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It has been a wild news week – here’s how CBD and weed can help you relax

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Rough weather, indictments and calls for riots, bank failures have dominated the news – all that is missing are murder hornets and an interview from Prince Harry and Meagan.  Maybe it is time to unplug, unwind and chill in a healthy way. Relaxation is “a process that decreases the effects of stress on your mind and body.”

According to the Mayo Clinic, nearly everyone can benefit from learning relaxation techniques. Breathwork and meditation are common relaxation techniques, as is drinking herbal tea or using aromatherapy.  Consider a long walk, yoga or just turning off the news and turning on some calm music.

In the first set of relaxation techniques, you are interacting with your autonomic nervous system to lower your state of arousal. In the second set of relaxation techniques, you are using natural compounds to promote feelings of relaxation. These natural compounds could be anything from lavender or chamomile, to cannabis or CBD.

Interestingly, the compound in lavender that relaxes you is called linalool, which is a terpene that you can find in various cannabis strains.

What does it look like to use cannabis or CBD to help you relax?

It could be a weekend warrior who uses a 1:1 THC:CBD tincture most nights to relax after working at a high-stress job, taking care of the kids, and maintaining a rigorous training schedule. Or a yoga practitioner staying healthy at 70 by using CBD oil to amplify the relaxation brought on by her yoga nidra meditations. Or a young couple who shares a joint before bowling night to relax and be more present in the moment.

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Does Weed Help You Relax?

What is the difference between using weed to relax and using weed to relieve stress? While stress relief and relaxation are interrelated concepts, we are drawing a distinction between these two goals.

When you use weed to relieve stress, you are bringing yourself from a state of mild physical or emotional discomfort, anxiety, or unpleasantness to a normal state. When you use weed to relax, you are in a normal state, and you are using cannabis to banish any remaining tension and sink into a state of deep calm and relaxation. Of course, many Jointly users want to relieve stress and relax at the same time, so these experiences are often chosen together.

So, does weed help you relax? Weed is well-known to produce feelings of calm and relaxation at low doses. According to a joint study from University of Chicago and University of Illinois in Chicago, a low dose of cannabis significantly reduced feelings of stress and promoted feelings of relaxation in healthy subjects. But a slightly higher dose increased feelings of stress.

Higher doses of cannabis may not relax you, as THC has a biphasic response in which low doses relieve stress and promote feelings of relaxation, while high doses may increase stress or even make you paranoid. In general, side effects from cannabis can be mitigated by taking the minimum effective dose you need to get the results you want.

Does Weed Relax Muscles?

Muscle tightness and cramps can be caused by some common medications, by dehydration, or by overexerting yourself. Tight muscles and cramps can be painful and unpleasant, but there is some evidence that weed helps relax tight muscles. Most of the research on how weed affects tight or spasming muscles has been done on multiple sclerosis. While medical marijuana may be part of the treatment plan for multiple sclerosis, we are discussing using weed relax tight muscles from the wear and tear of daily life.

RELATED: Can You Freeze Weed?

Muscle spasms are thought to originate in areas of the brain that control movement, and several of these sites contain high concentrations of endocannabinoid receptors. While the exact mechanisms by which cannabis alters movement haven’t been teased out, the way cannabis affects these brain areas likely plays a role in why so many people find that weed relaxes tight muscles.

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Why Does Weed Help You Relax?

We have determined that a low dose of cannabis may promote feelings of relaxation and that weed does relax muscles, but why does weed help you relax? Weed is great for relaxing because of the wide variety of psychoactive effects produced by cannabis. Remember that the definition of relaxation is a state in which you are free from negative emotion, which allows you to have greater resilience when you are experiencing stress.

Cannabis promotes feelings of relaxation by decreasing feelings of stress and anxiety, elevating your mood, uplifting and energizing your mind, and keeping you occupied in the present moment. Together, this combination makes cannabis a highly effective relaxation tool. To learn all about the different ways cannabis helps relieve mild daily stress or how weed uplifts and energizes your mind, click those links!

But here is a quick overview of why cannabis helps you relax:

Cannabis produces its effects when molecules called cannabinoids interact with your endocannabinoid system (ECS). The ECS is a “ubiquitous system that provides homeostatic balance to the nervous and immune systems, as well as many other organ systems.” The ECS plays a role in modulating everything from sleep, to mood, to appetite, which is why cannabis can produce such a wide range of effects.

The ECS is composed of the endogenous ligands (AEA and 2-AG) also known as endocannabinoids, their receptors (CB1 and CB2), and the enzymes that degrade and recycle the ligands. Ligands and receptors are like keys and locks. When the ligand binds to the receptor, it produces a signal in the cell. To understand why cannabis has such a relaxing effect, we need to zoom in a little bit on how THC affects the brain.

A Deep Dive On Why Weed Relaxes You

Most psychoactive effects from cannabis come from THC interacting with CB1 receptors in your brain. Within the brain, CB1 receptors are expressed on GABAergic, glutamatergic, serotonergic, noradrenergic, and dopaminergic axon terminals. An axon terminal is the end of a nerve fiber that holds neurotransmitters and releases them across the synapse to the target cell. GABA, glutamate, serotonin, noradrenaline, and dopamine are neurotransmitters.

RELATED: Can Marijuana Lower Blood Pressure?

Neurotransmitters are chemical messengers that are released from the axon terminal of a neuron and trigger changes in the target cell.

When you ingest THC, “activation of these [CB1] receptors results in a robust  suppression of neurotransmitter release into the synapse.” In other words, THC interacts with CB1 receptors on axon terminals, which suppresses the release of neurotransmitters. Glutamate is the primary excitatory neurotransmitter and GABA is the primary inhibitory neurotransmitter, and “the equilibrium between GABAergic and glutamatergic transmission provides an appropriate emotional reactivity.” Basically, GABA helps you feel calm, and glutamate stimulates your brain.

CB1 receptors are widely expressed on GABAergic neurons and, to a lesser extent, on glutamatergic neurons. Scientists have proposed that “low THC doses…act preferentially on glutamatergic neurons, whereas high THC doses have been proposed to act also at GABAergic neurons.”

Essentially, a low dose of THC may suppress the release of glutamate in your brain, relaxing you. A higher dose of THC may suppress the release of GABA, leading to anxiety. This reality may explain why cannabis has biphasic effects, promoting relaxation in low doses, but sometimes increasing anxiety in high doses.

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Meditating While High

One of the best ways to relax is to combine your favorite relaxation technique with cannabis. For example, you could try meditating while high. You might wonder, does weed help with meditation? Can you meditate while high?

As you might expect, the best way to enhance your meditation practice with marijuana is to microdose. High doses of cannabis are more likely to cause anxiety or disorientation, which may make it difficult to meditate while high.

RELATED: 5 Tips To Ensure The Perfect High Meditation

Some people find that weed helps them meditate because it helps them stay present in the moment. When mindfulness practitioners are tuning into their environment, they listen to the sounds around them, they feel the breeze on their skin, they smell the air—they tune in to their sensory perceptions and the world around them.

Cannabis is well-known to increase your sensory perception, possibly amplifying your connection to the present moment. If you want to supercharge your relaxation, try meditating while high.

Does CBD Relax You?

Many people find CBD to be more relaxing than THC. While CBD is a cannabinoid like THC, it exerts its effects through different mechanisms of action.

Research has shown that CBD can affect the serotonin system and the ECS in ways that may promote relaxation. For example, levels of the endocannabinoid AEA are correlated with feelings of relaxation, and CBD has been shown to elevate levels of the AEA by inhibiting the enzymes that break it down.

You can incorporate CBD into your relaxation practice in lots of creative ways. For example, you could massage a CBD balm into your feet before taking a relaxing walk. Or you could take a CBD oil capsule before your meditation session. Or you could take a few puffs of a high CBD strain before taking a bath. Both full-spectrum CBD and isolate CBD bolster your endocannabinoid system and can promote feelings of relaxation. Please note that CBD is not an FDA approved treatment for stress and anxiety disorders and we are discussing using CBD to improve your general well-being.

How Much CBD to Relax?

How much CBD do you need to take to relax? CBD has a good safety profile and is well-tolerated in most people from doses of 5mg to 500mg. Of course, everyone is different. The way CBD affects you might not be the same as another person. The best way to find out how much CBD you need to relax is to experiment with different dosages and CBD products and record your experiences on the Jointly app.

Best Weed Strains to Relax

If you have been inspired to add cannabis to your relaxation toolkit, you might be wondering what is the best marijuana strain to relax and mellow out? If you search online, you will find recommendations about Blue Dream, OG Kush—potent, high-THC strains that have a significant psychoactive effect. But before you choose your relaxing weed strain, we encourage you to look at our article Why Jointly is Better than a Strain Finder. In that article, you will learn what strain names really mean and how to use Jointly to discover the most effective products in your area.

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How to Use Weed and CBD to Relax

For many people, cannabis and CBD are the perfect tools to enhance their relaxation. If you want to see if cannabis or CBD can help you relax, use the Jointly app to track and optimize the 15 factors that can impact your weed experience. These 15 factors include your dose, the environment in which you consume cannabiswho you are with when you ingesthow hydrated you arethe quality of your diethow much sleep you got last night, and more.

Jointly is a cannabis wellness platform that helps you achieve your wellness goals with cannabis and CBD. Perhaps you will discover that you feel the most relaxed when you eat a 1:1 weed gummy in the afternoon, after a hard workout.

Our data indicates that Jointly works best when you report at least 10 cannabis sessions. If you only fill out a few reports and then stop, you won’t have enough data to start to see trends and improve how you consume cannabis.

When you use Jointly, you are rating how well a product helped you achieve your wellness goals. Over time, your average ratings should go up as you optimize how you consume cannabis and CBD. Use the Results Tracker feature to make sure your results are improving over time.

How to Find Cannabis and CBD Products for Relaxation

Looking for products that can help relax? Brands and manufacturers have designed a vast range of legal cannabis and CBD products for this exact purpose: lemon balm-infused CBD gummies, vape pens with relaxing blends of terpenes, CBD-rich bath bombs and more. But how do you know if these products actually work? Jointly’s Product Finder feature allows you to look up legal, licensed cannabis and CBD products in your state based on your wellness goals. Select Relaxation and see how other users like you rated a product on a scale from 1-10, based on how well it helped them relax. By reporting your cannabis and CBD consumption, you are contributing important data to the Jointly community and helping Jointly make better product and routine recommendations for you.

Download the Jointly app on the App Store or the Google Play Store to get started on your cannabis wellness journey.



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Cannabis Helps You Enjoy Sunday And Be Ready For Monday

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The weekend is for fun and relaxing – then wham – Monday! Here is how to deal with the Sunday scaries.

A significant number of people experience anxiety on Sundays, anticipating the upcoming workweek, with studies indicating that a majority of professionals, including younger generations, experience “Sunday Scaries” or “Sunday Blues”.  Preparing for the week ahead can be stressful, but incorporating cannabis into your Sunday evening routine might help you relax and set a positive tone for Monday. Cannabis helps you enjoy Sunday and be ready for Monday….here is how.

RELATED: Dating App Says Caring About This Gets More Dates

Start your relaxation routine by choosing the right cannabis product. For evening use, indica-dominant strains are often preferred for their calming effects. Strains like Northern Lights or Girl Scout Cookies are known for their ability to reduce stress and promote relaxation. If you’re new to cannabis or prefer a milder effect, consider a product with a balanced THC to CBD ratio.

Begin with a low dose, especially if you’re using THC-containing products. Research has shown that low doses of THC can help relieve stress, while higher doses might increase anxiety. A good starting point is around 2.5 to 5 mg of THC for most people.

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As you relax, incorporate some light stretching or yoga poses. Cannabis can increase body awareness, potentially deepening your practice. However, be mindful of your balance, as cannabis can affect coordination.

Consider taking a relaxing bath infused with CBD bath products. The combination of warm water and cannabinoids can help ease muscle tension and promote overall relaxation

Find a comfortable position and slowly scan your body from toes to head, paying attention to any sensations. Cannabis may heighten your perception of bodily feelings, helping you release tension more effectively.

Use a guided imagery app or video to transport your mind to a peaceful place. The relaxing effects of cannabis can make this visualization more vivid and immersive.

Practice deep breathing exercises, counting your inhalations and exhalations. Cannabis can help quiet the mind, making it easier to maintain focus on your breath.

RELATED: TikTok’s Double Standard on Marijuana And Alcohol

As you relax, take some time to mentally prepare for the week ahead with a variety of methods to empower yourself of the week without spoiling your Sunday. Make a loose plan for your Monday, but avoid getting too detailed to prevent stress. The relaxed state induced by cannabis can help you approach planning with a calmer mindset. End the weekend  with some positive affirmations for the week ahead. Cannabis can promote a sense of optimism, reinforcing these positive thoughts.

By incorporating cannabis mindfully into your Sunday evening routine, you can create a relaxing transition into the new week, potentially reducing Monday anxiety and setting a positive tone for the days ahead. Start with low doses and pay attention to how different strains and consumption methods affect you. Everyone’s experience with cannabis is unique, so find what works best for you.



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5 Ideas To Have A Fun Single’s Valentine’s Day

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Valentine’s Day is considered a big night for couples – but if you are single, it can be tough…here are some ways to make it fun

It is day of love, candy, silliness and more….but for some, it is a tough day emotionally. It is one of the busiest restaurant days and flowers and candy abound everywhere you look. But what if you are single or taking a break for the big night.  Just because you are single, doesn’t mean you have to hide, rather it gives the chance to do something special for yourself.  Here are 5 ideas on having a fun single’s Valentine’s Day.

RELATED: Science Says Medical Marijuana Improves Quality Of Life

Gather your closest and/or your most fun friends and celebrate with a Guy/Galentine’s Day party. This can be a fun way to spend time with people you love and appreciate. You can play games, share snacks, and enjoy each other’s company without the pressure of romantic expectations. It’s a great way to remind yourself that you’re never truly alone on Valentine’s Day.

Treat yourself to a day of pampering. Book a spa appointment or create your own DIY spa day at home with face masks, bubble baths, and your favorite music. Self-care is essential for mental and physical well-being, and Valentine’s Day is the perfect excuse to prioritize it. Whether it’s a relaxing bath or a rejuvenating facial, make sure you feel loved and cared for by yourself.

Chill out with cannabis and let your body relax.  Watch a movie or lose yourself in music. marijuana taps into our minds in all sorts of ways, many of which seem to positively influence how we perceive things, including music. It also accesses a special neurotransmitter system, the endocannabinoid system, which regulates appetite, pain, mood and memory. The way the plant activates this system explains a lot of the unique effects. The THC in marijuana can increase dopamine release in the brain’s reward centers, leading to feelings of pleasure and euphoria.

Indulge in hobbies or interests. It can a be a chance to spend time iwth a new or existing activity you love, but might night share with others. Whether it’s gaming, cooking, or learning a new language, stepping out of your comfort zone can be incredibly rewarding. You might discover a new passion or talent, and it’s a great way to keep your day exciting and productive

Sometimes, the best way to celebrate Valentine’s Day is by taking a solo trip or exploring new places in your city. Whether it’s hiking a scenic trail, visiting a local museum, or trying a new restaurant, getting out and experiencing new things can be incredibly liberating. It’s a chance to focus on yourself and enjoy and discover new things.



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How Cannabis Can Help You Through Grief

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Whether family, a friend, or a beloved pet, the sadness can be overwhelming. Cannabis can help.

It comes to everyone at some point. In a population-based study of adults aged 40 and older, approximately one third reported they experience severe grief after the loss of a loved one.  It can be a family member, a friend or a beloved pet. Grief was associated with physical and mental health problems and increased use of health services. Additionally, about 7–10% of bereaved adults experience prolonged grief disorder, a persistent and impairing form of grief. It takes time to work through the emotions, but here is how cannabis can help you through grief.

Grief is a complex and deeply personal experience that can leave us feeling overwhelmed, lost, and struggling to cope with daily life. While there’s no magic solution to ease the pain of loss, many individuals have found solace and support in an unexpected ally: cannabis. This plant, with its unique properties and compounds, may offer a gentle path to healing for those grappling with grief.

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One of the most challenging aspects of grief is the intense emotional rollercoaster it often brings. Cannabis, particularly strains rich in CBD, has shown promise in reducing anxiety and easing panic attacks that can accompany grief. By interacting with the body’s endocannabinoid system, cannabis can help regulate mood and promote a sense of calm, allowing individuals to process their emotions more effectively.

Insomnia is a common companion to grief, leaving many exhausted and unable to face each day. Cannabinoids like CBN have sedative-like effects, potentially helping those in mourning achieve the restorative sleep they desperately need. By improving sleep quality, cannabis may contribute to overall emotional resilience and physical well-being during the grieving process.

Grief doesn’t just affect our emotions; it can manifest physically as well. Cannabis has been shown to reduce inflammation and alleviate physical pain, which can be exacerbated during times of emotional distress1. This dual action on both mind and body can provide comprehensive relief for those struggling with the holistic impact of loss.

RELATED: This Natural Cannabinoid Makes You Feel Happy

Unlike some substances that may numb emotions, cannabis has the potential to help individuals stay present with their grief2. It can create a mental space where reflection becomes more tolerable, allowing for personal growth and healing. Many users report that cannabis helps them gain new perspectives on their loss and find meaning in their experiences.

Loss of appetite is a common symptom of grief that can lead to further health complications. Cannabis is well-known for its ability to stimulate appetite, which can be crucial for maintaining physical health during emotionally challenging times

Everyone’s experience with grief and cannabis is unique. What works for one person may not work for another. Starting with low doses and working closely with a healthcare provider or cannabis clinician can help individuals find the right approach for their specific needs.



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