Candice Williamson
The idea of combining CBD and meditation occurs to more and more people as there’s growing evidence that this non-psychoactive cannabis compound is quite a potent medicine. Especially for severe childhood epilepsy and other illnesses involving seizures.
CBD is also thought to be an integral part of a wellness lifestyle. Major cannabis seed producers like FastBuds bet more and more on CBD genetics. The manufacturers of food, drink, and cosmetics put this chemical into every product they can think of. And it was only a matter of time before CBD would be offered in meditation classes.
But do they really work together?
CBD and Meditation Aim at the Same Thing — Anxiety
The use of CBD for anxiety is among the main reasons people take this medicine. The others are muscle aches, inflammation, and poor sleep.
One of the main benefits of meditation is also its ability to reduce anxiety and stress. And if your goal is to calm your nerves, maybe you don’t even need both treatments. Maybe, regularly dosing yourself with CBD will be enough.
If not, CBD can definitely put you in the right mood for meditation.
CBD Before Meditation
Bringing yourself to meditate is tricky. When you are stressed and need the meditation the most, your resources, such as discipline and resolve, are severely depleted. You’re simply too jittery to actually do that Lotus pose and try and calm the jitters.
And this is where CBD can help. Just don’t expect to feel the soothing effects right away. Even if you vape some kind of CBD concentrate, it may take up to 15 minutes to feel the effect. Edibles take even longer—up to an hour and a half.
And it may also take some time for your organism to learn how to respond to CBD. Emerging research suggests that either the number of CB2 receptors or their sensitivity to the substance may increase with repeated use. Meaning that the more you medicate yourself with CBD, the more responsive you become.
The bottom line is: if you want CBD to really help you begin meditating, start taking it days to weeks before the planned session. This will make you really feel the difference.
Does CBD Help Meditation, and Is it a Good Thing if it Does?
Of two major cannabis compounds, it is mostly THC that makes you more focused. However, THC also makes you high which many of you would try to avoid. Luckily, CBD also has an effect on concentration. It is far less pronounced than in THC, but definitely there.
A lot depends on the right dosage, so learn—by trial and error—to manage your CBD intake. Take too little and you might feel nothing, take too much and you might end up having a power nap instead of a meditation. The good thing is that you can’t overdose on any cannabis substance, CBD included. It may take some time to come up with the correct dosage, but at least the experiments are reasonably safe.
So, let’s suppose you’ve hit the sweet spot and have exactly the right amount of CBD in your system to meditate successfully. You are able to turn off stressful thoughts and silence inner monologue, and focus fully on your breathing in and out. Is it okay that you haven’t achieved it in a ‘natural’ way, but with a use of a substance?
Hardcore Buddhists would argue that you should use no crutches on your path to… well, wherever you are trying to get with the aid of meditation. After all, it’s not the destination that matters, but the path itself.
But maybe for a stressed-out Westerner, any aid is welcome—be it a pillow to prop up your aching back or CBD to help you focus. By the way, CBD has anti-inflammatory properties, so it will help with aches, too.
CBD and Meditation: Let the Substance be Only a Temporary Prop
We’d say that CBD’s ability to make you more willing to start meditating and more focused during the session itself is a great thing for beginners. It might be a shortcut, but a useful one. And when you’ve made that first step and actually meditated a couple of times, you may start losing the props and getting into meditation for real.
