Intention.
Well, let’s be honest, it isn’t a sexy word. And when most people first think of something after hearing the word intention, they usually think about the accountability and reasoning behind things. Which, if we’ve ever started to identify where we could be held more accountable, it usually ends with a smooth transition into a distraction. Face it, thinking about our intentions with things or people, really gets us questioning our motives and agenda. When we start to ask ourselves why, sometimes we reveal some hard truths. Sometimes we feel like we can’t think much deeper on the subject. This is evidence of a lack of transparency with ourselves that can result in subconscious motivations and behaviors that we aren’t fully aware of or in control of. Our everyday decisions can be intentional if we put some thought and deliberation into them prior. Consuming cannabis is among these decisions where people can be intentional and I would like to share a few things on this topic that I believe is worth looking into.
You might be thinking, “If I am physically sick or in pain, is my cannabis use not intentional”? This is a valid question. The answer is, absolutely, your cannabis use is intentional, but for the sake of this article, I am speaking to the individuals that use cannabis as a mechanism to achieve other states of being that don’t consist of healing physical symptoms. I’m talking about people using cannabis to let more ideas flow out, get more creative in a project, the moms that find more patience and the dads that connect more with their kids. I am talking about using cannabis for things that have to do with a mind, body, soul connection. This article is talking to the people that receive a different, mostly better, experience with whatever they are doing when they consume cannabis.
Examples of cannabis use cases:
- Connect with themselves
- Connect with others
- Connect with nature
- Creativity boost
- Lucidity
- Disconnect
- Tranquility
- Focus more
- Playfulness
- Learning
- Finding Joy in things
Let’s talk about identifying our intentions with cannabis consumption.
Think about the context in which you are experiencing the medicine in. What are some things you are doing before or after? What are you doing during the time you are medicated? This will help you discover your intentions behind your cannabis use in certain circumstances. Often, we know cannabis helps based upon the success we have during the experience of making x better, but a lot of us struggle to cultivate our experiences so that we get the most out of them. There hasn’t been very many people “teaching” consumers how to efficiently use cannabis or how to use cannabis as a tool for construction instead of distraction. If we could only take some time before we consume so that we can align our actions with our desires, it goes back to the word I used previously, intention.
Setting an intention isn’t something you hear a lot when it comes to consuming cannabis. Traditionally, setting an intention when consuming a “drug” has commonly been used in psychedelic medicine. Simultaneously, cannabis and psychedelic drugs are disrupting western medicine practice and educating health professionals on what makes them so effective in clinical trials. The emerging medical cannabis field has put an extreme emphasis on the health benefits to the ECS and the body in general with a few exceptions of some attention being put on psychological health concerns like PTSD, depression and anxiety.
On the other hand, the emerging psychedelic medicine industry has promoted the “set, setting, dosage” mantra throughout their education efforts and has forced a distinction between the categorized, psychedelic medicines and cannabis. Set, setting and dosage are really three words that comprise a sort of “framework” for health professionals taking a hard look at psychedelic medicine. One individual, Daniel McQueen, argues that the same “framework” that is used when guiding someone through a psychedelic medicine journey, can be used when simply consuming cannabis. And it can be a significant difference in effectiveness just from a few things done differently before consuming and after consuming cannabis making the experience psychedelic-like.
McQueen runs Medicinal Mindfulness, a psychedelic therapy center that teaches people how to utilize cannabis to induce a psychedelic experience. When I came across Daniel, it was from his book, “Psychedelic Cannabis: Breaking the Gate” and after reading the title, I instantly became curious about what on earth this guy was trying to sell. After a few discussions with him, I really started to resonate with what he was doing. Just from my own personal experience with cannabis, I knew a psychedelic experience was possible.
Daniel and his team coach guide people though cannabis assisted psychotherapy and mindfulness practices to enhance experiences with cannabis. This, to me, is what intention can look like. In my interview with Daniel, he stressed the importance of intention with any psychedelic medicine for a heightened and effective experience. By setting an intention with cannabis, the user is able to induce a psychedelic experience that can come with great healing of the mind, body and soul.
Medicinal Mindfulness is one example of where you can take intention when consuming cannabis. The alternative to lacking intention when consuming cannabis is unconsciously consuming cannabis. Mindlessly consuming cannabis, or any substance for that matter, can lead to undesired patterns and cycles that the longer we keep up, the harder they are to break. Sometimes we use cannabis as a distraction, a disconnection. Sometimes we use it as a bandage to our suffering, an escape. Whatever we are currently doing now, is likely falling short of what we COULD be or how our experiences COULD be. With more intention behind us, we are sure to achieve our desired outcomes when we are consuming and are less likely to fall victim to unproductiveness with our medicines.
Especially in the era of COVID19 and the global lock-downs, more people are consuming cannabis at home and too many of us are feeling like we are just coping in the times. Too many of us are feeling like we are just burning to burn and are forgetting to learn. My belief is that these plants have their own intelligence to them. As far fetched as it may sound, there is a strong indication that the plants on earth, psychedelic or not, have more than one thing to teach us as humans. Intentional use doesn’t just start and stop at cannabis, it is a mentality, a way of life.
Consider adopting an intentional approach with your cannabis consumption, consider there could be a more favorable experience rather than your “usual” cannabis experience. Consider you don’t know nearly enough about the plant and its offerings and that you are a forever student of this world and its many existing species. I am really looking forward to the science and research catching up to the healing potential of cannabis but what I am looking forward to the most is the point in time when more people start viewing these plant medicines as extreme tools that not only will help raise the collective consciousness but will contribute to healing the tortured minds of many on this suffering planet. We can’t heal the world without healing the people.
