I think meditation and mindfulness, like cannabis, carries a stigma that deters people from it. It wasn’t until more recent times that more and more people are talking about the benefits of meditation and encouraging meditation for all, but the learned beliefs we’ve had of meditation still remains with many. I think most of us have a preconceived notion of what meditation should be (surprise surprise, more conditioning of how things should be), that one needs sit in silence for a long time and clear your mind to nothingness, which seems like an impossible task for most unless you’re some kind of mystic. In truth, there are many ways to meditate as I found out along my journey. You can meditate lying down, sitting up, or even walking. You can incorporate mudras and mantras and different breathing techniques. You can be guided by someone speaking, with music or in perfect silence. Now, I am far from a meditation expert by any means, I’m still very much learning but I’m here to share my personal experiences and things I’ve learned along the way that I think would be helpful to others.
I’m 44 and only started a daily meditation practice a couple years ago. Like most people when others would talk to me about meditation and its benefits, I had the response of “I can’t meditate, my mind is always running.” and would dismiss the conversation. I thought it wasn’t for me, and that only certain people meditated, like monks or hippies. It wasn’t until I was going through the drastic changes and huge emotions of divorce, that I was willing to give meditation a try. At that point, I was willing to try anything that could help me deal with the roller coaster of emotions I was going through, and wouldn’t cause harm to try. I had started listening to the Adult chair podcast with Michelle Chalfant one day. I’m not even sure how I stumbled across her to be honest but her method made sense to me and I started listening more and more. With her podcast on her youtube channel, she also had guided meditations, so I decided to give it at try since her podcasts were so helpful to me. I didn’t know half the time if I was “doing it correctly”, and my mind would wander all the time, and most times I did not feel different after. But I was determined to keep with it and get to this point of inner calm and peace that meditation was suppose to bring me. I made a conscious effort of doing her short meditations every morning after I wake. I’ll admit I didn’t do it every morning, as some mornings I’d wake up late and would forego even a 10-15 min meditation, but over time, I did experience some moments in meditation that brought up wounds which made me cry during, as well as joy and calm from others, which made me want to continue and explore meditation more. Once you experience and expand your spirituality, you can’t turn back or would want to turn back, so I continued deeper into my spiritual exploration and growth, listening, reading to other teachers in wellness practice, from quantum physics to kundalini yoga.
Fast forward to today, I’m the person suggesting daily meditation practices to my friends because in the short time of my practice, I see and feel the benefits of it, but I also realized that my perception of meditation before was incorrect. It doesn’t have to involve long hours of sitting, and it’s not just for monk and hippies but for everyone, including kids. I realized the excuse I used before of not being able to calm my mind enough to sit still was exactly the reason why I needed to meditate. I remember reading a post on meditation being A WAY TO CONNECT WITH SELF, rather than this unattainable way of being (even more unachievable if you have an active mind) that completely resonated with me and from then on, changed my view and my relationship with meditation.
Meditation as a way to connect to self, made so much sense to me as that is what meditation is. It is taking some time to connect with my mind and my body. To connect with parts of me that might be hidden because of one reason or another. As my self love grew, taking time to connect with myself gained importance, and my meditation practice became part of my daily routine. I now schedule in time for meditation every morning, sometimes throughout the day as I need it. Meditation has enabled me to pause more before reacting in a difficult situations. It has brought me a sense of peace within when my outside was chaotic. It has brought up wounds that needed healing and it gave clarity to answers that I thought I didn’t have. It has allowed me to trust myself enough to go within and find calm in times of stress. It has helped me create a balance of mind and heart. Most of you probably know most of the benefits of meditation so why then are you not doing it? It is really not that big of a challenge like most think, as I used to also. I would suggest starting small, the way we should start anything that is unfamiliar or challenging to us. We start with small steps, something you know you can commit to and achieve easily, then you build on that as you go. What I suggest to friends that may want to start meditation but have the belief that they can’t do it, is to start with focusing solely on your breath for a few breaths each day. Perhaps starting with 5 deep and slow breaths a day, feel the sensations in your nose as your breath enters and moves into your body, feel your lungs expand and follow it down to your belly, and feel the release in your body and the sinking of your belly and chest as you breath out. Once you’re reached the goal of 5 breaths, start increasing it to the next achievable reps. As you get more consistent with it, you can start with timed breathing, for 5 mins/day and so forth. As you increase your practice in connecting with yourself, you should start to see and feel small changes within you so that you’ll want to learn and explore more within, and before you know it, you may be doing meditations daily and trying other types of meditations that involve movements and mantras.
Although there are many different opinions on meditating on cannabis, I think that adding cannabis to your practice can help with connecting within and take your meditation to another level. I have done meditations high many times, although my daily morning meditations are usually done first thing after I wake, before I smoke. I usually gain a lot of insights while high anyways, but I find that meditating after a sesh connects differently. Your body is relaxed and tingly (almost like you feel the energy moving inside you) but your mind is alert. I wish I could put into words how it feels but I can’t, and I’m sure it would feel different for everyone. I would say that if you’re curious, just try it. Worst case scenario is you fall asleep from being so relaxed. If you do want to combine cannabis with your meditation practice without the psychedelic effects, CBD is a great option. But if you do want the THC, I would suggest a hybrid strain. The indica will help your body relax (especially if you’re new to meditation), but you don’t want to be so relax you fall asleep, therefore the laser focus and creative exploration from the sativa will help you focus on your breathing and your intentions while keeping your mind alert. Whether you choose to combine cannabis into the practice or not, I highly recommend you give meditation a try if you don’t already. Understand that meditation doesn’t have to fit in a box that we might put it in. It doesn’t have to be just this way or just that way. It’s what works best for you as long as you’re benefiting from the results which has been proven over and over in improving our lives. Would love for you to share your meditation practices, favorite meditations, your experience meditating with cannabis etc. And if you have not meditated before and would like to start, let me know how my suggestion in starting the practice worked for you.
