092 Mia Cosco: The G.R.I.E.F. Methodology

In this conversation, Cam and Mia Cosco explore the profound impact of grief on personal development and the innovative GRIEF methodology that Mia has developed. They discuss the importance of acknowledging and processing emotions, particularly anger, and how psychedelic experiences have influenced Mia's understanding of grief. The conversation emphasizes the need for open communication and support in navigating grief, as well as the significance of setting intentions for healing. In this conversation, Mia discusses the complex emotions associated with grief, including anger and guilt, and emphasizes the importance of introspection and acceptance. She introduces the concept of entheogens as a therapeutic tool for navigating grief and encourages fearlessness in pursuing new experiences. The discussion also touches on the grieving process, the significance of community support, and the evolving landscape of psychedelic therapy, particularly in Boston, where is recently moved.

Mia's Info:
Sign up for the GRIEF Methodology Coaching Container: https://griefgroup.my.canva.site/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/miacosco/

This episode is Sponsored by Fun Guy. Discover the incredible power of Kanna - known for its mood-enhancing properties that aid in supporting feelings of euphoria, reducing stress, promoting relaxation, and providing a subtle energy lift - through Fun Guy's delicious kanna-infused chocolates, gummies, and tinctures. Order at the link below and use code TRIPSITTING for 15% off your order: https://funguy.com?sca_ref=6166895.8eWv64zfLX

If you are interested in sponsoring an episode of The TripSitting Podcast, send an email to tripsittingblog@gmail.com

Be sure to share with a friend and subscribe so you never miss my latest posts :)

Watch on YouTube
Follow on Instagram
Follow on TikTok

Transcript

Are you looking for a natural way to boost your mood and find calm? Well, have you heard of Kanna? Kanna is a South African plant that has been used for centuries, known for its mood enhancing properties, sometimes even referred to as nature's MDMA. Kanna can help ease stress, improve mental clarity, spark a sense of wellbeing. So whether you're seeking peace of mind or a little motivation throughout the day, or a little pick me up to help you get through a night out without turning to...

other substances such as alcohol, might want to consider Kanna specifically with Fun Guy. So at Fun Guy you'll find a variety of Kanna based products to fit your lifestyle from tinctures to chocolates to fruit chews. They've got whatever you need to have a good experience. So make sure that you go to the link in the footnotes of this podcast to order your products and use code TRIPSITTING for 15 % off your order. Again, go to the link in the footnotes of the podcast and enter code TRIPSITTING at checkout for 15 % off your order of all fun guy products. 

Today we introduce Mia Cosco, who is the founder of a transformative coaching program to help you move through grief. And through her GRIEF methodology, she helps people navigate loss with courage, introspection, and emotional healing.

She also explores the potential of psychedelic therapies to unlock deeper transformation. She has a passion for building research-driven community and support trauma recovery. Mia's work redefines grief, not as something we endure, but as a path for growth. So join us as Mia shares her insights and stories of healing.

Mia, thank you for joining me on the podcast. I'm really excited for this conversation. I want to start by asking you, how did you specifically get started working on and focusing on grief within a lot of the work that you do? Yeah, whenever anyone asks me that question, it's kind of heartbreaking to share from such a young age.

because when I was seven, my mother had been in the hospital for a year with a coma and she had passed away. And I was in grade two, right? So this is a stage where I had no concept of what life meant, even though living life, no concept of death, no concept of like existential distress. And so from a very young age,

I personally experience grief and it becomes a lifelong companion. But the wonderful thing about lifelong companions that we can read about in The Alchemist or Winnie the Pooh even is that you can have a dynamic changing relationship with it. Like it grows with you. And so for me, like grief has never really left my side and it's looked different.

sometimes in a second, sometimes over years, much like a psychedelic experience. and having had multiple psychedelic experiences, I really feel like I've lived multiple lives with my grief. So that's really where it started, was with the loss of the woman who brought me into this world, which is so, so, so tragic, but also like,

allegorical or something. So, yeah. So what was, what was it like, I guess, moving through that grief then? Like, did you feel you had the support? Did you feel you had any understanding of what it was that you were working through and also within your family as well? I'm curious how that played out. Yeah. yeah. I did feel like, while I didn't come from a family of psychologists or mental health,

professionals. I do believe I was I was definitely supported in the ways where my base needs were taken care of, like always had a roof over my head, always had food on the table, which is great. And my dad is like a stubborn, father. So he did not pause on parenting me the way that

him and my mother had agreed that I should be parented. So I'm an only child. So they had agreed that I would be, even though I could have been sent to a private school, it was public school. was like have a real down to earth school experience. Like have a normal life experiences as much as possible, even though, you know, I was immediately the subject of like all discussions among teachers, among classmates, know, partners, romantic partners in life later on would.

know that me losing my mother is like a very known, like, okay, if there's the one thing that could be, you know, crazy about her is like that, you know? So it's already known to people that if there's something crazy or wrong or weird about me as a human, it could be that. It could be the loss of that, which is understandable. So people understood even if they didn't really understand.

And I would say that like I was I was supported by an incredibly Principled moral upstanding gentleman of a father like absolutely loved my dad Absolutely great father like I am so lucky to have had that experience and then women in my life Were really they were kept in my life if I really sensed

motherhood and maternity from them as in like were they caring were they nurturing because if I had women in my life that were not very caring or nurturing it was like I didn't really have that sense of attachment to them and that could be good or bad like I could have I could have had women in my life that were very nurturing but were also could be very manipulative or I could manipulate that in them I could I could demand certain things of their nurturing sides that they felt

kind of inappropriate about too. So, you know, it's really like a glossing over of my relationships with women throughout my life. But maybe that paints a picture into kind of how my life would be changed as a result of her loss, as a result of my relating with her loss and my grief. But overall, like,

very well supported with a father who genuinely believed in me to do anything, just like loved me unconditionally. And truly like, I think every child deserves that parenting in their life for sure. That's really beautiful. And so moving to more present day, how did you come up with what you call the grief methodology and how does that differ from

the traditional ways in which I think society thinks about grief. Yeah. So, well, in my life, I've always been very curious and very open-minded. sorry, no, the open-mindedness really came as a result of psychedelic experiences, boosting that openness to experience in my, in my traits. So while I haven't always been open-minded, I have always been curious.

And so I was raised atheist by my father, even though his Italian family, and obviously my Italian family was all Roman Catholics. So yes, we're going to start with the religious deprogramming. So obviously I'm a modern woman, not really down to live a life being Roman Catholic. Not really a vibe for me.

Not really into a butt on my sexual life. So I grow up and I want to be a model, I want to be an actress, I want to put myself out there, I want a career in business, well maybe I want a career in healthcare. The judgment from others is just what I'm not down for and my dad did not raise me with much judgment at all. So when I encountered judgment from say like grandmothers or aunts or something, I was like, what?

What on God's green earth are you talking about? Just do your life and I'll do mine. I respond to them much like I would respond to a hater in a comment section. Yeah. So basically... I love that analogy. You kind of got it. Be equilateral about it. But essentially, I grew up...

And with psychedelics introduced in my life, I quickly uncovered other things that I had been missing because even though I wasn't religious, I was really allergic to any sort of spirituality in my life as an atheist. When were psychedelics introduced into your life? When I was 19. So college, The kind of standard age of mind expansion, I guess, maybe anyways. That's where you're from. Yeah.

Because of that, I realized, okay, I don't feel atheist anymore. I connect to something deeper than me, deeper than all of us, grander than all of us, maybe. Not quite sure, I'm just getting these inklings as I like take this LSD and I try these mushrooms. And I'm encountering like ineffable bonding experiences with friends and it like connects us forever, like what's going on here. So I discover...

cold plunging, like ice bathing, I discover sound healing and I can't explain it but I also don't need to or want to because I'm just like, if it helps me in my life when I'm trying to figure out how to be an adult, I'm like 20, 21 at this time, whatever, it's working, like it's helping me do adulting and it's helping me do adulting better than some adults I can see trying to adult. So even if...

you know, I'm questioning my spirituality. I'm not like, you know, clear about what my spirituality is. I'm clear that my mental health is actually a priority and I'm actually doing something about it. So that's awesome. And I'm like throughout from 2019 onwards, I'm going on this journey throughout COVID and everything, discovering things that happened to really help me, that really helped me and really help other people I talk to who

say lost their parents, lost their children, lost their best friend, lost their pet, you know, or just people who are going through breakup after breakup and they're like, you know, I tried ice bathing and I'm done just moving on to the next partner. I'm actually gonna sit with myself. I'm gonna go to this 10 day meditation retreat. I'm actually gonna be with myself. I'm gonna stop these patterns that even whether they're good or bad, they're just controlling my life. And I wanna control.

my life, I don't want this childhood trauma to control my life. So the GRIEF methodology is really a love letter to all of the things, in addition to psychedelics and psychedelic therapy, your research, that help us actually complete cycles of grief. Because since the 50s, we've known about the research compiled on the stages of grief.

And we all understand like anger and denial and depression or to the best of our knowledge and awareness, but we don't know how to move through them. And we also think we can bypass certain steps. And sometimes we cannot like, I hate to break it to some people, but some, and sometimes, you know, we say goodbye to someone and we're like, yeah, I accept that. And with some people, we feel like we could never accept that loss in our life.

Why is that right? So the gf methodology is a love letter to certain methods that are kind of woo woo maybe spiritual but also are just ancient technologies that have helped civilizations. But also there are response to actually moving through the stages of grief. Because like even if you consciously know what it feels like in your body to feel angry, you know what it feels like to feel depressed or you understand depression.

It's important to move through it. You gotta move, you gotta recycle that energy, keep moving. Like the world is just gonna move on if you don't move with it. So it's really important that like basically the GRAAF methodology is like, it incorporates elements of, you know, tangible experiences like meditation retreats, like ice bathing, like psychedelic experiences and other things to actually

move someone through in a yes, research backed way of accepting any grief that you are incomplete about. what do, what do each of the letters stand for? Yeah. So, G is for gathering, which means like, you have to talk about it. So if you're grieving and you've never talked to anyone about it, you don't even know how to talk about it to yourself.

really important to learn how to verbalize and get the communication skills to be able to do that. But in addition to that, in the book I'm writing about the methodology, you know, there are some people that you may not feel comfortable to share that with, and that's okay, because we know and can be trusted to know when there are some people we don't talk to about it, or in certain circumstances or certain contexts. We don't laugh at funerals. We don't

Like we don't share every detail about our life to a stranger on the street. And that's okay, obviously. So sharing it is something that by increasing our communication and also increasing our discernment and auditing the social circles in our life, we can gather strategically as in like, know, like, I guess to create an example for it.

It's like if you imagine the end of your life, who's at your funeral? Who do you want to be at your funeral? What do want them to say? Kind of a jarring exercise, but very important exercise to think about, like, how do you want your life to reflect you at the very end of it? And some people just don't care and that's okay, but gathering is a very important, arguably first step.

these are not necessarily ranked, but for the purposes of sequencing my book, I do put them in order, obviously. R is for rage. So anger management. I, and I, and I have anger is really the only like, well, not the only emotion in there because F is for fearless and that's an emotion, bravery, courage. but rage is in there because anger is the second stage of grief in the

five stages. And it's also a very ugly emotion. Most of the emotions on the emotions wheel are negative emotions, which is interesting to think about. But we we spend a lot of our time trying to only show people the good emotions and not the bad emotions per se. But there are only mostly known bad emotions. So when we think of emotional, we typically think of like a negative emotion.

if we're trying to spend all our time just focusing on like the small sliver of positive emotions, we are ignoring the majority of known emotions. So it's really important in just in that chapter I talk about, get to work at sitting and being and accepting your ugliest emotions because those are gonna, those are gonna show up.

Noted in the grief experience the most because you're gonna be like, my god I don't want to cry in the middle of a supermarket I don't want to you know get mad at my neighbor and my dog and my aunt I don't you know, I don't want to have I just don't want to have these emotions You're judging the judging You know, it's really important to Accept your anger literally sit with it accept it move through it because

Yeah, the only way out is through, first of all. Second of all, if you don't do it, it will run you. Your inner Rottweiler will be, you'll be chasing after it instead of it calmly following you. So there's that. So just allowing yourself, if you are experiencing anger or rage or something, accepting that, okay, I'm just really fucking angry right now, that's okay.

No, without trying to be like, no, like, you know, gotta go into this meeting right now. I gotta do this. I can't be angry. being like giving yourself the time to actually sit with those emotions. And we do judge our emotions. I know I definitely judge my emotions and anger has always been one that I've struggled with. And I think I still struggle with a little bit because growing up, was an angry kid. Like I definitely had like anger issues.

And that's for my dad. Like he also does not have a good relationship with anger. Love the man, great guy, great dad. Doesn't know how to deal with anger very well. And so that got passed down to me. But then like, you know, as I grew up, I knew I didn't like it, but yet I still couldn't avoid it. Like it was the cycle that I was in of being like, I don't want to be angry and yet I am angry right now. I don't know what to do with myself. And then once I started, you know, using

using psychedelics more, that's when my relationship with anger and I was able to see it as separate from myself, as not like, I'm angry if I'm experiencing anger right now. And so being able to kind of detach from that anger a little bit has been definitely helpful, but I still like subconsciously noticed that I can get caught up in the cycle. if we're like,

I'm trying so hard not to be angry and then it's just making me angrier and angrier and angrier. Yeah, that's like such a common experience. And in my book, I go through somatic therapy exercises to get more in touch with your body so that when anger comes up, you're not like, my God, fuck, I'm angry. You're like, okay, I'm feeling flushed. I'm feeling like my hands perspiring or like my armpits perspiring or like

my face just get hot and red and I'm just feeling so activated and like I wanna punch something right now. And like that's a great first step. That is like an amazing first step is to have that awareness. And then you're like, okay, well what now? Like what do I do? Yes. What can I punch? Yeah, cause your ego's Where is a pillow? Yeah, and so, but that's kind of the thing is to just be like, there is nothing to do.

try that on, like there's nothing to do. You're alive on this planet, you're breathing, you're living, there's nothing to do. So sometimes, like, and I practice this in fights, and it can sound kind of robotic, I don't, I recommend it for everyone, but it's like, it's kind of everyone's own way of doing it that works well for them. But I can be literally in arguments with people and be like,

I'm feeling so angry right now and like I want this to happen and I want that to happen and I want this to happen and I'm angry at myself for being angry right now. And sometimes like in that space of time or even just me going to get a glass of water and like me just stomping my way to get water. Like this is therapy. Like that is therapy. It's so important to even just say, man, I am feeling so angry right now because

in that space of time, could just hurl insults. could fling mud onto someone very easily. But to just get in touch with your anger to think, I'm angry, I'm angry, I'm angry, my God, I'm so angry. That's way better than insulting somebody and saying something you will probably want to be taken back later. And that's fine. It's better to say something when you're angry as long as afterwards you say, I am so sorry for what I said. It was in the heat of the moment. I was just...

really, really angry. should I know I should not have said that. That's okay too. But like, the awareness around the anger and the acceptance of it is incredibly helpful for the grief experience because there will definitely be anger felt even if you feel like you don't express anger often. And then the next one is I for introspection. And so this is for like, okay, you've gathered you've expressed your anger. It's time to now

sit with yourself and just be with yourself there. So a lot of grief can also intersperse feelings of guilt. Guilt is a very common experience in grief and sometimes the guilt can be so present like, wow, I could have done something to prevent this person's death and I didn't do it or I wasn't brave enough to do it or something, you know, or maybe like someone died and I...

could have told them about this cure or this treatment or this study or something. Or it could even be guilt as in they left and I should have taken their place, you know, the death of a child, like the parent wishes they would have taken their place. That's very common parent experience. And that's very hard because every human experiences guilt. So sometimes we can get people to do things they wouldn't otherwise do out of self-respect because every human has grief.

and tapping into that guilt is something that can be done with anyone because anyone can experience guilt, actually, even people who are sociopaths or psychopaths even. That's how we manipulate, right? Is by tapping into people's guilt. It's very important that we don't, well, gaslight ourselves and we need to be careful with ourselves and make sure- way easier said than done. Yeah, that we make sure not to-

rationalize ourselves out of the space we need to make for our grief. So being introspective, sitting in silence, being in solitude, it's very attractive to meet somebody who's okay and comfortable with their alone time. So I talk about ways in which it can be easier to literally just sit with yourself in a room alone. Now, if you are feeling like that guilt, and I think we humans just have a

generally complicated relationship with guilt, but in that space, similar to rage, are you trying to like accept the guilt and like be okay with the fact that you feel that or like should you almost be kind of, know, making yourself feel like, no, like there's no need for me to feel guilty right now. Like how do you kind of teeter that line? Like we can be not okay.

And like, can still exist. Like, we don't die from being not okay, obviously. So being not okay is definitely an option. It's not about trying to make everything okay. It's just about, it's just about trying to accept the human experience as much as possible. As in like, even if I'm not happy at this place, I have to acknowledge that this is where I am. But I'm also not here. Like I could also be somewhere else entirely in my mind. Right? So.

I hope that answered that question. I like it. Then E is obviously probably most of our favorite parts because E is for entheogens. There's no- I've been waiting for this part. Entheogens it is. Also entheogens is becoming a more attractive term to those of us who don't want to just call everything psychedelics. I don't necessarily care about the terms. Psychedelics don't care about the terms.

No, they do not. They do not care what you call them. Anyways, entheogens. literally am saying, it's a radical proposal in my book for some people to hear, but I literally am saying that psychedelics, and they're all different and they all vary in dosages that can be taken and different methods of imbibing, but I say that psychedelics,

recreationally, therapeutically, what have you, are essential for moving through grief. And I say that because, like, sometimes there are certain things that you are like, that you believe, and you might not even know that you believe, like, I could never get over that, or I could never do that. And, you know, never say never, but also like...

There is an amazing thing that can happen in psychedelic experience where you take such a vacation from yourself that you can literally be someone else for a little a few hours and then you practice what it's like to be someone that you you rather be if not yourself. So psychedelics are this amazing thing where like they really do challenge maybe every belief you have. So that's why I say that psychedelic therapy and I go I go right into it. You know I talk about

like, you know, what MAPS has done. I talk about like the research and the history of psychedelics in my book. I talk about specifically what people who are grieving are experiencing with psychedelics. I talk about people who have cancer and they try psychedelics and like their experiences. And these are like the most beautiful, anecdotal clinical trials, like with people who are like, hey, like, there's nothing else.

that I have to do anymore on this planet. But I need to accept this death that we're all gonna die because we are all gonna die whether it's gonna happen in three months or 30 years. this was really a beautiful chapter to write because going through the anecdotes and quotes of people who are facing mortality so vividly, there's mountains of acceptance they reach in these psychedelic experiences that

they were quite sure of they wouldn't have reached otherwise. So psychedelics are a gift, definitely in that way. And then the last part, the last part is F, which is for fearlessness, which is, you know, creating a new reality for yourself, like through your grief, where you're doing the things that you have always wanted to do. So for example, like if you hadn't seen the Northern Lights yet, you know, like going to see the Northern Light, literally being like,

I am fearlessly going to see the Northern Lights or, you know, I've always wanted to go to this country, but I've always been told that it's too dangerous and I've always been afraid of it. So like, your way through that fear is its own mission in itself to basically turn your grief into an opportunity for adventure and going beyond the bounds of your imagination. And that is what the methodology is. So it's gathering, rage, expression.

introspection, entheogens, and being fearless. I love it. And I have some questions for you. I want to go to the, to the entheogens and you might not know the answer to this just cause I know that our, our general understanding of the history of entheogen use is still a little muddy and being discovered more and more every single day. But across your research, have you seen any

documented uses of entheogens specifically for the grieving process or for funerals or for anything like that throughout history? There are cultures in this world that I can't name off the top of my head that psychedelics is at the corner of their culture. So what I can say is that

Having experienced and drank ayahuasca a number of times in the tradition of the Yawanawa, which is a group in the Amazon rainforest, ayahuasca drinking is such a pillar of the joyful community that they are that children go to ceremony, breastfeeding, pregnant mothers go to ceremony.

They don't care about the research. They don't have the propaganda machine that we've had in our history. like, yeah, we don't want your skyscrapers and your smartphones. Like we have ayahuasca. Okay. So for them, it's like, for us, it could be an experience where, for example, psychedelics could help, you know, bring in new

They can mark occasions for people. They can be rites of passage for people. So in certain cultures in the world, they are. For funerals, I'm sure this is also the case. Yeah, as a way to bond the community in the wake of someone leaving, because sometimes someone leaving, can really separate a community. If you've ever had someone that you know pass away, sometimes their families, like the two families that created them,

can have rifts with each other, like you didn't do enough or you're not paying for the expenses, like just crazy ridiculous stuff sometimes. A lot can come up without, you know, someone on someone's chessboard, for example, too. yeah, it's really important that psychedelics are part of certain cultures, because they can bond people and be like, you know, let's put all that shit away, water under the bridge, my friends, and like, let's be a human family again. So,

Yeah, that is one example I could give the Iwanawa. Other than that, not necessarily, I know. I made this joke to my partner, actually about two weeks ago. I don't know why we were talking about this. We were talking about, like, know, funerals as one talks about in normal everyday conversation. And I said how at my funeral, I want to just leave a sheet of acid in my will and then everybody that's there.

That's what they're doing and that's how they're going to get through it is that. I like that actually a lot better than dying while on acid, which Huxley did because I feel like death is such a psychedelic experience. It's like, course I want to feel all that. I want to know what my body's doing to me during that experience.

I want to be lucid as fuck, but then again like that doesn't negate psychedelics as me not having like a lucid experience like sometimes psychedelics provide you with like a A lucidity of like a hunter like all your senses are just like BAM like they are showed up Like if I died while I'm like a huge amount of caffeine which which could happen because like sometimes Anyways

Like, it's not that, you whatever, like you accept where you're at. But you know, I would definitely prescribe psychedelics and I would be like, listen, you're not really honoring me and all that I stood for if you're not honoring orange sunshine. The best stuff to ever grace this beautiful earth. And then with the, like with the grieving process, is there...

It's kind of a weird question, but like, is there like a timeframe in which somebody should expect to be able to go through all of that? And also do the steps happen linearly? Like, do you experience the rage, then the introspection and then, you know, everything? how do you, how do you know where you're at and, and how to like move forward and once you're over it? Yeah, I don't really, I don't really prescribe them linearly.

So like for example, if someone's like, just, you know, they're like someone just close to me died and I'm going into a meditation, I'm going into a 10 day meditation retreat. So they're like, no better time to like do this internal work. And then they thought be an introspection first, right? And then they gather with people after that. But in another way too,

You know, you can self-define gathering too. So for example, even if you're sitting in silence in a meditation hall every day for hours with other people and not saying a word, that could feel like for you gathering, you could be like, wow, I've never had the experience where I've just been around people in complete silence for 10 days. That's another form of gathering too. So the definition can really, it's like, you know, I'm not prescribing it to be a certain way. You know, there's really no one right way to do things, obviously.

But in terms of a timeline, I also wouldn't say there'd be like a strict timeline either, right? So, you know, there can be, you know, sometimes for certain people, what I do know is that we can underestimate our own timelines of things too, and overestimate. So for example, someone might say, I'm not an angry person, you know, I, you know, quote, I'm not an angry person. I'm not gonna, you know, I think anger, can like,

skip it or it's like it's not a huge thing for me. When they say that, what I typically find is it's just going to take a lot longer because they've been, what typically has happened is they've grown up in a family where anger was not okay to show at all even as a child or a baby and anger has been repressed as fuck.

So they need to like, it's gonna take a while for them to accept the fact that they even have that emotion capability within them. So, and then sometimes people will say, my gosh, I'll never get over this. And I'm thinking like, you know, you may have said goodbye to someone who you thought was your soulmate, but you know, we always say after like breakups, say, I don't know if ever meet anyone like them or better ever again. It's like, well,

Just, just, you know, just have hope because usually we people who are more aligned with us because that's just the way nature works. You know, we gravitate and accept the love we think we deserve. So we attract better people if we improve ourselves in certain domains. Yeah. Yeah. Now switching topics a little bit. know that you recently moved from Canada to Boston and I'm curious what.

inspired that move and how has that all been going for you? Yeah, yeah, okay. Being born and raised in Vancouver, obviously I'm very well aware that I was born in heaven. Vancouver is a heaven for not just surfers and skiers, but it's just literally where the ocean meets the forest and there's every beautiful piece of nature you could ever find. Health care for all.

Healthcare too, yeah, of course. Safe place to live. Super low population compared to the US. Very similar culture-wise though. But, you know, for me, like, even though I was born and raised in the West Coast, it's so funny because I literally do believe I was, I have an East Coast spirit. As in, like, when I just, when I go to the East Coast, when I spend time in, you know, Toronto...

Boston, New York, even like Connecticut, or I went to Montreal for the first time recently. I was literally like, Montreal is the coolest city in Canada. Like, was like, why did I not know this beforehand? Because I fell in love with Montreal. And so, you know, for me, like, I just feel more at home on the East Coast. It's somewhere I want to be, I want to spend more time. And when I told my partner this,

he was applying for grad schools and I said, okay, well, if we're going to be together and this is it, like it's you and me. can you please apply to the East coast schools so that we have a shot of, bring our combined dreams together. I have one day ending up in New York. And so he said, yes. And we had no idea he would get accepted into Harvard for grad school. We had no idea that that would ever.

So when he did, we were also like, we were like, gosh, we threw a party and everything. And now we're here. And now it's like, it's great and I love it. The only thing is, is like, I obviously do not have the support system I had like created in Vancouver here. It's not easy to be replicated. With that said though, like, you know, I'm attracting like my new tribe here as well. So yeah, primarily that's it. But also like I realized that I live.

like a 20 minute walk from Rick Doblin of maps. There's like map like there's like psychedelic legislation on the ballots here. There's all sorts of nonprofits and charities here for that. And I'm like, this is cool. Because as cool as Vancouver is for psychedelics, obviously, it's just a new water to swim in. And in America, it's like with more pop with more people here.

you can put something out and it can be like a psychedelic crazy idea and there will typically be a bunch of people being like, okay, like cool in Vancouver, like sometimes just because of less population, you'll put something really cool out there. Like, like a dance rave or like a morning dance rave thing. You just want to put out there and like people in Vancouver, they're just like skeptical. They're like, it's not raining. Like I might, I might come by and I'm like.

Y'all like the East Coast people, when they show up to an event, they show up and they show up early and they, they're like, I don't care if it's hailing or if like we're in hell right now. Like I'm showing up to this cool ass thing. So I do like that. like that. Hell yeah. And then, yeah, could you speak a little bit more and I know obviously you're new, but to some of the psychedelic initiatives that are on the ballot there. and if you're doing anything to help support that. Yes. So.

Similar to what has been created in Oregon, regardless of how people disagree on it, there are moves made here in Boston to decriminalize psychedelic therapy to make it more accessible for people, psilocybin specifically, obviously. And the reason why it's so exciting here is because

The biggest National Institute of Health funded hospital is here. It's the Massachusetts General Hospital. They're huge. I spend now a few weeks like every day back to back there, you know, helping with some research and it's been really cool. And they're dedicated people there who are like at the top of their field, like top of the committees who are like, yes, psychedelic therapy, like, yes, we need it.

which is awesome. So there's a campaign called the Yes on 4 and it's called that because there's like questions on the ballot, the selection cycle in Massachusetts specifically. And some of the questions are about like tipping servers. Some of them are about all sorts of different things like library workers and service workers stuff. And one of them, question four is about psychedelic therapy accessibility.

And I'm like, now I'm not a US citizen. can't do shit. can't vote. know. I mean, yeah, like it's, you know, like the voting system here is way more direct, I will say, than in Canada. You know, I voted in Canada every year I can, but I can't access my right to vote here, which kind of sucks because I'm like, we have visas to be here for the next few years, but we cannot choose our bosses. Like, that's kind of sucks.

But, you know, whatever, I'm here, I'm advocating for what I care about. I'm like, I'm gonna vote so you should. you should. Yeah. Vote for me. Yeah, I have the yard sign in my backyard. Like, I'm out there, I'm active, I'm popping off. And so, for me, like, I care about psychedelic accessibility. With that said, there was always a like, college student inside of me being like,

girl, I do not care if this is a recognized therapy or not. I will continue doing my acid recreationally. I do not care. I am, there's a little rebel inside of me that's like, don't care if the doctors approve it. I'm gonna keep doing my thing. With that said, like, you know, there are people who don't wanna be a criminal and there are people who want there to be ethics committees and review boards around these things and I cannot argue with that. So. I get it. Yeah.

Yeah, so I don't want the government to tax the shit out of anything. Also, I hope I can swear on this. also you can censor me, baby. But you know, I just I care about I care about educating people like, you know, my grandmother or like the guy on the street who's like, I think psychedelics are crazy like heroin and being like, actually, they're nothing like heroin. Like, let's talk about this.

That's why I'm, I'm a really big fan of Decrym efforts more so than legalization efforts, at least at this stage in time, because there's a little bit more room for leeway. And I think it also provides a little bit more room for people to get creative and kind of navigate the waters before there is actual legalization measures that are put in place because those have to be done such a specific way. Whereas Decrym it.

It opens the door to allow people to start exploring them on their own, which certainly can be dangerous, but at the same time, that can be what people need to maybe start microdosing first and then, you know, work their way up to a larger dose and things of that nature. And also just make it way more fucking accessible because legalization it's just going to be stupid expensive, at least at the beginning, as we see with Oregon right now.

No shade there under them. think that's just the way that the legislation works. Yeah. And with that said too, like all psychedelics are different. So mushrooms are very different from LSD, which is very different from ayahuasca. Like they're all in a family, but like they're all so different in a family. Like they're all in different parts of the world. Like it's crazy. And I just want to make sure that like, like, for example, I finally talked.

one of my grandmothers into being open to trying psychedelics with me. And this would be so cool because she's the mom of my mom. So this would like this could bond us in a way where it's like this could be very spiritual experience. And I, I only got her interested because I said that I've had spiritual experiences like bonding with the spirit of my mother in vulnerable conversations we've had. And she's like, my god, I would love to bond with my like daughter again, right? So

So, you know, beautiful times to be had if I could just go to a dispensary and be like, grandmother, look at all these mushroom selections. Like, I will pick it, I will get it, we'll take it. And like, I know that she would feel better knowing that it's like, that we're not going to some back alley, like hooded stranger.

Well, as we are getting to the ends here, there anything else that you feel the need to share, anything that is alive for you right now?

Hmm. Yeah, I just I feel like I just want to say to wrap up my work and what I do Is that you know if there's anything that you feel like anything or anyone that you feel like you haven't really said a complete goodbye to I highly encourage you to You know meditate on that focus on that bring your attention and awareness to that as much as possible Because yeah life is a lot

Life is a lot funner when you complete things in your life feeling complete even if they're difficult to do in the...

Ah-ho. Thank you, Mia, for coming on the podcast and sharing your knowledge and your wisdom and teaching me as well as any of the listeners some things. So thank you. Thanks for having me. Sending you love. Sending you love too, Kim. It's always awesome to talk with you. And yeah, I hope this podcast becomes the next biggest thing.

Thank you everybody for joining me and Mia on the podcast today. If you enjoyed this episode, ask that make sure that you're following with us on any podcast streaming platform that you're listening to this on, and then also give us a review so that way we get in front of more viewers and then also maybe share it with a friend. If you think that this could be helpful or interesting to somebody that you know, be sure to send it their way.

If you're interested in getting in contact with me at all, shoot me a DM on social media at Tripsittingpod on Instagram and TikTok, or shoot me an email at tripsittingblog at gmail.com. Thanks again, and we'll see you all next episode.