What is Cannabis Enhanced Yoga 🍃

Cannabis enhanced yoga is an ancient ritual that has been practiced for thousands of years.

To understand cannabis enhanced yoga we must first understand what yoga is.

Yoga is not just stretching or exercise. The literal translation of yoga means to “yoke” or to bring together.

What we do in a yoga class are called “asanas,” or postures. This sequence of postures was actually created to prepare the body and mind for meditation.

Herein, we see an interesting connection, the connection between body and mind.

Ask yourself, why would we need to “prepare the body” for meditation. It’s because the body is a reflection of the mind. Or taking it a step further, the body is the mind.

The Body is the Subconscious Mind

In her TED Talk, Amy Cuddy describes how in her role as a Harvard business professor, she noticed the stark difference in posturing between men and women.

For example, she tells us how men would come into the class and take up a lot of space; they would sprawl out in their chair, take up a lot of room, and raise their hands high when answering questions.

Women in contrast were typically the opposite; they would make themselves smaller. They would keep their heads down and be slightly slumped over. When answering questions, they would timidly raise their hands.

Cuddy goes on to explain that in nature, “non-verbal expressions of dominance” or power posturing is about making yourself big, taking up space, and opening up.

She then shows several examples from the animal kingdom of mammals, non-mammals, and humans in dominant or powerful positions. In these pictures, the subjects are all taking up a lot of space, they are open, chest up, head up, and arms wide or overhead.

The opposite of this, is making oneself smaller. Just think of a depressed person. What kind of posture do they typically have?

That’s right, head down, shoulders slumped, they are making themselves smaller.

(Depressed, closed posture.)

(Confident, open posture.)

Change the Body, Change the Mind

There is a famous study that has proven that holding a pencil in your mouth for 60 seconds can make you feel happier. This works because it forces you to smile.

Cuddy takes this concept further and changes not just the position of the mouth, but the posture of the entire body.

Cuddy explains how she wanted to address the issue described earlier where her female business students were not doing well in class due to a lack of confidence (competitive business is graded on participation and these women were holding back and therefore not participating as much as the men).

In her words, she wanted to find out if “our nonverbals govern how we think and feel about ourselves.” In other words, does our posture affect our emotional and mental landscape?

It turns out that it does! Cuddy shares the results of a study she conducted where her subjects held a power pose for two minutes. Her subjects took up a lot of space and opened themselves up.

High testosterone and low cortisol are associated with high power; these are the two markers Cuddy used to measure the results of her study.

Before and after holding these power postures, the subjects had a saliva sample taken. The results are fascinating; after holding one or two of these postures for just two minutes, subjects testosterone went up by about 20% and their cortisol is decreased by about 25%.

What this implies is that there is a clear connection between the body and mind.

Taking this further, we can hypothesize that rather than spending 20 years in talk therapy, it may be more efficient to change the body in order to change how we feel.

The connection between body and mind is not a new concept. In her book, The Body is Your Subconscious Mind, Candace Pert says,

“Most psychologists treat the mind as disembodied, a phenomenon with little or no connection to the physical body. Conversely, physicians treat the body with no regard to the mind or the emotions. But the body and mind are not separate, and we cannot treat one without the other.”

Bioenergetics

There is also a form of therapy called “bioenergetics” that was developed by Wilhelm Reith. “Bioenergetics is a dynamic form of therapy based on the teachings of Wilhelm Reith. It links physical pain, muscle tension, and postural disorders with state of mind, demonstrating that suppressed emotions, unhappiness, and anger can block energy flow and cause physical distress.” - Alexander Lowen.

Release, Rewire, Recreate

Okay so what does this all mean? I’ve provided several examples of how the body affects the mind. The takeaway here is that we can create lasting change by changing the way we posture ourselves; by releasing subconscious holding patterns.

Clenched jaws, a clenched butt, tight hips and belly, shoulders hiked up, frowning faces, slumped posture, all of these are chronic holding patterns that we unconsciously carry in the body.

If we can become aware of these unconscious holding patterns, we can release them. When we release these holding patterns and adopt a new way of posturing we can change not only the way we feel in the present moment, but ultimately the trajectory of our lives.

Cannabis Helps us Feel

So finally bringing this back to cannabis enhanced yoga, how can this practice help facilitate this process?

Ganja (weed, cannabis, pot, marijuana) makes us more aware of our bodies. It helps us become aware of the unconscious tension in our body, especially when the plant is used with intention.

Pairing marijuana and yoga/movement allows us to feel, identify, and release unconscious tension in our body. The practice helps up to adopt new ways of posturing. In turn we create a new self and a new life.

I will write about how marijuana enhances awareness of the body in another article.

For now I will leave you with some practical takeaways.

Summary

To summarize:

• The body is the subconscious mind
• The way we position our body affects how we feel
• Adopting powerful, open positions can have a positive effect on how we feel
• Marijuana makes it easier to become aware of the tension in our body - it helps us relax
• Intentional use of marijuana can guide our heightened awareness, leading us to make positive physical changes and therefore experience positive mental changes

In another article I will explain how to go about practicing cannabis enhanced yoga.

If you’ve made it this far, thank you!

Here’s some takeaways:

• Holding a posture where you take up a lot of space will positively impact your emotional wellbeing - if you assume a physical position of power, you will have a mental, emotional experience of power
• “Fake it until you become it - Amy Cuddy

Namaste 🙏

Joshua Jones
Grappling Philosopher