STARTING UP GANJA YOGA
Want to start or deepen your Ganja Yoga practice? No matter the time of year, the time’s always right for a renewed commitment to your health and wellness,and yet, there’s no time like the New Year, with its crisp, fresh-start feeling!
Experts agree that movement is absolutely-required to maintain physical and emotional health. Whether your movement practice consists of doing poses on a mat, taking a mindful walk, or dancing at full throttle at a club, movement gets us out of our heads and into our bodies. Movement moves stuck energy and unexpressed frustrations, literally shaking-off the bullshit that life throws at us, making space for new energies and experiences.
After any form of embodied practice, whether it be martial arts, yoga practice, or sex, we feel more juicy and alive, especially if we practiced mindfulness (staying present) during the experience of being embodied. The natural buzz that yoga and other forms of mindful movement brings can mitigate some of the anger, hostility, depression, anxiety, sadness, guilt, hopelessness, stress, tension, and repression that are regular components of modern society.
Louder For The People In The Back, Who Think Yogis Spend All This Time On The Mat For Our Physique Or To Attain Postures
Nope..
Over time, our practice of being present and embodied helps us lovingly-release negative energies and habits from our psyches. With mindful, embodied practice, we no longer feel the need to constantly defend our egoic self against enemies -- real and imagined. We soften in our interactions and find more harmony.
This Softening Is Mportant For Good Health, Because Our Adrenal Glands Are Not Designed To Respond To Stress Constantly.
Yet in our culture, we often ask more of them than they can handle. Stress-related disease is all too common. And, as I'm sure you know, only you can cultivate healthy habits to overcome stress. Yoga is here to help. It can bring a sense of optimism, calm, confidence, joy, and loving-kindness, no matter how negative and stressed you were when you rolled up a joint and rolled out your mat. Mindful, embodied relaxation has had an enormous impact on prison populations, so if it works for them, it will work for you.
Plus, -- taking time for yoga practice (of any kind) is a way of saying, “I'm pausing the craziness in my mind, and taking a retreat from the bombardment of the outside world.” In addition, taking time to restore, refresh, and relax gives permission to other people in your life to do the same, thereby creating a culture around you that prioritizes wellness and connecting inward.
If you are interested in the health benefits of merging your cannabis and yoga practice, you are a part of a growing community of yoga practitioners who experience the stress-relieving benefit of weed as it compliments the relaxing effects of yoga, such that both combined are greater than the sum of the parts.
If you’re already a Ganja Yogi, but wanted to go deeper in the practice, you’re also welcome here. After-all, 2024 marks Ganja Yoga’s FIFTEENTH anniversary, and our global community keeps growing! Let’s deepen our practice together!
To help get our year started off on the healthiest start ever, I wanted to offer the five most fundamental and important tips for starting your very own Ganja Yoga practice.
Here they are. Spark one up and let’s get into it!
1. Everyone’s Mind Wanders
Sorry, you’re not unique here. Even Buddha’s mind wandered. And, contrary to popular notions, yoga and meditation aren’t about trying to stop thoughts, they’re just about being mindful of them; to see and accept thoughts with nonjudgmental awareness, before coming back to the present moment and feelings in your body.
It might be hard to believe at the outset, but it really does get easier with practice, even if you have ADHD.
See if when your mind wanders, you can just let the thoughts go, and come back to your breath. Be easy on yourself. After-all, your thoughts have never been told not to interrupt or distract you, so it takes patience and some discipline to bring awareness back to the breath and feel your body instead of giving our attention to our thoughts. Just give yourself permission to unhook from your busy mind, and soon, you will find you surprise yourself with how much easier it becomes.
2. Flexibility = Yoga
You are not too inflexible to do yoga! (And, if you think you are, then you should definitely do yoga, lol..). Most people don't realize that yoga is an inward experience, about feeling and being, not attaining or achieving postures. Contrary to what we see on Instagram, this is 100% the case.
Regardless of your (in)flexibility, there are many movements and postures you can do, and many you should do to regain any lost potential-flexibility.
In fact, if you are already flexible and love yoga for that reason, the invitation is to actually make the majority of your practice about strength, and not flexibility, - since yoga is about balance, and too much flexibility is actually not healthy.
3. There’s No “Bad At Yoga”
Similar to the point above, you can’t be good or bad at yoga. Yoga is connection to yourself, not attaining something someone else could see. Read that line again to really let it sink in.
And as you take to the mat, remember that the purpose of every posture is to be an inquiry, -- a chance to discover more about what’s going on inside of you. Even if it isn’t “easy” for you to do some of the movements or returning the mind to the present, there still is no “good” or “bad,” only evolving and growing awareness. Knowing this, we can let go of ever pushing or straining to attain a visible “pose,” and instead, just be with the sensations the poses bring.
4. Smoke What You Like
Strains of cannabis are hard to recommend, since everyone has such an individualized relationship to the plant.
Keep a “pot log” to notice what strains, doses, methods of consumption, and contexts make for the more rewarding practice for you.
Experiment with edibles, vape pens, smoking, and dabs.
Always start with a smaller dose, and then slowly work up to more if it feels right for you, and be sure to consume organic cannabis when possible.
5. Never pain
There should never be pain in yoga. Sometimes there’s intense sensation or discomfort, but there shouldn’t be burning, stabbing, shooting, or tingling pain due to the postures. (If you’re already in pain when you start your practice, then of course, some pain is to be expected. But if a pose causes pain, then gently release from the shape).
Use props or modify the pose to prevent pain and strain, and always give yourself permission to come out of the pose before the teacher.
Having said that, some soreness may be felt a day or two after using muscles in new ways, which is normal. Heat, ice, and CBD topicals should help the soreness.
To prevent this in the future, be sure to warm up before doing deep stretches or challenging poses, especially if you practice first thing in the morning when the tissues are more stiff.
Joint rotations and dynamic movements are best. Match them to your breath as a warm-up breathing-practice, or try warming up with variations of the pose you’re moving towards, holding less long.
OK, Ganja Yoga superstars, - there you have the foundations for a year of Ganja Yoga Goodness:
Everyone’s mind wanders. It’s about practice, not perfection
You don’t need to be flexible to do yoga
There’s no “bad at yoga”
No pain, whatever strain (two-in-one combo here if you noticed!).
The poses and flows you might do are all less important than these essentials, -- use them as a springboard, whether you're just starting or deepening your cannabis and yoga practice, and be sure to join one of our hybrid livestream Ganja Yoga training sessions, (2024 enrollment now open!), - so you can bring this information to your community!