Veteran Burner Christie has shared these tips for getting the most out of your experience at Burning Man.

This is my fifth consecutive Burn, and my first as a Camp Organizer. To better prepare the virgins among us I’ve been doing loads of research and sending out packed emails on resources, detailed personal checklists, weather reports, etc… Then I realized I haven’t given my camp members one of the most key pieces of advice for the event, so I’m sharing what I told them in the hopes it can help some of the virgins on this page –

BURNING MAN IS AN ACCELERATOR

On the playa you find yourself confronted with a wide variety of options at every moment. Because the weight and responsibility of things like money, work, family, etc… are taken off of us we are better able to focus on what it is we truly want to experience, create and be. When you’re focused wholly on the moment (and not stuck in your head thinking about the past or the future), you find that you’re able to choose and create with a kind of purity that’s more in flow with who you really are. This causes really insane synchronicities to occur- the ‘right place at the right time’ kind of moments that make every hair on your body stand up. It’s like you can literally call people, events and things to you. Now, what does the experience of that kind of power do to a person? Quite frankly, it causes a kind of re-alignment to occur. This happens both in the desert and to a greater extent when you return. Relationships, jobs, agreements and commitments that no longer serve you simply fall away – sometimes dramatically and sometimes very organically. It’s like you have tasted what’s possible for yourself in the world and can no longer subscribe to the limiting beliefs under which you once operated. You really are forever changed by this one week.

Yes- it is completely possible to simply party the week away, but that isn’t completely harnessing the true potential of the event and the impact it can have on your life. So I would like to encourage each one of you to do these few things to really make the most of your experience-

1. Set an intention for the trip. The desert is (literally) a blank slate – we bring everything and create our home, our family, our experience- so really picture what you want to create and allow yourself to ‘program’ it in a way. Think about the trip as a microcosm of your life. If there are questions you’re presently grappling with, if there’s some repressed emotional baggage covertly running the show, if you stand at a crossroads in any arena- you can use Burning Man to confront, heal and find clarity on these issues. Allow Burning Man to be not only your playground, but your mirror showing you what’s working and what isn’t working in how you view yourself, interact with others, and experience the world.

2. Spend some time alone- in the raw desert or even better at The Temple. The Temple is the spiritual heart of Burning Man. If there is something (or someone) in your life you would like to let go of, bring a symbolic token of it with you. Have reverence for how it assisted you in your journey and then leave it for the fire. This will make your Temple Burn experience Sunday night all the more powerful as you watch the flames devour all that you want to leave behind and release them in a tornado of smoke.

3. Make it all about you. That doesn’t mean shirk out on your dinner shift or f*** over your friends. It means make decisions from your very core and consider what will serve both you and others. If these things seem at odds with each other remember that there is always a “highest good” – that the best thing for you is actually the best thing for everyone else. When you make decisions based from deep truth, you elevate what’s possible for everyone. You remind them to follow their own guiding light, and when we’re all doing that- then the real magic occurs…
May everyone have an incredible Burn.