Aaron Rodgerssays he’s experienced a “deeper love” of himself while using ayahuasca, a psychedelic drink he has touted over the last year.
In the January/February issue ofMen’s Health,the Green Bay Packers quarterback revealed he participated in a three-night ceremony earlier this year that saw him drink the tea while under the guidance of a shaman.
He continued: “Night one, I was still a little resistant, and night two, I fully surrendered to the process and to the master teacher, and she was benevolent in her lessons. There’s a lot of overall happiness that exists when you have a deeper love for yourself. It actually allows you, I feel, to give and receive love better and interact with people with less judgment and less projection. So that’s one thing I’ve really been working on.”
The 39-year-old has previously talked about his use of ayahuasca, most notably onThe Pat McAfee Show, where he recently said that the drug helped him overcome a “major fear of death.”
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While Rodgers has said that he believes “ayahuasca is not a drug,” theAlcohol and Drug Foundationlists it as a “plant-based psychedelic” that can affect a person’s thinking, sense of time, and emotions. Ayahuasca contains the active ingredientN,N-Dimethyltryptamine(DMT), which is a banned Schedule I drug, according toDouble Blind.
During his interview withMen’s Health, Rodgers also revealed that one of his favorite activities off the field is washing dishes.
“I think meditation can get skewed at times, like you have to go in some sort of trance and startom-ing or whatever, but I feel like I can go into a meditative space doing the dishes,” he explained. “I can also get it with an instrumental soundtrack going on, just sitting on my couch in the sunroom, without my phone on, just my eyes closed.”
“Then I can also go into it, you know, practicing some Transcendental Meditation,” he continued. “It’s really just about how I can calm my mind, so it’s not racing. It’s natural to have 50,000-plus different thoughts that go through your mind on a daily basis, but how can you learn to quiet that a little bit and settle into the calm and ease of the day, so you’re just a little less stressed, a little more present, and a little more available to your teammates?”
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Rodgers — whose Packers are currently 6-8 in the NFC North — toldMen’s Healththat he is now relying on his mind more than his physical talents during games.
“My mind is a weapon now,” he explained. “I don’t run as well as I used to, or as frequently. And I can still move around, get outta some things. But I definitely win the game more now with my mind.”
Rodgers and the Packers will face the Miami Dolphins on Sunday. Miami has an 8-6 record.
source: people.com
