Here’s the updated version with the same grounded, practical tone:
About The Diet
At Two Birds Church, we see food as medicine—and the dieta as an extension of that understanding. How we nourish ourselves reflects how we’re showing up for our own growth. The dieta isn’t a set of rigid rules to follow perfectly; it’s a practical preparation that helps align your body and mind for the work ahead. It’s about intention, awareness, and care—for yourself, for the process, and for the people you’ll be sharing space with.
What the Dieta Actually Is
The dieta serves both a physical and mental purpose. By gradually reducing certain foods, stimulants, and substances, you create a cleaner baseline that helps your body work with Ayahuasca rather than against it. This preparation means less physical discomfort during ceremony and more capacity for the emotional and psychological work that unfolds.
But it’s not only about what you reduce—it’s also about what you bring more attention to: how you’re eating, what you’re consuming mentally, and the awareness you’re cultivating around your own patterns and habits.
The Point: Intention, Awareness, and Care
Intention
The dieta is a way of demonstrating your commitment—to yourself—that you’re taking this seriously. It’s not about earning something or proving your worthiness. It’s about orienting your attention toward what’s ahead. When you make choices about what to eat (or not eat), you’re practicing the same kind of intentionality that serves you in ceremony: noticing impulses, making conscious decisions, staying present.
Awareness
Following the dieta builds self-awareness. You start to notice how certain foods affect your energy, mood, and clarity. You notice what you reach for when you’re stressed or bored. You notice resistance. None of this is about judgment—it’s information. The same awareness you cultivate around food carries into ceremony, where noticing without reacting is a core skill.
Care
The dieta is an act of care—for your own body, for the process you’re entering, and for the community you’ll be sitting with. When everyone prepares thoughtfully, it supports the whole group. This isn’t about policing each other; it’s about recognizing that we’re sharing a space and an experience, and preparation matters.
Why It Matters Physically
Ayahuasca contains MAOIs, which interact with certain foods and substances. Reducing things like aged cheeses, fermented foods, excessive salt, alcohol, and stimulants helps minimize the risk of uncomfortable reactions. It also means your body has less to process during ceremony, so more of your energy can go toward the inner work rather than physical discomfort.
This isn’t about achieving some state of purity. It’s practical: a lighter, cleaner system tends to have an easier time in ceremony.
A Realistic Approach: Start Where You Are
We’re not asking for perfection. If your current diet is heavy on processed foods, caffeine, and alcohol, jumping straight into a restrictive cleanse will probably create more stress than benefit. The goal is gradual, sustainable shifts—not a crash diet that leaves you depleted and resentful before you even arrive.
Every step toward more mindful eating counts. If you typically eat fast food five days a week and you cut that to two, that’s meaningful. If you usually have three cups of coffee and you taper to one, that matters. Meet yourself where you are and move in the right direction.
Beyond Food: What Else You’re Consuming
The dieta extends beyond your plate. What you take in through screens, social media, news, and entertainment affects your mental state just as much as what you eat affects your body. The days leading up to ceremony are a good time to reduce the noise—less scrolling, less outrage consumption, less distraction. Make space for quiet. Journal. Sit with your thoughts instead of constantly filling the silence.
This mental clearing is just as important as the physical preparation. You’re creating conditions for reflection, not adding more input to process.
Respect for the Process
Following the dieta is a way of showing respect—for yourself, for Ayahuasca, for the facilitators, and for the others who will be sitting with you. It’s an acknowledgment that this work matters and that you’re willing to prepare for it. That attitude of respect and care carries into ceremony and supports the experience for everyone.
This doesn’t mean you have to be perfect. It means you’re taking it seriously and doing your genuine best.
Beyond Ceremony: An Ongoing Practice
The dieta prepares you for ceremony, but the awareness it builds doesn’t have to end there. Paying attention to how food affects you, making conscious choices about what you consume, noticing your impulses and habits—these are practices that serve you long after the retreat ends.
You don’t have to maintain a strict dieta forever. But the mindfulness you develop during preparation can become a lasting foundation for how you relate to food, your body, and your own patterns.
Approach This with Self-Compassion
The dieta is a commitment, but it shouldn’t feel like punishment. If you slip up, notice it and move on—don’t spiral into guilt or give up entirely. The point isn’t to prove something; it’s to prepare yourself as best you can for meaningful work.
Be patient with yourself. Be honest about where you’re starting from. And remember that the dieta is in service of something larger: your own growth and healing.
Reflection Questions
Take a few minutes to sit with these:
- What patterns do I notice around food, and what might those patterns reflect about other areas of my life?
- What am I consuming mentally (media, content, conversations) that might be worth reducing before ceremony?
- Where do I tend to be hard on myself, and how can I approach this preparation with more self-compassion?
Write down what comes up. These reflections are part of the preparation—the inner work starts now, not when you arrive.