Why Are Athletes Exploring Plant Medicine Beyond Performance?

An athlete can spend years learning how to push through discomfort, stay disciplined, and keep moving toward the next goal. But what happens when the goal changes?

For some athletes, that question arrives after retirement. The structure that once defined daily life disappears, and with it can come a deeper question about identity, purpose, and what comes next.

For others, the questions arrive earlier. They may be curious about focus, discipline, flow, healing, or simply understanding themselves differently.

This is part of what makes plant medicine for athletes such a nuanced conversation.

In a recent episode of Nina’s Notes, Behold Retreats co-CEOs Danny Yepez and Sarah Lynn Thomas discussed their experiences working with athletes, high performers, founders, and people navigating significant transitions. They explained that people rarely arrive with exactly the same intention, and that what they discover can sometimes be different from what they expected.

As Sarah puts it, “athletes and high performers come for different reasons.”

For some, performance may be the starting point. For others, the deeper work may involve stepping beyond an identity built around achievement.

Why Might Athletes Explore Plant Medicine in the First Place?

Athletes are familiar with the language of optimization.

Training programs, recovery routines, nutrition, mental preparation, and performance goals can all become part of an athlete’s life. So it is understandable that some high-performing athletes may approach plant medicine with questions about focus, discipline, or flow.

Sarah describes having worked with athletes who come specifically looking for these things.

“Some it is optimizing performance. And so somebody could look for more focus or discipline and specifically even flow to be in flow state every single day.”

That does not mean every athlete approaches plant medicine with performance in mind. Danny and Sarah describe a much wider range of intentions.

Some people come for healing. Others are interested in expansion. Others may be at a point in their lives where old assumptions or patterns are no longer serving them in the same way.

For athletes who have publicly explored plant medicine, these experiences can also become part of a broader conversation around perspective and personal transformation. Aaron Rodgers’ transformative Ayahuasca journey in Costa Rica offers one example of how a high-profile athlete has spoken about his own experience with Ayahuasca.

Sarah makes an important observation about flow:

“I used to think inflow was for athletes and musicians. And I now know it’s for all of us.”

That perspective moves the conversation beyond athletic performance.

The same qualities an athlete may associate with being in the zone can raise broader questions about how we experience everyday life. Focus and discipline can matter outside competition. So can presence, awareness, and the ability to engage fully with what is happening.

For some athletes, plant medicine may therefore become part of a wider process of self-inquiry rather than simply another tool for getting better at their sport.

Why Can Retirement Change The Questions an Athlete is Asking?

The most distinctive part of Danny and Sarah’s discussion is what happens when an athlete’s career begins to end.

For elite athletes, being an athlete is rarely just a job description. Years of training, competition, sacrifice, achievement, and recognition can become deeply connected to how someone understands themselves.

When that identity changes, the transition can be difficult.

Sarah describes working with athletes who are approaching retirement or have already retired and says:

“They have defined themselves as an athlete and they’re in a bit of a crisis.”

She explains the underlying issue even more directly:

“They have determined their value based on this thing that they’re no longer going to be. And so we work on that transition.”

This is a very different question from how to improve performance.

An athlete may have spent years asking, How can I become faster, stronger, more focused, or more competitive? Retirement can require an entirely different kind of inquiry: Who am I when I am no longer competing?

That transition can also apply beyond professional sports.

Entrepreneurs and executives can experience similar changes when they sell a company, step away from leadership, change careers, or reach a point where their previous definition of success no longer feels complete.

The connection between entrepreneurship and psychedelic experiences is also becoming part of a wider conversation about success, perspective, and personal growth. Our article on Psychedelics and the Success of Influential Entrepreneurs explores this relationship through the experiences and perspectives of influential entrepreneurs.

The common thread is identity.

When a person has spent years becoming exceptionally good at one thing, stepping away from that role can create space for questions that were difficult to ask while the next competition, deal, season, or milestone was always waiting.

Plant medicine, in this context, is discussed as one possible setting for that self-inquiry.

It is not presented as a guaranteed answer to an identity crisis. Rather, Danny and Sarah describe their work as creating space for people to explore healing, expansion, awareness, and the questions that emerge during significant life transitions.

Could the Search For Performance Lead to Deeper Personal Questions?

One of the recurring themes in the conversation is that people do not always receive the experience they expected.

Danny describes this from his work with guests:

“I’ve never heard a single person go, ‘Yes, that’s exactly what I thought was going to happen.'”

That observation is especially interesting for high performers.

People who are used to setting goals and measuring outcomes may naturally want to know what they are going to get from an experience. But Danny and Sarah describe plant medicine as something that can bring unexpected questions to the surface.

Sarah explains that Behold works across two broad areas:

“We work with two verticals in our offerings, which is healing is one vertical and expansion.”

But those categories are not always separate.

“People will often sign up for the expansive aspect of the retreat only to discover that there’s a lot of healing that they had no idea that there was.”

For an athlete, that distinction can matter.

Someone might initially be curious about flow or personal expansion, but the experience may also bring attention to relationships, beliefs, emotions, identity, or other parts of life that have received less attention during years of intense training and competition.

That does not mean everyone will experience the same thing. It also does not mean that plant medicine produces a particular outcome.

The point is that the intention someone arrives with may evolve as they explore what is underneath it.

For high performers, that can mean moving from the question of How can I perform better? toward questions such as What do I actually value? or What does the next chapter of my life look like?

How Can Athletes Approach a Plant Medicine Retreat With Readiness?

A powerful experience requires more than curiosity.

Danny and Sarah place considerable emphasis on preparation and readiness, particularly because people may enter altered states of consciousness that can feel unfamiliar or intense.

Sarah states:

“Experiences can really be destabilizing if you’re unprepared or especially psychologically vulnerable.”

That is why they describe an onboarding process that includes preparation, medical support, guest services, and integration.

“Our guest services go through the preparation from body, mind, and spirit.”

For someone considering plant medicine for the first time, these details can be more important than the aesthetics of a retreat.

Danny and Sarah recommend asking questions before committing. A prospective guest should understand how the organization evaluates readiness, what preparation is provided, what medical processes exist, and what kind of support is available afterward.

They are particularly clear about the importance of having a process.

“The readiness aspect is key for us.”

At Behold, they describe invite-only retreats with carefully curated groups. The average group is around eight to ten people, and they explain that not everyone is invited. If someone is not ready, they may instead be guided through preparation or coaching before attending.

For athletes accustomed to structured preparation, this may feel familiar in an unexpected way.

The mindset is similar to preparing for an important event: understand what you are entering, evaluate whether the environment is appropriate, and make sure the necessary support is in place.

But the goal here is not another competition.

It is creating enough safety and trust for personal exploration.

What Can Happen After the Experience?

The experience itself is only one part of the conversation.

Danny and Sarah also emphasize what happens afterward, particularly the role of integration.

Sarah describes altered states of consciousness as an opportunity for increased self-awareness and says the days and weeks afterward can provide space to reflect and consider how to redesign aspects of life. She summarizes her perspective on Ayahuasca simply:

“There’s three things that Iaska gives you which is awareness, awareness, awareness.”

That idea of awareness is particularly relevant to athletes moving through transition.

Retirement does not erase everything an athlete has learned. Discipline, commitment, resilience, teamwork, and the ability to work toward difficult goals can all remain valuable. What changes is where those qualities are directed.

The transition can therefore become less about abandoning an old identity and more about discovering what else exists beyond it.

For someone considering plant medicine, integration can also provide a practical opportunity to slow down and reflect rather than immediately trying to turn an experience into another achievement.

That is consistent with Danny and Sarah’s broader emphasis on preparation and integration. Their approach recognizes that meaningful personal experiences need context and support around them.

The question is not simply what happens during a ceremony.

It is what someone does with the awareness, questions, and perspectives that may emerge afterward.

Frequently Asked Questions

A Different Kind of Next Chapter

Athletes spend years learning how to commit to a goal. Retirement can ask them to commit to something less measurable: discovering who they are beyond the role that once defined them.

For some, curiosity about plant medicine begins with performance, focus, or flow. For others, it begins with healing or a major life transition.

Whatever brings someone to the conversation, readiness matters. So does choosing an environment where preparation, care, and integration are treated as part of the experience.

If you’re curious about exploring that next chapter, we are here when you’re ready.

SOURCES

1. Nina’s Notes, “Why High Performers and Retired Athletes Are Turning to Plant Medicine | 1,500 Ceremonies In,” featuring Danny Yepez and Sarah Lynn Thomas, March 18, 2026.
2. Behold Retreats, Plant Medicine for High Performers: Why Going Inward Sharpens Your Edge.