Episode 8: Microdosing for Mental Health & Wellbeing with April Pride

Disclaimer: This episode makes reference to Psilocybin. The content shared in this episode is for informational purposes only, and is not intended to diagnose or treat any medical conditions. Nor is it to be interpreted as medical advice. The first port of call for any mental or physical symptoms or issues should always be your doctor. This podcast episode is not promoting or condoning illegal substance use, and you are advised to check the legal status of psychedelics in your country of residence before making an informed decision as to if or how you choose to use them.

Are you curious about exploring more natural ways of regulating and improving your mental health?

Have you heard about microdosing and would like to gain a better understanding of how it can help you feel better?

Do you need some information about how to take the first steps on your microdosing journey?

If so, this episode is for you. Guest expert April Pride, founder of SetSet shares what microdosing is, how and why microdosing psilocybin can improve your mental health and how to safely and effectively begin your microdosing journey.

Episode highlights:

• What microdosing is, how to do it and what it entails
• The positive effects psilocybin can have on your brain and why microdosing can be so beneficial
• How psilocybin works to calm your brain's default mode network
• April's work on harm reduction in the psychedelic space
• The power of extending the pause in your interpersonal communication and how microdosing can assist
• The connection between plant medicine and intuition
• The enormous value of microdosing for optimisation
• Microdosing protocols 
• Who microdosing is not for and when to avoid using any form of psychedelics

I loved talking to April for this episode and I encourage you to check out her website for a vast collection of psychedelic related resources: www.getsetset.com

You can listen to April's SetSet podcast here.

Are you fed-up of having your life ruled by overwhelm and stress? If what you need is more calm, better focus and improved productivity instead of constant frazzle, you'll love my brand new Stress Less PDF Guide.

Inside you'll find 21 practical, actionable stress reduction strategies to help you get your groove back. Buy the PDF guide here.

If you know you want more from your life or career but you're totally stuck about where to start, I invite you to book a complimentary strategy call with me here.

We'll uncover what's holding you back from the goals you want to achieve and you'll leave the call with actionable steps to get you moving in the right direction.

For the tea on me, how I work, who I coach and the packages I offer, please visit my website - www.emmaobriencoach.com

You can also connect with me on Instagram @emmaobriencoach where I share an abundance of tools, strategies and brilliant content, you might also see the occasional dog.

Transcript

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Emma O'Brien: Hi folks welcome to season. 3. Episode 8 of the podcast today. My guest is April pride, and we are talking about the benefits of microdosing for mental health and well-being

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Emma O'Brien: before we jump in. I'm going to share a short disclaimer. So this episode makes reference to Psilocybin

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Emma O'Brien: and the content shared in this episode is for informational purposes only, and is not intended to diagnose or treat any medical conditions. Nor is it to be interpreted as medical advice. The 1st port of call for any mental or physical symptoms or issues

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Emma O'Brien: should always be your doctor. This podcast episode is not promoting or condoning, illegal substance use, and you are advised to check the legal status of psychedelics in your country of residence before making an informed decision as to if or how you choose to use them.

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Emma O'Brien: I'm going to tell you about that, my guest. Now we have the formal bit over

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Emma O'Brien: April. Pride is a Seattle-based serial, creative entrepreneur whose work has been featured in Forbes Vice and the Guardian.

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Emma O'Brien: She's developed brands and products for 20 years. In 2015 April turned her visionary focus to cannabis with the launch of Vanderpop, a cannabis lifestyle brand acquired by the world's largest cannabis company. 3 years after launch.

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Emma O'Brien: as the CEO and founder of set set. April created the world's 1st clinician, approved woman focused platform for safe, accessible, psychedelic integration, and she is the host of the High Guide, a podcast all about changing your life with cannabis and psychedelics. Welcome to the podcast April.

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April Pride: Hi, thank you so much. I already have a I already have a correction in my Bio. The High Guide was my last

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April Pride: podcast. That we've bundled everything under set set, which is my current platform. Yeah.

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Emma O'Brien: Okay, amazing. But for anybody who wants to listen, it's on your set set website, which we'll share in the notes at the end. And I've listened to a couple of the episodes, and it's absolutely brilliant. It's so informative, and I think I just want to say before we jump in. It's great to be speaking to an expert, authoritative.

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Emma O'Brien: female voice in the space of psychedelics. We know there are so many male voices in this space. So I'm really thrilled to have you here and to be having this conversation with you. April. It's so important, and I'm thrilled. We found each other to do this.

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April Pride: Thank you.

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Emma O'Brien: Can you kick us off by sharing exactly what Microdosing is for anybody listening who's completely new to this.

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April Pride: Sure, when talking about microdosing of any substance, it means you're taking a subperceptual amount of that particular medicine.

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April Pride: And you know it's interesting. I always say it's 1 20th of a standard dose. But I was

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April Pride: doing research for this show, and it came up to 5 to 10% of a standard dose. And I,

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April Pride: I still, I think it's somewhere between 10 and 20%. So those details are not critical because it again, matters which medicine we're talking about. But and microdosing psilocybin, which is really where we're going to focus today is 300 milligrams or 0 point 3 grams of psilocybin by dry weight. That's right. Now how it's all measured.

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April Pride: But that actually doesn't have anything to do with how much active ingredient it is. It's just where we are with things. So I find that you know I'm a 48 year old woman. I'm 5 feet 10. I weigh, you know, 140 pounds and 150 is my Max. If I have 200 milligrams.

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April Pride: I'm aware that I took a microdose that day. It's not the end of the world. I can conduct a meeting. I can be on a podcast but that's not what a microdose is. And I often hear from women, because those are the people that I speak to

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April Pride: tried it. I didn't feel anything, so I stopped. But that means you're doing it right right. You're not supposed to feel anything. So a microdose is again set perceptual. Yeah.

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Emma O'Brien: Yeah, I found that with my own microdosing experience, sometimes I'll take it. And I can function normally. Other times, I'll take it. And I'm thinking, oh, yeah. So I'm not going to drive the car anywhere just now, and it's like you say, it's fine unless you've got something important going on. So I tend to try and plan. If I'm Microdosing, I'll do it on a day where there isn't anything crucial happening in just in case.

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April Pride: Yeah. And for some people, it can keep them awake. It can be energizing. So it's advised to take it in the morning. Yeah.

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April Pride: yeah.

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Emma O'Brien: Absolutely. I agree with that. I tend to take it in the morning, and I know other people who microdose it's better in the morning, because it tends to it can be a bit of a bit of a stimulant.

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Emma O'Brien: Can you share? So we're talking about microdosing for mental health

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Emma O'Brien: issues, potentially things like anxiety depression. There's a lot of scientific evidence now, pointing to the value of psilocybin for treating that both in macro doses and microdoses. Obviously, we're on the microdose track today. But can you share how and why, it helps with things like anxiety and depression, and what it's doing to our brains that's really helping us see those results.

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April Pride: Yeah, I I love. I really appreciate how, wherever I learned this. But the anxiety comes from

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April Pride: future tripping, thinking about the future and not really being able to see what's going to happen, and and having fear around that, and depression is looking backwards and not being able to change things, both of those emotions I am familiar with, for sure. And so what's happening in our brain is, we have our motherboard. It's called the default mode network, and it's where we keep all the stories

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April Pride: that we tell ourselves that we've been told about ourselves or about people like us, and that

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April Pride: storytelling is super powerful.

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April Pride: It.

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April Pride: It informs our decisions even when we're not using that information with any data to back it up right? And we may be unaware. It's it's it's subperceptual. It's not sub-perceptual, but it's subconscious, you know. And so what happens when we take

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April Pride: psilocybin psilocybin quiets that part of our brain at any dose and allows us to see things and to tell ourselves to see things differently and to tell ourselves different stories.

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April Pride: Psilocybin is also a serotonin agonist.

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April Pride: So it increases our serotonin levels right? And people take Ssris women like my age. We're losing the amount of serotonin that is released because we have a decrease in estrogen. So at a certain age or a certain time of the month, right? When you microdose, you increase your serotonin levels. So that's helpful. But that's

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April Pride: so. That's part of what's happening. It also increases psilocybin, and any psychedelic increases. Oh, we have a friend, we have a furry friend.

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April Pride: He's like, where are the magic mushrooms, mom?

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April Pride: Oh, so when we takes, when we take psilocybin, think of your brain like this

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April Pride: for our entire lives, we have been making decisions. And when we make those decisions, we create these grooves, these neural pathways in our brain.

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April Pride: And when we take a psychedelic, it's like new snow falling into those grooves. And so when we have a starting point and we are, I'm going to use a word that I think we all know when you're triggered, whether you know, good or bad, but you have a way that you

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April Pride: that you execute the next move, and it's based on conditioning you just do what you go where the groove is. So when you fill in those grooves, you can start to make different decisions, and that includes how you talk to yourself, how you see

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April Pride: situations, and that's how you can start to shift your emotions around anxiety and depression. Yeah.

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Emma O'Brien: Yeah, it's really powerful. I've found it so useful, I would say psilocybin and and plant medicines that I have used collectively. I've been using them for the past 2 years. They've made me a better human is how I would describe it. I think it's given me that level of self awareness to be able to.

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Emma O'Brien: I can catch myself before

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Emma O'Brien: I say something. I shouldn't if I'm triggered because we I think you can do lots and lots of inner work, and you can reduce the triggers, but they never really, you know, there's always something that's that's a little bit potentially can can push a button.

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Emma O'Brien: and I think it's being able to extend that time between stimuli and response. So you can make a choice in that moment. And that's 1 thing I found it's really done for me is

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Emma O'Brien: it's made me a better person. It's made me more accepting. It's it's so so powerful

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Emma O'Brien: I've seen for other people. It's been a clear mood. Booster. I think of more more practical people that I know that aren't quite so into the spiritual side of it. Who.

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April Pride: 2.

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Emma O'Brien: We'll just say I just feel better.

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April Pride: Yeah.

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Emma O'Brien: And I've seen people in my life who've been microdosing. I've seen them evolve and really step up for themselves. So it's super super powerful.

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April Pride: Yeah, I love that. You mentioned

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April Pride: the pause. It brings a pause into your day and into your interactions with people.

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April Pride: It's and it's it's everything right because we just react. And when you can take just 3 seconds to think about how you're gonna react and you do it differently. People treat you differently. Right?

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April Pride: Your outlook on how the world perceives you and is being kind to you or not, also changes. Yeah, right?

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Emma O'Brien: Yeah, I've noticed it. I think that the best example I can give you is with my husband. Invariably. There are, you know, not necessarily arguments, but discussions that happen.

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Emma O'Brien: and I think sometimes, especially if it's a bit triggering. It can be really easy to throw in some sort of remark about something, and I've just found myself going

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Emma O'Brien: shut up. I know you want to say it. But is it going to in the long run move things forwards. It's not, it's just going to. It's going to increase the time of the argument, and it's going to make the hurt even worse. So I think it's it's that quieting down. And it's incredibly powerful. I have to say, though, we're talking about using it for for kind of alleviating anxiety and depression.

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Emma O'Brien: I had the most challenging period of self growth. When I did, I microdosed. I had a period of microdosing for about

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Emma O'Brien: think about 8 weeks last year.

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Emma O'Brien: It was brutal. So much stuff came up for me.

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Emma O'Brien: I'm thinking I'm supposed to be feeling better. And actually afterwards it was a huge self-development jump. But

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Emma O'Brien: loads of. You know, I had situations with my photography work where I had to get a lawyer involved because somebody was really trying to take advantage, and

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Emma O'Brien: it pushed me into really stepping up for myself and.

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April Pride: Interesting. So there were external situations that happened that happened to coincide when you were Microdosing. And you think that if you hadn't been Microdosing. During that time you would have acted differently. You would have responded differently, and the outcome, perhaps

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April Pride: it ended up being what was the best case scenario. I guess.

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Emma O'Brien: Yeah, yeah, I agree.

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Emma O'Brien: But I could pull a bit of woo woo in to say, did the?

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Emma O'Brien: It's attractive.

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Emma O'Brien: The situation that's probably a different podcast conversation. But it's oh, no.

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April Pride: We could go there. Yeah.

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Emma O'Brien: Fine. I don't. I don't think it was coincidental. I found with where we're gonna go off

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Emma O'Brien: tangent. Here I found with plant medicine

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Emma O'Brien: with doing, prepping for macro doses, and also the microdoses.

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Emma O'Brien: The medicine almost starts to work before you take it, because it starts to bring. I think it brings situations into your awareness where there's an opportunity for growth.

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April Pride: Yeah.

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Emma O'Brien: I'm interested to hear your thoughts on that.

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April Pride: Oh, I think you just. I okay.

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April Pride: I think that I live in the United States, and you can look at the numbers. We are a society obsessed with drugs. Right? We just are. And it's not. We're not well

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April Pride: at all, and we put a lot of power in them. And I think that that starts to happen when you make the choice to Microdose, and we can

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April Pride: take our own agency and turn it over to the medicine.

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Emma O'Brien: Yep.

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April Pride: When I don't know. I mean.

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April Pride: I believe in divine timing, but I don't think that has anything to do with the medicine, although the medicine perhaps

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April Pride: comes. Okay. So this is the I love hearing this from people.

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April Pride: They've gone to the jungles of Peru, and they've tried ayahuasca. They've had large mushroom trips.

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April Pride: but they were like, I just wasn't called to the mushrooms for Microdosing, and then I was. And that's the divine timing. It's when you choose right? So yes, there is something there. But I think you were well prepped to make that choice and know it was the right time. And intuitively you are already. Yeah.

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April Pride: feeling that.

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April Pride: So yeah, there's something there.

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Emma O'Brien: Oh, I agree with you entirely, and I think, coming back to the more scientific point of it with using the medicine to fill in new information into old, worn, neural pathways.

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Emma O'Brien: It's I found, the confidence from somewhere to do something differently, even though it was absolutely terrifying.

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April Pride: Do you want to talk more about that.

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Emma O'Brien: So, yeah. So I did a. I did a photography job for for somebody, and we had agreed terms. And it was for a quite a big, a big agency, and I'm just a I'm a 1 person person.

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Emma O'Brien: and the copyright law in South Africa is is not the same as in the States, so there is something in copyright law here that whoever pays for the work owns it.

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Emma O'Brien: In theory it's a very broad.

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Emma O'Brien: However, we had discussed contractual things, but what they tried to do when I said to them, Here's what you can have, but you're going to be paying extra for the other things that you want. They tried to pull this copyright law stunt on me.

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Emma O'Brien: and something that's very triggering for me is things like legal letters. I don't like stuff like that. I find it. It's very, very frightening for me. So I'm like, Oh, my God! So there was a part of me that thought. I, can just make this go away by giving them exactly what they want.

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April Pride: They want. Yeah, right?

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Emma O'Brien: And then I thought, you know what, I'm actually not going to be bullied into this. I know what we agreed, because I've been down this road before I've got terms in place here. So actually, I'm not going to be bulldozed into this

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Emma O'Brien: and long story short, I amazingly managed to find an intellectual property lawyer who took the consultation on, I think they call it. They took it on risk. I didn't pay anything for it. This Guy wrote me a great big, long email to copy and paste to them, and I sent it and kind of ducked for cover.

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Emma O'Brien: And they came back. And they said.

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Emma O'Brien: Oh, well, we'll pay. We'll we'll, we'll offer to pay you a settlement for the rest of the stuff.

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April Pride: Wow, that's great. I mean, so.

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April Pride: okay, this is where the intuition comes in. You like found the right lawyer, you know, like you are watching the signs and knowing to ask the right people. And like, that's where the Microdosing helps. It's really tapping into your intuition and trusting it. Right? Yeah, it's 1 thing to be like, I think this is the right thing. And another thing to be like this is the right thing. I'm going to do something about it. So yeah, that's great.

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Emma O'Brien: Yeah, it just gave me that little bit. And I think that's.

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Emma O'Brien: I think, in microdosing Macro dosing what's happened for me, and I'd be interested to see, to hear your perspective on it is, it's given me a greater acceptance of myself as I am, and I think when we are more accepting of ourselves. We're more confident because you're not questioning things. You're not waiting for external validation from people.

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Emma O'Brien: and I think that confidence allows you to show up

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Emma O'Brien: differently. And of course, when you show up differently, you get different, different, new, better outcomes. So I'd love to hear I'd love to hear what transformation you've experienced from microdosing.

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April Pride: No, I feel like I'm always in process. The transformation I'm still in my cocoon.

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April Pride: The pause that you mentioned is big for me, you know, not being reactive, I have an Adhd diagnosis. So, taking time

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April Pride: throughout the day and really thinking about what I'm going to be doing and and coming at my tasks with intention and ease.

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April Pride: having an ease about my day, and I will tell you it's interesting. I actually take my Microdose in the afternoon when somebody might have a cup of coffee to kind of get through those last emails and go into dinner. And all of that. That's when I take my microdose. And

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April Pride: so I'm very aware of what my attitude is that day already. Right?

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April Pride: And I notice a huge shift in my optimism.

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April Pride: And that is just a necessary thing in my life. I need it right like I don't always need it every day. But the fact that I have something that is from nature that I can call on. And it's so immediate. It's like you get in the car with the kids. And you're like, Oh.

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April Pride: everything's gonna be okay? Right? Just yeah. So cause they need to feel that your energy is one of safety. And you know, bright outlook and that you are okay. You know, I was having a conversation with a friend last night, and she's

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April Pride: a part of this mom's Group post divorce. And it's like your kids want you to know that you are okay, that you are happy and that they are safe with you. It's pretty simple, right? And I think that Microdosing can immediately turn, turn all

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April Pride: you know thoughts of fear around, and you are.

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April Pride: You are not just telling yourself those things you are feeling that, and the only other

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April Pride: legal drug. Oh, actually, it's not legal. So I shouldn't say that.

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April Pride: but not everywhere. But cannabis does that for me, too. But what happens with cannabis is, it can go into

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April Pride: I can start to really think grandly and like just everything is more than okay. Everything is insanely great, you know, and that is maybe a little bit out of reality of you know how I need to take care of stuff. And so I appreciate microdosing because there's a, it's definitely

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April Pride: it does. It roots me in what is real. Yeah? So.

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Emma O'Brien: Yeah. And I think this is great, because we've we've talked about. And this has been something that's been on my mind recently is

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Emma O'Brien: and and I was coaching a client yesterday, and we were talking about. This is is, we can often end up

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Emma O'Brien: moving away from painful states and being focused on it. You know I'm trying to get away from this state. That's less than favorable, anxious, depressed. And what I'm hearing you say as well is. Yes, absolutely we can do that. But we can also say, actually, I'd like to feel better.

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Emma O'Brien: I'd like to feel more optimistic. I'd like to feel

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Emma O'Brien: more calm. And and it sounds like you're very much in your own body and in your energy, which, of course, when we're in that space.

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Emma O'Brien: it it.

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Emma O'Brien: It goes out. The kids pick it up. You have a nicer time with the kids because you're feeling better. So they like you said they feel safe, and we're always more engaged.

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Emma O'Brien: and we're communicating better when we're kind of rooted into our bodies. So I'm hearing for for people who are listening and are thinking, well, I'm not anxious or depressed. Why would I Microdose? Well, actually, it can give you an even better experience of

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Emma O'Brien: of being is what I'm hearing you say with that.

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April Pride: Yeah. And we call that optimization. You know, I, Microdosing, can induce more increased creativity

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April Pride: connection with ourself and others. And I like to say, this can do attitude right? Like I can do it like you did. Yeah.

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Emma O'Brien: Yeah, yeah, it's a shame we can't

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Emma O'Brien: put psilocybin in the water supply for everybody.

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April Pride: But you know we've.

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Emma O'Brien: Never mind, love to see that I would love to be around for that day.

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Emma O'Brien: Never mind, Fluoride. Let's have some psilocybin April like, I said, for people listening, and we talked about microdosing. You've touched on dosages.

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Emma O'Brien: But there are quite a few protocols out there. So I know, because I'm

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Emma O'Brien: been initiated into the patriarchal plant medicine things. I use the Fadiman protocol, which is one day on 2 days off, if I'm correct. But I'm sure there are quite a few other protocols. I don't know if you have any specific ones you recommend, so I'd love to. I'd love to hear how best to microdose for good results

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Emma O'Brien: that people.

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April Pride: Yeah.

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Emma O'Brien: Can can learn from you.

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April Pride: Yeah, I think there are between 6 and 8 different protocols, and I partnered with a licensed therapist. I'm not a medical professional. I just, I am a harm reduction expert. Right? I help people figure out

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April Pride: how to use. You know, the increasing number of legal ways to quote get high in a way that's safe and with intention. Right? That's not how I came to this. I did not. 10 years ago. I was not the person that was intentionally using a thing, you know, but I now

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April Pride: I now appreciate the power of all of these substances, too.

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April Pride: impact our lives in good and bad ways. So

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April Pride: the harm reduction is is everything. I learned that working in Canada leading up to adult use legalization there for cannabis. And this this idea of harm. Reduction is. Listen! People are going to do it. It's the opposite of abstinence. Don't do it.

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April Pride: And this is, hey? You're probably going to do it, because the numbers suggest that most people are, and this is how you can do it, not only safely, but you can get what you're looking for out of it, you know. So

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April Pride: So

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April Pride: I partnered with a licensed therapist who has worked to do intake and integration around psilocybin, and also ketamine, which is legal here in the Us. For therapeutic purposes, and

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April Pride: so that there are 2 different protocols, and one is called the Stamets Stack, and that is, you microdose for 4 days in a row, and again, the dose is

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April Pride: between a point 0 5 and point 3. People will argue with me on that, but honestly, like

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April Pride: 80 per 89% of people will say, Yes, that's the range and you can develop a tolerance. And so

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April Pride: so his is 4 day, 4 days on 3 days off, and you do that for 4 weeks.

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April Pride: The Fadiman protocol which you mentioned is what Kendra has advised with our microsite program, which is a do-it-yourself 12 week microdosing protocol. So

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April Pride: that is, you take your microdose on a Monday you take 2 days off, and on the 3rd day you microdose again, and you keep that schedule up for 4 weeks. You take 2 weeks off entirely.

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April Pride: and then you do 4 weeks again, and then you take the last 2 weeks off. So the reason that we advise 12 weeks is because in indigenous cultures they tell women that they need to interact with the medicine for 3 of their cycles to understand how it's working throughout the month, and to be able to dose

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April Pride: personalized that we want people to personalize their protocol. It's very much the male thinking to be like, these are the rules. Do it this way, and not even think about the fact that you know.

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April Pride: Yeah, there, it's different for women, because our hormones are very much

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April Pride: a part of this dance we are doing with these medicines, all of them.

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April Pride: Including alcohol, right? Which is not a medicine, but is a substance that people want to take him. So

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April Pride: where our estrogen is really impacts our tolerance, and if you do, if you take mushrooms, if you're taking it every single day for 3 months, you will build up a tolerance, and you will need more medicine, and the point of microdosing is to remind you that you again, you are your own agent. You have your own agency, that you, you make the decisions, and

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April Pride: we want you to learn how to do that.

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April Pride: Well, I shouldn't say we, but medicine would like for you to learn how to do that.

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April Pride: and then put that into practice. And that's called integration. That's when you take the things that you're learning throughout those weeks and then moving into your real life, moving into life, moving into life and trying to use all that you've learned

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April Pride: to get what you're looking for. Right? And again we talk about optimization, I,

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April Pride: not everyone is suffering from depression and looking for an intervention that will work for them with fewer side effects. Right? That is one reason people turn to psilocybin microdosing. Some people want increased, focused at work. They want to be able to connect more with people, especially after the pandemic.

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April Pride: where we were all like on an island. And how do I step back into this? I mean, listen! I know it's a few years later, but this is where people still are. And then the biggest reason people are coming to microdosing is because they feel stuck

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April Pride: so like, I know I need to make a decision, but I don't know how to do it. I know I need to make a decision, but I'm not quite sure what that decision is. Microdosing can help you start to see things differently, so you can start to realize like, Oh, that's no longer working for me. Oh, that person, maybe, is not on my side, or that person is on my side, and I'm not leaning into that enough, you know, like whatever it might be. But you need take 3 months journal right like.

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April Pride: Take note of what is coming up for you, and just don't judge it. Be really curious. There's no, you're not doing anything right or wrong. When people tell me that they're not microdosing correctly.

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April Pride: the rules are, if you if you can feel, if if you don't feel it, that's correct.

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April Pride: If you take a day off because you need a rest day. A lot of people.

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April Pride: a lot of people have their most insightful moments, their epiphanies on the days that they're not taking the medicine

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April Pride: and take take those. Macro rests, too. Right? Like you, perhaps don't need it all year long.

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April Pride: right? And just take the time to integrate while you're doing it. Yeah.

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Emma O'Brien: Yeah, I think it's I think that's what I found so valuable is spending the time to to journal and to just.

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Emma O'Brien: I mean, I'm quite as you've probably noticed. I'm quite self introspective, and I think my psychedelic journey has been this deep dive into getting to know myself more. And what I liked about your podcast is

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Emma O'Brien: when you were talking about the different strains of mushrooms and the different potencies, and you shared an encounter where you'd hunkered down with some pals to go on a journey, and the mushrooms didn't work.

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April Pride: No.

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Emma O'Brien: So disappointing. But I think it's it's okay for for it to be

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Emma O'Brien: fun and for you to be seeking kind of lightness in life. I think it was just interesting with our interactions. I've noticed I've kind of been taking it very seriously, and I think I can probably up a little bit with it.

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Emma O'Brien: but it's it's making note of what comes up. I think it's noticing when you behave differently, when something that would ordinarily triggers you doesn't, and it's often looking back on it, you might not notice immediately, and then you'll realize, oh.

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Emma O'Brien: normally, when that coworker came in and said that I'd be seething with rage. And

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Emma O'Brien: well, I'm not, and that's progress, and I think it's not wanting to put it into terms of achievement. But I think you'll see how you evolve as a human when you're making. You're kind of making notes and

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Emma O'Brien: just being like you've said being with what comes up and allowing it to come up right

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Emma O'Brien: super, super powerful.

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April Pride: Yeah, allowing it again without judgment. Yeah, just curiosity. Why am I like this?

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April Pride: You can ask yourself that right? You're not judging yourself. You're just like, Oh, why, why am I doing this?

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Emma O'Brien: Why do I do this? Yes, but with without judgment, folks. Okay, without judgment. My last question, April for you is, who is microdosing? Not

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Emma O'Brien: suitable for, or who is it not? For who shouldn't do it?

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April Pride: Whether it's microdosing, whether it's cannabis, whether it's any psychedelic. If you or anyone in your family have a history of psychosis, bipolar schizophrenia.

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April Pride: you can exacerbate. If it's an underlying condition.

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April Pride: you just can't go near it. You can't, and you need to talk to a medical doctor, no matter what. If you're on an Ssri, it will suppress the efficacy of mushrooms, because again, psilocybin is a serotonin agonist, so it'll just dull the effects.

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April Pride: But you shouldn't just like, stop taking your Ssri because you decide to microdose, or you're going to have a macrose journey. You really need to work with a medical expert on that titration and understanding. So, yeah.

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April Pride: and a real thing is, there's something called serotonin syndrome, which is when you can overload your system with serotonin. So if you're taking your Ssri, and then you're taking mushrooms, you know. You just have to be aware this is chemistry. This is brain chemistry. Get it right, please get it right? Yeah. And take it, I guess I should say, take it seriously. Yeah.

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April Pride: yeah.

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Emma O'Brien: And I think it's getting the. It's getting the right advice. It's getting like you said. Speak to a doctor, I think, depending on where you are. There are now like you've been working with a licensed therapist with a licensed clinician with what you've been putting together, which is what's on your website, which I'm going to ask you to share just now. So I think it's seek out.

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Emma O'Brien: Seek out the experts who can advise you if you aren't, if you aren't sure. Because, like I said, it's it's

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Emma O'Brien: they are drugs of a form. They do affect your brain chemistry, and we do have to. Not. It's not like taking a paracetamol, you know.

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April Pride: Yeah, right, yeah.

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Emma O'Brien: April.

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April Pride: Sure. Yes.

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Emma O'Brien: Can you share with us where folks listening, who, I'm sure, will have been very intrigued by this conversation of how they can find out more about your podcast your work

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Emma O'Brien: and the goodies that are on your website because you have some downloads and some psychedelic cards which sound quite fun, just share a little bit about that with us.

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April Pride: Yeah. So set set is the name of my company, and it's named after set and setting, which is getting your mindset straight, making sure, your physical surrounding. And when we microdose our setting is our daily life. What is our input? Are we watching too much TV? Are we not getting the sleep that we need. What's our diet like like you need to, you know, maybe make some changes while you're microdosing, because it will just

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April Pride: make the whole experience more quote successful. That's not a word I'm supposed to use, but you get it so.

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April Pride: so what what I noticed was.

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April Pride: you know, integration is this very serious word, and it's very. It can be very expensive to work with one on one with a coach for microdosing, for after you have a macro dose journey. So some friends and I got together and created these cards, and they don't. There's not the word psychedelic or psilocybin on them. You can play them with your children. You really can, and they're great, and they're intended to

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April Pride: help you connect with your inner child. I'm the firstborn girl of 4, and I maybe need some help with that so selfishly. I'm really I love these cards. They're so fun. And the other thing I noticed that was missing was evidence-based clinician backed information. We can all go online and become an expert at anything. We can read a reddit thread and be like, okay, I got this.

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Emma O'Brien: And.

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April Pride: It is again brain chemistry. And when you're going into that experience, knowing that you got the information that you needed from a reliable, informed

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April Pride: clinician, just like makes you feel more confident which is going to contribute to. You know the best outcome that you could imagine, because your experience will be more peaceful.

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April Pride: So yeah, we have the ultimate psilocybin guide that you can download. All of these are available in Pdf and audio. So I narrate the guides, you can listen to them, and that's available as part of the Pdf. Download. The comprehensive Ketamine guide the 12 week microdosing protocol, the Diy that I mentioned that has reflection questions, and all the integration help that you would need

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April Pride: included in that.

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April Pride: And then our universal integration program, which is it's medicine agnostic, it's dose agnostic. So once you own it, it's just. It's your Integration

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April Pride: Guide that you can always turn to with reflection questions and guided meditations and guided practices. And Kendra

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April Pride: studied the neurobiology of change. And that's what it's rooted in. It is explaining to you what is happening now that you've introduced psychedelics into your brain and into existence in your life, right? Like, what have you done? And I will tell you. I had. I was about to start working on this website in the about April 1st of this year.

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April Pride: and it's been a long journey. And there were a lot of emotions around a lot of things and uncertainty and

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April Pride: money being spent. And so around that time I had to re-listen to all the audio that Kendra had recorded, and I just I sent her a message. I was like, this is going to help so many people. I feel so much better just knowing that one. These medicines are on my side and 2, you know, there's just so many simple things that I continue to do

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April Pride: that I don't need to worry about. So thank you. You know to Haram. Thank you for sharing everything you've learned in such a concise way.

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April Pride: so that we can just move forward, you know, and just relax a little bit about our role and everything. Because you that's that's the default mode network ego talking, you know, like, yeah, it's not always about us shockingly. Yeah. So those are the types of products that we have. Yeah, and to find our

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April Pride: the website or sorry all of our podcasts, we have like almost 150 podcasts, I go to our Youtube channel, and it's Youtube at get set set. So the website is GETS. ETSE, t.com get set set, and our Youtube is also get set, set.

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Emma O'Brien: Magic. I am going to put those links in the show notes. So thank you

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Emma O'Brien: and and find them. And like I say, I,

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Emma O'Brien: I enjoyed the very educational aspect of your Podcast, but also the fun aspect of it as well. It was just really interesting here about the different strains of mushroom.

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Emma O'Brien: And I, yeah, I did have a chuckle when you were saying that golden teachers, which is, which is the ones I've been using, are the fisher price of mushrooms.

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April Pride: Yeah. Fisher Price, my 1st mushroom, you know. You just can't go wrong with golden teachers at all. Yeah, yeah.

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Emma O'Brien: So some of the some of the other ones do sound like that would be a very interesting

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Emma O'Brien: right? So.

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April Pride: Yeah. And you know what I was not when I 1st started researching strains. They say a cube is a cube. So when the most common species of psychedelic mushrooms is psilocy cubensis. And so a cube is a cube like it doesn't really matter, except for penis envy, which is 3 to 4 times more potent. That

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April Pride: phrase just isn't true. It doesn't. Yeah, it's not true. People are having different experiences, depending on the strain that they choose. And guess what? Just like with cannabis. All these breeders are now getting after this and coming up with different and different strains. And so there's a lot more choice and just stick with golden teachers is what I would recommend to get started.

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Emma O'Brien: Absolutely

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Emma O'Brien: play it sort of sort of safe. But but I think we're downplaying when we're saying Fisher Price mushrooms you will. Still, it will, still it will still give you a rip roar

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Emma O'Brien: if it chooses to.

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Emma O'Brien: on that note of having a rip. Roara. This has been wonderful April. Thank you for joining me. Thank you for a wonderful conversation. I've really enjoyed it, and I'm sure everybody listening has as well.

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April Pride: It's a great.

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Emma O'Brien: Information. And yeah, go and check out April's website and the Pdfs and the psychedelic cards.

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April Pride: Yes, thank you so much.

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Emma O'Brien: Thank you for joining us today, folks. I will see you same time next week, bye, for now.