A Q&A with Bo Large on All Things Meditation & Plants

Bo (pronouns them + they) is a meditation, breathwork, and energy cultivation facilitator who empowers folxs into a deeper relationship with their somatic (body-based), energetic, and soul experience through the ancient natural technology of breath, sound, and plant medicine.
Their classes are designed to be inclusive, the nervous system informed, and trauma aware.

Bo is also a Herbalist, Alchemist, artist, poet, and explorer of the potential of consciousness. Bo has a radiant passion to hold space for the collective healing and sequential opening of the infinite unlocking of consciousness that is rooted in love.

They offer a monthly poetry club, offer 1:1 quantum sessions to the community, and are always brewing up some new herbal magic.

Bo will be hosting a free virtual meditation series in collaboration with Prismatic Plants Jan 21 & 22. Learn more and sign up by going here.

Their Instagram: @frequency.medicine
Their Website: ecosensualalchemy.ca

"I am constantly inspired by the link of viewing our bodies as highly advanced technology and at the same time mystical spiritual temples of infinite potential."

1. What is your POV on how you approach Meditation?

I am deeply inspired by the potential of our infinite consciousnesses paired with the largely untapped extremely advanced technology of the human body.

Through my studies and practice, I have discovered there are layers to this.

In our body, we have a nervous system which is the electric circuit our experience runs through and a highway of many types of communication from our internal to our external work and visa-versa. To me, nervous system health, awareness, and self-care are the foundation of walking on the earth as a healthy and conscious human.

It seems everyone is being told to be and or wants to be ‘woke’ and high vibe but without a healthy, toned, and cared for the nervous system that regulates properly this isn’t possible. From my perspective, nervous system health is the foundation of being able to stay conscious of our experience, regulate how we wish to intentionally interact with the world, and have the developed electrical circuits to run high vibe voltages through our sacred bodies.

I am constantly inspired by the link of viewing our bodies as highly advanced technology and at the same time mystical spiritual temples of infinite potential.

Once we have a regulated and happy nervous system then I find the practice is able to open up to our body, spirit, and mind being able to harmonize, nourish, and come into alignment without our own unique magic and whatever we need to individually receive in the practice to support our truest shine of in unique magic.

2. Who or what inspires your practice?

I am highly inspired by seeing and integrating the ways humans can tune into and heal from the modalities of breath, frequency, and sound during one's practice. I am constantly analyzing and looking at nature both at the level of perception where we see matter but also at the energetic level and watching the flow of life and energy and analyzing how these sacred rhythms can be integrated and evolved in a meditation practice.

One of the quotes I like to hold in my learning is “when you think you know anything you know nothing” and from this perspective, I actively arrive at my analysis of meditation and consciousness from a place of curiosity.

Earth is the most beautiful masterpiece. The dimensions and inspiring layers that can be learned and received from it, as to integrate into a spiritual and/or health practice, is limitless.

"This way of meeting a plant leads on to meet themselves. For we can not truly listen to another until we have learned our own sound, rhythm and pattern."

3. What tools or rituals do you like to incorporate into your meditation practice?

Breathe, sound, and earth materials are the main pillars that I include in my practice.

I find breath and vibration are the foundation of incarnation and working with and exploring these pillars of life to deepen one's understanding of them is so powerful and regenerative.

When I studied Herbal Medicine, before we met the plant and learned what has already been discovered of it, we met the plant in all of its forms (tea, tincture, whole form, ext.) in a blind testing format (interacting with the plant without knowing what it is). My first introduction to each plant I studied was through a practice of somatic self-awareness and somatic tracking.

This looked like finding my baseline of somatic state, energetic state, organ systems, mental patterns and then receiving the plant and tacking my energetic body, organ systems, mental patterns, and knowledge received through ingestion and proximity to the plant's constituents, and spiritual teachings.

This way of meeting a plant leads on to meet themselves. For we can not truly listen to another until we have learned our own sound, rhythm and pattern, and then from this place we are able to feel and perceive how it feels to meet another person, plant, practice, rock, anything.

Ever since my studies, I incorporate this practice working with plants as a meditation tool in both my personal practices and when I teach and facilitate to build and develop folk’s somatic, energetic, and spiritual self-awareness.

4. Is there a special mantra that you like to say while meditating?

Since a child, I have been much more energetic than verbal, and accordingly, in my practice, I engage more with vibration and energy than with words.

One practice I really believe in is the power of intention. At the start of my personal practice or a practice I lead, I will invite folks to set their intention and not just run the words through their mind but to feel somatically and energetically what this intention feels like and means to them.

From my studies of alchemy, I resonated with the innerstanding that the mind is almost like an in-between gatekeeper of consciousness between our bodies and the source.

Accordingly, I find the mind likes the identity with the meanings associated with words, however, when we tap into vibration and tones, this is able to move clearly past the gatekeeper of the mind, and link our spirit incarnate into our body more clearly with nourishment and healing from the source.

I think words can be powerful if we are working to rewire a cognitive patterning. However, I have found in my personal practice that sound removed from a label of meaning, and brought to a pure vibrational state, can be multifaceted and uncaged in its healing potential.

"I really believe in the power of intention...not just run the words but to feel somatically and energetically what this intention feels like..."

5. Any special plants in your life? Is there an herb or fungi that helps you on the daily?

My favorite question, I love plants so deeply, that it might be impossible to answer just one.

Sequoia and Usnea spp. are two energetically that I am working within the current.

I am also working with evolving a Spagyric (alchemical tincture) of Blue Lotus which is one of the closest plants that I have worked with Alchemically, so I am really excited to bring that medicine forward as an offering to the community.

I also work with the mushroom kingdom and dynamically move through various botanicals.

6. What tips would you recommend for someone getting started with creating a regular meditation practice?

First of all, I would say trust your intuition. If a practice or teacher feels great for you listen to this inner guidance and if a practice or teacher does not, honor this voice as well.

If someone was wanting support actually arriving into and having a consistent practice. The advice is really simple, I would share:

Have an area that is already set up so that it is easy to arrive into without resistance. If it is feeling hard to be consistent just focus on sitting down. Don’t overanalyze the practice or create mental expectations of length just focus on arriving at your matt, and sitting down and the practice will naturally follow.

If someone is desiring advice on beginning a meditation practice and not knowing where to start, I would invite them to begin with the practice of observing their breath. Noticing how it feels to breathe it, noticing what the energy of it feels like, noticing where in their body it seems to flow to, etc...For a few weeks practicing breath awareness as the breath as this is such a powerful tool and foundation for mediation.

If someone is having a really hard time sitting and it is feeling triggering somatically or mentally to be still, I would recommend they seek to consult and some work with someone who has nervous system awareness, as this sounds like an activated nervous system response. And they most likely have incomplete nervous system activation cycles that are needing to be regulated and moved through. There are many ways to do this and I am so passionate about working one-on-one with people to help create custom mediation practices that are trauma aware and nervous system informed.

7. How do you like to incorporate Good Day into your morning meditation sessions?

I love supporting my morning practice with my botanical elixir.
And adding in Good Day is such a beautiful addition to the botanical drink.
I am really in love and impressed with the quality and intention of the formulation. My body enjoys receiving it. It is calming and supportive and such a great tool to incorporate in the morning. Since cortisol levels are naturally high in humans in the morning and cortisol raises the stress response, working with this botanical CBD is such a great ally to start the day and harmonize the body.

8. How does Good Night add to your wind-down routine?

There is so much power in ritual and engaging with something with intentional awareness. Adding Good Night into my evening tea or directly under my tongue is a self-care and somatic-care practice that I have found helps to transition from the rhythm of the day to the rhythm of the night.

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