During the latest episode of his podcast, the Green Bay Packers quarterback reveals that plant-based psychedelic drug ayahuasca helped him to 'see how to unconditionally love' himself.
- Aug 4, 2022
AceShowbiz - Aaron Rodgers has opened up about his mental health journey. In a new interview, the Green Bay Packers quarterback said that ayahuasca had a profound impact on his life.
The 38-year-old athlete, who was previously engaged to actress Shailene Woodley, credits the plant-based psychedelic drug with helping him to focus more on "self love." Speaking to Aubrey Marcus, the founder of supplement company Onnit, on his podcast, he said, "To me, one of the core tenets of your mental health is that self-love. That's what ayahuasca did for me, was help me see how to unconditionally love myself."
"It's only in that unconditional self love, that then I'm able to truly be able to unconditionally love others. And what better way to work on my mental health than to have an experience like that?" Aaron further explained. "The greatest gift I can give my teammates, in my opinion, is to be able to show up and to be someone who can model unconditional love to them. I mean obviously it's important I play well, and show up and lead and all that stuff. They won't care about what you say until they know how much you care."
And Aaron credited ayahuasca with helping him to win MVP [Most Valuable Player] back-to-back in 2020 and 2021. He said, "I don't think it's a coincidence. I really don't. I don't really believe in coincidences at this point. It's the universe bringing things to happen when they're supposed to happen."
Aaron shared, "There's signs and synchronicities all around us at all times if we're awake enough to see them and to take them in and to listen to our intuition when it's speaking to us or pounding us in the head saying, 'Hey dummy, this is what you're supposed to be doing.' "
"For me, I didn't do that and think, 'Oh, I'm never playing football again'. No, it gave me a deep and meaningful appreciation for life," Aaron elaborated. "My intention the first night going in was, 'I want to feel what pure love feels like.' That was my intention. And I did. I really did. I had a magical experience with the sensation of feeling a hundred different hands on my body imparting a blessing of love and forgiveness for myself and gratitude for this life from what seemed to be my ancestors."
"It set me on my course to be able to go back in to my job and have a different perspective on things," the footballer continued. "To be way more free at work, as a leader, as a teammate, as a friend, as a lover. I really feel like that experience paved the way for me to have the best season of my career (in 2020)."
