A Moment With Tonya of Rainbo Mushrooms

I am a Canadian, born in Toronto, and my husband and I have lived somewhat nomadically over the past few years, spending time in Costa Rica and Salt Spring Island. We’ve lived in Topanga for about 3 years now. I have been studying nutrition, holistic health and eastern modalities since I was 17 years old and just finished my Master’s degree in Mind-Body Medicine where I specialized in spirituality and health. I’m fascinated by states of transcendence; experiences that move us beyond the little self and into the vast collective oneness. Meditation and mushrooms were my first portals into these states.

It takes a lot of courage to climb beyond normal physical, conceptual boundaries but when we do, I’ve seen and experienced my and other’s ability to reach into a sacred divine state where we access pure source creativity, healing and knowing. And so, I really love this dance between being rooted and deeply human, while also being connected to the ethereal, transcendent, mystical aspects of this beautiful experience we call life.   

Around 2014 I started foraging for mushrooms in the Canadian forests. We would come back to the cabin and there was literally a black cauldron that ran 24/7 filled with mushrooms, reishi and chaga, brewing into tea. We would drink from it all day long. It was this slightly sweet, aromatic, black water extract with a deep, woodsy taste. It was nourishing and delicious. But what made this so impactful is that it was the beginning of a true and deep return to nature. A walk in the woods was no longer just a walk in the woods. It was alive with medicinal herbs and mushrooms… everywhere! I was learning how to forage with an elder passing down their knowledge, and through this experience, a very deep and old knowing started to return in me, which was that the Forest is a pharmacy and that Earth is the great healer. And that we are a part of this! That we are our greatest healers because we are a nature. I recently learned that my ancestors were medicine women and herbalists in the villages where they lived and so I think this time was so important because it activated deep ancestral wisdom within me. It was really like something switched on inside me. 

After a lot of foraging, researching and being in holistic nutrition school, I began working with Reishi mushroom in therapeutic doses and saw a profound shift in my health. From there I started recommending mushrooms to my clients and building it into their protocols with excellent results. Shortly after I started to make my own formulations and Rainbo was eventually born one evening in a solo ceremony with sacred mushrooms, which is a story for another time : )

I think it’s my insatiable curiosity and lust to know life. Learning has always been my zone of genius and where I get to turn knowledge into insight, perspective and new ways of thinking and seeing the world. I feel inspired when I’m learning. I’ve always loved books and libraries and writing and being challenged to develop new ways of seeing things and ultimately, sharing those ideas with others.

Reishi! Always and forever. Reishi is the mushroom of immortality and spiritual potency. She calms the mind and grounds the spirit. She is a queen. She is royal. She cultivates Shen, which in Taoist philosophy is the spirit, the heart-mind and our higher consciousness. Reishi acts as an adaptogen to help settle the nervous system, calm and balance stress which ancient traditions viewed as helping transform energy. They saw Reishi as a spiritual ally to clear heavy or negative emotional energy to help people shift into a more relaxed, open and receptive state. This is always my number one recommendation for women, I think most of us need a bit more Reishi in our lives.  

I suppose I aim to cultivate the conditions for inspiration to spill through, which I believe to be receptivity, openness and sensitivity. I find inspiration through presence, alone time, an epic conversation, spaciousness, meditation, nature time, a walk where I can meander and notice a water droplet sparkling in the sun, or hear the trees speak to me through the wind. When I’m connected, curious, open, in my heart, I find awe in mundane moments and can enter that glorious state of synchronicity, where it feels like the universe is alive and sending direct messages/ideas. Of course, it’s a practice to be here, stay here and return here. If I’m in a creative rut or funk though, my antidote as a Projector is alone time. That always helps clear my mind and energy so that I can get back into an open, receptive state. 

Wellness changes as I enter different seasons of life so first and foremost it’s honoring that all things change and checking in with my body, mind and spirit to assess what I need to feel most authentic, alive, energized, fun, sexy, vital, rested, unrested, whatever the season requires. Wellness should never be dogmatic in my opinion. It should enrich the soul. It’s just as much a night of dancing till sunrise with my favorite humans on Earth as it is embracing grandma bedtimes, most of the time. It’s whatever I want and need it to be when I decide with intention what I need for nourishment. 

Fungki Latte
2 tsp Rainbo’s Fungki
1 scoop collagen
Splash of vanilla
Activist manuka honey to taste
Half hot water
Half steamed coconut/cashew milk
2-4ml Rainbo 11:11

Being outdoors, swimming in the ocean, greeting the sun first thing in the morning, moon light on my face, connecting with animals, being in my body, laying on the earth or just being barefoot, hugging a tree, going on a walk, appreciating and spending time with my own mother. There are so many ways and places to find reverence in her.

In considering regeneration, how can I not speak to our relatives in the fungi kingdom and queendom? Fungi are the great regenerators of our planet, in fact, nothing on Earth would exist in the way we know it today without their brilliant ability to decompose all living organic matter on earth, including us, someday. Regeneration is the cycle we are endlessly a part of. Rebirth, life, death, infinity. Regeneration is reverence for this process. It helps us see our place in the family of things, as Mary Oliver says. I learned about regeneration from fungi. The way mushrooms can break down petroleum and clean up oil-contaminated soils, or how they can digest plastic without oxygen, how they grew on the walls of the Chernobyl nuclear reactors to remediate the earth and environment. They are often one of the first living organisms to grow, clean up and transform disaster-stricken areas. Fungi hold our planet together physically and chemically, from storing CO2 in their root structures to the fungal threads that bind soil and hold water to resist erosion, all healthy forests require this incredible, sentient organism to recycle and decompose, break down so that the natural world can be built back up. Regeneration is our very nature. One, essential part in the cycle of life.  

*article has been edited for length and brevity