Medical Marijuana and Meditation
Article written by
Ruth LemonVP of Operations
Content reviewed by
Dr. Lewis JasseyMedical Director - Pediatric Medicine
As well as to treat their qualifying condition, just about every medical cannabis patient on earth is using medical marijuana for relaxation, whether they think about it or not. Medical cannabis products applied in a proper, moderate dosage are an excellent antidote to anxiety. A mindful medical cannabis user, reaching an awareness that they have achieved a state of anxiety-relieved relaxation through cannabis may be visited upon by an enlightened realization: Hey, I think I can use medical marijuana for meditation!Ruth
Though illuminating and encouraging, the idea to embrace meditating with cannabis will not be a unique realization. Weed meditation is already an established medical marijuana practice among higher consciousness users. Of course, there is some overlap among the cannabis enthusiasts who use medical marijuana for meditation and those who use marijuana to enhance a yoga practice, and many of these adherents reside in the state of California, which is where Leafwell went for further guidelines to weed meditation.
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How to Combine Medical Marijuana and Meditation
One thing that meditation and medical marijuana have in common is that science has validated both meditation and medical cannabis products as effective avenues to and support of a sound and healthy mental state. The natural next step of using meditation and medical cannabis products in conjunction to achieve a more empathetic mindset has in turn been validated by meditation proponents such as Heather Larivee, the founder and CEO of Sparkflo, Darrin Zeer, author of High Yoga, and iRest meditation teacher Janae Leonard.
The common recommendation for how to mix meditation and marijuana medication is to take a quiet moment before your meditation session to start small, with a tiny puff of a craft cannabis strain balanced for energizing and relaxing benefits. Terpenes such as linalool and pinene are optimal for enhancing relaxation and clarity during meditation, while not overwhelming or distracting from the meditative state.
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Medicating and Meditating With Cannabis
A recent study conducted by Michigan Tech University indicates that only one isolated hour of meditation is required to reduce stress and increase a sense of mental and physical wellbeing. A meditation practitioner, even a novice, doesn’t need to follow a months-long program to achieve results. The stress dissolving effects and positive alteration of thought patterns provided by medical marijuana are often immediate. One key advantage of meditating while medicating with cannabis is a fast and effective route to a balanced, positive, accepting relationship with the self.
What Happens When You Combine Cannabis with Meditation?
Registered nurse and cannabis practitioner Jessie Gill describes herself as a long-term daily meditator who microdoses cannabis throughout most days. Gill tells Vice that while the production of meditation’s positive mental and physical effects is not fully understood, the benefits are rooted in calming down the brain’s default mode network (DMN). The slowing of the DMN is associated with a mind that is more at ease and less self-disruptive, which correlates with wide experience of cannabis products, especially CBD, creating a calmer, reduced stress perspective along with enhanced physical comfort. Gill’s belief, based on her experience, is that the general pain-reduced physical state provided by CBD allows her to feel more present for her meditation practice.
Does Cannabis Deepen Your Meditative State?
The uncertainties and conflicts of this world are fed into our consciousnesses by an unrelenting stream of reputable news sources, half-informed personal acquaintances and irresponsible social media cranks who value propagating alarmist theories over reasoned discussion. Anyone connected to a smart phone is at risk of building up a clashing stack of negative thoughts. We set our inner lives off balance by questioning what purported facts are true, what false assertions are honest mistakes, what alarmist falsehood might be a malicious lie.
The surface consciousness can become a web of mental balance pitfalls. Meditation draws and elevates a soothing perspective from our deeper resources. The trick is to break through the surface turmoil and access our inner grace.
Emma Chasen, cannabis educator and co-founder of Eminent Consulting, tells Eaze that cannabis enables fledgling mediation practitioners to pass through that surface chaos to a deeper meditative state due to its impact on the neurotransmitters GABA, dopamine and glutamate. Glutamate optimizes brain health, dopamine influences mood, and GABA modulates stress, all of which opens access to a deeper meditative state.
Can Marijuana Make Meditation Easier?
Some experts, such as Daniele Piomelli, director of California’s UCI Center for the Study of Cannabis, are skeptical of medical cannabis and mediation are the mutually beneficial fit practitioners might presume them to be. “There’s no scientific evidence that cannabis can help in meditation,” Piomelli tells Mic. “There is a little bit of plausibility, but plausibility doesn’t necessarily mean reality.”
Lewis Nelson, professor and chief of Rutgers New Jersey Medical School’s division of medical toxicology, believes that “all the cannabis research is very poorly designed.”
The primary flaw seen by Nelson in cannabis research? He feels that scientific studies of medical cannabis’s benefits are based on people “who liked the effects of cannabis, so you’re studying a very biased population.”
Science says, if you happen to be part of that biased population that appreciates the increased mindfulness in medical cannabis applications, then feel free to low dose medicate and meditate away.
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