I am so thankful to have lived through a global pandemic and have had my living family come out the other side intact. I can’t imagine having lost someone and not having been able to be near them. It’s important we all remember the people that were lost.
COVID-19 impacted everyone; there was no way to avoid it. I remember the early days being ambivalent, but that feeling when it took over the news and hospitals started warning of hitting maximum capacity, that’s when it became terrifying.
But time slowly seems to conquer all things that are terrifying, like waves crashing against jagged coastal rock, slowly but surely breaking it down decade after decade, unrelenting in its progress.
Same with life, humans, and society, and so here we are now, smoking weed and reading about weed, just trying to enjoy this fragile thing we call life. It’s not always enjoyable, though.
As with the above-mentioned sorrow, you also have various mental and emotional states in between, with the ones in the middle being the most perplexing of them all.
Usually, when we think about getting high and smoking weed, it’s either A) in a social context or B) as an added-value augmentation of an experience. No doubt in my mind, these are some of the best ways to enjoy the psychoactive benefits of cannabis.
There are other ways that aren’t so common or popularized in film or on social media much, and these include such emo (literally) mental states such as introspection, heightened sensitivity, and sometimes cascades of emotions that seem to spring up out of nowhere.
If that sounds scary to you, that’s not my intention. Weed doesn’t generate entirely new emotions for you out of thin air. It simply interacts with your existing emotional state, especially I’ve found if that existing emotional state doesn’t express itself in your daily routine.
Benefits of Feeling Other Emotions While Stoned
On the whole, it seems these melancholy times are exceedingly outweighed by the giggle-filled happy, calm type of pleasure I usually feel when getting high. Admittedly if I had my way and could dictate my emotional state 24/7, I’d pick the laughing, happy one 10/10 times.
However, life is all about balance, and life isn’t funny all the time.
Cannabis, as odd as it may seem, actually helps draw this out of me, like it’s connecting deep latent emotions to the current semi-analytical thought part of my brain.
It’s almost as if the plant is saying, “Alright, buddy, it’s been great, but let’s dig into the deep stuff a bit.”
Often times though, it isn’t cannabis alone that draws up emotions from the well of time; it is usually in combination with either/or music or television.
Well-produced, well-acted movies and TV shows can easily trigger a flood of awe, inspiration, and even a sense of motivation to be a better person, to work harder, or to cherish those you love even more while you can.
Cannabis, in tandem with sincere media, can precipitate a greater sense of humanity, humbling and reassuring at the same time.
Try watching Stephen Chow’s CJ7 stoned without tearing up at least once. Try watching Street Food Asia without balling your face off at the doggedly simple lifestyles of street food merchants the world over.
Not phased? Think you’re a real tough guy? Well, then, I challenge you to rip a fat bowl of some sweet juicy indica and watch any episode of My Love on Netflix.
Cannabis seems to simultaneously erase the constant micro-social pressures to keep emotional composure at all times as well as augment the “realness” of the characters described in these stories.
The net output, then, is an experience that leaves one truly humbled and content and wanting to express gratitude before it’s too late.
Getting ripped with some very chill (think more lofi and low-key than house or hip-hop) music playing on speakers can lead to some very deep and detailed walks down memory lane, some heavy introspection of who you were, are and want to be.
Oftentimes I set out on these trips more out of curiosity than anything else and ultimately end up trying to explore them laterally to learn more about myself, if that makes any sense. Who was I at this time, what was I doing, and why.
Who did I surround myself and what does that tell me about where I was and where I’m going?
Comparing and contrasting who you are today to who you have been might, at times, be painful and embarrassing. Still, I think it’s critical if you want to take stock and try to evaluate whether or not you are progressing or regressing as a human of earth.
The point I’m probably failing to make here is that cannabis can help block out many of the little worries that pervade our day, like bills, bosses, and babies (both literally and figuratively) that distract us from focused deep thought and reflection.
With all of these little personal dates and appointments and responsibilities and scheduling having their cumulative volume knob turned down, you are better able to single-mindedly explore yourself and your environment in a light untainted by capitalism, societal pressures, or the mosquitos of digital distraction.
Laughing and Crying and Laughing
Perhaps the holy grail of THC tears is when you and at least one other person sync brainwaves and fuse funny bones by bouncing a joke or hilarious hypothetical back and forth, evolving a story and sense of connection to the point of pure emotional release.
At that point, some of the sweetest tears are produced when emotions of elated and rapturous joy mellow out into truly pure worry-free bliss, and for a moment, all the stresses of this world evaporate like rain off a hot asphalt roof.
Why am I sharing all of this? Well, if you are already deep into your relationship with cannabis, you’ve probably experienced some variation of one of the above emotional and mental states. Perhaps there is some communal sort of comfort in sharing these common experiences.
To those who are just beginning their relationship with cannabis, this isn’t some kind of scare story.
In fact, it’s the opposite; feeling a variety of emotions while high is a good thing. Humans are complex, and confining your mental state to one predictable lane isn’t healthy long-run, in my non-medical opinion.
Find Balance Before Seeking Imbalance
This brings me to a necessary conclusion stating that there is a big difference between occasional melancholy and somber reflection and true depression and despair.
If you are feeling the latter, I highly encourage you to seek professional guidance. I need both hands to count the number of close friends and family who have asked for help in the past, and every single one of them said they had received exactly what they sought.
Cannabis is in no way a replacement for therapy or counseling. Get yourself in a mental state that is stable and healthy before worrying about the roller coaster ride of substances like cannabis.
If you are already in a healthily content mental state, cannabis is a great way to peer deep into your buried kaleidoscope of memories and emotions.
In fact, cannabis seems to help unearth memories and emotions that I thought were long lost, and I only realize this when they’re surfaced during an intense edibles and beats headphone session.
I love cannabis most for its unifying community-building nature and second for the augmentation of music, humor, and flavor. But in a close third place, I am appreciative of the other range of less-talked-about emotions it can help present in the mind’s eye.
It’s not all fun and games, and that’s just fine.
