Why Journal?
Have you ever smoked something that melted you into the couch when you wanted to go out, or made a night-out more fun? Taking note in a journal, allows you to reference these nuggets of wisdom in the future to avoid mishaps and guide you to your happy place. Journaling induces creativity and mindfulness, so it pairs well with cannabis, as it makes our busy minds slow down and focus, improving nervous thoughts.
With the booming growth of this industry, our understanding of the cannabis plant has become more sophisticated and matured, around how cannabis impacts our bodies, and can heal or harm us. But with more choices comes more confusion. Options can be overwhelming! So, what’s the best way to nail down your go-to strain, product, or time of day to consume?
That’s why we love our personalized pot-logs. It helps us track and map patterns. For example, recording how incorporating cannabis with your morning coffee routine versus skipping the caffeine altogether (paranoid, munchies, energized, etc.) helps you spot what works and what doesn’t, in both scenarios.
Check out Luna’s Quick Guide to Vape below.
Tracking Use.
Cannabis has 113 known cannabinoids, each with different therapeutic uses. Folks in legal states can now find customized products that isolate the right combination of compounds for specific desired results. Just as food or alcohol affect each person differently, cannabinoid blends rarely work the same way for all.
In this overwhelming weed-world, it helps to have a big-picture view of the factors that impact our experience (e.g. quality of sleep, hydration, other medications, etc). Keeping notes on the ‘mundane’ parts of our days are actually vital factors that determine the effects. This exploratory process helps acquaint us with this mysterious plant!
Tracking my use patterns helped me identify my ideal dose for smoking, vaping and ingesting Cannabis. Favorite products and strains for various occasions as a “blueprint” to understand how different potencies impact me. Tracking my use helped me to best manage the results, just like a nutrition journal, mapping important controls (blood sugar, time of day, mood) to avoid excessive dosing and map my body’s responses.
How does indoor vs. outdoor flower, vaping vs. smoking, or uptake-time for metabolizing edibles change, depending on how full my belly is? Without a reference guide, I can’t observe desired vs. actual results, or remember where I got my favorite products!
Getting Started.
Write daily in a notebook or digital journaling apps with reminders to ensure you keep it handy, and use often! Great online journals specific to cannabis exist as well, with guided entry pages to forecast dose-duration timelines, lab results, and helpful infographics with Cannabinoid and Terpene effects, but in the meantime you can start by recording these four markers:
- Benchmarks: How do you feel before consuming? Mark your levels of stress, pain, anxiety, energy.
- Consumption: What products (strain, brand), what specific method (detail the size or weight), time of day, before/after eating), time to feel effects, and the dispensary.
- Effect: Level of intensity (1-10); When did it begin to fade? Attitude about your experience? How did you feel afterwards? Note any cottonmouth, munchies, aphrodisiac effects.
- Body Care: Amount of food and water in your system, anything unusual you consumed, and any exercise. How much and how well are you sleeping? Hormone changes? Note any sickness, discomfort or allergies, and any medications or supplements.
It’s empowering to be your own healer; whether controlling chemotherapy side-effects, kindling romance, or managing pain and anxiety, your personalized, perfect application is out there — you just need to learn it!
Building upon our budtenders’ recommendations and treatment modifications, you can repeat your best successes — and avoid any potential mishaps.
