HOW MUCH WEED IS BEST FOR YOGA?

Cannabis can remove excess noise from your mind, and allow you to be more fully in your body for yoga, and in life, - but only at the right dose. When there’s too much THC, cannabis can create anxiety, dizziness, lethargy, or even paranoia. Here are some thoughts on dosing for Ganja Yoga.

Less is More

Like with any medicine or drug, less is more.

Put another way: You can always add more, but you can never add less.

In my book I write about how my early cannabis experimentation was extremely disturbing, (full-out paranoia episodes at teen parties = yay, lol..).

This was in part due to issues of set and setting (a contained group of folks is infinitely more conducive to a good first cannabis experience than a big teen party, it kinda goes without saying…

It was also in part due to dose, - so learn from me, and avoid huge bong rips, hotAF dabs, or several puffs of a blunt the first time we explore adding Mama MJ to yoga. Especially cause weed nowadays has higher levels of THC compared to days of yonder..

Let’s ease into cannabis like we would any relationship, - with savoring, presence, and curiosity. 

Start with one toke, a low-dose edible, and be patient and not performative, if possible. 

At my Ganja Yoga classes in San Francisco we had a sign that said, ‘Start low and go slow, you can always add more as you go,’ and rarely had an issue with people over-consuming. 

Low And Slow Folks, Low And Slow.

Ok, once we got that main point down, we can get more specific about dose in relation to method of consumption. 

Smoking, Vaping, And Dabbing Doses:

To begin, smoking and vaping/dabbing have a nice fast onset, so you can titrate (monitor the dose) more accurately than other methods. (Beginners can do baby-dabs or take 1-2 tokes). 

Dosing Tinctures:

Tinctures with THC can also get you high pretty fast, because they enter the bloodstream much faster than edibles, which make them another good option for beginners (being able to feel the onset and titrate is key). Nano-encapsulated tinctures are the best of the best for this purpose. Try 5-10mg (though, some people feel 2.5mg to be enough, so experiment).

Instead of swallowing the tincture, place the drops under the tongue and hold for 20-60 seconds, swooshing around to get into the blood vessels, then spit or swallow, your call. If you don’t feel something in thirty minutes, take more next time. 

For A Good Time, Call…

Edibles.

For yoga, they are by-far the best body high, encouraging somatic experiencing and trauma release from the tissues.

And, they can take so long to kick in we sometimes find ourselves dosing a second portion out of impatience, then get stupid-high. (And over consuming edibles is literally the worst, so don’t do it).

If you’re going to explore edibles, know that when the dose is right, it’s the best body-high in the galaxy (truly!), - and I’m super excited for you, but it’s best to start at the lowestand work your way up.

Like with tinctures, start with a 2.5 or 5mg dose or if you’re feeling like you want to try an intermediate dose, go up to 10mg perhaps. Regular cannabis users might dose 15-30mg, but I have friends who like even higher doses.

Hot Tip: Try using the same product, so you can develop a relationship to that brand/strain/dose, before branching out. 

Each edible is totally different, even if the dose was the same, things like whether the THC molecule was nano-extracted or whether the edible has a lot of saturated fat will impact the effect. Maybe use a cannabis diary to jot some notes.

Note: Our tolerance for smoking is not the same as our tolerance for edibles. Start low and go slow with edibles. And, edibles may take up to two hours to kick in. Remember: Over-consuming cannabis, especially edibles is legitimately no fun, so go slow.

(Side bar: I’m not calling these “cannabis overdoses” because you can’t overdose with cannabis to the point of death, unlike most other drugs, so I say “over-consume” instead). 

I’ll close with the reminder that regular low doses of cannabis is a tonic to support a powerful healing system for mental health and wellness, a form of preventative medicine and a dietary supplement for an imbalanced endocannabinoid system, much like vitamins, minerals, amino acids, or omega-3 fatty acid supplements.

Regular, smaller doses are ideal.
On that note, I think it's time to take my super food supplement!
[stops typing to roll a fatty…]

APPRECIATE YOU!
XO D.