Sometimes you need to quit weed in order to improve your relationship to it. A week, two weeks, or a month off from cannabis could give you perspective on your consumption habits and help you lower your tolerance.
When you stop regularly consuming cannabis, the first thing you might notice are your dreams. It’s very common for your dreams to become much more vivid when you take a break from weed. That’s because cannabis actually suppresses REM sleep, which is when dreaming occurs — so when you stop consuming weed, your REM dreams bounce back much more intensely. If you’re quitting weed temporarily, this can be a good opportunity to pay attention to your dreams and take cues from your subconscious. While you may not have the insight or perspective cannabis usually provides, you can learn from the dream state of your own mind.
Another thing to keep in mind when you temporarily stop using cannabis is that doing so doesn’t mean you don’t still appreciate the plant or value its effect on you, or on other people. In fact, putting your cannabis consumption on hiatus might even be an opportunity to get perspective on how you relate to the medicine. Are you anxious without weed? Does quitting help you focus better? Have you been smoking sativa too much when you really actually need an indica to calm down? Some distance from cannabis will help you recalibrate the way you interact with it. When you go back to consuming, you’ll feel refreshed, and can engage the plant with more intention and purpose than you would have, had you continued on with the rote of daily habit.
Maybe a week without smoking will help you realize your lungs prefer a vaporizer. Or maybe a month without edibles will help you realize you actually prefer a more manageable toke or two from a joint.
If you’re a cannabis advocate, your support for using the plant medicinally or changing the laws that regulate it does not depend on whether or not you actually consume it. Your appreciation for cannabis and your ability to see how it benefits people’s lives can be related to, but ultimately has little to do with your own use.
Another reason to take a break from weed is to save money — not only during your hiatus, but afterward. When you return to cannabis, your tolerance will be lower. You can start over, smoke less or eat fewer edibles.
But most importantly, you’ll have a newfound appreciation for it. You’ll understand better how you relate to cannabis, and can make more intentional, healthy choices in how you consume it.
