“Ganja” Yoga and “Marijuasana” have come out of the closet, so to speak, as legalized weed for recreational use sweeps the country, most recently in California.
It’s no wonder then that ganja yoga instructors, like Dee Dussault, are “floating on air”.
With classes in San Francisco and Oakland, business is booming and Dussault is hoping to attract more newbie customers with plans to expand her ganja yoga classes to more cities in the near future.
What’s more, legalization now enables her to advertise openly.
Ganja is a Hindi word meaning cannabis.
How does ganja yoga work?
When attending a ganja yoga session, students follow a ritual:
—> Pot is consumed
—> Lots of conversation then takes place
—> Students proceed to the Hatha session – poses from books by Swami Satyananda Saraswati, and Christina Brown’s “The Yoga Bible”
—> The session ends with students taking 30 minutes to sober-up
The advantages of ganja yoga
Dussault compares ganja yoga to “peanut butter and chocolate” and has published a book, “Ganja Yoga”, that explains the benefits and specifics of this exercise regime.
Now, what about Marijuasana?
Marijuasana aims to create the ideal conditions to achieve “a flow state” that engages the mind to move the body while “staying in the zone” by utilizing the relaxing properties contained in weed. Students smoke some pot then proceed to perform a series of slow, sensual, and controlled yoga movements.
Advocates of marijuasana yoga say that when practised, there is no sense of self, times flies, and the student is left feeling amazing.
According to instructors, marijuasana directs awareness to the “feeling of your body from within” and the use of cannabis gives further credence to the healing aspects of yoga because it increases circulation, decreases inflammation, reduces muscle spasms, and relieves pain.
Marijuasana and the Mind
Marijuasana students are told to concentrate and to engage their minds with their breathing. They are then given “descriptive cues”, filled with imagery, that describe the different yoga movements. Their attention is then drawn to their bodies in new ways which help them to conceptualize motion and space in a different way.
Marijuasana and the Body
Movements, known as somatics, help students to perceive their bodies from within with the help of cannabis that affects the nervous system.
Marijuasana and the Spirit
Marijuasana teaches “the relentless promotion of a healthy body” and, with the help of marijuana, students learn to balance movement and relaxation to obtain “an optimal state of consciousness”.
Cannabis Yoga
Combining cannabis with yoga is a practice that has been around for a very long time but with the increasing number of states legalizing weed for recreational use, this practice is gaining momentum.
Cannabis and Capitalization
Expect to see a burgeoning Ganja and Marijuasana Yoga industry throughout the states that have legalized weed.
Expect to see more and more retail stockists of all things weed-related.
If Denver business owners get it right, Colorado could become not only the first state to legalize recreational weed, but also the first state to legalize marijuana clubs that will charge clients entry fees.
There can be no doubt that legalizing weed is having an enormous impact on the American economy, with billions of dollars in taxes already ear-marked to flow into state coffers in the near future.
Wow, mindblowing, this is really cool