The Art of the High Tutorial 2: Changing Your Attitude, Setting Your Goals

How do you feel about getting high with cannabis? What does it mean for you to get high? Do you want to simply take a break and relax? Forget about your problems? Or do you want to intensify your taste experience of eating a great meal? Do you feel like the high can give you something valuable, for instance, a better focus of attention, or an intensification of beautiful experiences? Or do you rather feel somewhat guilty for getting high? If so, why? How do you evaluate your use, and how do your friends see it?

You must reflect on your attitude towards getting high. It will help you to come to a better understanding, also, if getting high is something that can positively add to your life, or if it has become an escape mechanism or a habit that negatively affects you or others.

If you choose to elevate your mind with a cannabis high, you should do so with a positive attitude and some previous thoughts on your goals. These goals will evolve with your use. At first, you may use a high to feel a certain kind of euphoria, to relax, and to be in the here-and-now. As you get more experienced, though, you may want to explore how a cannabis high can enhance your ability to see new patterns in life, work creatively, revive long-forgotten memories, or come to introspective insights about yourself. This is a mindful journey that involves your own experience with cannabis. It will tremendously help you to hear from other experienced users what kind of mind enhancements they have witnessed during a high and how they avoided pitfalls and risks of cannabis use.

Here are some things to consider when you reflect on your attitude and your goals toward the cannabis high:

(1) Shame Issues

Shame about your cannabis use is a clear sign that you need to reflect on your use. You need to clarify for yourself whether the high is something that negatively affects your life. If this is true, you need to re-think your use. Get help from friends, or even professional help from a therapist.  

Often, I hear from users they feel ashamed even though they are convinced the cannabis high enriches their lives in a deeply meaningful way. Well. Why? Because cannabis is a “crutch”? If a guitar as a creative tool helps you to create great music, would you consider the guitar a crutch to your musical abilities? If you have figured out to use the cannabis high as a tool to enhance your creative life or to see new patterns in an area of your interest, why would you consider it a crutch? Begin to value your high for what it can do for you.

(2) The Experience of Others

For some lovely experiential reports on how to use cannabis to enhance your life, check out my late friend Lester Grinspoon’s website marijuana-uses.com. It contains an inspiring collection of detailed reports and essays of users who felt the cannabis high enhanced their lives in various ways. As you will learn about these personal experiences you may find inspiration for your use. This will help you to re-adjust your goals, or to set entirely new goals for your use.

(3) Learning about the Art of the High

If you want to use a high for various mind enhancements, such as for a stronger attentional focus, or an enhanced ability to understand behavioral patterns in yourself or others, you should be prepared to climb a ladder of difficulty. Some experiences, like the intensification of sexual experiences, may come very easily during a high. Other enhancements, however, need more control and knowledge from your side. Cannabis is a tool, and only if you learn how to use it will you be able to benefit from its potential.

I have written my minimalist manual “The Art of the High. Your Guide to Using Cannabis for an Outstanding Life” to enable users to avoid many risks and to approach using a high with a completely different attitude, with different goals, and with knowledge and skills helping them to benefit from a cannabis high.   

(4) Multiple Goals and Uses

Many more experienced cannabis users have found their use of cannabis can enhance many activities in their lives, but, also, that it can negatively interfere with other activities. You may end up using cannabis for reading books, composing melodies, cooking, and eating, for your love life, but also avoid a high during playing guitar live on stage because you cannot handle the effects of a high on your perception of time. We all react individually, and we have different goals and physiological makeups. Find out how cannabis can help you and be prepared that it can enhance many activities in your life. Also, however, understand that it can negatively interfere in many aspects.

What is your attitude towards getting high? Do you feel like you have set ambitious goals for getting high? Have you achieved them during a high?

Disclaimer

Psychoactive substances such as cannabis have great medicinal, nutritional, and inspirational potential, but also bring risks. Among other things they temporarily alter our perception, which ensures our survival in the world. This course focuses primarily on helping cannabis users explore the positive mind-enhancing potential of cannabis.

It does not intend to be a substitute for a full benefit-risk assessment of the use of cannabis or medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

It is still a criminal offense in many countries to use cannabis products. This course does not intend to encourage anyone to break the law. The author and the publisher explicitly disclaim any liability, loss, or risk, personal or otherwise, that is incurred as a consequence, directly or indirectly, of the contents of this course.