Guest Blog Post
How to Use Terpenes to Enhance Meditation
Modern life is often stressful and hectic, and it can take its toll on your body and mind, leaving you anxious and fatigued. Meditation is one of the best and most natural methods of self-care you can use to deal with this, providing some calmness and clarity in your life.
Unfortunately, a lot of people love the idea of meditation but find it quite hard to actually meditate once they give it a try. If you’re looking for a way to make meditation more accessible, enjoyable, and effective, terpenes could hold the answer.
What Are Terpenes?
Before we look at how to use terpenes for meditation or why you might want to bring terpenes into your meditation sessions, it’s important to have a clear understanding of what terpenes actually are.
In simple terms, terpenes are natural compounds that are found in many plants, including the cannabis plant.
They’re the parts that are often responsible for giving plants their unique smells, and scientific research has shown that terpenes can provide a range of therapeutic effects for people who use them.
How to Meditate with Terpenes
Cannabis terpenes can provide a plethora of benefits for your meditative moments, and the best part is that there are lots of different ways to use them. It’s not like you have to follow a strict set of rules; you can experiment with different terpenes and methods to see what works best for you.
An easy way to get started is to pick some cannabis strains that contain the terpenes that seem to suit your mood or desires the best. You can do research online to see what each terpene does and look for example strains to try. You may want to experiment with different strains of cannabis with various THC CBD ratios and see how your body responds in order to find the terpenes that suit you best. Then, simply inhale the strains through smoke or vapor, or consume them in edible form.
Another way to go about it is to purchase terpene blends or isolated terpenes, which are free from the other compounds contained in cannabis, like THC. You can mix many isolated terpenes in with foods, drinks, or even topical creams, or add them to an aromatherapy diffuser in your meditation space.
You can also just simply buy and use some essential oils for your next meditation session. Essential oils usually contain terpenes, as they’re made from plants. You can add these oils to a diffuser and let the pleasant, soothing aroma spread out across the room to help you really relax.
Why Use Terpenes for Meditation
So, why might you like to use terpenes in the first place? What are the actual benefits you can experience by meditating with terpenes? Here are just a few big advantages.
Connect You with Your Origin
Terpenes have been used throughout history, going back to ancient civilizations and peoples around the globe. Mankind has always had a special affection and connection with these compounds, and using them is a great way to connect with your origins and the people of the past.
Provide a Positive, Calm Mindset
One of the best benefits of terpenes in meditation is how they can set the scene or create the right atmosphere for a beneficial meditative moment. They help to get people in a more positive and calmer state, ready to truly reap the rewards of a few precious minutes of meditation in the middle of a tough day.
Deeper Relaxation
One of the main reasons why so many people try to meditate is because they feel the need to relax and let some of their stresses and worries fade away for a while. Having pleasant scents in the air and terpenes floating across your face can really help with this, letting you slip into a true state of total relaxation.
Higher Awareness
Many people also notice that they experience higher states of awareness when meditating with terpenes. So, not only can you feel less stressed out or anxious, but you may also become more mindful and in tune with your surroundings.
Historical Use of Terpenes and Meditation
You might think that the concept of using terpenes for meditation is something new and recent, but the history of terpenes and their therapeutic uses goes back through the ages. For many millennia, people have been enjoying the unique benefits of these natural compounds.
Even if we go back to the dawn of man and the first humans who made fire, for example, they quickly learned that the smell of burning wood and plants could produce certain pleasant effects, soothing their senses or easing their minds.
As time went by and civilizations developed, people took this simple concept further, experimenting with burning a wide range of plant parts, from leaves and roots to bark and berries, in order to see what kinds of aromas and effects were produced.
This is how incense was created, as pieces of plants and resins were gathered together and burned, various civilizations in Europe, Africa, and beyond began to collect and combine different plant extracts and essences.
In some cultures, fragrant plants and essences were given as gifts to the gods, and as time went on, the entire concept of aromatherapy evolved out of the very idea that natural smells and plant extracts could affect our minds and mindsets.
Choose the Right Terpenes
To fully benefit from meditating while using cannabis, it is recommended to seek out terpenes that can assist with your practice. Linalool, a terpene present in lavender, is ideal for promoting bodily relaxation and reducing stress if you have difficulty unwinding. Beta-caryophyllene, on the other hand, is a CB2 agonist terpene that can bind to receptors to relieve muscle tension, inflammation, and pain if you suffer from discomfort and pain. Lastly, if focusing is challenging for you, limonene can help improve your concentration and also enhance your mood while reducing stress.