11 Ways Smoking Weed Can Improve A Woman’s Life

It’s true: Singer Jhené Aiko doesn’t mind getting high sometimes.

It's true: Singer Jhené Aiko doesn't mind getting high sometimes.

 
David J. Bertozzi for BuzzFeed

On her ethereal new album Souled Out and in person, she’s open about this, as she’s open about most things. During a visit to BuzzFeed’s New York office, the singer, mother, and free spirit explained why weed is a part of her life.

1. Smoking weed can unlock your creativity.

11 Ways Smoking Weed Can Improve A Woman's Life

 
David J. Bertozzi / BuzzFeed

Especially in the studio, Aiko said. A self-identified “social smoker, not a pothead,” she said smoking can help open her mind and allow it to tap into ideas she didn’t know she had. The best ideas, she said, always come not when she’s most high, but when she’s coming down.

2. And bring you closer with your girl friends.

 
 

Aiko said when she’s smoking weed with other women, they crack hilarious jokes, but also open up. Being high can facilitate deep, emotional conversations, not just goofy ones.

3. It can soothe cramps and headaches.

11 Ways Smoking Weed Can Improve A Woman's Life

 

4. And can be a way to claim some time that’s just for you.

 

On the song “Blue Dream,” Aiko sings to a strain of weed of the same name like it’s a lover. Her enthusiasm, she said, isn’t because she thinks smoking weed is a good replacement for a romantic relationship, but because she cherishes the time she spends getting high as time she takes for herself. It’s all about “loving that ‘you’ time,” she said.

5. Getting high can help your remember and reaffirm positive thoughts you have about yourself.

11 Ways Smoking Weed Can Improve A Woman's Life

 
David J. Bertozzi / BuzzFeed

Smoking can be like meditation, Aiko said. But because of that, it’s important to “make sure your thoughts are high” before you are too. If you’re already down, smoking can make you feel worse. But if you place some positive thoughts in your mind, being high is a great opportunity to focus on them, which can bring your spirit up long after you’re sober again.

6. And help you show others that you believe that women should have all the same opportunities as men.

 
 

Getting high isn’t a thing boys do, Aiko said. That’s because there’s really no such thing as a boy’s thing — Aiko rejected the idea that any habit, good or bad, is gendered.

7. And relieve some stress during the early years of motherhood.

11 Ways Smoking Weed Can Improve A Woman's Life

 
David J. Bertozzi / BuzzFeed

Aiko’s got an elementary-school-aged daughter, Namiko. She never smokes around children and wouldn’t advise others to. But she said that smoking a couple puffs in the hours after her daughter has been dropped off at school can be productive — allowing her some space to de-stress and get her own affairs in order before sober family time in the evening.

8. The right weed can replace coffee.

 

Not all weed makes you lazy, Aiko said. Her favorite strain, Blue Dream, lifts her mood and makes her want to write and be productive. Fittingly, it also doesn’t have a skunky, heavy smell — but a citrusy, bright one.

9. Being high can put you on the same wavelength as your significant other.

11 Ways Smoking Weed Can Improve A Woman's Life

 
David J. Bertozzi / BuzzFeed

Well, “as long as you’re both smoking the same stuff.”

10. And help you see the other side when you’re having an argument with someone important.

 

On her song “2 Seconds,” Aiko sings: “Man I wish I had some weed up in my system / Cause I’m bout two seconds away from just flippin’ out.” She said that being high has helped her approach important conversations with a calm, level head. Weed has helped her to not just speak from emotion and pragmatically work through issues, she said.

11. But most of all, smoking weed can help you find your own limits.

11 Ways Smoking Weed Can Improve A Woman's Life

 
David J. Bertozzi / BuzzFeed

“Everything in moderation,” Aiko emphasized. Social smoking can be great, but for her, finding that right dose and strain was a crucial first step.

 

source: http://www.buzzfeed.com/naomizeichner/ways-smoking-weed-can-improve-womans-life-jhene-aiko#1x8l6jw

posted on Sept. 9, 2014, at 10:28 a.m.

Sex, Drugs, Rock ‘n’ Roll All Turn On Brain’s Reward Pathways

Health & the Human Brain

Jam On It

The same reward pathways in the brain that are fired up by food, sex, and many illicit drugs — and even the anticipation of such highs — are triggered by pleasurable music as well, according to a study by researchers at the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital.

Like those other pleasure cues as well, listening to music is associated with the release of the neurotransmitter dopamine.

Published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, the results may offer insight into why music, which has no obvious survival value, is prevalent and significant across human society.

The research team measured dopamine release in response to music that elicited “chills,” changes in skin conductance, heart rate, breathing, and temperature that were correlated with pleasurability ratings of the music. “Chills” or “musical frisson” is a well established marker of peak emotional responses to music.

Using novel combination of PET and fMRI brain imaging techniques, researchers found that dopamine release is greater for pleasurable versus neutral music, and that levels of release are correlated with the extent of emotional arousal and pleasurability ratings.

“These findings provide neurochemical evidence that intense emotional responses to music involve ancient reward circuitry in the brain,” said researcher Dr. Robert Zatorre.

“To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration that an abstract reward such as music can lead to dopamine release. Abstract rewards are largely cognitive in nature, and this study paves the way for future work to examine non-tangible rewards that humans consider rewarding for complex reasons.”

According to lead investigator and doctoral candidate Valorie Salimpoor, “Music is unique in the sense that we can measure all reward phases in real-time, as it progresses from baseline neutral to anticipation to peak pleasure all during scanning.”

“It is generally a great challenge to examine dopamine activity during both the anticipation and the consumption phase of a reward. Both phases are captured together online by the PET scanner, which, combined with the temporal specificity of fMRI provides us with a unique assessment of the distinct contributions of each brain region at different time points.”

The study also showed that two different brain circuits are involved in anticipation and experience, respectively: one linking to cognitive and motor systems, and hence prediction, the other to the limbic system, the emotional part of the brain.

January 13, 2011
PsychCentral
Source: McGill University

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