Mindful Parenting: 5 Ways to Incorporate Cannabis Into Parenting Tactics

Parenting is hard. This is an undeniable fact. There is no guidebook. The rules and landscape are always changing. Not to mention the obstacles put forth seem to evolve daily. This doesn’t stop parents from giving it their all each and every day while trying to raise their children to be the best humans possible. Did you know that there is a natural plant that is now legal in many places that could be of great value to you as you navigate the ever-changing path of being a parent? That’s right; cannabis could be very beneficial in your mission to remain mindful while parenting. Let’s explore five reasons why many parents are choosing to utilize cannabis as a tool in their parenting repository.

Increased Patience for Mindful Parenting 

It’s been said that patience is a virtue. When trying to raise little humans into respectful, productive members of society that will one day raise a family and hopefully do the same, it is sometimes very hard to remain patient. That is because every day, it can seem there are a million and one battles that have to be won in order to get even the simplest of tasks completed. This can weigh heavily on parents. Not to mention the emotional, physical, spiritual, and financial responsibilities that parents have, as well as them trying to maintain their own sanity, spend time with their significant other, have social lives, take care of the home, car, bills, well… you get the point.

No matter how stressful life can be, though, many parents would agree that our stress as parents should never be reflected on to our children in the way of us losing our patience. While millions of parents have a cocktail at the end of the day, or some many times throughout the day, and others opt to have a prescribed chill pill, others turn to or are looking for holistic options.

This is where cannabis can be a very valuable tool in your repository for keeping practicing mindful parenting and keeping a cool demeanor throughout your likely very stressful days. Many parents, including myself, choose to microdose with cannabis throughout the day to find balance amongst the chaos we so dearly love. By either hitting a bowl or joint once or twice here and there throughout the day or consuming a low-dose edible, you can maintain your patience while remaining clear-headed.

Enhanced Creativity

Some parents are creative geniuses who make entertaining their three littles under the age of 5 a breeze, while others are quite the opposite. For those that struggle with keeping your littles entertained, you may just be surprised at how far a little microdosing can take you. While some studies show that cannabis increases creativity, others have concluded that cannabis doesn’t increase creativity but rather allows you to be open-minded enough to access and utilize the creativity that you already possess. Whichever is the case, cannabis can help to get the creative juices flowing, helping you to ultimately laugh more and create not just more art but also more memories with your littles! Cannabis can be a helpful tool for mindful parenting when you want to let loose a little.

Mindful Parenting With Emotional Regulation 

One of the greatest tools, in my opinion, that we can give our children is guidance to regulate their emotions properly. While all emotions are valid and are worthy of being felt, it is the belief of many, including myself, that it is important that we do not live within the commonly assumed negative emotions such as sadness or anger. We must feel them and move forward. With this also comes the necessity of not allowing your emotions to influence the energy or lives of others. This is something that is hard to do for adults, and it is even harder for children that are still lacking in the proper developmental aspects to do so. This makes mindful parenting even harder. If only there were a magical herb provided to us by mother nature that could help us to respond rather than to react, to converse rather than scold, to ask questions rather than to make assumptions. Oh, wait, perhaps there is.

I have been a long-time consumer of cannabis; however, upon becoming a parent, my consumption habits changed, and so did my respect for just how valuable of a tool cannabis can be within many aspects of our lives. I am still a daily cannabis consumer. I do not, however, consume cannabis to get high. I find cannabis to help me be balanced in every aspect of my physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being. This includes the ability to regulate my emotions, something that is not only valuable as a human being but even more so when you are responsible for helping children on their path to being able to regulate their emotions as well.

Better Overall Health

Parenting comes with enough obstacles and challenges as it is. However, when parents are also facing health problems, these aspects can be intensified significantly. While we aren’t saying cannabis can fix everything, it is undeniable that our body’s natural endocannabinoid system plays a vital role in our overall well-being. Whether your cannabis consumption is deemed legal through retail legalization or you being a medical cannabis patient, when you consume cannabis, your endocannabinoid system and body are being nourished by the many cannabinoids, terpenes, and other phytonutrients found in cannabis. This means that you are nourishing a system that will ultimately help you feel better and have overall better health. Let’s face it; to practice mindful parenting, we need to be in the best health possible, not for ourselves but also for the sake of our children.

In Lieu Of Pharma

A large portion of individuals in America are on some sort of medication that they take either daily or intermittently that is prescribed, and this includes many parents. Unfortunately, every pharmaceutical medication on the market comes with a number of side effects — some of which are quite extensive, and severe.   Many conditions, as we are seeing today, can be effectively managed with cannabinoid therapies. From anxiety, depression, nausea, vomiting, and insomnia to epilepsy, cancer, Alzheimer’s, and much more, we are seeing people benefit from the use of cannabis. By choosing cannabis over pharmaceuticals, you are choosing a healthier and safer option, one that doesn’t come with a lingering list of side effects, only ones that can be cured with food, hydration, a nap, or simply a little time. Mindful parenting doesn’t have to mean medicated parenting.

Key Takeaways

This article in no way is intended to give the idea that consuming cannabis all day, every day, is a great mindful parenting tool, though, for many with a high tolerance, it can be. However, when used mindfully, responsibly, and intentionally I truly believe that it can help us to find balance and ultimately help us to be more mindful parents.