6 Creative Ways to Enhance Your Cannabis Experience

If you’re a cannabis user, you may sometimes find yourself getting bored with your regular cannabis routine. Doing the same thing every day just gets dull after a while, even if that “same thing” is enjoying some excellent marijuana. So if you’re getting bored with your cannabis routine, what should you do? We recommend shaking things up and getting creative with how you consume your cannabis. If you want to liven up your daily routine and enjoy cannabis in a new way, read on. Below, we’re sharing 6 creative ways to enhance your cannabis experience.

1. Mix it Up: Try Different Cannabis Products

This is perhaps the easiest way to shake up your daily cannabis routine: get some new products to try. This is an especially good idea if you tend to use the exact same cannabis product in the exact same way every day. Adding a bit of variety to your collection of cannabis products can help make each day a bit more fun and unique. And, on top of that, it might just help you find a new product you love but never would have tried if you hadn’t branched out.

If you’re thinking of trying some new cannabis products, you have plenty of options. One thing to consider is buying a wider variety of products within your favorite cannabis category. For example, if you usually smoke flower, grab a variety of new strains instead of your old go-tos. Or if you usually vape, branch out and try some new flavors. Then, another option is to experiment with the type of cannabis product you use. For example, if edibles aren’t your usual method of cannabis consumption, you can grab some edibles and incorporate them into your routine. Or, maybe pick up a cannabis tincture and try using it occasionally instead of smoking your go-to hybrid, Sativa, or Indica strain of flower.

2. Eat a Mango

This tip may seem strange if you’ve never heard about how mangoes and cannabis interact. But trust us when we say that mangoes and marijuana are a match made in heaven. The mango fruit contains myrcene, a terpene that gives the mango its fresh, citrusy fragrance. But in addition to smelling delicious, myrcene interacts with cannabinoids like tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD). When you eat a mango, the terpenes within it immediately enter your bloodstream. Then, when you use cannabis, those terpenes can interact synergistically with cannabinoids like THC and CBD, enhancing their effects. So, if you want to enhance your cannabis experience, consider eating a mango. A good rule of thumb is to eat your mango an hour or two before you use cannabis.

3. Get Cooking

Cooking with cannabis is one of the best ways to infuse creativity into your cannabis experience. Trying out new recipes (or even making up your own!) is a lot of fun, not to mention delicious. Then, after each recipe is complete, you’ll have an exciting new way to use cannabis ready to go in your kitchen.

If you’ve never cooked with cannabis before and you want to ease into it, we highly recommend making cannabutter as your first recipe. Making cannabutter is easy and this cannabis-infused food is super versatile. You can top foods with cannabutter or use them in different cannabis recipes. If you’re looking for a great cannabutter recipe, check out the one we shared in our Ultimate Guide to a Cannabis-Infused Thanksgiving.

Then, if you’re ready to go beyond cannabutter, the sky’s the limit in terms of the cannabis recipes you can try. You can search online and find a recipe for virtually anything you can imagine, including everything from classic cannabis brownies to unique options like cannabis plant pesto. Or, you can grab a great cookbook and start working through a more curated selection of recipes. Here are some excellent cannabis cookbooks that we recommend:

• Edibles by Stephanie Hua: Stephanie Hua’s Edibles features a collection of bite-sized, low dose recipes to help you make your own delicious edibles at home. This cannabis cookbook is also a wonderful resource for those learning how to make base ingredients, since it includes recipes for things like cannabis-infused oils, butters, honey, and maple syrup.
• Bong Appetit from the Editors of Munchies: Bong Appetit can help you make cannabis a part of every meal, as it features an array of well-crafted, easy-to-follow recipes in every category. Some examples of the delectable recipes within this cookbook include Double-Lemon Roast Chicken, Green Mac and Cheese, and an Adult Celebration Cake.
• The 420 Gourmet by Jeff the 420 Chef: Have a taste for the gourmet? The 420 Gourmet, written by celebrity chef Jeff the 420 Chef, features an array of decadent cannabis-infused dishes. Jeff’s speciality is creating upscale dishes that neutralize the taste and smell of cannabis. So this one is a great option for foodies and for those who like the effects of cannabis, but don’t love the taste.

4. Incorporate Cannabis Into Your Self-Care Routine

As the legalization of recreational and medical marijuana has spread to more and more states across the United States, new types of cannabis products are being created all the time. And one blossoming product category that you may not have tried yet is spa and skincare products. Things like cannabis-infused bath bombs, lotions, body scrubs, and massage oils are a fun new way to use cannabis. And they’re also a wonderful way to elevate your self-care routine. So if you’ve never tried a relaxing, cannabis-infused bath bomb or lotion, now’s a great time to mix up two routines at once: your cannabis routine and your self-care routine.

If you’re a DIY-er, another fun, the creative thing you can do is make your own cannabis-infused skin care or bath products. As with cannabis-infused food recipes, you can find many exceptional cannabis-infused product recipes online. You can also seek out a useful how-to book that can help you make your own cannabis spa products at home, like The Cannabis Spa at Home by Sandra Hinchliffe or DIY CBD by Joan Ross.

5. Get Physical

Love to work out? If you haven’t already tried it, consider incorporating cannabis into your fitness routine. Many people love using cannabis before or after exercise, as they say it can both improve their work out experience and help with post-workout recovery. Wondering how cannabis could improve your exercise experience? While there hasn’t been much research done on the relationship between cannabis and exercise, one 2015 review found that cannabis is linked to greater feelings of motivation and enjoyment of exercise. This recent study posited that this could be because cannabis may activate brain pathways that are related to feelings of reward and pain response.

While we don’t have any hard scientific evidence that proves cannabis can enhance a workout, there is plenty of anecdotal evidence out there from cannabis enthusiasts who say they enjoy using cannabis pre- or post-workout. So if you’ve never tried using cannabis before or after working out, consider incorporating it into your routine and seeing how it makes you feel. Do be mindful, however, not to use too much cannabis if you’re going to be using it pre-workout (you probably don’t want to experience intense psychoactive effects while you’re running or lifting weights). And be sure to select your pre-workout strain carefully, since you’ll want to look for an uplifting strain that’s good for activity and avoid strains that will have you sinking into your couch.

6. Start a Cannabis Journal

As you try out new cannabis strains, cannabis products, and ways of using cannabis, it’s a great idea to also keep a cannabis journal. Journaling is a fun creative activity in general. And journaling about your cannabis experience can be both enjoyable and useful since it can help you keep track of what you’ve tried, what you like, and what you don’t like.

How you journal about your cannabis experience is entirely up to you. You could keep a traditional freeform writing journal or perhaps start a cannabis bullet journal. Then, another option is to keep more of a “score-card” type journal. With this option, you can just jot down some short notes on what you’ve tried, when you tried it, and how you liked it. If you’re keeping a score-card-type journal, you can also consider keeping a master chart on one page of your journal that will give you an overview of your cannabis experience at a glance.

Final Thoughts On Creative Ways to Enhance Your Cannabis Experience

There you have it: our list of 6 creative ways to enhance your cannabis experience! We hope this list has been helpful as you look for ways to make your cannabis experience even better. As always, if you have any questions about cannabis or if you’d like a personalized product recommendation, please don’t hesitate to reach out. You can ask us questions online through our website or you can call an Essence Dispensary location to speak with an Essence staff member! Our friendly, knowledgeable employees are always here to help improve your cannabis experience.