they were talking to me in regard to how different it is.
00:15:54
Speaker
So it can happen quickly. The conditioning of the nervous system and the understanding of what we're feeling and why we're feeling it and giving names. to to these you know to two to these feelings is huge because we have not learned what we're feeling.
00:16:11
Speaker
And that's why at the beginning, when I talk about what I do, I say, stressed and stuck people. um that's, you know, stress is this term in our society that really has no real meaning.
00:16:23
Speaker
It's a, um it's a mix. It's um an a emotional mix that we can't, like, we don't have the wherewithal to parse it through. Yeah, you know, I'm anxious, and I have this soft doubt about me, and I get so angry, and You know I'm really sad, but, but I, you know, it's, ah they, they're not able to do that. It's just, I am so stressed or I feel so stuck.
00:16:47
Speaker
So really being able to put names to it is vital.
Societal Norms and Emotional Expression
00:16:53
Speaker
Yeah. And, and I, as what I love about like how you're talking about it is also, it does take this,
00:17:01
Speaker
kind of creation of a personal self space, a personal safety around you to allow yourself to be in whatever it is that you're experiencing so that you don't, like you said, hold it back.
00:17:15
Speaker
Because that's, that I think is really the number one self-inflicted trauma that people experience, which is, well, I'm just going to have to like pretend it's not there you hold back from it, or, you know, put it into a box. I hate all these types of terms.
00:17:34
Speaker
That really is the, I'm not going to deal with it now, because I'm supposed to put on a straight face, or I'm supposed to be strong, or all these types of things, which in reality is just a form of self torture.
00:17:45
Speaker
it is, but you know, it's who we have surrounded ourselves around. ah ah Because if we're starting to feel this healing and then internally, and then we go out there and we have the same toxic relationships, the same dead end job that we really hate.
00:18:10
Speaker
It's, you know, one of my students called it um the, the shaken snow globe effect. And it's like, I, I, I know what I want, or I thought I knew what I wanted. And then they go out and their partner is saying,
00:18:25
Speaker
and their family or the friends is like, we don't like this new you um because you're being assertive and you are drawing boundaries and we need to be able to walk all over you.
00:18:38
Speaker
So stop it now. And that's where there's a whole nother conversation to gorilla around. What do I do when I'm actually awakening? That's not the term. That's the spiritual term when I'm awakening and I still have this stuff.
00:18:55
Speaker
all these people in my life that has churched certain toxicity. So then the next step is starting to sort it through. And then that can be a very lonely place.
00:19:07
Speaker
because what happens is we're dropping off those friendships that we used to have, or that we thought were friends or the, uh, the family of origin who we grow up in, uh, we grew up with, and they're just, you know, they're trashing us too. So we learn, uh, maybe we need to do an arm's length distance from our family and, and, and, um,
00:19:31
Speaker
ah ah maybe move on from some of our friendships. And while we're making that transition, it can be a very lonely, disconcerting place. So hence the shaken snow globe.
00:19:45
Speaker
yeah um And that's, you know, that's really part of walking through what we call the dark night of the soul. Yeah. And this is this is where i love I love working with people to hold that space and to help them rebuild, to to help them really rethink of, okay, who am I today? And who are what are the relationships of all sorts that are going to support me on this part of the journey that are going to be enriching for me, that are actually even going to challenge me at times? Nobody says that everything has to be perfect.
00:20:18
Speaker
And how do I create the necessary relationships, such as sometimes with family and such, in a way, can I build them in a way that is still enriching or at least safe for me?
00:20:30
Speaker
Or as you said, do I have to make the hard decision to walk away from some of those ah relationships? And as a person who's had to walk away from some family relationships, of course it's hard. It's really hard. And that's why you shouldn't do this alone. It can feel very, very lonely, but you don't have to be alone.
00:20:48
Speaker
There are like, this is, there are people like me who want to be there to hold your hand, to hold that space, to let you be a sounding board and to create a new community that is going to support this person that you've become. And I feel like it's just, it's so important to let people know that this is that process. And It's okay because to to to break off or like to remove all those veils that we have and to remove all that conditioning, you need to question everything.
Desire: A Fundamental Emotion
00:21:21
Speaker
You need to be able to give yourself that permission to question everything. Like, huh, do I actually like it when that person talks to me in that way? Is that way? Is that something that I, you know, need to correct? Or is it something that I need to adapt to? Or is it something that I can just accept as it is?
00:21:37
Speaker
Like, what is it that this I'm supposed to do with it? And the healthier you get, the more confident you get in your own emotions and in feeling all of the feelings, the easier that process is. But it still requires you to give yourself that time and that space to like go through.
00:21:56
Speaker
Because society tells us all kinds of things like don't treat don't let yourself be treated this way. Don't let this person talk to you in this way. Nature instead has so many other kinds of relationships.
00:22:06
Speaker
And when you evaluate each relationship on its own, it really does help you understand what your emotions and what your body and what your emotions environment is telling you this is what's good for me not what society tells you not what somebody else tried to teach you i hate to say this but mom and dad weren't always so great about teaching you right from wrong they might have taught you what's right for wrong for them but what they should have been teaching you what hopefully they did teach you is how do you find what's right or wrong for you how do you discover that piece of it
00:22:40
Speaker
Yeah. and in And, you know, in my in my work, one of the one of the emotions that we work with is really not thought of as an emotion for most people. And that is desire.
00:22:51
Speaker
Desire is the mother of all emotions, because we need to start out with wanting something wanting.
00:23:02
Speaker
ah You know, like, um ah gee, i I need to write, so I'm going to pick up this pen. I have a desire to write, so I'm going to pick up this pen. Or I have a desire for a healthy, respectful, loving relationship.
00:23:16
Speaker
it's not as easy as picking up a pen. How do I go about it? and um and And so when, as you have pointed out, you know, the parents will say, well, um ah this is what we want.
00:23:28
Speaker
This is what we want so that you need to toe the line for us. And so um no one ever invited me to ask me what I desire. And, you know, anger is part of that. As a child, it's like,
00:23:40
Speaker
Something that makes you angry, you're, you're, you're sifting out what I want and what I don't want. But parents don't want you to be angry. You be cute. You, you know, you say cute things and ah be happy and playful. and But if you get angry, we don't, we don't want any of that. exactly um So it's, it it's no wonder we don't know what we want or ah what we want or how to go and get it. And so,
00:24:10
Speaker
what you're talking about in all your wise words um is, is, is really resetting oneself to do that. Yeah. and that full range of emotion.
00:24:21
Speaker
That's the portal to happiness. Absolutely. And I'm glad that you brought up desire because I do think um in addition to like the full range of emotions that you were mentioning and how important it is for you to learn both the constructive and the deconstructive the destructive parts of every emotion, which are not good and bad, constructive and destructive and destructive do not amount to good and bad.
00:24:43
Speaker
they amount to two polarities, two useful tools that once you understand how the emotion works, you can figure out where to apply them because you could be constructive and in certain environments, that's actually toxic because what you should be doing is destroying that piece.
00:25:02
Speaker
So it's really important to get that range. And I love that you were talking about that. And also the fact of desire because it has gotten a bad rap.
Cannabis and Psilocybin in Emotional Processing
00:25:10
Speaker
The idea of I'm not supposed to want anything. And it's like, well, no.
00:25:15
Speaker
Dominar actually has a class on how to desire. It's part of and an advanced level of like that we teach, which is learning that desire is the first step necessary for a magician to be able to create in the world of form.
00:25:30
Speaker
You have to, as you said, you have to want it, you have to desire it so that you bring it into form. That doesn't mean that there's ah there's ah on a conversation to be had about attachments and about the form and about all kinds of stuff. But desire is a really important emotion that most of us are conditioned out of. Like, it's okay for some people to desire certain things, but don't desire it too much. And, oh, don't be thinking about money because that nine year is going make you arrogant. And don't desire like success and visibility because that's going to say that.
00:26:00
Speaker
please, please. It's like, no, it's not helpful. I am curious as to in this work, what led you to working with plants and fungi? Because, you know, there's lots of avenues that you could take in order to get there. But obviously, my question is always like, who was whispering in your ear? And when did cannabis say, hey, stop just smoking me for fun, I could actually be useful for something else.
00:26:22
Speaker
Yeah, and Which is really what he does. Like he has this thing with people. I have already talked to so many people who it's like, got the top on the shoulder and like, stop just smoking me for fun.
00:26:33
Speaker
I got other shit to do. I need to work with you in other ways. yeah Yeah. So interestingly, i have I have had a relationship with her ah cannabis.
00:26:46
Speaker
And then back then we used to call her marijuana. And then then that was drummed out of the, and you know, I have a, there, there was a woman who has passed, um but she wrote, ah she she wrote a few books on, on, on cannabis and spirituality and cannabis and, and, and yoga.
00:27:06
Speaker
And we would have these long enduring conversations. And she said, you know, I don't like the I don't like the word cannabis. It's too, clinical too straightforward whereas marijuana and if you you know ah if you pull that thread around marijuana it that was the whole drug war making up stuff about this prejudice and um uh bigoted you know using marijuana i mean uh uh the the <unk>ve i've done videos on this and uh marijuana uh
00:27:36
Speaker
is a, was a, was it a Spanish beyond Spanish term? And then it just, and and then it it came to be marijuana. And she, and marijuana, she always said, had a had a magical feel to it. It was really um the essence of the plant. And I love that, but in my work as a clinician, I can't use the word marijuana.
00:28:00
Speaker
um So just just know that when I say cannabis, I i wish that I could be talking about um marijuana. And also, i you know, and you probably have some real feelings about the word weed.
00:28:12
Speaker
As far as all plants, you know, it's like that plant is a weed. Okay. You're not, you're acceptable. Yep. Another weed, you know? And so of course the reference to cannabis oftentimes is weed. And it's like, no, she's not a weed.
00:28:28
Speaker
I tried to stay away from that, but I had studied with a mayor Kulsa for four years around emotional liberation and became a facilitator. And and ah prior to that, in studying with him and the first year long program I had with him on emotional liberation, I was with a cohort of 11 other people, it was 12 of us all together.
00:28:52
Speaker
And I found that my work with this process was accelerated when i when I applied the thoughtful use of cannabis to it. Not very much. It was very important to have just a low level because if you get stoned um or too high, you lose the benefits of it.
00:29:12
Speaker
So i had told I had told Mayor that i I did this and he said, well, you do what you do what you You want because I felt I felt it was important that I that I put it out there. But I i don't do that.
00:29:25
Speaker
So from this experience, I realized in in being with the the others in this online course that my process seemed to be accelerated with the plant medicine.
00:29:38
Speaker
So when I started teaching this in in in groups, and I always like to teach it in groups, and this one was, it was so I always teach it with plant medicine, so the cannabis. So lot of plant lovers, the cannabis plant lovers engage with me on that.
00:29:55
Speaker
and And they also had accelerated, do want to say, a what do i want say um healing, ah accelerated healing. They had accelerated healing ah because I believe of the cannabis.
00:30:14
Speaker
um So then ah and we know that trauma from research resides in the body. It resides in the nervous system. It resides in the tissues of the body. But, you know, from ah yoga perspective, we also believe in the energetic body, the emotional body.
00:30:31
Speaker
And ah truly that's where, yeah where the trauma, also um also resides, I i do believe. And so what I found in my own work was, and i as I mentioned earlier, I came from a ah deeply traumatizing background in childhood.
00:30:49
Speaker
I had a lot of deep trauma. And it wasn't coming up. and I hit a plateau, I felt. And so I started microdosing with psilocybin, magic mushrooms. So microdosing, um um small, um small amounts that don't put you, you don't feel like you're under the influence of anything.
00:31:12
Speaker
Things are are brighter and and you might be more open, but it's not like, oh, I'm actively hallucinating or under the influence. So I started teaching that also, but for my own personal practice, I started microdosing.
00:31:29
Speaker
And it actually took me up to the next level of processing and release. And so heretofore, i use i incorporate both plants as tools in my work, microdosing, you can say microdosing cannabis and psilocybin.
00:31:51
Speaker
And so that brings us up to up up to the current status of what I'm doing.
Cannabis for Spiritual Introspection
00:31:57
Speaker
And have you, I'm so curious, so um um I'm probably going to ask a few provocative type questions, but um for example, somebody here in Damanhur who obviously before come becoming a Damanhurian,
00:32:09
Speaker
was somebody who also works very closely with cannabis, mostly by smoking. And um afterwards, he decided to try and experiment um through some of the work that he was his personal development work that he was doing to actually listen to the music of cannabis. So he had a cannabis plant and he used the music of the plants device, which is a device that allows the plants to make music.
00:32:33
Speaker
And he used the music of the plants device to, um to allow cannabis to connect with him through that mechanism. And he actually had very interesting, response such such, such that his response and the the results that he ended up having, he said, you know, I don't, I don't need to smoke cannabis anymore.
00:32:52
Speaker
Not to say anything, there's nothing wrong with smoking cannabis. That wasn't my point. My point was just like, I'm curious as to, I've had multiple people on the show that also work with both microdosing and with other types of um with other different medicinal plants.
00:33:06
Speaker
I'm just curious as to how much now as you've now worked with cannabis for such a long time, are you, um have you been able to consciously like bring cannabis into the conversation? in other words, what is the relationship you feel like you have particularly, then we can talk about your work because I'm i' kind of curious for yourself.
00:33:27
Speaker
Where, how is cannabis, how are you and cannabis like working together on this? Well, so it goes counter to the, the framework that we have out there, out there in culture and society where there is, there's recreational cannabis or adult use as we call it now, because recreation sounds too much like children in the playground.
00:33:51
Speaker
And then I like being a child on the playground. I don't want to be a child on the playground. You just don't want to encourage children to do that. That is a true statement.
00:34:01
Speaker
I'm good with that. So we call it adult use. and Adult use. And then medical cannabis. But the truth and and spirituality. So the truth of it is, is that it's all, if you will, medical.
00:34:16
Speaker
um You know, um the first wave, I like to say we're in the third wave of cannabis. So the first wave was, um you know, ah get high and go out and be in nature and go walk or giggle or whatever, be lighthearted.
00:34:33
Speaker
And then medical, there was the second wave cannabis. if you know, here's what ails me. So here, a cannabis will, will repair that or heal us from it.
00:34:44
Speaker
And the third one in which I roam is, is spiritual. So cannabis and spirituality. um And, and, and, and, and for me, I, I see that that takes on different dimensions ah depending on whether I want to be outward or inward.
00:35:07
Speaker
And when I do this work, I encourage people to go inward, because what we're doing is focusing inwardly. And it's really a training ground to Brilla, as in, ah absolutely, I can do this without the plant medicine anymore.
00:35:27
Speaker
um i like I like to have that that feeling ah with cannabis. um and and And so I often do it with her um or or microdosing. Now I haven't microdosed for a while.
00:35:44
Speaker
um But I'm really, you know, talk about emotionally resilient. ah That's where I am. and And, you know, when as teachers, and I'm sure you you would agree with this, we are on a spectrum of growth just like everybody else.
00:35:58
Speaker
um You know, I may be here and somebody else may be here. That allows me to be an effective teacher for them because I'm teaching them to move here.
00:36:10
Speaker
And there's always others who will be you know more, what do I want to call, awakened or enlightened ah further down here. ah But when we work with the emotions and become resilient around them, we i think enlightenment is And of course, that's all left to speculation. But I truly believe enlightenment is about emotional resilience, that whatever comes up, whatever comes up to hit me, I can just surf that wave and move on.
Plants in Emotional Healing: Cannabis and Chamomile
00:36:43
Speaker
and even... um even the Dalai Lama has talked about what he's sad sometimes. Sad, as you have pointed out, around emotions, these emotions are important.
00:36:55
Speaker
You know, we're never sad about losing something that we don't love. And so it's very important for us to say, i am so sad that that person, that animal, that that thing is gone in my life.
00:37:13
Speaker
And we need to note that the reason why we are grieving is because we loved it. And loving, that's why we're here on this earth is in my belief system is to learn how to love first ourselves.
00:37:31
Speaker
We can do it at the same time as what you know we're learning to love ourselves. We can also become stronger in learning to love others in a very, and a very, innocent peer form.
00:37:44
Speaker
um so um I digressed and lost my train of thought. That's all good. I think and I, and and I do, there are so many elements here.
00:37:58
Speaker
i mean, i I definitely agree with everything that you've said in that perspective. I mean, each one of us needs to find our path. And I find when I did, ah I interviewed um Sarah Russo who did, who wrote a graphic novel called the herbs of the apocalypse.
00:38:13
Speaker
And, And she works very closely with cannabis on this book and also her because of her father, Dr. Bruce. So I forget his first name, but I interviewed him. Yeah. And so we were talking very much about like, you know, this relationship and how some of these types of plants, she worked very closely with pop, um, poppy also, and with coca as on that land, more of a spiritual connection where for cannabis, it was more of a direct relationship.
00:38:42
Speaker
And she was talking about how, you know, these three plants that have been ostracized by society in so many ways, like who have so many benefits, so many ways that they want to work with humanity and yet are still such powerful plants, are plants that have such a, um here, let me say it this way.
00:39:03
Speaker
i'm mean I'm gonna jump on a limb here, but I'm gonna say something that I think I hadn't put together in this quite this way. I feel like these kinds of plants have the ability to help humanity through some of humanity's strongest, most gaping holes and that they have, has ah an ah opportunity to get into there in a way that's not painful, in a way that is soothing,
00:39:33
Speaker
And unfortunately, our human desire for a quick fix, going back to that concept, means that rather than seeing the blessing of it's kind of like anesthesia, right?
00:39:46
Speaker
I can have ah I can be operated on because I take an anesthetic of some sort, right? I am able to get the benefits of what is being done to me in a, in a surgical setting, for example, the opening, the, the, the changing of a heart, the, whatever it is that might be done in that surgical setting, because i have this, you know, anesthetic that runs through my body that allows me to numb the pain enough for the work to be done. Mm-hmm.
00:40:17
Speaker
I think that's what you're tapping into there. It is working with cannabis in the way that you're working it or cybacillin. Well, let's talk cannabis first, allow that kind of sharp pain that you might feel when you go into this trauma type work to be a little softer.
00:40:34
Speaker
And if you do it exactly the way that you were talking about this small kind of almost micro dosing, let's go in term for cannabis. It has this effect of like, hey, don't be afraid. We're going to take away the sharp, sharp pain of this so that you can then feel a little bit more comfortable of saying, OK, I'm going to go in and explore kind of like I don't feel the sharp pain of a cut across my stomach or chest or wherever it is.
00:41:00
Speaker
And a doctor is able to then go in and like touch your organs and, you know, repair things and do things. and So I feel like if we allow these plants to do that, we have this incredible benefit afterwards. Plus many of these plants have been with us and have all these different things that they also, they want to show us in this process.
00:41:23
Speaker
If instead you go the opposite way and say, look, I don't want to deal with this stuff. I'm just going to numb myself out. ah same as, you know, an anesthetic that I continuously do, then you're never get to the healing.
00:41:38
Speaker
And I think that this is a really important concept that is all of these plants are here to show you different ways. And they don't want to make you like, just feel pain for the sake of feeling pain. So to a certain extent, whether we're talking about,
00:41:53
Speaker
you know, cannabis, or we're just talking about chamomile tea, right, which is still comes from a plant, there is a soothingness, so that then I can show you more clearly what you need to see, I'm going to just take the edge off for a second, and then i'm going to give you space to do the work.
00:42:10
Speaker
And it doesn't really matter if you're using cannabis or cannabis or, or, or chamomile tea, right depends on what your body needs, how your body reacts to it, how your body is moving through it. And think we need to stop demonizing any one specific plant or fungi or anything.
00:42:26
Speaker
And then you take on top of that the fact that these intelligent beings, again, whether we're talking about chamomile or whether we're talking about cannabis or whether we're talking about cybacillin, have this, you know, psilocybin has this way of of also then showing you a picture helping you from that state of calm to see things that you haven't been able to see clearly without the jerk reaction that you might experience in the the kind of waking world because you are in a traumatic state.
00:43:03
Speaker
And I think it's just important for us to recognize like, where do these beings want to work with us and which is the right being for you? For you, as you've, you know, developed this, you've had this relationship, you've you've chosen this plant and this fungi because they have a relationship with you, because you know how to work with them, because they help you understand the dosing, how it is, how long to use it, all these types of things.
Choosing the Right Plant Teacher
00:43:29
Speaker
For somebody else, it might be chamomile tea, right? It might be mint. It might be, you know, go out and spend some time with rosemary. It might be whatever. That's... It's almost like you're, you're being, ah it's like choosing your teacher.
00:43:42
Speaker
Some teacher is going to be cannabis. Some people are going to feel like a teacher is better, you know, aloe or whatever. And just the same as the human teacher, find that combination that works for you.
00:43:52
Speaker
That is the most important piece. I agree. And it reminds me of how I teach the use of cannabis in this work, because if If people so we have we have ideal, you know, we have terpenes. There's a science around terpenes, which are the the oils, essential oils.
00:44:15
Speaker
And that's coming along. But in order to understand yeah like ah like a wine sommelier, you can actually smell it And understand what the terpenes are in it. But that's kind of advanced.
00:44:27
Speaker
So what I like to work with for regular people are the two cannabinoids, THC and CBD. And CBD is very important because it relaxes the fight or flight response.
00:44:41
Speaker
So if we are, if we're doing this work and we're calling up emotions, the CBD can come in and just, just quiet everything down so that we can do that.
00:44:53
Speaker
Now the THC amplifies the emotion so that we can work with it. So when you put those two together, it's, it's a very powerful synergy. Now, some people who have the trauma that's so close, I just suggest they start with the CBD.
00:45:08
Speaker
Just the CBD because the the they don't need to to tease out the emotion because it's right there. We need to figure out what it is and why it's coming up. um But the CBD will um will allow that.
00:45:23
Speaker
The other piece I wanted to say to to what you were talking about, is that ah people use cannabis. Cannabis works in all kinds of ways. And one of them is, I think you even use the word numb, numbing.
00:45:39
Speaker
So if we are so overwhelmed by our life and, you know, this is, um, This is sort of a stereotypical from, you know, the 60s and 70s where people would just get, you know, you see somebody sitting down in the basement and getting stoned out of their mind.
00:45:54
Speaker
Well, what's wrong with that? What I like to say is that that there's something in their lives where they just have to settle in and whatever it might be to um to ah Cannabis in that instance kind of embraces them, like cocoons them while they're working through this, maybe at a very on a very mystical level even.
00:46:21
Speaker
And then she allows them, she can move back and allow people to move into another realm of their life when when they're ready. Now, having said that, I do not like the high dose cannabis. They've turned it into, i call it crack cannabis where it's 30% THC or whatever. So you just get as out of it as you can.
00:46:47
Speaker
But the beautiful part about cannabis is unlike, unlike a prescription meds and, and other, other drugs ah that have lasting hangovers. I mean, you know,
00:46:59
Speaker
SSRIs
00:47:02
Speaker
change your neurochemicals. And so when you're ah when you're ready to get off an SSRI, doctors can put you on it, but they have no idea how to um ah how to taper you off of them.
00:47:17
Speaker
I mean, that's a big deal with people who are on mood managing medication that I think I'm ready get off it well then.
00:47:27
Speaker
They don't have anybody to turn to to help them get off it. But when you're talking about cannabis, it's like, You know, there are no side effects. I mean, you just you you you move beyond that and you're OK and you can do whatever you want.
00:47:42
Speaker
People have ah come to me during my training and said, i would this be OK for me? I've had a I don't I don't have a relationship with cannabis anymore. I have a fraught relationship with cannabis ah because, you know, I got I had to become dependent on it and that.
00:47:58
Speaker
and i and And is it okay if I use cannabis then in this practice? And I say, you know ah move forward with wisdom and you're with me and I will support you in this.
00:48:09
Speaker
And maybe it's just CBD to begin with, or maybe you want to get used to the practice of emotional liberation all that that involves. Learn what you're feeling and why you're feeling it.
00:48:20
Speaker
Do the the practices so that we can start doing this and then start bringing in some some cannabis I always highly recommend doing the work once or twice before you ever bring in any kind of plant medicine and that because you need a base you need um you need a ah base from which to go oh it was like this when I tried it and then when I added the cannabis oh it was like this it's like this or whatever Yeah, and I think that that's those really wise words, especially because it's a relationship.
00:48:54
Speaker
It's a relationship. You're bringing another teacher into this. And I think that that that is the difference between...
Intentional Engagement with Emotions and Plants
00:49:02
Speaker
You had said it earlier when we were just talking, we were before we started recording, and we were talking about the difference between running away from something versus running toward something.
00:49:11
Speaker
and And that's something that i I think about a lot. Like, are you running away versus running toward? Yeah. And if you're using and any kind of plant as a running away, it literally is just as a using.
00:49:24
Speaker
If instead you're running towards, then the relationship can develop and you can start to hear the actual message of the plant within this work. So at this point, you're working not with one teacher, not one human teacher, you're working with one human teacher and one plant teacher or one fungi teacher.
00:49:41
Speaker
And it really brings that ulterior voice, that otherness, which also is really great because when we think about emotions in particular and the kind of work that you're doing, you know, as humans, we have, again, all these set definitions. You had talked about it earlier.
00:49:59
Speaker
Anger is bad. As a child, don't express your anger and only cry in certain situations. That's bad to do in other situations. That's a sign that something is wrong with you if you get too you know, overcome by sadness or blah, blah, all these bullshit pieces that drive me crazy sometimes.
00:50:17
Speaker
And yet, plants who have some form of emotion, we don't know what those are exactly, don't have those definitions. So when they step in to the picture of something like what you're talking, plus, I'm still convinced that the original trauma we're all suffering from is separation from nature.
00:50:34
Speaker
So anything that brings nature back into the into this is great because I think that that's the original trauma that most people are suffering from. The moment we stopped realizing we weren't, you are nature, everything started to look a little differently. and but so So the idea of like bringing in and walking towards a plant partner in this, walking towards whether you might not be ready to be able to have a dialogue with cannabis in ah in a way like the way I dialogue with any plant or cannabis of such.
00:51:06
Speaker
But by using this kind of safer mechanism, smoking, then I start to enter into a relationship with you. And I am giving you permission to come into my process and be another co teacher on this, and work with me in this way.
00:51:25
Speaker
And show me, like you said, your wisdom and also give me the dosage like maybe, and the moment I think I'm going too much, which means escapism, Okay, dial that back because that's not useful. That's running away. Okay, when am I bringing it in? So I think these are really important factors for people to think about a little bit as they're working with this is like, you're opening yourself to a relationship with another being who doesn't have any judgment on your feelings, who doesn't think about you in one way, shape or form, who doesn't worry about your status symbol, or what other people think of you or any of these types of pieces is instead a safe,
00:52:02
Speaker
companion who is a part of you because you are nature and who's holding the space and who's showing you alternative ways to look and experience the world.
Becca Williams’ Offerings and Website
00:52:12
Speaker
Beautiful. Well said.
00:52:14
Speaker
Yeah. And so, but Becca, as we as we wind this up, tell everybody, where do they find you? How do people find you? Sure. Well, speaking of plants, I have been ah bloody and bruised over the years of using social media because even though my work is around education and the plants,
00:52:34
Speaker
Any word about cannabis to begin with, you we and you know there's there's countless accounts and people who have been shadow banned or banned outright. or i always invite everybody to grill it to just come to my website.
00:52:52
Speaker
And it's so easy. It's my name dot org, Becca Williams dot org. And you can find out everything there that you need to know about my work, how to ah how to go about engaging with it. i I regularly am doing cannabis elevation ceremonies online and I do that complimentary. So it's just ah my gift to the community.
00:53:15
Speaker
ah But if you want to work with me in a group, I have that availability. I do retreats. And it's all it's all described at my website, BeccaWilliams.org.
00:53:26
Speaker
Perfect. And I will make sure that, of course, I include that in the show notes so that people and all people can find you and can reach out to you and get works. Becca, this has been a delightful conversation. i am so grateful for everything that you've shared and the work that you're doing.
00:53:43
Speaker
And i'm I'm excited to hear as it develops. Plus, you know, I hear that you might be coming a visit Dom and her. Yeah, I'm thinking about that. Yeah. And of course, there's always being festival too And there's being festival. I love it. I love it. It's perfect. And for everybody who's listening, please go, go to the show notes, check out Becca's work. And, and of course, if you want to talk more about this, or if maybe you're on the other side of this trauma work that you've done, and you're looking to start to integrate all the principles,
00:54:11
Speaker
and all of what you've learned about yourself into your daily life as you rebuild these connections and these ecosystems, please feel free to reach out to me. And you can find me, as always, you know me, I'm all over the place, just look for my name.
00:54:23
Speaker
And also the Naturally Conscious Community, which is the place where we continue to have these types of conversations and hold this space in community.
Conclusion and Community Invitation
00:54:31
Speaker
And so for that, we did it. We finished another episode. But always remember, resist the urge to hold back your emerging green brilliance.
00:54:39
Speaker
Bye, everyone. Thanks for tuning in to this episode of Reconnect with Plant Wisdom. To continue these conversations, join us in the Naturally Conscious Community, your premier online ecosystem for plant reawakening and accelerated evolution and co-creation with other kin.
00:54:56
Speaker
Here you'll find expansive discussions, interactive courses, live events, and supportive group programs like the Plant Wisdom Book Club and the Sprouts Writing and Creativity Group. Connect with like-minded individuals collaborating with plants to integrate these insights into life. Intro and outro music by Steve Shuley and Poinsettia from the singing Life of Plants.
00:55:17
Speaker
That's it for me, Tigria Gardenia, and my plant collaborators. Until next time, remember, resist the urge to hold back your emerging green brilliance. I'm out. Bye.