How CBD Can Take Your Daily Meditation to the Next Level

The world today can create high levels of stress. Whether you anticipate it or not, stress has a way of catching up with you. It’s important to know how to keep going when stress comes knocking.

Meditation is one of the best ways to tackle stress. What if you had a chance to get your meditation to work even better? What if you could use CBD to take your daily meditation to the next level? Improving your meditation using CBD products can help you reach your desired goals even faster, and in a more relaxed way. 

A Breakdown of Cannabidiol (CBD) and Meditation 

Cannabidiol (CBD) is one of the many cannabinoids found in marijuana. Marijuana is famous for its psychoactive effects that leave recipients feeling 'high' after consumption.

However, using CBD products doesn't always mean getting high, as most of these products have insignificant quantities of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). THC is the compound responsible for the psychoactive effect associated with CBD. 

CBD has minimal to no intoxicating effects. It contains only trace quantities of THC, at about 0.3 percent or less.

CBD exists in three primary variations:

Full-Spectrum Oil

Full-spectrum CBD oil has all the cannabinoids in the cannabis plant, including THC, terpenes and fatty acids. A full-spectrum CBD oil goes through the cannabinoid extraction and filtration process without the removal of cannabinoids and other compounds. The presence of these compounds may provide the so-called entourage effect, in which they work together synergistically.

The THC in full-spectrum CBD is not enough to give you the 'high' you achieve if you use raw cannabis. However, when police stop you on the roadside to take a mouth-swab test, THC might show up.

CBD Isolate Oil

CBD isolate contains only CBD, without other cannabinoids, healthy fatty acids from cannabis or terpenes. While some companies sell it as oil, most companies prefer to sell it as crystal or powder.

It undergoes the same extraction process as the other CBD oils. Once the cannabinoids are extracted, the CBD is filtered to separate it. After that, winterization, a chilling process, is done to remove all other chemical compounds.

In liquid form, isolate is mostly used for vaping. Its benefits include affordability and the absence of THC, making it acceptable in states and countries where THC is still illegal. The disadvantage of using it is that you may miss out on the benefits of the entourage effect.

Broad-Spectrum CBD Oil

A broad-spectrum CBD oil has all the other cannabinoids in cannabis but lacks THC. It is the intermediary option between full-spectrum and CBD isolate oils. You will only gain a portion of the entourage effect’s benefits.

Broad-spectrum CBD oil is less common than the other types of CBD oil. It is the accepted version of CBD in areas where THC is illegal. When drug tests are carried out searching for THC, broad-spectrum CBD gets a clear pass.

What Is Meditation?

Meditation is the mind and body practice that helps to increase your calmness and physical relaxation. This in turn improves your psychological balance, your ability to cope with illnesses, and your overall health and well-being.

According to the report “Use of Yoga, Meditation and Chiropractors Among U.S. Adults Aged 18 and Over,” the use of meditation in the U.S. grew from 4.1 percent in 2012 to 14.2 percent in 2017, when the research was carried out. 

This indicates how much the need for meditation to curb stress and alleviate other health conditions has increased. There are many forms of meditation, but most have four common elements in their execution.

• A quiet environment with minimal distraction 
• Comfortable posture, such as lying, sitting or walking
• Focus of attention, e.g., a word or sets of words, the sensation of breath or an object
• An open attitude, allowing distractions to come and go in a natural manner 

What Research Says About Meditation’s Effectiveness

There is evidence that meditation can create healthier stress responses. According to a NCCIH study, meditation helps to activate specific areas in your brain to lessen perception of, and in some cases alleviate, certain feelings.

Though meditation can be effective in handling certain issues, it is not very effective for people with physical limitations. If you have any physical limitations, you might not be able to perform some meditative practices that demand you move around.

The Link Between CBD, Meditation and the Body

One commonality between CBD and meditation is the length of time both have been used globally with the hope of attaining nearly the same results. Both CBD and meditation interact with your body. Meditation involves the brain and nervous system. CBD links to your body through the natural endocannabinoid system.

CBD and the Body’s Endocannabinoid System

The endocannabinoid system is the link our body has with CBD. Any time you take a CBD product, it activates the endocannabinoid system to bring a sense of balance to your body.

The human body, just like plants, has an innate endocannabinoid system, which helps in making cannabinoids. This means our bodies are naturally programmed to use CBD to help in controlling many functions effectively.

Suppose a portion of the best CBD oil gets into an unbalanced body system or a poorly functioning one. In that case, the CBD receptors will identify the cause and release specific enzymes needed to restore balance. 

It is because of our body's endocannabinoid that CBD works perfectly for many conditions. When you take a cannabidiol product or any other cannabinoid in moderate amounts, the endocannabinoid system activates without producing any side effects.

CBD and Meditation

The endocannabinoid system that links CBD to the body works with other organs to balance homeostasis. To maintain this homeostasis, you have to have balanced hormones and chemicals in the brain. However, if you are stressed mentally or physically, your body produces high-stress hormones affecting the balance.

Meditation helps you to regain balance, hence affecting homeostasis in a positive way. Thus, both CBD and meditation work toward the same effect on your state of mind and health.

Does CBD Upgrade Meditation?

CBD boosts the positive effects of meditation on your general health. Any time you combine CBD with meditation, the result is always better. CBD upgrades meditation in the following ways:

CBD Supports a Healthier Stress Response

Too much stress will have a draining effect on your endocannabinoid system (ECS system). Since CBD has a way of effectively supporting the ECS system, you can count on it for a healthier stress-management process. 

CBD Supports a Faster Alleviation Process

Meditation helps to alleviate the perception of certain feelings. The significance is even larger when CBD is in play. With the inclusion of CBD, the transforming power of meditation is increased.

CBD Improves Focus

By themselves, CBD oil and meditation have the capabilities of helping you relax and feel a sense of calmness. If you bring them together, CBD will help meditation achieve more effectively what it already achieves. Since meditation boosts your ability to remain focused, your level of focus improves with CBD's help.

How to Ingest CBD Products That Upgrade Meditation

While CBD products will achieve the same health effects on different people, the time it takes for you to start experiencing those effects depends on the method of ingestion. You should figure out what works best for you before settling for the ingestion options. These options include:

Vaping

Some CBD oil users prefer vaping, as it is the fastest available option to feel CBD's effect on your body. Testimonials from multiple users indicate that it takes approximately 10 minutes to experience CBD's effects with the vaping option. However, there are some concerns in general about vaping and the potential effects that inherently come with inhaling substances. That is why vaping is generally not a recommended form of CBD consumption.

Oral Consumption

Oral consumption is an ingestion method that works well with CBD products that are sweetened. Such products include CBD edibles such as CBD candies and gummies, beverages and capsules.

Since they are ingested orally, they have to go through the metabolic and digestion process before becoming useful to your body. The body filters out a large portion of CBD during the digestion process, making bioavailability stagger between 4 and 20 percent.

The CBD products ingested through this option also take longer to blend in, but they remain longer in the body after that. For this method to be effective, you have to take the products around two hours before meditation.

Sublingual Consumption

The sublingual consumption method involves taking CBD products directly into the bloodstream through your capillaries. This option's bioavailability is lower than vaping, at around 12 to 35 percent, but is higher than that of the oral consumption method.

This method is more popular during meditation because it allows the CBD to directly enter the bloodstream. Some examples of CBD products taken this way include CBD tinctures, sprays and candies.

Effective Use of CBD Alongside Meditation

To maximally enjoy both CBD and meditation benefits, you should incorporate both in your normal routines. Every CBD product fulfills its time frame before revealing its effects on your body. You should choose the product that suits your requirement.

While vaping can provide faster results, it may not have a lasting effect on your body. Edibles, on the other hand, may not have an immediate impact, but will last for longer. You should pick an option that blends with your meditation needs.

Final Thoughts

While plenty of research is already underway and some is concluded about CBD and meditation, a lot still needs to be done. There are many loose ends, and only reliable research can establish solid facts about CBD and its effects on meditation.

That said, the ability CBD has to help your mind focus and create an overall calmness in your body cannot be understated. As CBD improves meditation, it has a hand in helping you restore balance in mind and body.