Cannabis & Creativity: A Green Guide
Does cannabis make you more creative? Or are you better off creating without the buzz? We took a look at some of the research to help our readers and customers understand more about the connection between cannabis and creativity— and what it means for your next brainstorming session.
Choose the Right Dose
Dose is underrated. Many people try a cannabis strain or product, don’t get the experience they’re looking for, and decide that the strain wasn’t right for them. But dose has a much bigger effect on your experience than you think— and not just in terms of degree.
What we mean by that is that people tend to assume that if a small dose of cannabis has X effect, a larger dose will have that same effect but even more intense.
But that’s not always how cannabis works. In certain cases, a low dose may do one thing while a larger dose of the same strain may have the opposite effect.
Cannabis and creativity is one case like this. Studies have shown that low doses of cannabis can improve creativity, while larger doses can decrease the same creativity markers.
Increase Your Brain Power
Scientists now believe that a lot of our creative thoughts are connected to the frontal lobe of the brain. Cannabis is shown to increase blood flow to the frontal lobe, which can help it function more effectively. More blood flow to the part of your brain responsible for creativity can only be a good thing when you’re trying to create your next masterpiece— whatever form that may take.
Think Differently
One of the most common traits associated with creativity levels is known by scientists as divergent thinking. Basically, divergent thinking describes your brain’s ability to go away from what’s expected and come up with new ideas, new perspectives, and new solutions to complicated problems. You use divergent thinking when you brainstorm, let your mind wander, or create something original.
It appears that cannabis use in low, responsible doses can help increase your divergent thinking abilities— though this is not the case for everyone.
Cannabis Users Are More Creative. But What Came First?
Studies have shown that, on average, cannabis users are more creative than non-users. While this is great news for those of us who love cannabis and creating, it may be slightly misleading.
Scientists now think that while this still holds true, the studies may have it backward. It may not be that cannabis dramatically improves creativity, but that the kind of people who are open-minded enough to use cannabis are likely open-minded in other ways, leading to their creativity and divergent thinking.
Basically, if you’re open-minded enough to use cannabis, you’re likely to be a more creative person. But it’s not necessarily the cannabis use that causes the creativity—it might be the creativity that causes the cannabis use.
If It Works for You, It Works
We know that we’ve gone back and forth a bit in this article. Is cannabis good for creativity, is it bad for creativity— you may want us to just make up our minds already.
But the truth is that you have a definitive way of finding out whether cannabis increases your creativity, decreases it, or doesn’t do much of anything at all. All you have to do is try it for yourself.
Every person is different. If you want to see how cannabis impacts your creativity, give it a try in a low dose in a controlled situation. Based on your result, try again the next time with some tweaks. If you find that cannabis and creativity don’t mix for you, don’t sweat it. If you make your best work while using cannabis, great!
After all, cannabis can be different things for different people— and that’s one of the things we love most about it.
Ready to order cannabis for creativity or casual use? Browse our menu and place an order for delivery or curbside pickup from Green today.
