Things to Do While High
I don’t have much of a cannabis peer group around me where I live, so I spend a fair amount of time on Reddit’s cannabis-themed subreddits.
And one of the most frequent questions that comes up there is “What are your favorite things to do while high?”
It’s a great question. Being high is a precious, enthralling state of mind, and it’s very natural to as wonder about things like:
What activities could amplify the high further?
What experiences would be better or different in an interesting way while high?
How can I leverage the high to enrich my life?
And so forth.
On this page, I’ll keep an updated list of my favorite high activities, so anyone looking for ideas (including myself) might find something here.
My Favorite Things to Do While High
Listen to music
Weed makes music sound better. In addition to just having a more relaxed feeling and being able to groove with the music on deeper level, cannabis also allows you to hear and appreciate nuances you maybe wouldn’t have otherwise. Leafly takes a look at some of the possible explanations for this.
Already high? Try it right away (TIRA)
Close your eyes, lay back, and put on some tunes. If you want a recommendations, here’s a song and an album that I’m always up for listening while high. Also, Spotify’s Discover Weekly can be pretty fantastic while high. Or just pick one of Rolling Stone’s Greatest Albums of All Time.
Meditate.
I know people have varying experiences with the combination of weed and meditation – some love it, some hate it. For me it’s a big hit. I believe it has something to do with the fact that my doses are typically so small that the high doesn’t hinder my practice. Rather, I believe high meditation actually helped fast-forward me to certain states of complete ego dissolution relatively early on in my practice, and they then became easier to find while sober too.
TIRA
Try Come-Up Meditations, specifically made for being high. Also, the Waking Up-app has wonderful meditations, as well as other great content, like Alan Watts’ talks.
Nostalgize
Being high is famously detrimental to short-term memory (“What was I doing again? Why am I holding miso-paste and peanut butter?”). But in my experience, it can actually make long-term episodic memories more vidid. While high, I’ll recall first-person glimpses from early childhood that I haven’t thought about in decades. This can be quite an moving experience.
TIRA
Browse some old photos from your childhood/youth, listen to some music from your formative years, or browse one of the many subreddits or TV streams devoted to nostalgia of a certain decade.
Ideate & problem solve
For me, weed has an almost magical effect of opening the floodgates of ideas, while also suffusing me with an optimism that anything can work. Granted, this optimism doesn’t always turn out to be warranted, but it does make for a perfect state of mind to ideate and problem solve. If I’m completely stumped with say, a work-problem, and I get high. I’ll typically come up with at least three potential solutions to try. Likewise with business or content ideas or the like, being a little bit high makes them bubble up very naturally and copiously, if I place a kind of relaxed focus on them.
TIRA
Think of a problem you’re facing right now in any area of your life, and spend some time thinking about it while high. What are it’s causes? What could you do about those causes? If you’re having trouble, try relaxing your control of the process: don’t be strict about how you approach the topic, bur rather let your mind wander around it. Just be sure to take notes when you arrive at something that feels significant.
Think about your relationships
For me, being high is conducive to reflecting on my relationships with other people. I quite naturally begin to think about past interactions, what I said and why, what they said and why, etc. But I also consider the dynamic of the relationship in general, as well as any tensions that I feel in it. Recently, I thought about a conflict I’d had with a friend years ago. But only when I contemplated it while high did I understand that it had been gnawing at me, and that I needed to address it with him. I sanity-checked this idea while sober, and then brought it up. We had a great conversation, and I feel so much lighter now.
TIRA
Think about your most important relationships until you come across one that you feel a tension around. Maybe an interaction with that person has left you feeling dissatisfied, hurt, or anxious. Spend time thinking about why you feel the way you do and what could have been driving their behavior. Think about how you might be able to address this feeling, either internally or together with them. Write down notes as you do this.
Write or edit
In my experience, writing and editing are activities that can often produce a flow state. But with cannabis, it tends to happen faster and go deeper. The results are usually more creative and humorous, because I have more fun with the text while high. The downside is that I might work on a paragraph for an hour. And I definitely need to review the work sober afterward.
TIRA
Pick a topic you want to write about. If you can’t think of anything, pick your most controversial opinion or most visited childhood memory, and write about that. If you like, start by just jotting down thoughts and individual points, to be rearranged later. Or dive right in, whatever suits you!
Soul search
Turn the mental magnifying glass of the high on yourself. What is the experience of being you? What has your journey through life been like? And what aspirations do you have for the future? This can be a useful zoom-out-and-reflect exercise, but it also tends to suffuse the moment with a sense of meaning.
TIRA
Journal about these questions, or go to Futureme.org and write a message to yourself, say, 5 years in the future. It’s quite a trip to receive it after all those years!
Make music (either with a real instrument or via GarageBand)
This is probably related to the points above regarding listening to music and ideating, but making music while high can be very engrossing and rewarding. And with GarageBand, I don’t even need to know how to play an instrument: I just pick one from the selection and use my regular keyboard to make notes. Then I can change them and move them around after the fact to create endless melodies and drum beats.
TIRA
For a very easy start, go here, place some notes and press play. Then do whatever you like until it sounds good: rearrange the notes, add in some percussion (the two bottom rows, or change instruments. Finally, save the song. A very experienced music producer friend of mine once said that you should always save your earliest songs, because you can never quite make music like that again.
Create images with AI.
This is great fun, as it brings my imagination to life (kind of) in less than a minute. I use Midjourney, Stable Diffusion and Dall-E through chatGPT.
TIRA
Take a moment to imagine something you’d like to see. A scene from your favorite TV show, painted in the style of your favorite artist? An absurd situation you dreamt of? A new kind of building? Anything you like. Then go here and write what you want to see in the “prompt”-box in the top-left corner. Then generate the image. Play around with the prompt, keep generating, and see what happens.
Spend time with loved ones.
Cannabis can help me become totally engrossed in a game with my children for example, or talk about something deeply personal with my significant other. I believe it has something to do with the fact that cannabis makes experiences seem novel. Now, there’s nothing stopping me from having this experience sober too, and I most often do, but doing it while high can be a nice reminder of what it’s like to be completely absorbed in and appreciative of another person’s presence. (To be clear, I know that at least for me, sober interactions need to be the norm, while occasional high ones are just an occasional treat.)
TIRA
Put away your devices and go hang out with someone important in your life.
Go on nature walks.
In my experience, a high spent walking in a forest is always a good high. Hell, a walk in the woods is always a good walk, sober or high. But being high makes everything seem even more detailed and interesting, helping me appreciate the richness and wonder of nature. I genuinely think that if everyone did this, humanity would be far more appreciative and protective of the environment.
TIRA
Go to the nearest forest and explore. Or beach or mountain or whatever you can find. (Make sure you’re allowed to though, I know in some places you’re liable to get shot just for walking on someone else’s land.)
Socialize
I usually get a bit stressed out from socializing with people I don’t know very well, for example at parties. But with just a little smidge of a high going on, I have easy access to a relaxed, jovial, talkative state.
TIRA
Call a friend or go visit them.
Sexytime
People who consume cannabis have more sex than those who don’t. And I’d venture it’s not just because we’re the cool kids, but because it just feels better, and it’s easier to invoke one’s imagination vividly. Same applies to solo sex.
TIRA
😏
Chef it up, and experience new flavors
Cannabis not only boosts appetite but also intensifies flavors. I remember the first time I had a banana while high, I think had to grab a hold of something. It was so banana-y! That’s why trying out new foods and flavor combinations can be so interesting while high.
TIRA
Try something from this list. Or if you’re feeling adventurous, go through you fridge, pantry and spice rack, and pick out ingredients that you’d like to try combining. If you want to pre-test some wild idea, you can smell the ingredients together, to find combinations that could pair well with each other. Try to keep an open mind here – you may not have thought of using these together before. Then try making something out of them. (Be warned, the results will not all be winners, but that’s part of the fun.)
Showers/baths
Water feels especially amazing on your skin when high.
TIRA
Jump in a shower or a bath, close your eyes and focus on the feeling of the water against your skin.
Read about something fascinating
Weed makes things more interesting, whether nature, science, history, whatever. It’s easy to spend hours totally engrossed in something you’d never even heard of before.
TIRA
Wikipedia’s Random Page is a great way to discover something completely new, and I also recommend The Lindy Newsletter.
Appreciate art.
For whatever reason, I really didn’t appreciate things like art or poetry before I started consuming cannabis. I think I was unable to pause and let myself experience them, and I also really didn’t see myself as the “artsy” kind of person – more numbers, science, and tech. Frankly, I saw aesthetics as pretty much a waste of time. But with weed, it’s a different story, and I can be utterly mesmerized by art, poetry, architecture, etc.
TIRA
I’ll keep adding new items here as I try them. Subscribe to Smart Cannabis Use below, and you’ll be the first to know about new activities 😎
Other suggestions from Reddit and chatGPT
Interacting with pets
Video games, movies, TV shows, nature documentaries
Gardening
Reading
Housework
Long bike rides
Exercise/working out
High yoga
Dancing
Planetariums
Stargazing and watching the sunset. (Or sunrise)
Listening to podcasts and other content
Cooking
Going to concerts
Swimming/cayaking (remember: safety first!)
Smart Cannabis Use is for informational purposes only. You need to be aware of and abide by the laws in your area. Please also be aware that cannabis is not suitable for everyone, such as minors or those with certain mental health conditions. You are responsible for your own choices and actions.