John Selby's Blog - Posts Tagged "mindfulness"
Consciousness Expansion / Cannabis for Couples
I'm still often criticized for openly advocating the use of marijuana to enhance compassion, bonding and sharing in deep relationships. But I must stand my professional ground, because this is as very important theme for all of us to openly discuss. Cannabis is growing rapidly in popularity - it's here whether we like it or not. And if we respond positively to its presence in our society, we can maximize its multiple benefits while minimizing its admitted downsides.
When I was 20 and tried pot for the first time, hiding out secretively in my Princeton dorm, I realized (as a psychology student) that marijuana was indeed a remarkable drug, or herb, or whatever we choose to call it. I was an anxious kid in an anxiety-provoking Vietnam-draft world - and yet when I got high, temporarily my anxiety was greatly reduced, my depressive feelings transcended. I could breathe freely for a few hours, and also see myself and my situation with more perspective.
Well, it's taken science and medicine and society fifty years to realize what was obvious even then - cannabis can be a great helpful additive to our national mindset.
But that's not the whole story. Pot has ruined many lives. Especially with people under 20, it seems to interfere with natural adolescent development in the brain. And yes, we can use pot to hide away, to avoid reality and ignore situations that demand our attention.
As a therapist all these years, it's become obvious to me that each of us chooses where to focus our attention, and thus what kind of pot experience we're going to have. This means that we're each responsible for whether grass is a help, or a hindrance, in our lives.
What I've tried to accomplish with the Mindfully High program, books, app and so forth, is to provide anyone who wants it with professional guidance that ensures the high experience is positive and rewarding, rather than negative and a hindrance.
As luck would have it, one of the effects of cannabis is that we become more suggestible - which means we can allow a trusted voice to help aim our attention in directions proven to encourage good times while under the influence. Not only that, we can be guided gently toward focusing in directions that wake up insight, joy, pleasure, and deep heart relating.
With the audio and video and text guidance in the Cannabis For Couples book and High Together app, we've been extremely careful to help aim attention in rewarding and uplifting directions ... and then we get entirely out of the way, so that high couples have total freedom to explore new realms of relating with zero influence from us.
We hope we've developed a guidance-while-high system that's both comforting, and also liberating. The muse of marijuana, to the best of our understanding, is trustworthy given half a chance. Cannabis is almost always a benign influence if approached respectfully and mindfully. I hope that everyone seeking a bit of release, insight, and shared fun while high approaches the herb in this mindful spirit.
Enjoy more discussion at www.mindfullyhigh.com
When I was 20 and tried pot for the first time, hiding out secretively in my Princeton dorm, I realized (as a psychology student) that marijuana was indeed a remarkable drug, or herb, or whatever we choose to call it. I was an anxious kid in an anxiety-provoking Vietnam-draft world - and yet when I got high, temporarily my anxiety was greatly reduced, my depressive feelings transcended. I could breathe freely for a few hours, and also see myself and my situation with more perspective.
Well, it's taken science and medicine and society fifty years to realize what was obvious even then - cannabis can be a great helpful additive to our national mindset.
But that's not the whole story. Pot has ruined many lives. Especially with people under 20, it seems to interfere with natural adolescent development in the brain. And yes, we can use pot to hide away, to avoid reality and ignore situations that demand our attention.
As a therapist all these years, it's become obvious to me that each of us chooses where to focus our attention, and thus what kind of pot experience we're going to have. This means that we're each responsible for whether grass is a help, or a hindrance, in our lives.
What I've tried to accomplish with the Mindfully High program, books, app and so forth, is to provide anyone who wants it with professional guidance that ensures the high experience is positive and rewarding, rather than negative and a hindrance.
As luck would have it, one of the effects of cannabis is that we become more suggestible - which means we can allow a trusted voice to help aim our attention in directions proven to encourage good times while under the influence. Not only that, we can be guided gently toward focusing in directions that wake up insight, joy, pleasure, and deep heart relating.
With the audio and video and text guidance in the Cannabis For Couples book and High Together app, we've been extremely careful to help aim attention in rewarding and uplifting directions ... and then we get entirely out of the way, so that high couples have total freedom to explore new realms of relating with zero influence from us.
We hope we've developed a guidance-while-high system that's both comforting, and also liberating. The muse of marijuana, to the best of our understanding, is trustworthy given half a chance. Cannabis is almost always a benign influence if approached respectfully and mindfully. I hope that everyone seeking a bit of release, insight, and shared fun while high approaches the herb in this mindful spirit.
Enjoy more discussion at www.mindfullyhigh.com
