Sharon Feanny is a holistic health and wellness expert, yoga and meditation teacher, and author of the Live Fit Kitchen cookbook. She teaches a mix of ancient spiritual practices, self-care, clean eating, detox, yoga, fitness and meditation through a 12-week online course called Shakti at Home.

Here’s what Sharon shared with us about wellness, cannabis and CBD…

What is your cannabis story?

Sharon: I might not look it, but I’m fully Jamaican. Born and raised, generations of the family from here. That being said, we grew up in a demographic where ganja was very taboo.

I used marijuana, but I never abused it. I’ve always had this respect for it. Even from an early age, I would smoke it – not to get high or party, but for spiritual reasons and clarity.

I have plenty of bad stories about it… I used to pack it in my suitcase and bring it to boarding school. I grew up on a farm in Jamaica, and I used to have my gardener roll up my spliffs and just pack them into tampons and put them in my suitcase to bring to America. I’d sell them in college. You can imagine when you pop out a spliff the size of a tampon in America in the 80s. I was the most popular girl in college, I can tell you that. My nickname was “Spliff-Queen.”

That was my initial story, but leading up to becoming a certified yoga teacher in ’95 – this was before anybody was combining yoga with ganja – my best friend and I would practice something we called “Stoga”, Spiritual Yoga.

So, before it was cool to smoke ganja and do yoga, I was doing it. Cannabis has always been a part of my practice. At the time it was smoking a spliff, but honestly over the last ten years, after kids, cannabis went out of my life for a while.

When I went through menopause, around 5 years ago – I’m fifty-five – I turned to CBD oil. I found smoking a spliff was too much for me. I just got too high and I couldn’t deal with life; I couldn’t be a proper parent.

When I went into menopause, two things happened to me: insomnia and anxiety. I never had anxiety before in my life.

So, for the last five years, I’ve been incorporating CBD into my life. Not just for my yoga practice, but as a tool for reducing inflammation in my body, for anxiety – especially at this time – and at night to help me to sleep. It’s kind of this beautiful maintenance program for me that is part of my life now, that I share with all of my students.

Not only do I ingest the capsules and drops, but I also use CBD oil topically for pain. I use a CBD and rose oil facial oil too. I really think CBD has incredible anti-aging properties.

What are the benefits cannabis use can have for women during this time?

1 Well first, just purely for health reasons… The way cannabis works is that it affects your endocannabinoid system which helps to reduce inflammation. It also has a really positive effect on your gut health. You have to be very mindful about how your gut is operating right now. That’s where your immune system lives. So, cannabis has this amazing ability to increase your immunity and also reduce anxiety. When you’re anxious, you’re throwing a lot of acid into your system, bringing your whole hormonal system out of balance.

2 CBD can help reduce this anxiety without the THC, which takes you into ‘loopy loop land’ and I love ‘loopy loop land’ but sometimes you gotta hold that shit together. I find that pure CBD really helped me to function in a less reactive way. It takes the edge off.

CBD is just a great, safe tool to help you to access a calmer state quickly.

3 I also think sleep is a game-changer in life and many of us are not getting enough of it. We’re spending so much time on Netflix, staying up later and messing up our sleep cycle. CBD and cannabis are great ways to help us relax and sleep more deeply.

4 It is also safe and effective for pain. If you’re suffering from arthritis or headaches, migraines, or even PMS – you can topically use the oil or cream, whatever form you prefer.

5 And for anti-aging, it’s so beautiful. One thing I tell women is that toxins are not just what you put into your bodies, but also what you put onto your bodies.

Every now and then I use cannabis in some cooking. I’ll add it in olive oil or some stir-fry vegetables. But, I do have three kids at home, so I have to hold my shit together. If it was just me, I’d be in cannabis la-la-land all day long, but those days are not happening right now!