Maximizing the Benefits of Microdosing Psychedelics for Mind, Body & Soul

From sourcing concerns to dosing protocols, in this episode I break down what truly matters when it comes to creating meaningful, sustainable results with these tools. I explain why chasing stronger effects or using psychedelics as a crutch can actually undermine your growth, and how following an intentional protocol can help you integrate lessons into your everyday life.

We also dive into how GLP-1 medications like Ozempic and Wegovy may affect both microdosing and full psychedelic journeys, what to consider before combining the two, and why timing and dosage are more important than most people realize. You’ll also learn why I only recommend products I personally trust, and the importance of consistency when tracking your progress.

For this week’s integration, reflect on your microdosing approach: Are you using it as a tool to create long-term change, or as a temporary crutch? Send me a question on instagram that you’ve been wondering about when it comes to psychedelics, mushrooms, LSD, or microdosing. Chances are someone else is curious about the same thing, and your question could guide others on their journey. Until next time, trust yourself, follow your intuition, and keep asking, how good can it get?

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Hi kittens, I'm Julie Savone, psychedelic facilitator, integration expert, and your guide for this wild ride, the Inner Trip. 365 days with plant medicine. I've helped hundreds of people use plant medicine, primarily psilocybin, to heal, expand, and step into their next level. But this year, I'm taking it even deeper. For the next 365 days, I'm bringing you with me. I'll be microdosing, journeying, integrating, and exploring what it really means to live a limitless life with plant medicine as a tool, not a crutch. So if you're ready to feel more alive, more clear, more limitless, and you're down to do it with mushrooms and a little bit of sass, you're in the right place. Let's take the inner trip. Kitten from the jump. I want to say if you're watching this and not listening to this, I know I look crazy. Okay. I have a photo shoot tomorrow and I'm marinating in my spray tan. If this maybe prompts some of you listeners to go watch it, then so be it. You can see me in all of my extra bronzy glory. We'll say that. That's like the nicest way to describe how I look. I want to comment you today. My intention today is to share the biggest triggers, irritants, like things that make me say woof when I hear people say them in regard to microdosing. I have three big ones that when I hear people say them, I say woof. Woof is my word when I don't know what to say and I'm like, holy cow, that's bad. No boy, no, I don't like that. I just say woof. Like that's all I text someone back. Woof. Like in that movie, Home Alone, when McCloy Culkin goes, Buzz, your girlfriend, woof, right? These are my, these are my pet peeves, my three biggest ones. And this was prompted by uh a conversation that I saw someone else in this space. Her name is Corinne. Um, I think her handle is Wake and Bake Co. She was talking about how this is one of her triggers and something that when she hears it, she thinks, okay, we're not we're not sympathico, like we aren't on the same page. There is some microdosing information and knowledge that could be shared here here to course correct. This isn't to say, like, this isn't about right and wrong and good and bad. And when I hear people say these things, I don't think, oh my God, like you're doing something wrong or you're bad or like you suck. That's not it at all. But for many people, I know why you want to microdose, right? We think about coming back to this idea of intention always. What's the intention of microdosing? And when I hear people say these three things, I I immediately think like you're not going to receive the intended outcome from these three practices, these three, you know, actions within microdosing. So I want to name them. Naim. Where am I real housewives of Beverly Hills fans? Name them. Thank you, Sunstrack. Uh, I want to name them. I want to talk about why they are red flags, the biggest red flags of microdosing, and you know what I would what I would say to someone who told me this, and and then with the intention of educating, right? To say, hey, if you want to microdose for healing, if you want a microdose for expansion, if you want a microdose for ultimately sustained life improvement and change, then here's what I would do instead and why. Number one, when people say I want to take more, or I need to increase my dose, or more is better. Oh Lord, I talked about this a little bit on a podcast episode when I was recapping a private retreat that I hosted in Scottsdale for an amazing group of women, and how this woman, her biggest takeaway, was like more is not necessarily more better, um, in the context of a larger journey. But I hear so often people say, I want to increase my dose. Now, I will say, and I believe I said this in the episode as well. I've been microdosing for Lord, five, six years. I still microdose with 100 milligrams of psilocybin. 100 milligrams, 0.1 gram. Been doing it for years, still on one of the lowest doses. I believe the the only company that I know that makes a lower dose makes 50 milligrams. So 0.05, right, of a gram. This is very low dose. And yeah, the wake and bake code, the Corinne, who I saw talking about this, right? She talked about makes a great point that some people um who have a cycle, right? Who have a different hormonal cycle, you might feel like uh, and more might actually be better around uh the time of your period, and less might be needed when you're ovulating, when your energy is just naturally higher. Great point, and definitely something to consider and to think about. And ultimately, a few things, right? So microdosing truly is meant to be subperceptual, meaning you're not supposed to like feel it in the same way that you would feel a glass of wine. I like to say life becomes a little bit more sparkly, not in like that you're actually gonna see sparkles, but you have a renewed sense of awe, wonder, gratitude, appreciation for the world around you. You are more responsive, less reactive. The clearest example I always give is if someone cut you off attractive and traffic, instead of giving them the finger, you let them in and think, wow, you really must have somewhere that you need to be. Your moods and energy just feels more consistent and manageable. You have more um willingness and control over interacting with harder feelings. So thinking about past traumas, hurts, wounding, it feels a little bit safer because you're not so overwhelmed by those big feelings. So these are all like benefits and ways you can kind of know the microdosing is quote unquote working in your system. It's not this huge shift that people like, it's not this huge, I don't want to say shift, but it's not this huge like state shift, right? So, you know, we know that like weed is working when uh you just realized you've laughed at 20 minutes because someone dropped an orange and you think that's so funny now, right? And you're like, oh, I'm high. You're like, wow, this fudge bar tastes really good. Or you know that you're um that you've that glass of wine is working because you're feeling a little loose and you're on the dance floor when maybe normally you're a bit more buttoned up. So people are looking for these big state shifts in consumption of whatever, and you just don't have that in microdosing. So chasing that isn't the end-all be-all. That's point number one. Um, and it's not what you're like quote unquote supposed to look for, because if you're feeling it in a in a bigger sense, say you're not microdosing, the father of microdosing, Dr. James Fadiman coined this term um, transformation without intoxication, meaning the goal of microdosing is to have enough of a substance in your system to promote the positive changes in your brain, like quieting down of the part of your brain that chatters, the default mo network that Regina Dores in your mind that like is telling you, you know, use that, you can't do this, no one cares. Shalala, um, increasing presence, um, increasing emotional responsiveness and safety with those large emotions, right? But without feeling like you think the walls are breathing, or that, you know, you would be anyway, in any way incapacitated from like using heavy machinery or driving a car, right? Those aren't the goals. So if you're taking those larger amounts and you're like quote unquote feeling it, then you're not microdosing anymore. And that's okay, but like let's not call it microdosing then, right? Like, let's call it something else. Like you have taken enough to feel something, you are having a larger experience. And more isn't going to necessarily, is not going to necessarily produce more benefits. And I would posit that you haven't squeezed all the juice there is to squeeze from the current level you're at. Now, I know for some people, this is especially true if someone has had, you know, years of treatment-resistant depression or a long time. This is actually most common in like long-term SSRI use because psilocybin and serotonin bind at the 5HT2A receptors. They're both tryptophan's, and actually, psilocybin mimics the chemical structure of serotonin. And because they bind at the same receptors, if you've been taking SSRIs for really a long time, it's almost like your receptors, like the sole of your shoe is worn out, right? And so you can heal those receptors. There's a great functional mushroom mix you can you can take. So functional mushrooms are those mushrooms that provide health benefits but are in no way psychedelics. Like you could eat 20 pounds of them and like you're not gonna, nothing's gonna happen like that, right? So we think about Rishi, cordyceps, lion's mane, turkey tail, chaga, all great examples of functional mushrooms. But there's a blend you can take of that in order to heal those receptors so that psilocybin can be like a little bit stickier with those receptors and actually absorb there. Um, so that's something to consider as well. I will say for my, I'm thinking about she was my very first client. Yeah, she's my very first client. 10 years treatment resistant to depression. She had tried everything. She was on 200 milligrams um for her capsules. Completely changed her life, right? 200 milligrams. So, yes, that is like double what I take, but 200 milligrams is still very low. People are trying to get up there to like I saw a company selling 400 milligram microdoses. Like, if I took 400 milligrams, I would definitely like feel something. Um, and it's it becomes another like high that you're chasing, right? And like that again is not the point of microdosing. So if you are chasing that experience, awesome. Like, I don't have any sort of judgment or ill will to you, but like you're not microdosing, and that's okay too. So, like, let's be honest about what's really happening here. Um, so more is not more better, right? You're not gonna have, you're not gonna suddenly be able to work through things that you didn't fully give your attention to at the lower dose. And it's just gonna become a thing where you're chasing a feeling instead of once again actually working through the deeper emotional experience. So you're gonna be always looking for this like shiny feeling that mushrooms give you instead of doing the processing work. And microdosing is really about, I mean, the way that I facilitate microdosing, right, is about the an integrated rewiring of your perception and understanding of the world. So like it's not just, oh, I have fun when I'm microdosing. It's like my life is markedly better overall because I take the lessons that I learned while microdosing and apply them to my everyday life, even when I'm not. More is not more better. Another one that I hear all the time that just like makes me want to jump off a cliff is I microdose every day. Do you? You're just microdosing every day, is it's the same thing as when people say, you know, you can take a vitamin C supplement and then eat uh a grapefruit and a guava and an orange and all these things. But vitamin C is one of those things that once you hit your absorption over, you're just peeing it out, right? You're literally just in the mouth and and out back into the toilet. Like it's not, it's not gonna do, it's not harmful, I don't think. I hope I'm not misspeaking on that. It's not harmful to take a bunch of vitamin C, but you're not doing anything like extra for your body. Once you've hit absorption, you've hit absorption and you've gotten your like max daily, whatever. Same thing with psilocybin, except psilocybin, if you take it every single day, you're building a tolerance really fast. Psychedelics build tolerance really, really fast. And that's why taking a break in between rounds of microdosing is important. That's why following a schedule, aka a protocol is really important for microdosing because in no microdosing protocol does it call for psilocybin every single day. And so what I'm hearing is A, you have not given your body a chance to rest and reset. So whatever psilocybin you're taking is not doing anything anymore for you. It's like literally, it's it's it's null effect. So when we think about the book be here now, what Rom Das, Timothy, Timothy Leary? Oh gosh, I don't want to miss, yeah, Timothy Leary. I'm gonna be very confident in this. What they did in the 70s, I don't like all these question marks and funny kind of things. Whatever. They the uh what the book be here now is a result of is those guys, definitely Rom Das, taking a bunch of psychedelics every single day in writing, like their their learnings, their lessons, what they got out of the experience. But what they found because psychedelics feel such a tolerance so fast is they had to increase their amounts every single day to trip. Right? So if they had to do that, what I'm hearing is like, and you're, I don't want, I'm not encouraging you to increase your microdosing dosage every single day either, and keep taking more and more and more, but you're no longer receiving any benefit. If they had to, and nothing actually is happening in your brain, because if they had to keep taking more and more psychedelics every single day in order to produce a trip, and nothing like they were totally fine and totally like not having a psychedelic experience without increasing their dose, then you are not having any effects in your brain by microdosing every single day. And what I'm also hearing is like you're just you're searching for some sort of like crutch, some sort of feeling. And again, if if that is what it is, like it's not a judgment, it's not I'm saying you're bad, but you're not actually changing your life, you're just substituting one form of emotional avoidance for another. And if that's what you want to do, like more power to you, babe. I love that for you, run along your journey. But if you actually want to deal with your shit, then microdosing every day is not going to help you do that because it really is about pulling the thread from what happens in your off days, or sorry, what happens on your on days into your off days without the use, without the crutch of mushrooms. I like to say that psychedelics are like a helicopter. They'll take you to the top of a mountain and you'll like look around and you'll think, wow, this mountain is so beautiful, right? They show you what's possible, they show you what is available to you, but they then put you down at the bottom of the mountain. And integration is you walking back up the mountain on your own two little feet without the helicopter, doing the hard work to get to the top again to say, like, it was possible, and I got here on my own, and now I can stay here because I earned the climb, right? Versus just helicoptering up. So when I hear people say I microose all the time, big red flag in my head. Unless, of course, you you are just like, that's what you want. It's like some escapism, or you know, it's uh you're totally fine with creating another substance in your life that you're using as a crutch. That's okay. That's what you want to do. Okay, finally, my final red flag. Uh, and this one like isn't so much of a red flag because I well, I'll just say it. It's that I microdose when I feel like it. And here's the thing: if you're really looking to create change and you microdose when you feel like it, one, you know, you're not like building up a tolerance, you're not doing every day. So it would be easier for you to actually create change versus someone who microdoses every day. And it doesn't sound like you're necessarily just chasing a high. And again, that my perspective is not like judging you, like, oh, this is good and this is bad. My perspective is saying this is actually going to produce long-term um sustainable change in your life versus what isn't. So if that, if your goal is not to create a better life overall and long-term sustainable change, then who cares? Microdose every day. Increase your dose, do whatever you want, take it whenever you feel like it. But if your goal is to actually change the quality of your life using microdosing as a temporary tool instead of a forever like necessity, right? Like needing it like a prescription, then it really is best to follow a schedule, aka protocol is microdosing. So when I hear people say, like, I microdose when I feel like it. Technically, there is an intuitive protocol, which says, like, microdose, you know, for a period of 30 days. This is what the intuitive protocol says. For 30 to 90 days, microdose when you intuitively feel called. The only caveat is there must be at least one on day, off day between on days. So technically, like, let's say you microdose, you're gonna give yourself 30 days of this protocol. You could microdose for 15 days. On, off, on, off, on, off. It'd probably be less, right? Like, are you really necessarily intuitively called every other day? Who knows? It could be, it's really possible. Um, but normally when people don't have more structure, it just becomes one of those things that kind of falls to the wayside. Because I'll say, even as a facilitator, unless I have a schedule, like even with a schedule, sometimes I forget. I'm like, oh crap, it's an on day. Like I should have written that down somewhere, right? Where I would see it, put a sticky note up. So if it's hard to make sure that you follow a very consistent schedule of microdosing, and I'm saying that as a facilitator, someone whose work is literally this, then it would probably be really difficult for you to just like be like, oh, micro-dose when I feel like it. And I do have a little bit of concern for this as well, because then we're sort of again, again, from the lens of someone who microdose, helps people microdose for the intention of creating long-term sustainable change. I I fear that we run into the issue of using it as a crutch. Like, oh, I had a really bad day, so I'll microdose to lift my mood to avoid feeling however I'm feeling. Or, oh, I'm experiencing a lot of you know pain today. Like for I work with quite a few women who have fibromyalgia or on diagnose or more elusive pain issues. When I say elusive, I mean there's not something that doctors can clearly say, like, oh, this is why you're in pain, right? So for me, with my knee, I had uh meniscal tear and a baker's cyst that was pushing water into my tear. So like it was very clear why I was in pain, right? But for some people, there's not that physiological clear reason. So anyway, I work with a lot of those cuties. And if they're just having a high pain day, it's like, oh, okay, I'll just microdose to quell the pain. Microdosing can really help with pain management. It's like, okay, I'm glad that you have that resource to you. And it's like obviously better for your body, your mind, everything than having a glass of wine or taking an opiate opioid. I just really caution and and want people to think about am I using this as a crutch or am I using this as a tool to transform my life? And this comes up a lot. I know, you know, cannabis. Uh the discussion around cannabis and microdosing cannabis uh has been a little bit louder than psychedelics. I think psychedelics are becoming a little bit louder than cannabis, and GLP ones are like a little bit louder than all of them. Um, but that's also what I worry about with GLP ones, right? So we're microdosing the GLP ones, and that's great if people are reducing their inflammation and you know, able to lose weight that they needed to lose in order to make their hearts healthier and reduce pressure on their bodies and XYZ, like awesome. And are we doing the work to emotionally renegotiate a relationship with food? Are we learning how to interact with food noise? Because you can't microdose a GLP one forever, right? So, like, are you doing things to have actually help you change your like overall attitude, relationship, emotional connection to food? Or are we just doing this thing to like numb out and avoid dealing with it? And I don't want to say take the easy route out, but you know, the only way out is through. Like that thing is never gonna go away until you deal with it. The food noise isn't gonna go away until you deal with it. The depressive episode that you're in isn't gonna go away until we like understand what's at the cause at the root of this. So I do worry about people who are using it more as like in-the-moment crutches or just thinking like, oh, I microdose sometimes for actually making long-term sustainable change. So the three things that are huge red flags for me are when people say I want to are like, oh, more is better, right? Not like I want to increase my dose is a necessarily bad thing to say, but like I need to take more. I want to take more. Like, if this was good, more must be better, right? Number two, I microdose every day. Oh my that one actually really that one, because I feel like it's just a waste, like you're wasting it. You might as well just like literally throw your microdosing capsule or whatever your preferred, you know, type of administration is out into the trash. Like it's not doing anything. And then finally, like, oh, I microdose when I feel like it. Because if you actually want to see long-term sustainable change, you are going to find an appropriate dose where you are a hundred percent coherent and you're able to and actually do do some work with emotional safety and processing. B, you are using microdosing as an integrative tool, right? You are taking what you learn from your on days and pulling the thread into your off days so that those insights become embodiments. And then three, you're following a protocol, you're not using it as this like one-off tool to get through a hard time. You're really following a schedule because that's where research shows, like that's where the benefits are from. And when I say research, I really mean, you know, me and and the other facilitators because we haven't had this big study that I would love to see of you know, people following a protocol, which it's it's gonna lead to so many better results than just microdosing willy-nebly every now and then. And you know, protocols are really built around specific things too. When we think about Fatimans protocol, that's a very different experience in lower doses. And when we think about um like the microdosing institute protocol, which is literally double the dosage, but you know, microdosing institute, the higher dosage makes more sense because it's really geared toward helping people with anxiety and depression who are, you know, looking to titrate off of um SSRIs. So different intentions, different protocols yielding different results. So having an intention that matches your um that is synced up to your protocol, right? Is really where the transformation happens. So no judgment, absolutely no judgment in any of this. You do whatever you gotta do, what you wanna do, boom. I love it for you. Um, but just know these are things that do perk my little ears up as a facilitator. And if your intention is to do any of the things that we mentioned, um and to create that long-term change, then like consider these things. Okay, sending you so much love, and I hope you have an amazing day. That's the end of today's trip. But remember, the real magic has always been inside of you. If this episode landed, send it to a friend who's ready to step into their next level. And make sure you're following the show so you never miss a dose. I'll be back again soon with another day on the path to your most limitless life. And until then, trust yourself, follow your intuition, and keep asking how good can it get?