Writing
Medicine Wisdom
Essays on expanded states, plant medicine, masculine and feminine healing, consciousness, and the work of living a changed life.
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Entering the Cave of Your Deepest Potential…
What lives in the cave of your deepest potential? Michael Tierno on the inner journey of expanded states work and why facing the unknown matters.
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There will be a last time for everything we do...
A mindfulness exercise on impermanence: how noticing life's last times can deepen gratitude and change how you meet each moment. By Michael Tierno.
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Psychedelic Guides: What to Look for…
How to choose a psychedelic guide: what to ask about safety, training, preparation, integration, and touch, and how a guide differs from a trip sitter.
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Non-duality and 5meo-DMT
Michael Tierno on an encounter with non-dual awareness: what happens when the boundary between self and everything else dissolves, and what it taught him.
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Shame and the Divine Feminine
Shame may be the most damaging block to the divine feminine. Michael Tierno on how healing shame frees authentic expression in women and men.
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The Test of Resolve: Post-Psychedelic Integration and the Universe's Challenges
Integration is where the work begins. How life tests your resolve after a retreat, and how to anchor what you learned in lasting change. By Michael Tierno.
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Dancing with the Divine Masculine & Divine Feminine
A personal story of the dance between masculine and feminine energy, and how holding space changes healing and connection. By Michael Tierno.
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Layers of Self: Unraveling the Intrinsic and Conditioned Ego
Michael Tierno on the layers of the self: what's essential to who you are, and what was conditioned by life experience and the world around you.
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The Folly of Time Travel and Regret
Would you go back in time if you could? Michael Tierno on accepting your past and why the present, not regret, is where change happens.
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Authenticity and the True Power of Vulnerability
Authenticity takes risk. Michael Tierno on vulnerability, putting your heart on the line, as the ground of real connection and conscious living.
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The Dual Paths to Enlightenment: Shattered Glass vs. Gradual Awareness
Two paths to waking up: the sudden shattering of illusion and the slow dawning of awareness, and how expanded states work can open both. By Michael Tierno.
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“How do our perceptions correspond with base level reality?” PART 2
Part 2 of Michael Tierno's look at perception and reality: what it means for how you live if consciousness shapes the world you experience.
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“How do our perceptions correspond with base level reality?” PART 1
Part 1 of Michael Tierno's look at perception and reality: how much of what you experience is the world, and how much is the mind building it?
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Consciousness, from a philosophical and scientific point of view…
Michael Tierno on consciousness through philosophy and science: what it is, how it might arise, and why it matters for expanded states work.
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End of year offering to the Universe…
A simple year-end ritual to close the old year and welcome the new: releasing what's done and offering gratitude. By Michael Tierno.
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Say “Yes” to what life has to offer, and expand your edge.
Why saying yes to growth, challenge, and discomfort expands your edge and makes for a fuller, more conscious life. By Michael Tierno.
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Here are things to tell yourself if you grew up emotionally neglected.
Ten things to tell yourself if you grew up emotionally neglected: reminders for reclaiming your worth and your own voice. By Michael Tierno.
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I learned how my patterns get in the way of my moving forward.
Michael Tierno on seeing the unconscious patterns that keep you stuck, and how naming them is the first step to moving forward.
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I am not my thoughts and my thoughts can’t hurt me.
You are not your thoughts. Michael Tierno on separating who you are from what you think, and how that eases anxiety and reactivity.
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Six things I learned from drinking plant medicine.
Six lessons from Michael Tierno's own plant medicine experiences: happiness, simplicity, responsibility, impermanence, presence, and being yourself.
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Five more things I learned from plant medicine.
Five more lessons from Michael Tierno's own experiences: thoughts, forgiveness, projection, comparing yourself to others, and sacred space.
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I realized how important it is to have a life of purpose and meaning.
Michael Tierno on realizing that a life without purpose leaves you hollow, and how inner work helped him find direction.
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I no longer need external validation from others to feel good about myself.
Michael Tierno on letting go of the need for approval from others, and finding validation from within through inner work.