While cannabis is widely popular for its medicinal and recreational properties, does it also influence creativity? Creativity involves both divergent (brainstorming) and convergent thinking (focussed thinking), and cannabis helps in these aspects of creativity.
Cannabis has two types of chemical compounds in it: Cannabidiol (CBD) and Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). CBD is the non-psychedelic component, while THC causes the notorious high. Different strains of cannabis have different CBD to THC ratios. Depending on the strain and the ratio of CBD and THC, cannabis can help heal various health issues. Stress, anxiety, depression, arthritis, etc., are some of the problems that one can reduce using cannabis.
In this article, we will cover how cannabis and its chemical components enhance creativity.
1. Opening of Senses:
Our interaction with the outside world and how we perceive it reflects in our creativity. Our creative muscle works best when our different senses open up to new approaches to stimulate our ideas. Cannabis might help enhance our senses. Research shows that certain strains of cannabis that are low on THC can help open the minds of artists and creative people, aiding in divergent thinking. Controlled levels of THC showed a reduction in inhibitory control with a surge in dopamine levels which helps open senses so that you are receptive to multiple thoughts and arrive at multiple solutions to a problem. To add spice to your creative cannabis experience, try out the marijuana cheese strain that tastes like cheese and, with its low THC content, is ideal for opening up your senses without intoxication.
2. Convergent Thinking:
Research explains that cannabis strains with a relatively higher concentration of CBD produced promising results in improving attention, focus, memory, and cognition. These strains are ideal for deep thinkers who develop a unique creative solution to a big problem by going to the depth of analysis and thinking. It seems CBD can enable people to deconstruct complex patterns and simplify them to arrive at a focused solution. Therefore, cannabis can help enhance convergent creative thinking.
3. Relaxes mind:
Stress and anxiety are the primary causes for the lack of creativity in most of us. It causes a lack of sleep, insomnia and thus, hinders the mind from thinking out of the box. Research shows that cannabis helps reduce anxiety and improves sleep quality. Therefore, cannabis relaxes the mind, and a relaxed mind is ideal for inculcating creativity. Relaxed minds allow thinking nonlinearly, which is extremely necessary for creativity. Relaxation helps the body to recover and heal from both physical and mental stress. Thus, cannabis intake can help in relaxation and enhance creativity.
4. Increases awareness:
A major obstacle to creativity is the lack of awareness. To improve the thought process, one must have a clear mind to think of something new. Cannabis can help improve understanding about situations, surroundings, and fellow individuals. It allows us to develop empathy towards our colleagues, which boosts collaboration and thus indirectly develops creativity. CBD in cannabis reacts with the endocannabinoid system of our body. It helps increase alertness, making us sensitive to visual and audio stimuli, promoting divergent thinking, and enhancing creativity.
5. Improves Strategic Thinking and Decision Making:
Decision-making is an essential skill that is applicable in both personal and professional life. To make a wise decision, one must be alert to process the data and think. Cannabis with higher CBD to THC content helps to enhance the thought process and enables strategic thinking, factual data-driven analysis, and forming connections between unrelated objects, ideas, and concepts. Strategic thinking is an amalgamation of both divergent and convergent creativity. It enables us to see both the bird’s eye view and probing microscopic attention to details. Thus, cannabis intake can improve strategic thinking and thus enhance creativity.
6. Enhances Mindfulness:
One of the primary ingredients of creativity is mindfulness and the ability to introspect your learnings, mistakes, and past decisions. Cannabis with low THC content allows you to set the ego aside and reflect on your positive and negative behavioral patterns. Cannabis helps keep a check on emotional outbursts, calms the mind, and builds on empathy. Therefore, artists can use cannabis to achieve imaginative reflection and enhance their creativity.
7. Recognize Patterns:
No matter which industry you belong to, be it arts, mathematics, sciences, or economics, one of the critical elements of being creative comes from dissecting complex patterns and arriving at a simplified solution. A study shows that cannabis users can make sense of jumbled words better than non-cannabis users and are more likely to produce creative ideas.
8. Memory Recall:
A critical factor for creativity is memory. To successfully finish any given task, one must be able to recall the memories associated with it to perform new things. Distractions, lack of focus, and aging are the major causes of short-term memory. There are many methods to sharpen your memory, like meditation, doodling, and cannabis. Yes, cannabis might help in supporting your struggle with forgetfulness. Research reveals that cannabis (with high CBD content) helps enhance short-term memory and improves retention of thoughts. In the short term, a good memory allows artists to recall and recollect their latest source of inspiration for their next work. Therefore, indirectly, cannabis intake enhances creativity by improving memory recall.
9. Converting abstract ideas to breakthroughs:
If you are stuck with your idea and don’t know how to proceed further, cannabis might help get a breakthrough. Research points that low-potency cannabis helps increase brain activity. An increased brain functioning gives a creative artist the necessary tools to connect abstract ideas into new inventions. However, you should be careful about the dosage, as excessive cannabis can hinder multi-faceted thinking.
Conclusion:
In the above points, we covered various ways in which cannabis promotes creativity. While all the above steps indicate a positive correlation between cannabis and creativity, one should be careful about the potency and dosage of the cannabis strain that they want to try out for a creative experience. Check reviews of your local cannabis dispensaries to stay up-to-date about the cannabis products and buy only from authentic cannabis stores.