Dealing with Backslides/Ego Backlash

[King Merk]

I recently did a 6 day fast followed up by an LSD trip. It was a great week which provided me much “consciousness” growth. During the fast I even had my first mystical experience while being completely sober.

However, the week following I had a severe ego backslash. I slid back into many “lower self” behaviors and it was extremely taxing on me emotionally. I felt depressed, lost and hopeless. It’s taken me a full week of this helplessness to feel myself and return to my healthy habits.

I’m wondering how the rest of the actualized community deals with/prevents backslides? Do y’all have a ritual or “defense protocol” in place when you feel yourself backsliding?

Note: I also struggle with loving myself and showing compassion during these periods of ego backlash. I’m the type to “whip myself into shape” via discipline and that simply doesn’t work for me during backslides. Any advice on how to deal with these periods in a resourceful manner would be appreciated. 

[Recursoinominado]

Leo has a video on it, you should check it out.

The standard recommendation is: slow and steady wins the race. Ego backlash is almost unavoidable and you should expect it. Do not fight it, just embrace the moment, try do minimize damage (like keeping your habits and usual self-actualization stuff), lots of self-love, equanimity and acceptance is required.

Watch it in a detached way, use tools to keep the energy moving through blocks (like yoga), if you are in a awful mood to meditate or something, try to use self-discipline to do at least some minutes of it. 

[King Merk]

@Recursoinominado Completely forgot Leo did a video on ego backlash. Thank you for pointing that out.

I re-watched it earlier and it seems the biggest thing is simply loving yourself. Showing compassion towards yourself and realizing that ego backlashes/backsliding are a natural part of the development process. They're something to be expected. 

And as you said, try to use self discipline to the best of your abilities to keep at your healthy habits. 

Now I feel more prepared the next time it happens.