The Role of Cannabis in Mindfulness and Meditation

September 25, 2024

We’re sure you’ve heard of mindfulness and meditation practices, which were all the rage during COVID-19—especially for people looking to keep sane during a tumultuous time in history [1].

Yet, mindfulness meditation (we’ll combine the two terms for the sake of simplicity) is far more than a passing fad that existed when we were all stuck at home during lockdowns. In and of itself, the concept of mindfulness has existed for the past thousand years [2].

But what is mindfulness meditation? Is it a vague notion, or is there a more precise practice that we can put our finger on?

Based on our research and personal experiences, mindfulness meditation is a practice of training attention, acceptance, and awareness. More to the point, it’s about being grounded and present in a moment instead of having your thoughts travel miles away.

Furthermore, mindful meditation focuses on emotional regulation, breath, and bodily understanding without judgment to harness clarity, calmness, and self-awareness.

The benefits of mindfulness practices include:

Enhanced emotional regulation.
Stress reduction.
Improved well-being.

With all this preamble, it’s then worth wondering where cannabis can fit into a mindfulness and meditation routine or regimen.

Cannabis and mindfulness spheres are closely intertwined as is.

We don’t mean to play on stereotypes, but both worlds revolve strongly around alternative methods to improve your mental health, expand your mind, and mellow out. So, it only makes sense to combine the two, or at least try to.

Think about it at its most common-sense level.

You consume cannabis, the psychoactive triggers kick in, and your mind goes to a special place, accessing parts of your consciousness that you couldn’t previously traverse. It’s about transcending your usual state of being, precisely like mindfulness and meditation.

Let’s explore the topic further below.

How Cannabis Can Enhance Mindfulness

There’s no hard and fast rule with cannabis and how it can make you more mindful. In fact, certain strains might make it challenging to be mindful and focused.

We’d recommend focusing on cannabis strains that encourage a state of calm. There are a few ways of going about finding such cannabis products and considerations to make.

Namely, cannabis with CBD to balance out the THC can help offset the jitteriness and anxiety induced by THC’s psychoactive effects [3].

There’s also the discussion to have about sativa, indica, and hybrid cannabis.

Sativa strains can give you energy and focus, while indicas typically make you sleepy. However, all the energy from a sativa can make it hard to fully calm down, so a hybrid strain harnessing the best properties of both sativa and indica could be best for mindfulness practices.

The next source of discussion is terpenes—the aromatic and flavorful components of a given cannabis strain.

Terpenes also can interact with your endocannabinoid system (ECS) and contribute to the entourage effect—the largely accepted theory that all components of cannabis contribute to its effects instead of solely its cannabinoids like THC.

Examples of calming and mindful terpenes include:

Myrcene
Caryophyllene
Limonene
Linalool

Referring back to the endocannabinoid system, we’ll note that THC and CBD bind to CB1 and CB2 receptors, leading to many effects, including increasing hunger and brain activity [4].

That increased brain activity can lend itself to a more transcendent, multifaceted experience with mindfulness and meditation.

Best Cannabis Strains and Products for Mindfulness

Here are our top three suggestions for cannabis strains and products to combine with mindfulness. We’ve chosen them primarily for the heightened levels of focus they offer:

Garden Greens Flower – Blueberry Banana

This flower is a sativa-hybrid and highly potent at 27.41% THC, but it has the previously discussed calming terpenes we’ve discussed, including myrcene, limonene, and linalool. This is a clear-minded cannabis that’s also uplifting and would vibe well with mindfulness practices.

Garden Greens Pre-Roll – Rainbow Belts X Banana

Here’s another sativa-hybrid with 26.57% THC that heightens focus and offers uplifting effects. It’s rich in limonene, offering the calming effects necessary to help you focus during mindful practices and meditation sessions.

Rythm Live Resin Concentrate – Night Owl Haze

This live resin sativa, which contains 83.14% THC, might sound like too heavy a hitter to enhance your focus. But its high linalool and limonene content helps heighten focus, which can lead to increased mindfulness.

How to Incorporate Cannabis Into Meditation

Here’s a list of tips to consider when incorporating mindfulness into your meditation session:

Prior to Meditation

Regardless of what type of cannabis product you’re incorporating, start low. As you keep going, you can continue to increase your doses.
Use strains most conducive to focus and mindfulness. We suggest a sativa rich in calming terpenes with a dash of CBD to offset any jitters or jumpiness.
If you consume ingestibles or homemade edibles, do so about 60 minutes before meditation. If you take a tincture sublingually, wait 15 to 30 minutes before starting.

While you Meditate

Stay focused on breathing, emotions, and bodily sensations.
Try to notice all your cannabis-induced sensations. Don’t judge yourself.
Use techniques like progressive muscle relaxation to release tension.
Focus on mantras or visualize to streamline your concentration.

Consuming Cannabis Mindfully

If smoking, do so with a connoisseur’s mindset—pick up on flavors and textures.
Stay attuned to the effects and increase your dosage if necessary.
Always be hydrated, and guzzle down water when necessary.
Don’t be afraid to take breaks.

Successful Integration

Take time to reflect on insights you garnered while meditating.
Track your progress in a journal.

Precautions

We’ll reiterate that you should start low with your dosages and increase slowly.
Be more focused on meditation than cannabis effects. This way, you’ll harness more value from the process.
Don’t be hard on yourself if you lose focus or get anxious. Meditation is a learned skill, and you’ll improve over time.

Cannabis and Guided Meditation

Guided meditation practices, such as body scans, breathwork, or visualization, can all be enhanced and enriched by cannabis.

Cannabis can take these meditative practices to the next level because it takes you to a unique plane of consciousness. You often become more aware of your body or feel sensations differently than ever. So, your brain starts working differently, as does how you think about things, and your emotions take on a whole new meaning.

By opening your mind with cannabis, you give yourself a chance to access meditation at an unexplored level—more than you would without a healthy dose of a suitable strain.

Plus, cannabis—when consumed responsibly and thoughtfully—is fun and can make an experience like mindfulness meditation more enjoyable. Even if you enter with a state of giggles, you’ll be going in with an open mind and with more positive sentiments than if you’re sober, solemn, and bored.

Most importantly, you’re not risking anything adverse by trying to mix mindfulness with cannabis. The worst that’ll happen is it won’t be for you, and you’ll move on to something else. At best, you might find you love the practice so much that you don’t even need cannabis to enjoy it.

Conclusion: Pair Mindful Meditation with Cannabis

As this article illustrates, there’s every reason to mix mindfulness, meditation, and cannabis together—it’s safe, engaging, and can help you find a sense of serenity and calm.

But you’ll need quality cannabis to make the experience genuinely worthwhile. Don’t worry—you don’t need to look any further than Enlighten’s online menu of top-tier cannabis products. We’ve got what you need if you’re looking to add mindfulness to your life.