The Best Cannabis Strains for Creativity: Creative Awareness

The strains featured in this article have been identified as some of the best for creative awareness, which involves being receptive to, and drinking in, the world around you. They are some of the best strains for going to a museum or taking in a concert.

Mindset if everything. A majority of people struggle to remain in the present. The fact of the matter is that as we go about the motions of our day, rarely are we actually focused on the tasks in front of us. Even now, as some of you read, your minds may be thinking about something else completely different.

In this way, people are constantly thinking ahead to the future and what it may hold but missing the beauty of the present in the process. Certain strains of Cannabis work to elevate the mind by focusing in on what’s happening in the world around you. These types of strains enhance the capacity for Creative Awareness and allow for a newfound ability to focus on embracing the world around you.

Cannabis is unique in that it can both stimulate the mind to enhance lucidity and slow the mind down in a similar way to drink in the world around you. In order to identify the best strains to fit with your creative purpose, we’ve broken down creative thinking into four subsections.

Creative Imagination deals mostly with divergent thinking by removing barriers and judgment for more free-flowing and effective brainstorming.
Creative Awareness, which sees an increase in pattern recognition, allows for a newfound sensitivity to the aesthetic of the world around you.
Creative Reflection involves looking inwards for self-discovery or memory recollections, which can result in deeper connections of empathy.
Creative Focus helps make ‘out of the box’ connections possible while rumination on a specific, complex problem.

While ideation and illumination are essential parts of the creative process, there is a precursor to that aspect of creative thinking in which people take in and absorb the world around them while subconsciously searching for inspiration. Particularly important for visual artists and musician, Creative Awareness means being rooted in the present in order to become hyper-aware of the beauty in your surroundings. Through creative awareness, individuals become sensitive towards colors, objects, sounds and pattern recognition.

Creative Awareness is an essential aspect for any creative endeavor as staying rooted in the present can increase the relevancy of certain ideas. The highs of the cannabis strains featured on this list can result in a sense of enhanced awareness and as they open the mind’s aperture for creative reception.

Our Analytical Process:

Together, with scientists at Abstraxlabs, we have chemically analyzed hundreds of strains that index high for creativity and other related states through survey data. In this process, we’ve identified a matrix of cannabinoid and terpene profiles that contribute to a specific type of creative impact. This is supported by focus groups and feedback from creative leaders in a wide range of fields.

Lastly, it is important to note that cannabis usage does not guarantee that all your ideas will be worth-while. The point of Creative Awareness is to become less inhibited and more rooted in your surroundings which can ease your overall creative process.

Here are eight cannabis strains to help unearth your inner Creative Awareness:

How to Dose:

If you know your optimal dosage, then proceed accordingly, but take your time. If you are unsure, start with a small amount and then slowly increase your dosage until you find a level that opens the mind. Research shows that lower doses produce more consistent results salient creative thinking. Cannabis for creativity is meant to enhance the experience, not be the experience...

1. Green Crack

The perfect strain to wake and bake with, a Green Crack high offers a boost of energy that doesn’t quite send the mind racing like most sativas would. If anything, a Green Crack high will slow the mind down and make any mundane chore seem much more involving. Allowing users to stay in the moment, people often express feeling a deeper connection to their content of choice (music, film, television). Though not the best strain to use before bedtime, if you’re looking to relax and live in the moment, Green Crack is the strain for you.

2. Mimosa

Providing instant mental relief in the form of euphoria and joy, Mimosa, just like at brunch, is perfect for any morning. A Mimosa high will leave users energized and ready to take on the day with little to no paranoia or anxiety. Though mostly having a cerebral effect, users claim to feel less inhibited and more open to genuine engagement from the world around them. Try going through your day with these Mimosa Goggles.

3. Platinum OG

A Platinum OG high first begins with an uplifted and at ease mindset. However, the cerebral effects soon become sedative thanks to Platinum OG’s indica nature. While most indicas may leave users feeling groggy, a Platinum OG high slows the mind down in order to make normal observations much more intricate and in-depth. Perfect for relieving stress and anxiety, Platinum OG is perfect for increasing your consciousness of the world around you.

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4. Super Lemon Haze

Skip the cup of coffee and go straight for the Super Lemon Haze! Known for eliminating grogginess and anxiety, this hybrid is perfect for when you’re just looking to enjoy the beauty the day has to offer. A Super Lemon Haze high will not only have you feeling euphoric and uplifted, but users even claim to feel light visual distortions which makes taking in colors quite the trip.

5. Jack the Ripper

Don’t be offput by this strain’s macabre ties as Jack the Ripper is characterized by loads of euphoria, mental stimulation, and a soothing bodily high. A Jack the Ripper high is perfect for enhancing any and all experiences. Though it may leave users feeling a bit spacey, Jack the Ripper is also capable of helping people experience the same old routine in new and fascinating ways.

6. Northern Lights

Known for its potency and dubbed a ‘hit it and quit it’ type of strain, Northern Lights offers a dual body and mind high. Leaving your body with a sense of comfort and relief, Northern Lights brings the mind a sense of stillness and clarity that is easily comparable to a successful meditation session. Northern Lights, one of the purest indica strains currently available, will help users actively engage in the present by increasing a knack for observations.

7. Girl Scout Cookies

With an unignorable couch lock sensation, a Girl Scout Cookies high forces its users to ride a wave of euphoria as having a bad time is simply not an option. Marked by unannounced periods of giggles, Girl Scout Cookies will often leave users rather introspective, self-aware, and conscientious. Girl Scout Cookies is perfect for igniting small sparks of creativity but most of all, it’s perfect for helping users see the world around them in a new high-induced light.

8. AK-47

AK-47 is perfect for easing the mind and body. Though higher doses may result in couch lock, for the most part, AK-47 often results in a peaceful or mellow high. Most users claim that AK-47 is perfect for listening to music or binge-watching television probably because AK-47 is known to quiet the mind. In other words, AK-47 helps users stay with and enjoy the task at hand instead of constantly being ahead of themselves by always thinking of what’s next thing.

The Science Behind Cannabis and Creativity:

Cannabis’s ability to stimulate blood flow to the brain’s frontal lobe and allow neurons to fire in a more uninhibited way are just a few of the potential scientific explanations for the creative prowess that cannabis appears to bestow upon people. The frontal lobe is the base for creative, divergent thinking or thinking of multiple solutions to open-ended questions. This is also known as “thinking outside of the box.”

Cannabis is also a creative maximizer in how it deactivates a specific aspect of the brain. One of the biggest inhibitors to creative ideation and divergent thinking is in judging ideas as they emerge, or convergent thinking.

There is a region in the brain called the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex that is connected to planning, inhibition, and self-censorship as well as cognitive control over emotions. Slowing it down or deactivating that area plays a role in altered states of consciousness such as daydreaming, meditation, and REM sleep (all are patterns of brain activity that can enhance the creative process). Because cannabis can suppress these functions, and allow you to focus more on imagination, ideas tend to flow more freely when using cannabis. For more information check out The Science Behind Cannabis and Creativity.