The stress is growing bigger than Santa’s belly after the 100th plate of cookies. The in-laws are starting to play reindeer games and you feel like Rudolph.
The holidays are “the most wonderful time of the year,” but they can be tough, too.
If you need a Colorado-style boost to help get you through a particularly rough day this winter, here’s a simple, five-step cannabis-inspired stress-relief routine, suggested by various cannabis experts. Incorporate all or some of it, depending on what you need.
1. Ingest It.
A quick way to find some mental space is with a CBD drop. The+Source dispensary recommends Seventh Sense CBD Bliss Drops. Just a few drops of this extra strength elixir under the tongue and Seventh Sense says it can help you feel less frazzled. It contains 500mg of 100 percent hemp-derived CBD.
If you need something a little stronger and don’t mind THC, rather than reaching for a glass of alcohol, locally based company 1906 recommends reaching for one of its Chill pills (not really a pill), an anti-anxiety edible using single-strain THC, CBD, dark milk chocolate and two calming plant botanicals: magnolia (used for centuries in traditional Chinese medicine for calming) and L-theanine (an amino acid derived from green tea, which stimulates the brain’s alpha waves to promote serenity).
Although the Chill chocolates contain THC, it’s not much: only 5 mg per 25 mg of CBD. So you should be able to stay alert and active. Just not as anxious. It is designed to kick in quickly, in about 20 minutes.
The goal: to create botanically-based alternatives for prescription drugs and alcohol.
2. Take a Bath In It.
It’s bath season. Even if you don’t want to consume cannabis, a hot bath can be calming; throw a CBD bath bomb in the water for added relaxation.
Life Elements makes a vegan bath bomb line designed to reduce inflammation and chronic pain, soften skin and provide deep relaxation. The bombs include hemp-derived, broad-spectrum CBD with zero THC (with different strengths, from 50mg to 200 mg). They also contain Tepezcohuite and Quillaja, both of which are bark extracts (but won’t give you splinters!).
3. Eat More Chocolate.
While you soak in the tub, let a piece of chocolate CBD melt under your tongue. Try Bhang’s Dark Chocolate CBD or Milk Chocolate CBD Bars available in 125mg or 250mg strengths. These chocolate bars were made by a certified chef de cuisine and master chocolatier, and they totally don’t taste like weed. At all. They’re THC-free, the flavors are bold and you won’t suspect they contain CBD, until you feel the effects.
For an emergency trail mix, you could also break up the bar into tiny pieces and mix it with cranberries, roasted almonds and some cinnamon/cloves.
4. Rub It On.
After your bath, for added holiday stress-relief, Colorado-based The Green Solution suggests checking out the Nectarbee Heal Line Lotion. In Colorado’s dry winter weather, this is a great way to cover yourself in cannabis, from head to toe. You get the relaxation and health benefits of cannabis, plus the hydration of lotion. NectarBee’s Heal Lotion features a 5:1 ratio of THC to CBD in a luxurious blend of essential oils with a refreshing scent. Find it at 19 The Green Solution locations in Colorado, including a new one soon to open in Longmont.
5. Stay Prepared.
Keep some CBD on hand, in case. This one will stay in your coat pocket or purse without making a melty, chocolatey mess.
CBD Essence makes CBD hemp-oil taffy that comes in various flavors and tastes legitimately delicious. Each individually wrapped piece contains 10 mg of full-spectrum CBD hemp essential oil, plus organic ingredients. These tasty treats contain terpenes and bioflavonoids that the company says can calm nerves, uplift your mood and relieve stress. Because they have no THC, have no psychoactive effects.
