Story Time with LauraLee

Hi it’s me, navigating the wild world of being a big city, small business owner after two success and failure filled years learning to live off-grid. It’s a different kind of hard here, and some days I definitely miss my chainsaw wielding, truck driving, quieter but equally challenging life. Anyway, now that I’m “putting myself out there” and not hiding in the woods it seems like time to share a little more of my story and answer some personal questions (mostly about mushrooms and chocolate and how they became a big part of my creative work). 

For the sake of this being a blog post and not an autobiography I’ll skip the first eighteen years and jump to the part where things really started to get interesting. Over the course of my college life I was prescribed Lexipro for anxiety and panic attacks, Vyvanse and Adderall for a sleep disorder in the realm of narcolepsy (I fell asleep in every class every day), Xanax in case the Adderall triggered the previously mentioned panic attacks, Ambien in case the treatment for narcolepsy caused insomnia, a variety of hormonal birth control pills that I started for irregular periods when I was fourteen, something for my skin because birth control gave me hormonal acne, and more antibiotics and antifungals than I care to count because I was unsurprisingly sick all the time. While I think there is a time and a place for certain pharmaceuticals and that there is no one size fits all approach to healing, this was not it. I had a first hand experience of the medical system prescription vending machine handing out one bandaid fix after another (that we’re seeing mirrored across so many sick systems today). It was not healing or holistic and underneath the stack of bandaids I was just getting sicker, stripping my gut health and immune system of vitality, and intrinsically losing my power and creativity. I didn’t like the way I felt and wasn’t interested in continuing on this path. After I graduated I gave myself space to get off of everything and figure out who I was and how I felt at baseline so I could get to the root of the symptoms I was experiencing (I am not recommending ending any prescription or protocol without trusted guidance and support). I also cleaned up my diet, took some long breaks from alcohol, and started a more consistent and devoted yoga and movement practice. Slowly I started healing myself and gaining tools to understand and be empowered in my own mental, physical, and energetic health.

I love experimenting with different modalities and learning what works best for my body, and have tried a lot of different diets, movement and meditation practices, plant medicines, cleanses, cycle tracking methods (sometime I’ll write a whole separate post on this), etc over the last decade. As my gut health and immune system were getting stronger and my cycle was finding its natural rhythm, I was also becoming more comfortable and confident in my body and my voice and allowing myself to explore and connect deeper with my own creativity. My yoga practice, trainings, and community really supported me in this learning process to the point that I was ready and able to leave and literally go off-grid for the next chapter of my weird, wild, artist life.

Plant medicines and supplements have been a huge holistic support in balancing my health. I’ve been studying and working with herbalism in my personal practice for a while; in college I took a variety of herbs to ease the side effects of the prescription medications and studied Chinese medicine in Southern China when I had the chance to study abroad (I was an anxiety plagued hippie getting a neuroscience degree in an educational system I did not thrive in). I really started connecting with this work on a deeper level through Covid and our off-grid times developing a special love and appreciation for cacao and mushrooms. I was using adaptogenic and functional mushrooms like reishi, chaga, and lion’s mane daily to support my immune system, gut health, and all around vitality, and the first time I tried microdosing with psilocybin I thought “this is what all of those pills I was prescribed in college wanted to be”. I slowly and occasionally began adding microdosing into my practice with movement, breathwork, synergistic herbalism (usually cacao based), and balanced nourishment. This led to an experimental and experiential deep dive into the world of growing mushrooms and making healthy, adaptogenic, ceremonial chocolate bars, as well as a passion for the growing research and access to psilocybin and other plant medicines (remembering the importance of proper integration and honoring the cultures and traditional practices that have brought these medicines to us). For clarity if you haven’t read our last blog post, the chocolate bars we’re selling in retail and sharing at events are made with functional non-psychedelic mushrooms that have their own major health benefits (reishi, chaga, lion’s mane, cordyceps, turkey tail, and tremella), but if you’re looking for more psilocybin based resources, products, or experiences send me a message and I’ll send you my thoughts and recommendations. 

I’m really grateful for the experiences I’ve had and the journey I’ve been on that has allowed me to change, remember who I am, and explore modalities that holistically support my mental, physical, emotional, energetic, and spiritual health (that are all connected). It’s given me a passion for sharing this work through movement and meditation practices, mushroom chocolate, doula work, and just having more open and powerful conversations. So thank you for being here, and let me know how I can support you on your journey.

Love,

Your mushroom obsessed, cycle tracking, chocolatier, yogi bff ❤️