Yoga teaches us to break free from the everyday patterns that shape our thoughts. We often tend to define who we are over external aspects of life such as jobs, relationships, heritage, or even materialistic values - without realizing that we cause emotional pain by doing so. Yoga has innumerable purposes; one of them is giving us a sense of the never-ending cycle of memory, desire, and action that keeps our minds perpetually busy, hindering us from seeing the many possibilities of life. Practising yoga means knocking down these mental barriers we unconsciously built ourselves – does cannabis support this process or not?

ABOUT YOGIS AND CANNABIS CONNOISSEURS

Why would someone come up with the idea of examining whether weed and yoga mix? Well, there are similarities between cannabis enthusiasts and people who practice yoga. There seems to be some kind of sympathy for one another, making it likely for either side to explore what the other one offers – yogis are usually not averse to smoke weed and cannabis users often curious about the calming effects of yoga. The love for nature and being in a contemplative state are common to both, along with the feeling of searching something that lies beneath the surface of their consciousness.

BENEFITS AND LIMITATIONS OF PAIRING CANNABIS AND YOGA

Most of the time, people practising yoga are open-minded and won’t judge. But recently, and while yoga became a widespread phenomenon, one notices that there is a growing number of yogis that include competitiveness into their practices, and even more perplexing, try to tell others what is “right” or “wrong” – a pointless judgemental attitude. You alone need to decide if smoking cannabis while doing yoga is beneficial or counter-productive – no other person in this world should do that for you, and certainly not the yoga police - they are luckily not on duty today.

1. REMAINING FOCUSED

Being focused is essential when practising yoga. If your mind starts wandering after smoking cannabis, you will most likely experience difficulties to reach a meditative state, which is ideally free from all thoughts. There are, however, lots of cannabis users that experience increased levels of focus while being high, making it easier for them to avoid fluctuations of the mind.

Tip: The effects of cannabinoids are nuanced and will differ from person to person. Learn how your brain reacts to cannabis before you try to improve your yoga practices. If you can’t channel your thoughts while being high, try to smoke a little less next time.

2. KEEPING THE BALANCE

Often, cannabis lets us perceive gravity a bit twisted, either by giving us a feeling of being incredibly light, as if we would walk on clouds, or seemingly dragging us down to the ground, depending on the quantities and strains we smoke. Before having a yoga session in class, you might want to try and see how cannabis affects your balance at home. The fact that cannabis can relax muscles helps to overcome physical barriers when doing yoga, which speaks for rolling a joint before rolling out the mat.

Tip: Try to avoid the urge of competing with others and find your individual pace. Fast movement and high-intensity flows won’t necessarily promote the new level of relaxation people aim for when combining yoga and weed.

3. BREATHING PROPERLY

Smoking cannabis, especially in combination with tobacco, has a negative impact on our lungs and affects our ability to breathe properly, which is essential when practising yoga. If you are short of breath, various breathing techniques might feel more difficult than they actually are. When you additionally get a dry mouth, breathing properly gets even harder.

Tip: Switch to vaporizing your weed to reduce the negative health effects caused by combustion and drink lots of water. Only use edibles if you are familiar with the dosage that suits your needs and think of the timing issue.

THE IMPACT OF DOSAGE AND STRAIN

First of all, you don’t necessarily need to smoke as much as you possibly can before practising yoga. The feeling of being incredibly high is great but eventually leads to distraction and lack of focus, hindering the yoga experience to unfold its many effects. If you never tried micro-dosing cannabis, you might as well give it try, and slowly increase dosages each session. The dosage depends on your preference, but generally, it is best to feel calm and confident.

When it comes to strains, many weed-loving yogis stick to indica-dominant hybrids to ensure physical relaxation, paired with a cerebral Sativa high to enhance spirituality. Others prefer the calming sensation of CBD-rich varieties and find the psychoactive high of THC rather distracting than helpful. At the end of the day, it is completely up to you. If you’re not willing to purchase cannabis from your local cannabis distributor, simply grow your own – you will find an extensive range of the best cannabis strains right here at Royal Queen Seeds.