When I began my journey with CBD about a year and a half ago, I knew very well that cannabis and its constituents had vast medicinal value. What I did not expect from working with the cannabinoid CBD as well as other naturally occurring cannabinoids like CBA, CBG, CBN (all non-psychoactive), was the spiritual upliftment and dramatic shift in my personal mind-body-spirit wellbeing.
I have worked with cannabis for many years. I am very blessed to have my medical license here in Hawai’i, and have benefited from the pain-relieving effects of this plant for decades. Over the years, however, I found that as a busy mom, healer, and business owner, I was not able to tolerate the mind-altering effects of cannabis on a regular basis. Luckily I am able to process a lot of my homegrown cannabis into pain-relieving topical oils, which do not produce a mind-altering effect. So that is a definite win!
I started hearing more about the cannabinoid CBD and the many benefits of this part of the plant. CBD is non-psychoactive, and actually the way CBD works is that it counteracts or balances-out the “high” produced by THC. CBD has a long list of benefits and conditions it can be used to support. Two of its main benefits are to balance inflammation and to bring the nervous system back into a parasympathetic (restful) state.
My husband and I started experimenting with growing strains of cannabis that were high in CBD. The problem was that we found it very difficult to grow something that I could take on a regular basis that did not get me high or have me feeling sleepy and unmotivated. Also, without being able to do expensive lab tests on everything we grew, I had no idea how much CBD I was actually ingesting. Most of the high CBD strains we grew still had too much THC for my taste. I was starting to feel a bit bummed that maybe cannabis wasn’t going to work for me.
Then one day, a good friend of mine who is a midwife and an herbalist told me about a highly bioavailable (meaning it gets absorbed into the bloodstream very rapidly) hemp-derived supplement that she had been taking for a while and how much it was helping her. She mentioned along with various physical discomforts being alleviated, her cravings for sugar were gone, as well as a newfound mental clarity. I could hear the excitement in her voice, and knew she had been suffering a lot. So, of course, I decided to try this oil for myself!
From the moment I tried this oil, my life has been changed. Within minutes I could feel a “fog” being lifted from my brain. I took the oil before my morning yoga practice, and I could not believe how in-tune and good everything felt! It was as if I had started out my practice with an hour of meditation. Whoa! Now I call this stuff “meditation in a bottle” because it is so effective in getting you “there” very quickly.
I was already a healthy person. I eat organic, move my body, practice yoga, cultivate my mind towards spiritual pursuits, etc. This oil just started taking everything to the next level. I felt like I did when I was in my 20’s when I lived at spiritual centers and I had hours a day to devote to my spiritual practices. In my bodywork practice, I could feel my intuition turned on in a way that I had not experienced before. It felt as though the lights had been turned on inside and everything was working so much more optimally. I feel tapped into my center and Source in a whole new profound way.
With the help of this plant ally, my mind is clearer and more focused. Things that used to overwhelm me and cause me to shut down do not have that effect on me now. I feel like I am able to take in information, assimilate it, and take positive action to do what I need to do in a balanced way. My intuition became more heightened, not just in terms of my healing work, but all aspects of my life. I felt drawn to share the oil with others, and through sharing the oil, began witnessing profound healing effects.
It has been fascinating to learn all of the incredible physiological effects CBD has on our body. As a student mind-body healing for over 2 decades, I am well aware of the role that our physical state plays on our mental, emotional, and spiritual state. There is no separation. In yoga, we learn about our subtle energy body. The sushumna nadi is the governing channel of energy that runs from the base of the spine to the crown of the head. The sushumna nadi correlates directly with the health of our nervous system. If our physical nervous system is out-of-whack, our central energy channel is not able to function. It is via this energy channel that we assimilate Earth and Cosmic energy within the body. An open connection to both of these vital energies is fundamental to our spiritual well-being.
Along the spine runs the chakra system. Chakras are energy centers which correspond to different levels of consciousness as well as our glandular or endocrine system. Our endocrine system governs our hormones, which play a key role in our overall health and happiness (ask any woman!). The following are the endocrine glands and their correlating chakras:
Root chakra (1st) — Reproductive glands (testes in men; ovaries in women); controls sexual development and secretes sex hormones.- Sacral chakra (2nd) — Adrenal glands; regulates the immune system and metabolism.
- Solar Plexus chakra (3rd) — Pancreas; regulates metabolism.
- Heart chakra (4th) — Thymus gland; regulates the immune system.
- Throat chakra (5th) — Thyroid gland; regulates body temperature and metabolism.
- Third Eye chakra (6th) — Pituitary gland; produces hormones and governs the function of the previous five glands; sometimes, the pineal gland is linked to the third eye chakra as well as to the crown chakra.
- Crown chakra (7th) — Pineal gland; regulates biological cycles, including sleep.
Cannabidiol (CBD) is a Neuro-Endo-Immune modulator. Meaning CBD has a balancing effect on our nervous system, hormonal (endocrine) system, and immune systems. It does this via a vast network of receptors in the body called endocannabinoid receptors. Only recently discovered within the past 20 years, the endocannabinoid system is the 12th major system in the body, although currently only a small percentage of medical schools are teaching about it. It turns out that we have more cannabinoid receptors in our body than any other type of receptor. And our body produces specialized neurotransmitters called endocannabinoids (endo: within) which fit into these receptors like a lock and key. The two main endocannabinoids in our body are Anandamide (the bliss molecule) and 2AG.
Cannabidiol has profound effect on the amount of Anandamide, or bliss molecule our receptors can uptake. CBD blocks the enzyme that breaks down anandamide, causing a pooling up of this bliss molecule, and helping us to enjoy that natural state of being. Anandamide is also present in mother’s milk, and when you see a happy nursing baby you are seeing a lot of the bliss molecule in action! Bliss is actually our natural state of being. However, most of us are not walking around feeling blissed-out. Quite the contrary.
Due to the toxic overwhelm of modern life, most of us are unfortunately deficient in our own body’s production of endocannabinoids. This is what is known as Endocannabinoid Deficiency Syndrome. EDS has been linked to conditions such as alzheimers, migraine, fibromyalgia, and irritable bowel syndrome. Supplementing with cannabinoids has great promise to help support people suffering with a wide variety of conditions. To learn more about PubMed research, go to http://www.bodymindhemp.com/conditions.
There are so many factors that contribute to a happy, spiritually uplifting existence. Nutrition, exercise, thought patterns, community, connection are just a few. I believe we are living in an amazing time of great awakening to the greater reality of who we are and what we as humans are capable of both individually and collectively. It is vitally important that we take exquisite care of our precious Earthly vessels. They are the most sophisticated piece of technology on the planet, and you need to be running your system at optimal levels in order to live your true potential. We have so much assistance available to us in the plant and mineral kingdom. I believe hemp is here to help us bring ourselves back into harmony via these incredible molecules known as cannabinoids.
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By Brenna Moore, LMT,
Holistic Health Practitioner & CBD and Detox Facilitator