I Meditated with
Weed for 14 days
This is What I Learned
Written By: Jay Hyung
Bong Engineer
Can you meditate while being high effectively?
Many daily practitioners of meditation claim that you cannot achieve true mindfulness if you are meditating stoned, conversely, there are many people that have had a great experience with a high meditation including myself.
As someone who has been meditating for over 10 years, I decided to try meditating while high and found that it depends on how much you smoke, how often, your current state of mind, and what you are looking to achieve when meditating.
In this article, I’ll share what I believe is the best way to meditate while high with a few guidelines so you can avoid pitfalls as I did.
Meditating high vs
meditating sober
There is a difference
In my personal experience of meditating with cannabis for 14 days, I found great moments of healing, reframing of negative thoughts, forgiveness, and empathy where I needed it the most.
When compared to meditating sober, the practice and results were completely different.
Sober meditation (presence, mindfulness, Kundalini, transcendental) is actually harder for beginners and it takes daily practice to achieve a steady pace of “presence”. The more you practice the easier it becomes.
Meditating high on the other hand was very helpful when my body was feeling too overwhelmed to focus with sober meditation. I found it much easier to process pain, forgive, and just let go and be.
Below are my 4 tips for meditating while high.
4 things to keep in mind
when meditating with weed
I had the house to myself for two weeks and decided to try smoking every day and meditating.
I did not get great results every day, but there were some fantastic moments and I found them repeatable if I adjusted the 4 following variables:
1. Don’t mediate high daily
Less is more with weed meditations
In a Reddit post, someone summed up smoking cannabis and meditation very beautifully:
“Daily consumption of cannabis + meditation = mediocre results
Spiritual/ritual consumption of cannabis + mediation = awesome results”
If you think of cannabis more like Psilocybin (shrooms), it can become a great spiritual tool to help you once in a while – not daily.
If you smoke marijuana daily, the CB1 receptors begin down-regulating, which is just a fancy way of saying: “the more you smoke the less it works”.
I smoked weed and meditated for 14 days straight and I got the best results the first few days – go figure.
Key Takeaway: Think of meditating with weed as a more spiritual act, a ritual to be done once or twice a month.
2. Manage your THC intake
Don't smoke too much
This depends entirely on your tolerance to cannabis but how much you smoke can impact the quality of your meditation, let me explain.
Smoking too much weed or smoking weed that has a very high THC % causes an overload of cannabinoids which overstimulates the amygdala.
The amygdala is part of your brain that regulates fear, anxiety, stress, and paranoia.
I found that if I smoked too much weed before a meditation session I actually put myself in a state of fear and paranoia, and so then my egoic mind went on overdrive giving me a very uncomfortable experience.
Key Takeaway: When smoking weed and meditating you need to find out what’s the right amount of THC that can get you a good high without overstimulating the amygdala. For me, I have a pretty standard tolerance so one bowl from a weed pipe is perfect, or a quarter of a joint (about 5 puffs). My best advice is to start low and work your way up especially if you don’t smoke often.
3. Weed is great for releasing
and reframing egoic thoughts
Weed lets me see clearly
As I said I was having a very rough few months and I found cannabis and meditation to be extremely helpful for processing pain that was otherwise too much to process sober.
I was smoking weed with the intention to feel my unprocessed feelings, and the results were amazing. I would smoke my bowl of weed and play a song that had some emotional charge to it (I picked a song that promoted processing not hindered).
About 30 seconds into the song I would begin grieving so deeply and releasing all that negative built-up fear and pain.
Next, I would go into basic meditation and breathe deeply into my body. It was much easier to do this high and a bit more magical, to be honest. It felt as if my body was just melting and I was totally relaxed.
Some of the most stubborn thoughts that my ego kept on repeat were reframed in a new loving light. Marijuana just relaxed my body and allowed me to look at things very differently.
Key Takeaway: After 14 days of smoking weed and meditating, I really found a cannabis meditation to be most beneficial as a monthly ritual for releasing deeply embedded egoic thoughts. When your body is extremely tense and the egoic mind is rampant, a high meditation can help relax your body so processing the internal fears are much easier.
4. What’s the best
weed for meditation?
Strains and terpenes matter
Different marijuana strains produce different results for the body and mind.
Indica strains are more popular for a body high (relaxation) and Sativa for the head high (energy).
I experimented with different strains, but again my body’s cannabinoid receptors may function very differently from yours.
If you’re body and mind are tense I recommend looking for Indica strains that are high in the terpenes Linalool and Myrcene, two cannabis terpenes that promote relaxation of the body. Just ask your local dispensary and they will get you the right strain.
Sativa strains give you more of a head high and I found these strains helpful for reframing negative thoughts or thoughts of judgment to others.
This can take a bit of practice especially if this is your first time smoking weed, but remember the steps are the same as a sober meditation: breathe deeply and feel your body.
Key Takeaway: I found meditating while high to be an effortless process once I found what worked for me personally I smoke Indica strains rich in the terpenes Myrcene and Linalool to be the best for allowing my body to relax so I can have a successful meditation.
When should
you meditate high?
Weed meditation is ritual
Think of meditating with cannabis not as a replacement for meditation but as a monthly ritual instead. If the egoic mind is running rampant and you can’t seem to find your usual pace in your daily meditations I found weed to be very effective.
I was going through a very rough few months and just couldn’t find any stillness or peace. My mind was racing and I had a ton of unresolved conflicts that left my mind oscillating between emotions.
As soon as I smoked weed my body relaxed and I was able to release (cry), forgive, and reframe the conflicts in a more loving and empathetic perspective.
It not only allowed me to gain perspective while high, but once sober my actions were reflective of my new perspective (meaning the results from a high meditation had lasting impacts on my daily (sober) reality.
It wasn’t all smooth sailing, during my 14 days of smoking weed and practicing meditation I found these 5 variables the most helpful for improving results. Remember everyone’s endocannabinoid system is different so you may have to play around a bit until you find what’s right for you.
Final thoughts on
meditation with cannabis
The debate about white ash weed has been going on for quite some time.
While it’s true flushing, nutrients, and additives (plant growth chemicals) can and may affect weed ash color, it can all be trumped by temperature.
What does white ash mean? Well you could have good weed where burning temperatures were too low and that good weed created black ash.
So does white ash mean good weed? Not always but it can. Saying that white ash from weed is the be-all and end-all in debates of cannabis quality is not true.
When it comes to this white ash vs black ash it really doesn’t matter. Your weed is good if it smokes good, taste good, and hits good. White ash weed is primarily an indicator of temperature and that’s it.
