Learning from the Incas About Healing with Dr. Doni (Episode 64)

Have you ever thought of visiting Peru or working with a shaman? I recently had the opportunity to spend 3 weeks in the mountains of Peru completing a retreat and training with a shaman. It was one of my favorite experiences in my life.  

To share a bit about me… I love to travel and explore cultures around the world. I’ve spent time with healers and in retreat centers in central America, the Philippines, India, Turkey, Europe, Iceland, and recently Peru. 

The Incas believe in self-development – understanding oneself, one’s mission in life, and connection with others and the universe at large. They literally sit on the mountain-tops and look at the surrounding mountains and the stars in the sky to gain understanding of themselves and the world they live in. 

By the way, I speak about Incas in the present tense because what I felt while in Peru is that the Incan culture lives on. Much of their culture centers around spirituality and ceremony, which reminded me how important they are in our daily lives. The Incas are extremely aware of nature and our experience as humans on planet Earth. 

In this episode we talk about: 

• My visit to Cusco and the Sacred Valley 
• Machu Picchu 
• What I learned about the Incas 
• My experiences spending time with a shaman 
• How the elders of Peru practice honoring of nature 
• What I ate in Peru 
• Use of plant medicines, such as Ayahuasca 

To me, the whole experience was a major, and yet gentle, stress reset. Between spending time in nature, eating foods straight from the garden, connecting with people, and having the opportunity to experience Ayahuasca in a ceremony of icaros (medicine songs) sung by a master shaman – It was life changing. 

As many of you know, I am passionate about researching stress and how we as humans can master our experience of being stressed. Of all the amazing medicines and tools we have available to us to help us recover from stress, I had no idea that Ayahuasca was missing from the list, until now.  

I was aware that my nervous system and body overall – the whole autonomic nervous system and vagal nerve – went through a total stress reset. Having gone through that kind of recovery from stress, I have found that I am even more motivated to maintain it going forward. 

If any of you are interested in doing a similar retreat, just reach out to me and I can put you in touch with the organizers. 

Thank you for listening and learning with me.  

—Dr. Doni 

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