Smoking weed can be a lot of fun. The right dose of a doob can boost your mood, enhance your senses, and give your dreary day a sense of wonder.
However, it can also bring on anxiety, a feeling of dread, as well as jumpiness and restlessness – especially if it’s being overused or used for the wrong reasons.
I’ve experienced my fair share of these contradicting effects. While for the most part I’ve had a great time getting high, I’ve been through a few periods where it wasn’t so fun.
Over the years, though, I’ve managed to find ways to reliably have a positive experience. This includes choosing to use a dry herb vape more and combusting less, mixing CBD extracts or hemp flower with my weed, and sticking to a daily meditation practice.
Mindfullness
These all help, but there’s one main thing I do to ensure I have an enjoyable high, and that is to focus outwardly at the world. By focusing on the world around you when you’re high rather than on your inner world of thoughts and feelings, you’re brought into the moment.
This present moment awareness, detached from thought, is in many ways blissful. It’s what people call flow or being in the zone. There are numerous ways of accessing it, but I’ve found consuming THC and focussing on the world around me to be a reliable one.
And the best way to steer focus away from your inner world and onto the outer world is by doing something that involves moving your body with concentration. By engaging your body and mind with a physical task that requires focus, it becomes easy to not get attached to any thoughts or feelings you may be having.
This state of awareness not only feels amazing, but is incredibly good for you. So with that being said, here are 5 activities to try after smoking weed…
1. Mindful movement
Moving mindfully, like doing yoga or some other movement modality, has become one of my favourite things to do after getting stoned.
As well as yoga, I also find mobility exercises and primal movements (jumping, crawling, rolling, balancing) extremely enjoyable and nourishing when combined with weed.
If you want some inspiration or videos to follow along to, check out Strength Side, The Mindful Movement, or Yoga With Adriene Youtube channels.
2. Cook
Cooking and preparing food is a wonderful way to enhance your high. Not only do you get the chance to unleash your creativity, you get to blast your senses with colours, textures, smell and tastes. Additionally, a level of concentration is required due to the risk of messing up and making a bad meal.
If you do a good job, the satisfaction of devouring your creation (and seeing others get stuck in) will be a hundred times higher than if you had ordered another takeaway.
3. Write/journal with a pen or pencil
Writing by hand is a powerful way to bring the body and mind into the present moment. Someone once said that to write is to think, and it sounds true to me. Therefore, writing by hand is a way of slowing down and directing your thinking.
And by slowing your thoughts and choosing what to think about, you start to see your thoughts as a part of the outside world. You become detached from your thoughts the moment you write them down. There are many benefits to journaling, and many ways to journal.
4. Bike ride
While going for a run or walk after a blaze can be great, I prefer a bike ride. It’s more fun. And the added risk of falling makes it a great way to engage your focus and get into the moment.
You also cover more ground, meaning more to see, and going down hills is exhilarating. Check out this video of when me and a mate decided to cycle from London to Amsterdam while high.
5. Make art
Similar to writing, creating some form of art with your hands is a great way to tap into the present and lose yourself while high. Painting, drawing, sculpting, building, writing – there are so many ways to create art.
Summary
Consuming cannabis is usually great fun, but sometimes it get result in anxiety and paranoia. One powerful way ive discovered to keep me out of an anxious state when high is to engage by mind and body on some sort of activity.
Some of the most enjoyable and replenishing experiences I have are when I’ve had a few puffs and started doing one of the activities mentioned above.
Give them a go and let me know how it goes. And let me know what you like to get up to when high below…
