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A Military Veteran and Mom’s Journey to Pain Relief with Cannabis » Emily Kyle, RD
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In this episode, we delve into an inspiring journey of resilience and discovery as a military veteran and mother find an unexpected path to pain relief. We explore the transformative role of cannabis in managing chronic pain, anxiety, depression, and PTSD. Join us for an enlightening discussion that challenges conventional wisdom and offers fresh wellness and personal growth perspectives.
Features
- Release Date: Wednesday, July 5th, 2023
- Episode Number: Season 1, Episode 29
- Special Guest: Beth Loska, Life Coach at Smidgeofsage.com
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Why You Will Love This Episode
Beth Loska joins us in this inspiring and insightful conversation in this episode. Beth is a military veteran, a mother, and a chronic pain sufferer who has found a new lease on life through an unexpected source – cannabis.
Over the past three years, Beth has embarked on a journey with cannabis that has dramatically transformed her life.
Struggling with chronic pain, anxiety, depression, and PTSD, she had reached her medications’ maximum limit and contemplated adding more. However, her discovery of cannabis has provided a surprising alternative.
Beth shares her experiences with us, detailing how cannabis has made her pain more tolerable and alleviated the symptoms of her chronic conditions.
This episode is a deep dive into her journey, exploring the physical and mental transformations she has experienced.
Beyond just a pain management solution, Beth discusses how growing her cannabis plants has spiritually impacted her, reshaping her perspective on life.
This episode is an essential listen for anyone with chronic pain or interested in alternative therapies. Beth’s story is a testament to the power of exploring new paths to wellness and the transformative potential of cannabis.
Her willingness to share her journey offers invaluable insights and support to those facing similar struggles.
Tune in for an enlightening conversation about pain, resilience, and personal growth. For info on Beth and Smidge of Sage, Tarot & Life Coaching, please visit www.smidgeofsage.com/about or email her at info@smidgeofsage.com.
Full Transcript
Beth: I had all these preconceived ideas about what using marijuana was, the people who used it, how it was going to impact me, how it was going to impact me negatively, and I was wrong about all of it. It helps me still to adjust my attitude about it as I learn more about myself and I learn how it helps other people, just the sheer possibility that plants have. This world is great. So be nice to yourself. Give yourself a chance; give other people a chance. You never know what someone’s going through. Our chronic pain, people know this. You never know how much you’re hurting because you can’t see it. You won’t know how you’re going to feel about marijuana and cannabis until you use it and find a way for it to possibly incorporate it into your life. Be nice to yourself. Be nice to yourself. Don’t guilt yourself for trying something that helps your body.
Announcer: Welcome to the Well With Cannabis Podcast, a show dedicated to telling the life-changing stories of those who live well with cannabis all while teaching you how to do the same. Meet your host, Emily Kyle, a registered dietitian nutritionist turned certified holistic cannabis practitioner. Emily changed her life for the better with the help of the cannabis plant, and now she’s committed to helping others do the same.
Tune in each week to hear heartwarming stories and gain the knowledge you need to feel connected, inspired, and supported on your own cannabis journey. Whether you’re a new cannabis consumer or a lifetime lover, you’ll benefit from these uplifting tales of real-life journeys that will show you how you, too, can live your best life well with cannabis.
Disclaimer: Hi there. Before we jump into today’s episode, I wanted to share a note on potentially sensitive content. The episodes on the Well With Cannabis Podcast are created for adult audiences only. We will, at times, cover sensitive topics, including but not limited to suicide, abuse, mental illness, sex, drugs, alcohol, psychedelics, and the obvious use of plant medicine. Explicit language may be used occasionally. Please refrain from watching or listening to the show if you’re likely to be offended or adversely impacted by any of these topics.
The information on this show is for informational and educational purposes only. It does not constitute medical advice. If any of the content on this podcast has brought up anything for you, please reach out or speak to a professional or someone you trust.
Emily: Hello, and welcome back to another episode of the Well with Cannabis Podcast. I am so excited to be here with an amazing woman. We just chit-chatted for a second, and I feel our vibes connecting myth. Miss Beth Laska from Smidge of Sage Life Coaching. Thank you so much for being here with us today.
Beth: Thank you for the invite. I’m so excited.
Emily: Oh, I’m so excited, and I’m excited to learn about your journey. You said it’s about a three-year journey with cannabis, and you had been a chronic pain sufferer, and I know for so many of our listeners, chronic pain is one of the major things that bring people to cannabis. I’d love to talk about your story.
Beth: It’s a story. I’ll tell you.
Emily: Tell me all the details, all the juicy details.
Beth: I used to be in the military, and that’s where my pain journey started.
Emily: Thank you so much for your service.
Beth: Oh, you’re welcome. It was a completely selfish choice to go, so I feel bad when someone says thank you.
Emily: Oh no. Even though no matter what, your services mean something.
Beth: Thank you. Yes. Thank you. My chronic pain journey started while I was in the military, and the standard of practice for chronic pain is to throw something at it, preferably a pill or two or three. I was so desperate to get my body to perform that I took these medicines, hoping this would fix it. Years go by, and the doses have increased, and they want to give me more medicine as opposed to taking medications away. And I said, I just, let me stop taking this. Then they said, oh, there’s withdrawal. Did you not know? No, I did not know. Oh my gosh.
Emily: What was it like?
Beth: It was horrendous. I was on Cymbalta and Lyrica. Lyrica, for me specifically, had a very short half-life. I could tell I would get dizzy if I were late taking it. Or the brain. The brain apps are a thing that I did not know was a thing until I was experiencing them going through. A supervised withdrawal of this medication with my provider, one medicine at a time. It took four months.
Emily: Oh my gosh. Or one medicine. Can you do this from the comfort of your home, at least?
Beth: Oh, no. I had to work full-time. Oh. I’m at work. I’m nauseous; I’m dizzy. Luckily, I still felt that I could drive. There were times of the day that were better or worse. But I lost a significant amount of time work I lost because I couldn’t sit upright without vertigo. I promised myself I would try my best to do the research and not put my body and mind through something like that again. Yeah. Because it was extremely taxing, and it gets your hormones, all wrapped up in this stuff too, and it was not pleasant.
Emily: I’m so sorry that you went through that. So, four months you make it through, then what happens then?
Beth: I was without pain management for a few months until I moved to the wonderful state of Washington. I was not in it. You know, months with nothing.
Emily: Oh my gosh, no.
Beth: Prozac helped me a lot. But as far as chronic pain treatment goes, it was. It was one of the darker parts of my life. It led me on this journey to life coaching. Excuse me. I’m such a crybaby.
Emily: I feel it. It’s, I understand.
Beth: A lot of personal things were going on at the same time. And that’s how that works with life. When one thing you decide to make a change, five other things are like, wait, we’re not; we don’t need to stick around either. We moved across the country during Covid.
Emily: Where did you move from?
Beth: From Alabama to Tacoma. We had lived here before it was coming back. Okay. To a place that fits us better. It had better services. My son is autistic, so we needed to find a place to settle. Yeah. And we moved across the country, and I went to the dispensary. Not right away because I had never used any kind of drugs at any point, and I was 36.
Emily: It feels crazy to even step foot in a dispensary, doesn’t it?
Beth: It was so overwhelming. It was a lot of discussion with my husband because I knew he was skeptical. He supports the use of medical marijuana and recreational marijuana, but when it’s his wife using it, yeah. A lot of discussions come up that absolutely no one writes about or talks about.
Emily: Yeah.
Beth: Absolutely, we had to come to an understanding of what I wanted to try for my body. He was married previously. Unfortunately, his wife passed away from cancer.
Emily: I’m sorry.
Beth: But that was before medical marijuana was legal in Washington State. So, he got to see suffering without relief. That is terrible. He hoped that this could help me. And it was fun. I’ll just say that it was interesting for me because I was trying to do it responsibly. I didn’t want it to impact my relationship with my son, my husband. I still needed to get stuff done. I’m taking medication just like anything prescribed, and I don’t know how it will affect my body. Finding the right dose was fun.
Emily: That’s always a trip. Absolutely. Okay. Do you remember what your first-time using cannabis was like?
Beth: The first time I used it, I stuck with some edibles because, to me, that seemed straightforward. I used to be a tobacco user. I was very hesitant to flirt with that idea again. Because I still dream about smoking.
Emily: Oh, it’s like a part of you. It’s weird.
Beth: I was good at it. I’m so good at it. I didn’t quit because I stopped liking it. We’ll just say that a hundred percent. I started with edibles, and I probably journaled about it. I need to go back and look. Yeah. But I remember, oh, I know what it was. We hadn’t quite left Alabama, and someone gave me a can of butter cookies. It was fantastic. Cookies. And at first, it almost felt like that same kind of euphoric relief you get when you first start taking opioid pain medications, and it works.
Beth: It’s the first time it works in that relief you feel. I felt that, and I was like, oh, I can move my body. I can touch places on my body that I can’t usually. I felt connections inside my own self-making, shaking hands for the first time in a long time. And I had some great internal discussions with myself about what pain meant to me, where my fear of pain came from, what started it, why I tried to avoid it so much, and covering it up as opposed to figuring out what this is. Those conversations and that mindset would not have happened with the traditional treatments I was getting. I found what worked for me, and I have improved my quality of life in a way that I did not ever expect was possible. Yes. It doesn’t make me superhuman, but it enables me to move without pain, which is a gift for those with it.
Beth: It really made me interested and finding ways to use this excellent plant to help my body feel better. Less painful. I liked the way it made me reframe my mind and worldview, and I made connections within myself that, as I said, I hadn’t made previously. It helped me get to this place where I had the strength and wherewithal to start a business and do life coaching and tarot. And that was, that is not, that was not my comfort zone. Me from 10 years ago would have laughed at you.
Emily: It’s incredible. That’s an amazing story and journey, and I am so happy you gave those cookies a try and gave cannabis a try because everybody deserves a pain-free life. If one plant can give that to you, all these other beautiful things are on top of it. I’ve been doing many of these podcast interviews, and everybody comes back to the same thing: they came to cannabis for one reason, and they stay for this whole other plethora of reasons. These little magical things that happen that we don’t even realize happen, whether it’s a better relationship with ourselves, a better relationship with spirituality, a better relationship with our family, our friends, or our children. It’s all these beautiful things that come out of choosing to use cannabis that is so beautiful.
Beth: Yes. One thing for me specifically that I know would not have happened without this is the type of communication needed to gain my spouse’s support. That was interesting. And it’s, it continues to be something that, I think I’m not alone in this, but it feels like I am because I almost never talked to anybody about how I manage my pain. Yeah. But initially, I was like, I will not smoke it. I will not do this. I will not do that. I gave myself all these rules for the sake of having rules because I needed to feel like I had some control over this.
Beth: I’m a type A girl. I also realized that I have a healthcare background and know there are inherent risks to inhaling anything that is not clean air. Exactly. I had to determine what I wanted to do; how was I willing to justify it? And it was, I, the biggest thing that came out of this is I deserve a healthy body. I deserve a body without pain. I didn’t believe that initially. Cannabis has helped me reach that point, and I’ve experimented with ways of using it now by cooking the tinctures under your tongue and teas. I used that; that’s how I found you. I grew my little plants. It took me way too long to get a tomato from a plant. I had low expectations for my first crop, but there was a yield.
Emily: Show us, shall we? It’s so cute. Incredibly, you grew your own medicine. Is there anything more? It’s like growing a human child in a way. Congratulations.
Beth: Thank you. That was something I needed to do; again, I needed my support. For my husband, he’s my muscles. I can’t lift anything. I know. I needed him to be on board. Again, that brings it back to that communication. Setting a boundary on what I wanted to do for my body was very uncomfortable—all the while knowing that. These have health complications. He’s lost his first wife. Yeah. How am I being selfish? What kind of mom am I? What legacy am I leaving? Oh my gosh. It just goes down and on.
Emily: Yes. Now, you said you were not a cannabis consumer before. Did you feel it more the weight of, oh my gosh, I’m a cannabis user. What are people going to think of me?
Beth: As a military person, as someone who is not discussing specific parts of their life with most of their family, this is private. I’ve lost my train of thought. Ask me your question again. What was it now?
Emily: No, I know. I just get so into what we are talking about. Let’s talk about just discussing with a husband because my husband does not use cannabis at all. It’s just not his thing. But he’s always been respectful and encouraging, and I think he’s glad I use it because I’m way less naggy. I leave him alone. I let him live his own life. I’ve gotten the same feedback, and for some women, just having that first conversation with their husband is so terrifying. Do you have any suggestions for them or how you? I know you said communication. How did you approach it?
Beth: I practiced by myself. Yeah. I practiced in the mirror, in the shower. I journaled, wrote down everything I wanted to say, and read it over, and was like, no, that’s not how I want to say it. I like this part. I had this plan, this was my elevator speech, and I was only going to get one opportunity to do that. Yeah. And so, I prepared. I ammen mentally prepared that he may disagree, but I will do it anyway.
Emily: That’s a big one. Mentally preparing for something like that takes a lot of energy.
Beth: What I came to realize is that I want his support. I don’t need him to agree with me. I think making that distinction for him, he’s very analytical, and so I had to be very specific. You disagree with me, but I still need you to support me because my health impacts our whole family, and my choices will impact the things we do as a family. I must take that into consideration if I need to get my kid from school, but I just smoked. That requires me to say, hey, I cannot get my child right now.
Beth: I need you to go get our son. And he knows that asking me is hard. If you’re frustrated, we can talk about that. But I still need you to get our son. Can you get him, and then we’ll talk about it later? I practiced what I wanted to say. I found statements that were where I felt statements. That was where my boundary was, where I felt good with where my boundary was going to be. I’ll still listen to your concerns. I have the right to change my mind because I knew edibles were just what it was at the beginning. Then I started doing salves and things like that, so I had to figure out, I wanted to try everything. I could figure out what worked best for me, and getting him that first conversation was important. It did not end the way I wanted it to, but we had the conversation, and it led to many more conversations. And we like to talk in the kitchen and munch on charcuterie.
Beth: Drink a glass of wine. The kids are watching SpongeBob, and we are engaging for an hour. And those are the conversations that came up. And it required me to be very honest about how I used it. I do suffer from addiction. I had an alcohol problem when I was much younger. I can still use and drink responsibly. But the temptation for some of that is there. I will love smoking. I love smoking, but I know if I go crazy, I won’t stop. It took me a long time to quit. I am conscious every time I use it, just like I was conscious every time I took prescribed medication. Yeah. It is taking practice.
Beth: But that would probably be my best recommendation; we do that. We have conversations in the shower. It’s an excellent recommendation. Yes. How are we going to say this? What’s he going to say? How will I respond? Oh, I’m getting emotional. I’m not even talking to him. Why am I feeling emotional? Oh, I’m not ready to have that conversation yet, yes. And it was so deep. And multifaceted. I was overwhelmed and thought, I don’t need to do this. My baby plants can die. It’s too complicated to figure out; let me just suffer, but wait. I deserve a body without pain, and I deserve a healthy body. I can’t just say anything. That is the loop that keeps me going. But this is going to be a lifelong thing. This is behavior, and we’re people; we are flawed. We’re beautifully flawed, which is part of how we learn, and this stuff has helped me know more about myself than any other talk therapy.
Emily: Oh my gosh. Let’s talk about that, therapy. I keep returning to the same theme with men and women that cannabis introduces you to yourself. Oh, yes. It allows you, and I’m not an overly spiritual person. I’m not an utterly spiritual person. There’s something about it. Cannabis awakens you to yourself, your intuition, and your inner guidance that I never had before I had cannabis. And the more people I talk to who have the same experience, I’m like, tell me all about it. So please tell me how it impacts you in that way.
Beth: It became a big part of my self-care routine and spirituality, which I had just fallen out of; some things didn’t resonate anymore. And that’s what happens. It’s supposed to happen anyway. As life changes and you get exposed to more items, you can change your mind and reframe where you’re coming from. There was a huge connection to my spirituality, but it wasn’t right away, and it was after the pain had subsided. I’ve realized that my intuition is most people’s intuition, that little voice that talks to you; it only has one volume. Yes. You can’t make it louder. You must make things quieter.
Emily: That is such an excellent way to say that.
Beth: Using marijuana helps everything go down. And then, in that beautiful voice singing, it’s hard out, but it can only get so loud. I finally heard, I finally heard it. then I was likThenhen was the first time I listened to this voice? I had to remember. It took many times of thinking and journaling, and I used it as a way of self-exploration. It opened my memory in ways that I didn’t know were possible. I recalled I pressed memories from trauma when I was a kid. Everything I had hidden from myself came through when I was ready to be in my body. Not trying to escape it. Because it hurts so bad, It became part of my spirituality in a way to help me connect, to help me become still.
Beth: I am better at becoming still. It’s taken my practice; it’s practice. I could struggle and meditate for two minutes with my eyes closed and still, and now I can sustain that for 45 minutes or an hour. Buying cannabis helped me get there. It helped me feel calm in my body. Understand what I was feeling. It wasn’t all anger. It’s more stuff. There’s stuff under that, and it revolutionized how I look at my life. Revolution way, revolutionize. The way I look at my spirituality is I look at it like a garden. I’m a very; I’m a huge plant fan now. It benefits.
Beth: I don’t kill them anymore, so they like me back. But spirituality, for me, is like a garden. You must tend to it. If you’ve never planted anything, there won’t be anything there. You must start. And the biggest thing for me is you only sometimes thrive where you’re first planted. It was the underlying tone of that point in my life, leaving a career and taking my family across the country during Covid when I was not medicated with pain medicine. Sitting for 20-plus hours in a car with two geriatric dogs, an old cat, and a crabby three-year-old, I made it and got this. We moved to my in-law’s house. They’re helping us stay. And it is not what was promised. There’s no working plumbing where we were at. It was a nightmare.
Emily: That’s totally different.
Beth: Oh my gosh. It’s a whole other story. It’s a whole different story. So, my chronic pain was out of sight when I got to Washington was an understatement, and stress and things like that. But I was not thriving where I was, and I moved, and my spirituality grew, and I tended it and found some things I liked to grow there. And I found some other stuff that was like, no, that doesn’t belong here. That’s not what I want to put my energy and time into growing, thriving you and.
Beth: Again, cannabis helped me look at my life like that. It chilled out all my overwhelming emotions, my overwhelming stress, my body pain, the racing thoughts, the stuff that comes with life and chronic pain. Yeah. And I could finally step through this fog that I had no idea I was even in. It was magical in a way that I grew my stuff. I found you this way.
Emily: I know it’s amazing.
Beth: It’s a plant; it has made more opportunities than those taken from me. It’s beautiful. It hasn’t taken anything from me, to be honest.
Emily: It’s the gift that keeps on giving. It truly is. And there could be a few side effects. Maybe you’re sleepy one time, but otherwise, there’s nothing.
Beth: Those, the adventures of life, absolutely.
Emily: Absolutely. I’m glad you said that you tried a little bit of everything to find out what worked best for you because I think that’s the best advice to give in cannabis because you thought you wanted to go one way, and now you go all the way. The beautiful thing about cannabis is you can use different things for different reasons. And so, you have more tools in your tool belt.
Beth: I’m still adding that to my toolbar right now. What is all in cannabis? The science behind it. Which science behind it works best for me? The terpene that loves my body. My body loves that. It works great. And it is finding strains that work or don’t work. That’s one thing that surprised me. Some don’t even do anything to me.
Emily: Or make you feel crabby. There have been times when my husband’s, what strain are you using? He’ll be like, don’t ever use that again. But it’s good to tell people that. Cannabis is not a one-and-done. It’s not like you take a pill, and it is what it is. There is so much nuance and so much that you can manipulate and change to suit your own needs.
Beth: Yes, exactly. That’s one thing I learned from my first growth experience to this next one. I’m going to start here in March. Can I do something I can do for my plants so that they have the better qualities that I want? I’ve already researched my strain, so it’s better. I can’t tell anything off the top of my head, but it is. I have a game plan now, and that’s basically what you must do. This isn’t an; it’s not expensive to experiment with this. I’ve bought shoes more expensive than I had to put into this to get started that I’ve never worn. This is an investment that was relatively small for the benefit that I got from it.
Emily: Yes. Last year I put a seed in the ground. I wanted to show people that you could put a seed in the ground and grow amazing plants. And when we did the math on what that seed costs versus what we could sell that for on the market. Your return on investment is unbelievable. You’re making your own medicine. It’s real; you’re your own medicine man. I don’t know if you felt this; I know you said your plans were small, but just watching it is such a magical experience in and of itself.
Beth: It is. And it is a study again of how you care for yourself. Self-care is like being a plant. You do have to water yourself. You do have to feed yourself, but that’s keeping you alive, and that’s not self-care. Like how can you make yourself thrive? That is self-care, and this helps me do that because I didn’t, I could not get through that barrier on my own steam.
Emily: That’s what I wanted to ask you about is self-care because, for a lot of women, self-care is this elusive thing that will never reach, that involves like a massage and a pedicure, which is not that those things are not self-care. But many people I tell like cannabis is a tool in my self-care tool belt. It helps all the other parts of self-care kind of fall into place. Have you had the same experience?
Beth: Yes. It enables me to be present in my body here at the moment; how good or bad? What is it here? And then I can again touch places I couldn’t touch before. Care for me in ways that a massage lady is not going to do, or someone doing a pedicure is not willing to do either. I must be willing to care for myself because no one nurtures me like I can. I didn’t believe that at first. I challenged myself. I did a little blog challenge, and it was 30 days. As self-care for the skeptic, I wanted to know if it would work for me and if it would be worth the time.
Beth: I documented my month. I did 30 days of my real life, the time I had each day, and the availability of resources. I saw what I could do when I really tried. Yeah. After the first week, I felt. Like a new person in the second week, the third, and the fourth. It’s been a year since I have been down 45 pounds. My skin is better. My hair was falling out; my nails were brittle. There, there’s so much to this. That I just started caring for myself differently. It really helped me blossom into myself. I’m still becoming. Have you ever read Michelle Obama’s book Becoming Michelle Obama? I’m still becoming Beth. Yeah. Yes, absolutely. But it has helped me realize the value of myself and the matter of time I give to myself. That’s, ah, that’s so important, and yeah, very critical. Yeah, it’s me the most. I’m able to be more present for my kids now. I’m a better mom. I’m a better wife.
Emily: That’s where I wanted to go with you – motherhood. How has it impacted motherhood? Because so many people have such a lousy misconception that cannabis and parenting cannot be combined responsibly. But so many people are just put out there that they are such better-quality parents thanks to cannabis. Have you had the same experience?
Beth: Heck, yes. I have been on pain medication, and helping my son do something or have fun with him was unheard of. I am, and I’m not disabled when I’m using this. There’s that subtleness too. You’re not zero to 1000, and I’ve found the dose I can perform on the floor. My son has special needs. He’s very high functioning autistic. A brilliant little boy. He was completely nonverbal, and now he’s in third grade and learning multiplication. I could not have done the support that he needed, the help that I needed, if I hadn’t found a way to manage my pain like cannabis better did.
Beth: It made me more curious and less. Less exasperated with his yeah, his sense of imagination. That’s what we need more of. Don’t stuff it down. And if it takes longer to do the math, at least we had fun when we did it. It gives me that kind of creative spark. How can I approach this so my neurodivergent child will understand? I’m not the only parent, I’m sure that’s like this with a neurodivergent child, but I see so much of myself. I didn’t get my diagnosis. However, I know what my parents did for me, how it did not work. I will try something different with my son, enabling me to be creative about reaching my kid. Differently, it gives, makes it fun to be a parent again. That’s how it’s supposed to be. Much more challenging because they’re struggling. Yes. It’s helped me be more present with how I feel as I’m him through things and making sure that I’m only there for his emotions.
Beth: emotions that are coming through regarding this is just stuff I need to deal with in my journal. It helps me separate. Hold it close and put it aside just until I’m ready for it later. Man, the relationships with my husband, the communication we’ve been able to have, I’ve felt very insecure at first sharing with him my spiritual journey with this because he’s atheist. And so how, okay. I know how you feel personally. Don’t think I’m, don’t think I’m weird. I still, your opinion about me matters. Having those kinds of conversations opens us up to be more. Responsive to each other, and like you, my husband cannot use it even where we’re at.
Beth: With his job, he understands it has value for me. He sees now how I have grown. Emotionally, when you take the pain out of the equation, man, you can do much more. It has; it’s benefited everything. I’m a better sister to my sibling. I’m a better daughter. I am a better granddaughter. I am a better coworker. You just don’t know it. And that’s so funny. I am a better human for how I now take care of myself. And cannabis was the key to that. It unlocked it for me.
Emily: It’s so beautiful. I’m glad you found this plant, and I’m so happy you’ve shared your experience here with us. I hope that it helps. We could touch a wide variety of people here, moms and dads, and military families, and I mean, you are coming out and sharing this is very brave and essential. I’m so glad that you did. Now I want to be respectful of your time. I want to ask my guests all the same four questions. Are you ready for them? Our first one-up is, what are you most proud of in your life to date?
Beth: I’m a life coach and opened my own business because of how cannabis talks about it. Cannabis changed my brain. It changed my attitude, changed my confidence, and helped me get in touch with my intuition. Which I had stuck down for way too long, and it was such a cool gift. I’m kicking myself that I stepped it down for so long. Yeah. I would say, just being where I’m at, how does it get better? This is the question I ask myself very often because it gets better. It does.
Emily: It’s beautiful for someone listening, especially for someone living in chronic pain, to hear your words like that; it’s just my hope that this reaches them at a time when they need it. It can be hard because it can feel hopeless, as you described. If you can share that with people, we can change one life here. That’s what this podcast is all about.
Beth: No, they’re I at my lowest. I was suicidal with a husband and son, thinking they’d be better off without me, and here I am.
Emily: Thank you for sharing that. It’s important, and I hope anybody listening who needs help, hope, and inspiration can reach out to either of us. I’ll put your contact information here. I guess it brings us to the question, what would your life look like if you didn’t have cannabis?
Beth: I would be cranky a lot. I’d be good at it, too, because it’s really how we channel our pain. We have no control over our bodies, and we feel like the only thing we can control is what we say. We’re not even in control of our emotions at that point. It just overrides our system, and we don’t even realize it until it’s all gone. I would be miserable. I would be sad. I would not be me.
Emily: Yes, I know. Look at you now. You are radiant. You are vibrant. You can feel the love coming out of you; one plant can do that. I’m just so happy that it found you. Me too. Now, if you could go back and give yourself a little piece of cannabis advice 10, 20, or 30 years ago, it doesn’t matter. If you could whisper in your ear, what would you tell yourself?
Beth: I would tell myself, so it’s hard to put in words. I guess I had a lot of guilt in starting it because the people who look at the kid having a cow in the grocery store don’t have kids. They’re like, “When I have kids, my children will never do this.” then you’re there, and you’re like, oh my gosh, I wish I could go back in time and tell that person, I’m so sorry. I had all these preconceived ideas about what using marijuana was, the people who used it, how it would impact me, and how it would affect me. I was wrong about all of it. It’s you, the individual. What does it mean to you? I what? Will I be a good mom if I teach my kid arithmetic? It’s boring to teach arithmetic. If I can make it fun and enjoy myself simultaneously, he gets more out of it than if I hadn’t. How is that a detriment?
Beth: How does that make me a bad mom? I had to challenge my thoughts. My thinking about my use, about anybody’s use. I realized I had been wrong for a very long time. And so it helps me still to adjust my attitude about it as I learn more about myself and how it helps others. Just the sheer possibility that plants have for this world is excellent. So be nice to yourself. Give yourself a chance. Give other people a chance. You never know what someone’s going through. Our chronic pain, people know this. You never know how much you’re hurting because you can’t see it, and you won’t know how you’re going to feel about marijuana and cannabis until you use it and find a way for it to incorporate it into your life possibly. Be nice to yourself. Be nice to yourself. Don’t guilt yourself for trying something that helps your body.
Emily: That’s so perfect. And a lot of times we’re, it’s very easy to be hard on ourselves, but it’s not easy to be nice to ourselves. Thank you for that reminder. Our last one, if you could be remembered for just one thing in the cannabis space, what would it be?
Beth: Oh, I don’t know the poetry I write. Oh, tell us more. None of its published and. But I call it tales from the high end, and it loves me. It’s just a creative outlet only for me at this point, but it brings me joy in ways that I didn’t expect.
Emily: Look at the smile on your face. You’re thinking about it.
Beth: It’s embarrassing. I’ve never really said it to anybody; just embarrassed.
Emily: It’s not embarrassing at all. Having a creative outlet that brings you so much joy is such a beautiful thing.
Beth: And it’s one of those things that afterward I read, and it still makes sense.
Emily: Tell us more about your life coaching business. Some people like to talk to Beth, like right now.
Beth: Life coaching with me is slightly different, and most people have never talked with a life coach. I used a life coach a few times before becoming one myself. And I’m currently attending school to get my master’s degree in psychology with a minor in life coaching. Life coaching with me is, again, it’s that comprehensive support. A system that you need when you’re making huge changes.
Beth: You need a sounding board. You need someone who knows more information about it or has better skills at Googling than you do. You need someone who can hold you accountable or support you when you have no one to support you. Yeah. I often find that I am the confidant, someone needed, but they didn’t trust their friends or their family quite enough.
Beth: To go that route. And I serve as a bridge to help them create the life they want. However, it is. I love self-improvement. That’s what I do in my ordinary job life. Coaching is my extraordinary job, and it works with that too. And so, we look at. We look at the whole picture, the whole person. We throw some tarot and meditation in there. I’m a friendly weirdo. I promise it’ll be cool. And it’s nice to have a different perspective from someone educated. I’ve got a master’s degree in healthcare administration as well. I do process improvement. For my ordinary job, I’ve been a manager, a supervisor, a mom, a business owner.
Beth: I’m a trauma survivor. I’m a military retiree. I’m a disabled veteran. There are all these things that I have lived through that have given me this experience. I just, I’m pulled and drawn to share it with people. It’s truly amazing to see the transformation of my clients and the people I’ve touched, and I’ll still get emails a year later. I still read or watch the video of your reading and this and that, and it made a big difference. And that is what fills me up. It fills up my battery. It keeps me going for more. So yes, if you are at a crossroads, if you are stuck and have to decide, you’d instead go straight. Still, the road is done, that’s usually where people find themselves, and then they find me there to help them make decisions and weigh their options in a way that clears the emotions out of it so that they, too, can see their big picture. And be the best version of themselves that they can be.
Emily: Oh my gosh. You’re going to get bombarded with emails. I want to. I’m like; I need to be working with death. It seems like a best friend, mom, sister. All of the above. Put it into one. Anybody who works with you is going to be so lucky, and I hope anybody listening who is feeling drawn to you checks out your information. What is your website where people can find you?
Beth: You can reach me at Smidgeofsage.com or email me at info smidge of sage.com. I’m on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Anywhere that you want to search for me, I’m there. And Pinterest too. This is, that’s how I found you. And so, of course, that is where I’m at. And so, you name it, and you can find me. But yes, Smidgeofsage.com and life coaching.
Emily: I will link all your information in the show notes so people can find, connect, and work with you. Thank you so much for this fantastic interview. My cup is complete after this. So thank you for sharing your experience and your wisdom. I appreciate it so much.
Beth: It was my pleasure and so fantastic to be here. Oh, thank you so much.
Announcer: Congratulations, you’ve finished another episode of the Well With Cannabis Podcast and are one step closer to discovering how you, too, can live well with cannabis.
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