Keep the Flow™ with Cannabidiol Supplementation

Imagine for a moment you are belly down paddling out through the ocean on your freshly waxed surfboard. In just a few moments, you’re going to attempt to catch a wave. You begin to deepen your breath to keep your heart and nerves at ease, and as you approach the building tide, every second seems like an eternity. As soon as you hop up the board and tilt towards your chosen wave, every thought slides from your mind as you glide forward. You are now focused and brilliant, challenging yourself to achieve something you know is right within your reach. Before you know it, time speeds by, the wave is over, and though your chest is heaving and muscles are trembling, you hardly notice how tired your body is yet you feel so alive. You experienced ‘optimal consciousness’ without even realizing it.

Famous psychologist, Mihály Csíkszentmihály, conducted research on “optimal experience,” and revealed that the key to making an experience satisfying is a state of consciousness called flow, which Csíkszentmihály defines as an “optimal state of consciousness where we feel our best and perform our best.” During this state of consciousness, “your whole being is involved, and you’re using your skills to the utmost.” Thanks to this phenomenon, people typically experience deep enjoyment, creativity, and a total involvement with life itself.

Photo by Alison Vagnini

What does CBD have to do with Flow State?

One of the most common effects people experience with CBD is its ability to connect the mind to the body. For many, CBD has been shown to calm the mind by decluttering the noise and easing mental and physical tension. These effects allow us to enter the flow state more easily. So why is this happening, and how can we utilize CBD to achieve this state more often?

To understand CBD as a flow supplement is to realize that internal harmony is necessary to achieve it. Our ability to obtain a sustainable, consistent flow of consciousness ultimately depends on how our mind filters and interprets everyday experiences. Flow relies on inner harmony, not on our ability to exert control over our environments and the higher forces of nature (hence why we call it FLOW!). When we lose our inner balance, we lose our ability to focus, create, and experience something exponential and deeply satisfying.

Inner harmony = The Endocannabinoid System

Outside of meditation, breathwork, exercise, and other modalities of achieving inner harmony, our endocannabinoid system (ECS) plays a significant role as it regulates our body’s ability to harmonize internal physiological balance in response to the external environment. When our endocannabinoid system is deficient, we have a harder time achieving inner balance, thus find it harder to focus and find a flow of consciousness.

Cannabidiol supplementation can indirectly strengthen the endocannabinoid system. CBD affects the endocannabinoid system through “allosteric sites” on the endocannabinoid receptors. Allosteric means “other,” meaning these are smaller binding sites that are attached to the larger receptors. When CBD binds to these allosteric sites, they give off a signaling response that then stimulates the ECS to do what it natural does; produce and breakdown endocannabinoids. CBD has also been shown to increase the amount of the endocannabinoid anandamide (the bliss molecule) that our body produces. When CBD is hanging out in the body, our ECS enzymes break the CBD down before it breaks down the bliss molecule, which means natural bliss for longer.

Bottom line: inner balance is necessary to achieve the flow of consciousness. CBD, primarily holistic CBD for the added efficacy, can supplement your body to achieve physiological balance, hence allowing you to Keep the Flow™.