Cannabis as a tool for Mindful practice

Mindfulness is a practice of being completely present and aware in whatever you are doing in your current moment.  

When you think about what you still need to make for breakfast, for example, you aren’t necessarily having a mindful moment.  

When you’re thinking about the fight you got into with your co-worker yesterday, you also are not being mindful at that moment as well.

In this same manner, think about what happens when you mindlessly open Facebook?  What happens when you open the news?  Your emails? Where does your mind go?  Does it stay with you and your morning cup of coffee?  Or does it analyze a stream of angry tweets from politicians you saw from the night before, and then dreading what they will add later that day?  

When trying to fall asleep at night, do you remind yourself that tonight may or may not be a good night of rest?  If you toss and turn too much throughout the night, will I feel well enough tomorrow to perform at my best?  

All of these types of thoughts keep us from enjoying the present moment…i.e.- LIFE as it’s happening.  And if you aren’t paying attention to life as it’s happening, I would argue (and so would many others!), that you may not be experiencing life in the fullest extent.  

So…for me, and many others, mindfulness is figuring out how to minimize all of the above distractions as much as possible, and this takes practice.

If you want to increase your 3-point shot, you go to the courts and shoot some hoops.  If you want to increase your bench press, you go lift weights at the gym.

If you want to increase your test scores, you study.

If you want to be more mindful in life and do everything we just talked about, you meditate!!

…”But meditation is so hard….I can never focus!!!”  I hear this a lot, but bench presses are also hard as well when attempting them for the first time, and so are hitting 3-point shots, etc.

So to get better at being mindful on a day-to-day basis, and to thus get better at minding your LIFE….you should practice being better at minding your life, and meditate more (preferably daily).  

For meditation, most get frustrated in the beginning due to easily losing “focus” and concentration, and that’s where cannabis can help.

Cannabis can assist your meditation practice in so many ways.  For myself, the first thing cannabis does is allow me to take my mind off of anything that is not currently happening at the present.  The reason cannabis is able to do this affectively is because shortly after taking a vape hit (my mode of choice when utilizing cannabis before meditating), I become acutely aware of how the hit is making me feeling.

By simply taking notice as to how the hit is making me feel, I am instantly being present in that moment.  From there, I am already in position, or setup and ready to meditate (I personally use a meditation bench).  I typically also pair this with the Wim Hoff method, which is a practice that assist with releasing your endocannabinoids into your system at the same time. At this point, my mind is focused on my body and how I’m feeling, which at this point in the meditation feels as though I can actually feel my blood pumping throughout, hands and legs tingling, and the feeling of weightlessness beginning to set in.  

At this moment, I’m done with my Wim Hof Breaths, and am 100% aware of everything that is happening both outside, and inside, but I am particularly now interested in what is happening internally.  Externally, I care about how the rug may feel on the tops of my feet, or how the breeze from the window is hitting my bare skin, but I’m not thinking about anything that has happened in the past, or anything that could possibly happen in the future…I’m simply at that point in the moment, just being.  

I can sit here with this feeling forever, but this feeling eventually wares off, and once it does, I may pick back up with another set of Wim Hof breaths again, or if I feel balanced and satisfied, I’ll just start/carry-on with my day, which is always better after doing this.  

In our episode on Flow states, we talk about the Steven Kotler’s Hippie Speedball, and how pairing cannabis, caffeine, and a quick sweat first thing in the morning is the best way to enter a strong flow state with whatever you are trying to accomplish after that time.  For my own mornings, I’m trying to accomplish a strong sense of peace and gratitude…why start my day angry and anxious?  If I can CHOOSE to start differently, I will.  And the point of this entire post, is that yes, YOU CAN CHOOSE.  

For many, they believe that being able to choose your mindset in the morning is almost impossible, and that we are mostly at the mercy of our impulses.  This is exactly why we need to practice, and thus, meditate.  

To get to the point that you even WANT to put in this time to work on yourself takes the correct mindset right from the beginning, a little push, and cannabis allows us to settle into that meditative space very quickly…and that’s really all it does!  It doesn’t control our thoughts or make us think weird things, it just allows our minds and bodies to settle into a meditative state, to be present and aware of now (i.e.- life!) and to start our practice AND day off right!

Make your day more mindful with cannabis!  Here are some ways that I like to incorporate cannabis for my mindfulness practice throughout the days:

First thing in the Morning: 

-CBD hemp flower vape hit with my crafty vaporizer combined with a little sativa first thing in the morning is fantastic.  It’s fresh, it’s natural, therapeutic, and a great daily morning ritual to start, I love it.  More specifically, I find some sour diesel CBD flower online, pair that with some THC sativa flower in the dispensary to get my desired ratios (I personally like a ~4:1 CBD:THC ratio, but everyone is different and you will want to use a higher CBD ratio if you are trying cannabis for the first time). Ultimately, this puts my mind and body in a great place first thing for a workout and meditation.  

-Coffee- I get a cold brew ready to sip throughout my HIIT workout afterwards, allowing me to incorporate all aspects of Steven Kotler’s Hippie Speedball for flow! 

-Take multi-vitamins and CBD tablets for daily wellness maintenance 

-Morning HIIT Workout Combined with Jack Herer Sativa Vape or another focus/energy high THC blend.  

-Yoga/Meditation following HIIT- Balanced Hybrid vape with another CBD hit (oil vapes this time for simplicity of the morning).  

So that’s it!  Get into a meditative routine, and allow cannabis to put you in the right mindset to get there…Enjoy!