The 21-Day Presence Project
Welcome to a little adventure I’m calling The Presence Project where I invite you to take a 21-day tolerance break from cannabis and boost your creativity.
Yes, as part of this project I’m inviting you to take a tolerance break from consuming flower, puff, hash, solid, draw, bud, blunts, whatever you call it matters not. I call it Bou. You have your name for it. You regard the humble marijuana plant as your lifelong friend. And she is humble, is she not?
She doesn’t beg or scream for your attention. She simply guides you to be more of who you already are. She coaxes you to simply be. She wants you to let the freaky film in your head shine. Who wouldn’t want a friend like that? Who wouldn’t want to hang out with that friend every single day? But there’s a catch.
You see, even paradise can get repetitive, predictable, same old, same old. I know. I live in paradise.
The most glorious beaches in Europe are five minutes walk from my house. When my dog was alive I used to go there every day. Since she passed in 2023, I go less and less.
When I do go, I can sit on the beach to catch rays for an hour, never longer, too restless. Which is where a jay comes in. A smoke allows me to just sit, to see, smell, notice, smile, breathe, and remember.
Did you know that the etymology of the word “remember” comes from the idea to literally put a “member” back together, making its antonym “dismember””
So, to remember is to put things back together again, to assemble them. And that’s what I’ll be inviting you to do as part of The Presence Project.
And yes, you’re going to use this workbook to help you take a tolerance break. You will stop consuming cannabis for 21 days.
But we are not going to refer to this adventure as a tolerance break, no. We’re going to think of it as a way of being present and refer to it as your Presence Project.
The attached workbook first explains the philosophy behind this tolerance break, and then outlines some simple creativity tasks to keep you on track, and in conversation with yourself over a 21-day tolerance break.
On top, the tasks ask you to look outwards rather than inwards. So even though you’re in conversation with yourself, that conversation is taking place through your environment.
In short, I created this guide because it’s the guide I wanted whilst taking my tolerance break. And in the future, I will use this guide as part of my breaks. But I’m sharing it with you because you may find it useful.
If anyone elects to use this guide in the coming months, please reach out and let me know. And I will be doing another break in autumn (October), so I’ll be inviting you to join me at that time, and we can support each other using this guide.
