What to Do During an Ayahuasca Ceremony: A Gentle Guide for the Inner Journey

Participating in an Ayahuasca ceremony is stepping into sacred space. It's a space held with care and intention, where healing happens not through effort, but through surrender. And while no two journeys are the same, there are some guiding principles that can help you stay centered, safe, and open to the medicine.

Here’s a gentle guide to help you navigate your ceremony.

1. Keep your attention inward

It’s natural to want to look around the room when things start to stir—when someone purges, cries, or even laughs. But this space is not yours to manage. The ceremony leader, or facilitator, is holding the energetic container. Whatever is happening around you—other people’s processes, sounds, movement—is not your responsibility.

In fact, allowing your attention to drift outward is often a form of avoidance. Stay with yourself. Whatever comes up within you deserves your full attention.

2. Everyone has their own process

You may feel compassion or concern for others in the room. Maybe someone seems like they’re struggling. Maybe someone is celebrating. Either way, remember: their healing is their journey. Your work is not to intervene, assist, or manage them. The person who needs your help most in this moment is you.

It’s easy to get distracted by others, especially if we’re used to taking care of people. But Ayahuasca invites us into a different mode—where our primary responsibility is radical self-care and deep listening to our own soul.

3. Let go of outside thoughts

It’s common for thoughts of loved ones, family members, or even colleagues to pop up. Sometimes we worry, sometimes we want to share what we’re experiencing, and sometimes we wish things were different in our relationships.

Gently thank the thought for visiting, and let it pass. These people don’t need to be present in your ceremony. They have their own journeys, and the best way to support them is by doing your own work first. Bring your energy back to yourself.

4. Be curious about your inner landscape

This is where the gold lies. Look inside—into your mind, your heart, your belly. Ask the medicine to show you what you need to see, what you're ready to understand. You can ask things like:

• What are the blockages in my thinking?

• What pain am I holding in my body?

• What emotions have I stored in my digestion?

• Where am I out of balance?

Ayahuasca is a powerful teacher, but it responds best when we approach it with humility, clarity, and a willingness to see ourselves honestly.

5. Healing, not performance

You don’t need to seek visions of spirits or distant galaxies. You don’t need to prove anything or have an extraordinary experience. If those visions are truly needed for your healing, they will come. But don’t chase them.

Focus on your body, your breath, your pain, your questions. The spirits that matter—your own, and the ones called by the facilitators—will show up as needed. Your job is simply to be present and open.

6. Sit upright if you can

Sitting upright—especially during the more intense phases of the ceremony—can help ease nausea and stabilize your experience. It supports the natural movement of energy, helps you stay grounded, and reduces the sense of being overwhelmed that sometimes comes when lying down.

Of course, rest when needed. But if you feel strong sensations building, try coming to a seated posture and see how that shifts things.

7. Allow your body to release

Healing doesn’t only happen in visions. It happens in the body. Yawning, shaking, crying, sweating, purging, even going to the bathroom—all of these are valid and powerful forms of release. Let them come.

Your body knows what it's doing. Trust its intelligence. Don’t hold back out of shame or embarrassment. Everyone in the room is on their own journey, and chances are, someone else has been exactly where you are now.

8. Work with the medicine

Sometimes, when blockages arise, they ask for more than just observation. You might be guided to breathe deeply into your belly, or to use your hands to move energy through your body. You might want to smudge yourself with sage or tobacco to clear heavy energy.

One powerful practice is forgiveness. Forgive yourself. Forgive others. Let go of the heavy burdens you’ve been carrying—pride, resentment, guilt, fear. They are not who you are.

9. Be kind to yourself

This process can be hard. It can be beautiful. It can be confusing, ecstatic, humbling, or all of the above. Whatever shows up—welcome it with gentleness. You don’t need to understand everything right away. Just be present.

You are not here to fix yourself. You are here to meet yourself.

Final Words

There is no perfect way to journey with Ayahuasca. Every ceremony is a dance with the unknown. But if you stay humble, listen deeply, and keep your focus within, the medicine will meet you. Again and again.

You are not alone in this work. And you are deeply supported—even when it doesn’t feel like it.

Breathe. Trust. Allow.