Opinion piece and graphic by Gina Mostafa
Gina Mostafa MPH, is the founder and director of Queering Existentialism, an education and connection initiative based in New York City.
“It is only when the mind is open and receptive that learning and seeing and change can occur.” — Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn
As a community workshop organizer whose life has been transformed by intentionally working with altered states, intentional cannabis use is one of my favorites. During the mindful smoking portion, I am transported back to my first class in Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn’s Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program. In the program, we slowly ate raisins, reflecting on their origin and savoring the experience. This time, I am holding a joint. I’m thinking about where it was harvested, how smooth it feels in my hand, and how pleasant its earthy sweet smell is, all before inhaling.
Mindfulness can be defined as, “awareness of one’s internal states and surroundings.” This can “help people avoid destructive or automatic habits and responses by learning to observe their thoughts, emotions, and other present-moment experiences without judging or reacting to them,” according to the American Psychological Association (APA).
It is important to acknowledge that although it “has its roots in Buddhist meditation, a secular practice of mindfulness has entered the American mainstream in recent years,” according to The Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley.
The flexibility nurtured by mindfulness can help us access creativity. The Midwest Mindfulness Alliance defines this as the, “ability to generate new ideas and possibilities.”
Mindfulness and cannabis are integral to my rituals of care, helping me access states of ease, groundedness, and creativity. This is reinforced by frameworks such as Cannabis-Assisted Psychedelic Therapy, which the Center for Medicinal Mindfulness describes cannabis as a “gateway medicine […] to creative insights, physical and mental wellbeing, and deeply meaningful psychedelic experiences.”
The combination of research and lived experience has continued to reinforce the synergistic relationship between creativity, cannabis and mindfulness.
Intentional Cannabis Use and Mindfulness
Bringing intention to the consumption of cannabis can be transformative. I was skeptical of cannabis being psychedelic. That’s until I shifted my perspective and experienced “a synergistic fusion of a full-spectrum Cannabis Sativa blend with set, setting, and skill (music, somatic awareness, breath), within a multi-paradigm, facilitated process,” as Daniel McQueen, author of Psychedelic Cannabis, defines psychedelic cannabis use.
In this framework, mindset is a critical component that shapes our experiences with altered states, including cannabis. As our awareness is heightened, certain emotions, thoughts and sensations can become amplified. The practice of mindfulness is foundational to my process of cultivating a mindset that supports me in responding, rather than reacting, to what arises when I am in an altered state. Before I began practicing mindfulness alongside my cannabis use, I found correlations between resisting what came up for me and judging myself, with increased symptoms of anxiety, paranoia and discomfort. Mindfulness, according to the Midwest Mindfulness Alliance, is “positively correlated with cognitive flexibility.” It complements the ways cannabis can limit rigid thought patterns that perpetuate depression and anxiety.
The absence of intentional cannabis use is rooted in the larger extractive approach of capitalism and Western biomedicine. This reinforces a one-sided approach to healing. When we bring reverence and appreciation to cannabis as a plant medicine, we can bring more awareness to how we are showing up for that relationship. In order to tap into the more expansive benefits and healing aspects of cannabis, I had to take responsibility for the way I met what was showing up. The attitudes of mindfulness are foundational to taking responsibility in our relationship with cannabis, and immensely synergistic with experiencing its healing benefits.
How Can Mindfulness Increase the Benefits of Cannabis?
The nine attitudes of mindfulness—non-judging, patience, beginner’s mind, trust, non-striving, acceptance, letting go, gratitude, and generosity—can support us in accessing the benefits of cannabis across our minds, bodies, and spirits. For the purposes of this next section, I have correlated the particular mindfulness attitudes that have strengthened my connection to the respective benefits of cannabis, which Psychedelic Cannabis articulates.
Benefits for the mind: “increased awareness of body, synesthesia, capacity to travel through memory.”
When I ingest cannabis, I drop into my body as tension melts and I fill my lungs with air. I slowly start to feel sensations in my body that correlate to the music I am listening to. I’m time-traveling through memory portals to other times I have heard the same song. I am able to contract and expand my awareness with ease, time speeding up and slowing simultaneously. It’s in these moments that I am able to access beginner’s mind. I’m approaching ideas and sensations with a fresh perspective, free of preconceived notions that are potentially distorting my perspective. I also give myself permission to just exist in a way that it is difficult to access throughout my constantly busy life, non-striving and sitting with my enoughness. The more I trust myself, the more I am able to settle into these uniquely inspiring states of being.
Benefits for the body: “increased awareness of mental habits, judgments, and anxieties leading to resolutions of unhealthy processes.”
As I reflect from the vantage point of beginner’s mind, I am able to look at situations more objectively. This increases my awareness in a way that liberates me from unhelpful cycles. A critical component of the process is patience with the amount of time that it takes to change a habit, and acknowledging that behavioral change models are gradual.
The Buddhist Neuroscience book, Buddha’s Brain by Rick Hanson, acknowledges that there are multiple phases in cycles of change. These include: unconscious incompetence, conscious incompetence, conscious competence, unconscious competence. An awareness of this can positively reinforce the pivotal work we are doing at each step in the process. Non-judgment can mitigate the shame and guilt that can emerge from perfectionism. This can help us respond rather than react to the awareness of patterns we would like to release. Through flexible thinking, cannabis supports me in letting go of maladaptive mental habits, judgments, and anxieties.
Benefits for the spirit: “creative problem solving-activation, increased connection to intuition, development of a sense of agency in life.”
Cannabis helps me slow down and listen to my body, where my intuition speaks to me. Beginner’s mind nourishes creative problem solving. That’s because when our default thought patterns and processing is temporarily interrupted, it creates space for different ideas to emerge. These ideas may reinforce gratitude for something that you’ve become desensitized towards. Extending generosity towards oneself reinforces worthiness, in a way that supports a sense of agency. Acceptance supports agency. Not as in giving up. But as in acknowledging where one is standing on a map so they can take the next step forward in the direction of their goals. Accepting what is and is not within one’s control requires surrender. This a skill that is helpful in other areas of life that we cannot control.
When mindfulness supports states of mind that nurture creativity, creativity and intentional cannabis use also become synergistic. Recognizing these connections reinforces the power of being present and open. This can facilitate accessing flow states and channels for creativity, growth and holistic wellness.
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