what people get wrong about smoking
When people hear that I, an herbalist, teach folks to smoke or sell herbal smoking blends, they are often aghast — how could I do something so obviously at odds with wellness?
People often ask me:
“Is smoking herbs safe?”
“Which herbs can I smoke?”
“Will smoking herbs get me high?”
Here, I dispel common myths surrounding smoking herbs and I do my best to stay off my soapbox.
When people hear that I, an herbalist, teach folks to smoke or sell herbal smoking blends, they are often aghast — how could I do something so obviously at odds with wellness?
People often ask me:
“Is smoking herbs safe?”
“Which herbs can I smoke?”
“Will smoking herbs get me high?”
Here, I dispel common myths surrounding smoking herbs and I do my best to stay off my soapbox.
Click the image to visit the How To Smoke Herbs course page
TRANSCRIPT
(Please Note: In this video I talk about things people tend to get wrong about herbs, and misconceptions about smoking herbs, that are discussed in detail in my How To Smoke Herbs course. The video was made in 2019 and the online workshop mentioned is no longer available, so pay no attention to that part!)
(0:00) Hi, Amanda here. I'd like to talk about some things that people tend to get wrong about smoking. So often when people who know that I'm an herbalist find out that I make herbal smoking blends, or that I'll teach people how to smoke or use smoking and ceremony, they're aghast and can't believe that I would do something that's so obviously at odds with wellness. So I'd like to dispel some smoking misconceptions.
(0:29) The first one is that smoking isn't evil. It's not evil! We've really been led to believe that because, I would say, maybe the tobacco industry is evil and smoking those products habitually can certainly cause a lot of harm. But smoking itself is just an act. It's an act like eating or drinking, and as such there's a lot of nuance to that act.
(0:58) Eating can be very harmful depending on what we eat, how much we eat, how frequently, when we eat. Same thing with drinking- you know, drinking is an act, and we can drink water, or we can drink alcohol, or we can drink soda, and you know all these things are going to affect our body in different ways. But it's not that drinking itself is inherently evil.
(1:19) And I know you're thinking, well our bodies are designed to take in liquids and our bodies or design take in food but they're not quite designed to take in smoke. And that's true. Our bodies aren't set up to be inhaling huge volumes of smoke on a regular basis, but that brings us to the next point.
(1:41) Smoking isn't all or nothing. I think there's also a conception that, because smoking cigarettes are smoking some types of tobacco can be very addictive, we have this idea that either you completely abstain from smoking, you don't smoke at all, or you're smoking a pack a day, or you smoking multiple cigarettes a day, and that's what “smoking” is. I think mostly that's because we really equate the word “smoking” with smoking cigarettes, smoking a pipe, chewing tobacco, or smoking cannabis, and we don't often think about the other types of things you can smoke.
(2:19) Not a lot of people do it, and so not a lot of people are talking about it. Really, when you're smoking herbs, they're not addictive, and you can maybe enjoy the aspect of smoking herbs but it's not something that's addictive, and so you're really in control of when you do it and how often.
(2:42) The next point would be that there are things to smoke other than tobacco or cannabis. Certainly when you're inhaling any smoke into your lungs that does affect your lungs, but I think people often think that when you're smoking you're just inhaling huge volumes of smoke into your lungs. Most of the time when I smoke I don't even inhale, or I inhale once There's a huge spectrum of what smoking is- that can be how much you smoke, how frequently you smoke, if you smoke are you inhaling, are you not inhaling, what are you smoking, why are you smoking it.
(3:28) One of the things I aim to do in my course. Smoke is to open your eyes to the different things that smoking can be, and ways that it can be something that's not an addictive experience, not a bad experience, not even an experience that's uncomfortable. Instead like a very pleasant, flavorful, sensual, spiritual, and personal experience, because to me smoking is a really beautiful ritual tool, it's a beautiful spiritual tool, or it could be a tool for someone who is trying to stop smoking tobacco or cannabis.
(4:00) It can be all these things. People have a lot of questions about that because it's not something that's talked about a lot which is why I decided to make Smoke. If you have any questions about Smoke or want to talk about this further I'd love to chat about it. As a reminder if you register for smoke by this Friday March 1st, you'll be invited to participate in a live online workshop with me which will be recorded if you can't make it. So that would be Wednesday March 6. So if you sign it by Friday you can come to the workshop on Wednesday, and I'll do some demonstrations for you, introduce you to some herbs, and answer any questions that you have. I hope to see you there
Check Out How to Smoke Herbs