Psychedelics

5 Ways to Apply the Psychedelic Concept of Set and Setting to Everyday Life

A positive mindset and a comfortable environment go a long way

Cast your mind back to a time in your life when you were really happy. Feel the warmth of the sun on your face as the muscles in your face contract and you smile big.

Close your eyes and focus on that memory.

Look around.

Where are you? Who is with you? How do you feel?

Positive experiences in life, be that an amazing gig with friends or a quiet walk along the beach, often have two things in common; a beautiful location and a positive state of mind.

In other words, positive experiences are highly dependent on our ‘set’ and ‘setting’.

Set (a shortened form of “mindset”) refers to the mental state a person brings to an experience, like thoughts, desires, feelings, and general mood.

Setting refers to the physical and social environment that the experience takes place in.

Both of these factors are thought to be key to successful and meaningful psychedelic experiences. Indeed the success of psychedelic therapy, individual or group-based trips, regardless of the psychedelic in question, depends on the individual’s mindset before and during the experience and where the experience is taking place.

Set and setting are important for often life-changing profound and intense experiences as induced by psychedelics. But are not every day experiences sometimes life-changing also?

Undoubtedly having a positive mindset and a comfortable environment is correlated with success, however that success is defined. Here are five ways to improve your set or setting.

A positive mindset (set)

‘’Maybe you start daydreaming about an office crush, you see a vision of the life you could have with that person. Great unlimited sex, a beautiful family, a big house, two dogs. Everything you ever wanted. Congratulations you have just practised a form of visualisation.’’

Positive people have positive experiences, we hear this all the time. There are self-help books dedicated to the topic. The Secret by Rhonda Byrne has sold over 20 million copies worldwide.

Science agrees too — having a positive mindset really does help. Positive emotions compound over time to increase levels of personal resource. This could mean an increase in purpose, mindfulness or decrease the symptoms of an illness.

So how do you keep a positive mindset, when consumed by the everyday stresses of work, family, relationships, politics, social media and a global pandemic?

Here are three ways to help promote a positive mindset.

1. Keep a thought journal

Getting into the routine of briefly jotting down your thoughts every morning can be really useful in keeping track of your state of mind.

All it takes is a notepad, a pen, and much like any regular practise, the discipline to complete the task every day no matter what.

Thought journals are so useful because they are a great source of data. Our memory is often subjective at best, particularly when it comes to recalling past feelings. Writing down your exact state of mind everyday enables you to then read back and reflect, so you can more reliably pick out patterns.

What you write about and the level of detail is entirely up to you. I fill my journal after my morning meditation because I have scanned my body and mind. I am interested in levels of energy, positivity and creativity so focus on those three feelings.

Top Tip — Once a week read back the last 7 entries in your journal to reflect on your week.

2. Practice visualisation

Have you ever found yourself lost in thought?

Maybe you start daydreaming about an office crush, you see a vision of the life you could have with that person in your fantasy world. Great unlimited sex, a beautiful family, a big house, two dogs. Everything you ever wanted.

Maybe you catch yourself anticipating the feeling of scoring the winning goal or hitting that home-run. The crowd chanting your name.

Congratulations you have just practised a form of visualisation.

Now you are not going to turn into a stud-muffin sports superstar, the key is to be realistic. Anyone can practise visualisation because it’s no more than a better-directed daydream.

Before a tough meeting, see yourself in your thoughts speaking with confidence and clarity. How would you want to look and feel in that situation? A positive pre-event visualisation really can help.

Before you start, first identify what it is you want to use visualisation for. A job interview or a relationship goal for example. Write this down and describe what it would look like in detail. Success may be a process — such as staying composed in an important meeting, or an end result — falling in love with the person of your dreams.

Next, close your eyes and picture what that moment would feel like, what would I do? how would I look and sound? Visualisation can be used during meditation, or simply in a quiet minute before a high-pressure situation.

Top tip — Experiment with different life goals, short, medium and long-term and see which works best for you.

3. Avoid social media

Why is it that silicon valley parents are raising their children free of social media?

Well, that’s because social media can be really unhealthy. It negatively affects our mental health, sleep and attention span. Concerns are growing around it being used to incite violence, or influence elections through misinformation.

Algorithms ensure you are more likely to see opinion which fits your point of view. There are only extremes on social media and it strengthens feelings of hopelessness entrenching an us and them mentality.

Here’s the thing, many jobs require daily exposure to social media. Sometimes in your social life, you simply have to use it. If you can’t avoid it entirely download a web extension such as StayFocusd which allows you to block access. Be as strict as possible, setting no more than 2 x 1-hour windows in which you can access it a day.

Top Tip — Never check social-media first thing in the morning. Ban the use of mobile phones in the bedroom and invest in a real alarm clock.

A comfortable environment (setting)

Where you are matters and directly impacts your state of mind. Your location is able to guide or influence the course of the experience on both conscious and subconscious levels.

Walking downtown through a polluted city with thousands of people and lots of noise is likely to put you in a shitty mood. You zone out to get to work and put up with the resulting mild headache.

Conversely, a wonderful walk along the coast at sunset, a beautiful view of the mountains, or even just a comfortable living room at home can really impact how you feel.

There are steps you can take to improve your setting even if you can’t control exactly where that is.

Here are two ways to improve your environment to help improve your mindset

1. Bring in some plants

Plants not only improve your environment visually, but they also have a positive impact on air quality and are good for your mental health.

Plants bring a sense of peace, tranquillity and cleanliness to a room. Studies show that they can lower anxiety even lowering your blood pressure. Having indoor plants in an office, for example, increases happiness and productivity.

Likely due to the fact that you have to take care of them, watering, repotting and feeding when necessary, plants can increase feelings of empathy. Gardening in any form is the cheapest form of therapy, even thought to lower the risk of dementia.

Indoor plants bring you closer to the natural world at a time where we are getting increasingly cut off from it. If you cant spend as much time as you would like in nature, bring nature to you.

Top-tip — Indoor plants can be expensive so if possible ask for cuttings of a plant from friends, you will be surprised how quickly they grow.

2. Declutter

Having a clean and clear space is important for a clean and clear headspace. We are more productive when our immediate environment is comfortable. The act of decluttering itself has been shown to have therapeutic impacts.

There are scientific links between clutter and depression. One study in 2011 found that clutter makes it difficult to focus on a task because the visual cortex is overwhelmed by task-irrelevant objects.

We are all hoarders to some extent, particularly when it comes to clothes and shoes. But do we really need all this stuff? If you are considering keeping an item and don’t immediately think you definitely need it, recycle, donate and get rid.

This doesn’t mean you need to turn into a minimalist and wear the same t-shirt everyday. It’s about removing the burden of unnecessary possessions which is impacting the calmness of your setting.

Top-tip — Clean your workstation. Turn your mouse over, if there is any grime present you need to clean your desk, mouse, keyboard and screen.

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