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7 Reasons to Create a Custom Retreat Journal

7 Reasons to Create a Custom Retreat Journal

By Edan Armas

“Now what?” These are the two most important words following a psychedelic retreat. After a few days or weeks communing with the far reaches of the cosmos and the inner self, participants are left with the question of how to ground their experience in their daily lives.

As a retreat or clinic owner, you know that the bulk of psychedelic healing happens after the experience. But when the participants leave the ceremony space, your ability to scaffold that integration decreases. You wish you could do more.

This is where a journal comes into play. A psychedelic integration journal is a portable, living ceremony. In its pages, even the most wayward traveler can find their north star.

a black Wakeful Integration Journal with capsules around it on an orange background

At Wakeful Travel, we’ve heard from hundreds of retreat participants, clinic patients, and individual journeyers that a journal is essential to psychedelic transformation.

There are hundreds of printable journal templates on Etsy. You can purchase a bestseller bullet journal with bible verses scattered throughout or a prayer journal with fun stickers and prompts written in looping cursive.

But your clients want a journal specific to the nature of psychedelic healing. They want something that, like your retreat or session, will help them structure the chaos of their expanded inner world. Something that will hold them accountable to their highest Self.

Your zone of genius is delivering safe, transformational psychedelic experiences. We want to support that experience with co-branded, white labeled, or custom journals.

In this article, we’ll go over 7 reasons why your retreat center or psychedelic clinic would benefit from creating an integration journal with Wakeful Travel.

Why use a Psychedelic Integration Journal?

So far, we’ve framed the necessity of a journal around integration. But the truth is, a journal is a perfect companion for every stage of psychedelic exploration.

Wakeful Travel journals guide the seeker through preparation, the journey itself, and integration:

  • Preparation: There are several preparation prompts to orient the seeker. In addition, there is space to write down the logistics of journeying—who, what, where, and how.
  • The journey itself: There are lengthy pages to (attempt to) capture the ineffable highs and lows of peak experiences. If words do fail, there are color therapy pages for visual expression.
  • Integration: In addition to integration prompts, Wakeful Travel journals honor the nonlinear process of psychedelic transformation with a place for the insights that arrive months or years later.

It’s this kind of comprehensive structure that ensures your clients are receiving the most holistic support possible before, during, and after their time with you.

a woman laying on a table and chair holding a retreat journal over her face

Community Activation and a Gift to Cherish

For your retreat center, a journal can function as a community activation tool. You can ask clients to take a photo of their biggest insight or a color therapy page and share it with their peer support system or retreat group. This encourages them to participate and engage with one another, simultaneously spreading community and brand awareness.

Lastly, journals are not just functional tools—they are also gifts to your clients. They are a way to make the once-in-a-lifetime experience of your retreat tangible and unforgettable. Through a journal, you ensure a sacred place in bookshelves across the world.

What do Wakeful Travel Journals Look Like?

Wakeful Travel has created two journals for psychedelic transformation: a macrodosing journal and a microdosing journal.

The macrodosing journal, called the Wakeful Integration Journal, is Wakeful Travel’s premier journal, with everything you could possibly need for up to 4 macrodose experiences. It includes:

  • 5 hand-drawn color therapy pages to enhance positivity and inspired by the sacred plants themselves
  • A full preparation section including a travel packing list, an intention-setting section, and a grounding section
  • Draw-your-experience pages for when the journey escapes language
  • A comprehensive integration section with prompts, evocative quotes, and reflection questions

a colour therapy page within the wakeful integration journal displayed on a backdrop of moths and butterflies

The microdosing journal, called the Wakeful 6-Week Intention Journal, is a thorough microdosing companion. It includes:

  • 6-week structure for microdosing
  • 4 hand-drawn color therapy pages
  • Preparation pages
  • Intention setting pages
  • Tracking pages
  • Insights & traditional journaling pages
  • Reflection questions
  • Integration section

How Does my Retreat or Center Benefit From Creating a Psychedelic Integration Journal with Wakeful Travel?

1. You Don’t Have to Reinvent the Wheel

Instead of stressing out about the design, manufacturing, and distribution headaches of creating a personalized journal, you can just take what we have and mold it to your liking. Both of our microdosing and macrodosing journals can be adjusted to however you see fit—your unique methodology of preparation and integration can live and breathe comfortably within their pages.

2. Make the Journal Unique to Your Brand

We want the participants in your retreats to take home something that reminds them of you and the opportunity you provided them. Every journal package—co-branded, white label, and custom—includes an opportunity for you to imbed the colors, prompts, and artwork that embodies your unique brand. In the case of the Wakeful Integration Journal, some popular modifications are adding in two to four pages with “preparation prompts,” a spread on “navigating challenging experiences,” or a few pages dedicated to integration after the experience is over.

3. Save time. Like, a Lot of It

After creating the content for a personalized journal and then designing it, the most time-consuming task is finding a manufacturer and streamlining distribution. Wakeful Travel spent months researching, doing price comparison, and assuring high-quality work so you don’t have to.

We have 4 trusted manufacturers that follow labor laws, treat their workers ethically, and follow environmental standards. After you’ve decided on the design, it’s hands off for you all the way until checkout. We communicate the add-ons, ensure the layout, files, and artwork are in order, line up the shipping process with insurance, organize a QA person, and communicate everything else to the manufacturer. We deal with the brokers and the shippers. You’re left with beautiful journals showing up at your business door.

4. Avoid Global Supply Chain Issues

“Global supply chain issues” is synonymous with “headache,” “mental health doozie,” and “why did I decide to start a business?” We’ve been through the process numerous times over with 4 custom journals. You can say no to dealing with paper shortages, glue shortage, and shipping delays. We’ve got the callouses to navigate this business nightmare—let us take care of it for you.

5. Save Money

A 180-paged, personalized journal takes a team. If you were to start one from scratch, you’d have to pay for a head of curriculum, a writer, an editor, a project manager, a designer, and an artist (or two). We’ve already had a host of wonderful people create the journals, so by working with us, you get access to their content, hand-drawn artwork, and beautifully designed pages without having to pay for their time.

6. Community and Content Building Experience

Wakeful Travel’s founder, Jenalle, has over 6 years in content marketing within the wellness retreat and psychedelic space. Jenalle is aware of what confusion or blockages may be present during prep and integration periods. And she understands that community and sharing your psychedelic story can be incredibly healing as a way to process a transformative experience. With well-placed CTAs and expressive messaging throughout the journal, Jenalle is a master at making an inanimate object like a wellness journal come alive with the spirit of your brand.

7. Heart-Centered Business Partners

Not only has Jenalle worked in the psychedelic and retreat space for several years, she’s also been doing the deep personal work herself. The openness of her heart and the honesty of her vision reverberates across the entire Wakeful Travel brand. Being so deeply intertwined within the space, she understands your needs and shares your desire to create a more beautiful world through psychedelic transformation. Truly, she wants everyone to have access to these powerful transformative tools, which is why she gives you the content from her journals and allows organizations to brand them as their own.

an abstract image of two journals and a chair look like they are melting into a table

💡 Customer Reviews

“It has been a positive experience working with Jenalle at Wakeful Travel. Having her team take care of all of the project management, integration of our copy, journal structure creation, design management, manufacturing and shipping was truly valuable. With her original content, combined with our preparation prompts and integration education, we were able to make a custom journal that we love.

Jenalle's extensive experience working professionally in the retreat and psychedelic space–along with personally attending psychedelic retreats herself–shined through the entire journal project.

We are looking forward to sharing these journals with our guests at Dimensions Algonquin Highlands!"

Melanie Coates Director, Marketing and Communications, Dimensions Retreats

. . . . . . .

“Analogue tools are slowly being forgotten in mainstream culture, but the power of a journal discipline is something that can transform the way you live, work and experience the world. The Wakeful Travel Journals are integral pieces to how we experience these transformational journeys and I’m so excited to have a tool like this that I can take with me on my plant medicine journeys. The guides, the prompts, and the exercises really help me settle into the experience and prepare me for the journey. This is such a valuable offering to the plant medicine community! Thank you for bringing this creation to life!”

Cory Firth, Previous Executive Director, Canadian Psychedelic Association, Co-Founder of Neuma, The Center for Social Wellness

. . . . . . .

“The Wakeful Travel Journals that Jenny has created are more than just a labor of love and passion. They're also a powerful way for countless organizations to connect more meaningfully with their clients. By working with Jenny to make these Journals more widely available, I truly believe retreat centres, clinics, coaches, and guides will be doing a service to a growing community of people looking for fun, mindful, and engaging ways to integrate their psychedelic experiences.”

Aviva Rabinovici, Founder of Guides Collective

Your Psychedelic Integration Journal Awaits

In just a few short months, Wakeful Travel can create a co-branded, white label, or custom journal that embodies your brand and the custom retreat experience you deliver.

All retreats—wellness retreats, yoga retreats, weekend retreats—promise transformation and self-care. And psychedelic retreats promise a reintroduction to the interconnected state of being we all so frequently forget.

A beautiful leather journal with your wisdom inundating its pages ensures that the participants of your retreat don’t forget. That they hold the reality of their True Selves close to their hearts.

If you’re ready to elevate the impact of your retreat, let us know or reach out to us at info@wakefultravel.com. We’d be happy to support your participants or clients along their wakeful travels.

a display of wakeful travel's 3 journals on a book shelf with a paint-dripping wall and the wakeful travel logo behind*All images by Ali Mathiesen, @blondyphotography

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