Fighting the pain with cannabis infused oil

Now that I am adjusting to life as a writer instead of life as a bookseller, I am also focusing more on getting back into better shape. I know the effects sitting at a desk has on my body, and I must consciously and consistently work to reverse the damage it does. 

My preferred method of exercise? Dancing around my house. Sometimes I use Misty Tripoli’s Body Groove online videos (love it!), other times one of my multitude of different themed playlists I have created for my daily dance-a-thons.

Occasionally several rounds of Beat Saber get tossed in particularly when my arms need a workout, or it’s game night, or I’m high and my son is playing it already (because I have no clue how to set it up on my own even though he has showed me a few times), or…well ok, I like the game.  

Fun and energizing, yet these activities also leave my almost 50-year-old body sore and stiff.  And with the multitude of inflammatory and auto-immune issues I have, it leads to a lot of pain. 

While I can take a few hits to ward off the immediate pain, I quickly learned I needed to find something that would give me more long-term relief. After lying still all night, the next morning would be awful. It could take hours for my body to begin functioning close to normal again. I would have to medicate in the morning just to be able to get out of bed on my own because I was so stiff, I couldn’t move. 

My acupuncturists had recommended Oil of Ojas (an incredible mix of essential oils from the Dominican Republic) to me years ago, and while it helped some, it took a while and still did not give me complete relief.

I decided to try mixing it up into my own recipe by combining it will cannabis infused jojoba oil.

To make the infused oil, I first use my Ardent Nova to decarboxylate my cannabis. After that, it goes into my Magic Butter machine to infuse the jojoba oil. Finally, I mix the cannabis oil and Oil of Ojas in a 50/50 mix. At night, before I crawl into bed, I use the mixture on my arms and legs. This mixture keeps my joints and muscles from stiffening up overnight, so when I wake up in the morning, I am ready to go again. 

There are many ways of using cannabis, consuming is only one of them. THC and CBD both can have extremely beneficial effects when used topically as well.

So far, this mix has completely worked for me in situations I know would have left me basically incapacitated for the day, if not for several days. It has been a goddess send, and now I know I can push myself harder and not have to worry about feeling the pain the next day. It has made it so I can get in daily workouts instead of having to recover for days in between. This has been a huge boost to my weekly # of steps and active minutes. Instead of a couple of days a week, now I can get up and go at any time of the day, every day. 

Which is good, because after sitting in my desk chair for hours on end (and with edits starting – I will be doing a lot of sitting), I need to be able to get up and move, not to just shake out my body, but to shake out my mind.