Rolling out of bed after a night of restful sleep, you set the scene for your morning yoga sesh. To kick things off, you light some incense. The sweet, woodsy scent of Nag Champa wafts gently through your house. Next, you turn on some soft, ambient tunes to set the proper mood. Then, after unrolling your mat and yoga accessories, you’re ready to begin your practice.
But is your head in the right zen space? If not, perhaps there’s a part of the process you skipped — a step that many people around the world have found beneficial to their yoga practice: consuming a bit of cannabis.
Altering your consciousness prior to yoga may sound crazy to some. But yogis have been combining weed and yoga for thousands of years. In fact, cannabis is even mentioned as one of the five sacred plants in the Atharva Veda, the ancient Hindu text. Once people realized Indian sadhus knew what they were talking about, yoga practitioners began experimenting with ganja yoga, too.
You may find yourself asking why you’d want to do yoga this way. But as it turns out, there are a plethora of benefits people can experience from elevated yoga. For one, cannabis can help you relax by calming the mind, soothing the soul, and allowing you to enter a more meditative space. It can also help you get in touch with your body. Since yoga merges the mental, physical, and spiritual facets of an individual, having a toke or two is a great way to fully sync with the present before jumping onto the mat.
Along with aligning the mind, body, and soul with the moment, cannabis also enhances the ability to dive into a flow. It breaks down self-critical barriers and heightens creativity, allowing yogis to move intuitively from the prana within.
The Kind Pen vaporizer is an excellent stoned-yoga-aid because of the options they provide for dry herb, concentrates, and oils. The convenience, however, is what makes these vapes so handy. Kind Pens are small enough to tuck away, yet powerful enough to elevate you to that flowy sweet spot before your movement session. And once you’re on that level, it’s almost guaranteed you’ll experience the wellness benefits of stoned yoga.
Thankfully, the notion that cannabis consumers are dumb, unhealthy, and too lazy to care about fitness (or anything, really) is starting to change. A study published earlier this year found that the majority of cannabis users who imbibe before or after exercise reported that working out is more enjoyable while stoned, and it speeds up recovery time. Furthermore, roughly half of the study’s participants reported that cannabis actually increased their motivation to exercise.
Before jumping head first into a stoned yoga sesh, however, there are a few things to consider. The first is deciding on a proper dose. Even for the most experienced cannabis consumers, if you’re new to stoned yoga we suggest starting small—maybe a hit or two—your first time, especially with a Kind Pen. Though you’re supposed to get high for ganja yoga, the goal is to keep your feet on the ground. You don’t want to feel like you’re on a magic carpet ride the second you step on your mat. And since the Kind Pen ensures a solid, consistent, and effective toke, it’s a good idea to heed this warning. Remember, you can always puff more if you’re not feeling it enough.
We also recommend doing some research before spontaneously attending a group yoga session while high. The last thing you want is to end up in a class that’s too intense. It’s worth looking into cannabis-friendly yoga studios. They are scattered around the country, so there might be one close to you! This would be the ideal environment to partake in such experiment.
And for those who aren’t looking for a head high but still want to mix weed and yoga, CBD can still yield some of the same benefits, including improvements in blood circulation, reducing inflammation, and relieving pain and anxiety. It’s also a stellar cannabinoid for inducing a meditative state.
So if you’re not into THC but still need to mellow out, you can turn to the full spectrum CBD Kind Carts.
Just be sure that when you’re deciding what to smoke, you go with the most environmentally-conscious option. Unlike a lot of cannabis products that are single-use in design, the Kind Pen is reusable meaning you can enjoy your favorite oil, concentrate, or flower every time and keep the vape hardware from ending up in landfills.
Who doesn’t want to enhance their overall wellness and keep the environment clean? If you choose to give stoned yoga a try, just remember: an elevated headspace creates the ultimate zen space — one that can take your health to the next level.
Namaste.
*This story was sponsored by Kind Pen. For more information on their award-winning vapes, please visit their website, here.
