The Best Cannabis Strains for Creativity: Creative Imagination

Cannabis has been used by artists, scientists, and thinkers for thousands of years to help provide the proper mindset to express new ideas. It allows you to live in the moment and embrace new thoughts as they come to you. People feel less inhibited on cannabis because they can relax and connect more deeply with themselves and their surroundings. Regardless of industry, professionals often turn to cannabis for an efficient aid to increase their creative output by enhancing focus, pattern recognition, imagination, and empathetic understanding.

While cannabis, and the million variations of strains, can affect everyone differently, it can also be a sure-fire way of tapping into specific areas of one’s creativity. In order to identify the best strains for your creative purpose, and creative flow, 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.

The first in our series of best cannabis strains to use for a specific creative purpose, Creative Imagination deals mostly with idea production and divergent thinking. Creative Imagination is all about divergent thinking, allowing a free flow of creativity and ideas without placing judgement on the quality of each idea.

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, cannabis usage does not guarantee that all your ideas will great. The point of creativity, especially in terms of Creative Imagination, is to let go of your inhibitions in order to create with a judgement-free mindset. Coming up with ten ‘out of the box’ ideas is better than no ideas, or several inhibited ideas.

Here are eight cannabis strains that can unlock just the right dose of creative imagination:

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. Lemon Cake

Why not start off with dessert? This potent sativa-dominant strain is a cerebral high through and through. Along with a strong head high, you’ll notice an increase in free-associative thinking along with bursts of euphoric energy. If you’ve got a difficult problem coming up, Lemon Cake is perfect for brainstorming and building up a multitude of ideas. Heightened creativity, euphoria, and an uplifted mood are all linked to a Lemon Cake high.

2. Jack Herer

The notorious Jack Herer, a sativa-dominant strain, is most noted for both the cerebral and physical effects of it’s high. The end result is often a relaxed, nonchalant bodily sensation paired with an attentive, energized and creative mindset. While increased creativity, energy, and focus are but a few aspects of the Jack Herer high, if you’re looking to put some ease into your creativity, this is the strain for you.

3. Chemdawg

Chemdawg is a legendary hybrid strain whose genetic history has long been lost. Still, the hybrid strain’s popularity has never been stronger, mostly due to its upbeat, energetic high. Producing a mostly cerebral high, Chemdawg afficionado’s should expect to experience an amplification of ideas that can be overwhelming to some. To say this strain sends the mind racing is an understatement. Chemdawg is particularly pleasant for brainstorming sessions and often leaves one feeling euphoric, uplifted, and focused.

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4. Gelato

Normally we don’t find indicas to be very stimulating, but this indica-dominant hybrid has gained most of its popularity due to its potency and a signature high. Described by some as floaty, comfortable and maybe even lucid, Gelato’s high can only be described as a carefree mood elevator. Users can expect to feel euphoric and anxiety-free without so much the typical indica-haze. Pairing an uplifted demeanor, with heightened creativity, Gelato is perfect for some good ole judgment-free creativity.

5. Sour Diesel

Widely popular sativa, Sour Diesel is commonly identified by its pleasant head rush and it’s strong pungent smell. Not only will Sour Diesel surely uplift your mood, it also seems to stimulate brain activity. If used in a group setting, user often experience feeling chatty. However, if used alone, users can expect to feel inspired and prone to making connections between seemingly unrelated concepts.

6. Banjo

The Banjo high has a deep-rooted connection to the perception of ideas. Banjo often leaves users feeling euphoric, uplifted, and receptive. In fact, Banjo is said to help people see their own ideas in a new light. A banjo high can make certain ideas seem much more worth-while and inventive as cerebral stimulation continues to increase. The strain is also noted for increasing a person’s capacity for free association thinking, especially between unrelated topics. For those hoping for a productive and stimulating high, Banjo is the way to go.

7. Alaska Thunder Grape

The first of its name, and a force to be reckoned with, Alaska Thunder Grape is marked by a calming bodily sensation that coincides with bursts of cerebral energy, almost like swirling ideas. The bodily high is more comforting than couch-locking. With a grape flavor, an Alaska Thunder Grape high stimulates the brain without bringing out any anxiety or paranoia. Alaska Thunder Grape is essential for a feel-good and judgment free high.

8. Purple Haze

Purple Haze goes straight for the head, which for some can be overwhelming. However, for others, this head rush is more likely to feel like inspiration from a hidden muse. Users are noted to experience a higher plane of thinking where ideas seem to float around non-linearly. In other words, a Purple Haze high could help bring out divergent thinking in even the most close-minded user. Purple Haze is the perfect strain to sharpen the mind and relax the body.

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.