KEEPING GANJA YOGA CHILL

Cannabis-Enhanced Yoga Is A Thing.

Whether popping up in classes across the country, being mentioned alongside other forms of athleticism in articles about CBD-fuelled fitness, or made into fashion with weed-themed yoga leggings, the pairing of the ancient practice and healing plant has become quite the conversation topic in yoga studios across the country the past couple of years.

Many people are enjoying the anti-inflammatory, relaxation, and creative benefits of cannabis for yoga, and as the first modern teacher to offer public enhanced-yoga practice, I am so happy to see the marriage of humanity’s oldest methods for relaxation and spiritual insight gain momentum and increased acceptance!

(Side note: Thirteen years ago, when I started offering a yogic setting for people to get high and do yoga, I googled and found no other mention of the two, other than Chris Bennett’s insightful writing on the history of yoga and cannabis in ancient spiritual practice in India. Now there are millions of hits when you google it, - how cool is that?!)

As More People Turn To Thc And Cbd To Enhance Their Yoga, It’s Important To Keep In Mind The Type Of Yoga We Are Speaking About When We Speak Of Enhanced Practice.

That way, we can make sure we’re getting the most out of this sacred, awesome pairing, no matter if we’re going to a canna-yoga class in our city, doing Ganja Yoga Online classes from home, or smoking up and stretching at the park.

It’s a myth that yoga is about athletics, has to be physically-challenging, and is only for certain bodies.

It’s been awesome to see all these articles about weed-fuelled fitness coming out. Ganja Jogging, Weed Weightlifting, and Marijuana MuayThai are the talk of the town, (okay, I made that last one up, but still…!).

With former NFL athlete Ricky Williams and other professional sports stars talking about how going green makes their work-out even better, it’s all about the athletic advantage that cannabis can offer.

I have nothing wrong with this of course, except when the articles mention yoga alongside all the other workouts, and show images of fit-AF people doing very hard yoga poses, perpetuating the idea of yoga being a hard physical practice, suited for a specific type of “yoga body.”

In Our Culture, We Unconsciously Run An Internal, Unconscious Program Of Contraction As We Go About Our Busy Lives. 

Many of us are more rushed, tired, stressed, distracted and unsatisfied than we know we should be.

Everyone knows that stress is the leading cause of premature death, yet anxiety disorders, depression, frustration, and feelings of disconnection - are all too common.

Yoga Can Be, Should Be, A Balm To Soothe All That.

It’s a place for letting go of our mass cultural contraction, … a time for surrendering and softening the muscles, an occasion to drop the mind and body of all the grasping and depleting over-thinking and over-performing we all do.

Yoga Wasn’t Really Meant To Be A Work-Out In The Way We Think Of Workouts.

It certainly doesn’t have to be something you dread, or something you think you should do after eating too many carbs..

Yoga doesn’t even have to make you break a sweat.

It doesn’t even have to be physical (In another post I’ll share about how yoga is about so, so much more than the poses….).

Once we add cannabis, the yoga should be even chiller. Think: A lot, lot, lot easier and more accessible than most yoga-studio yoga.

I Hear The Real Athletic Types Out There Yawning In Boredom At The Thought Of Doing Low-Dub Grandma-Friendly Yoga. 

If you like yoga classes with the word “power” in the title, and find the softer version of the ancient practice boring, see if you can be up for the internal challenge that yoga offers.

Not of working your muscles, but of tapping into a more relaxed engagement with your body.

Be still. Relax.

Especially when high.

Instead of brutalizing your body in yoga, see if you can… just be with it, - where it is now, - in simpler, more basic poses.

See If You Can Find Pleasure, Curiosity, And Peace, In Stillness.

Evoke yogic sensitivity, which cannabis engenders, by doing less on your mat, not more.

No grunting, no punishment, no contraction, just bliss and yummy relaxation, which is available to anyone who has a body.

Now That You Know This, You’re Well On Your Way To Making The Most Of The Pairing That Got Ancient Indian Yogis Flying High Thousands Of Years Ago.

Have fun, and know that you’re part of a movement of hundreds, if not thousands of yoga practitioners, - all across the world doing the very same thing!

APPRECIATE YOU!
XO D.