My experience with Kava for Meditation

Kava Kava or Kava root has gained some popularity for a kind of alcohol replacement, even have a sprouting of Kava bars.  This seems to be because you get that super relaxed and calming feeling that alcohol can bring, but without the loss of mental capacity or a hang over for that matter.

I gave up on alcohol a while ago for that very reason of loss of a strong mental awareness.

Kava got me curious because in meditation we are trying to achieve that deep awareness of the inner world and seek inspiration.  To do this we need to get into a very relaxed state.  Could Kava Root help with this?

So I began experimenting.  I tried different preparations and different dosage.  Starting small at 20 grams and working my way up.  I found 35 grams to give me the desired effect.  More then that I would start to feel slightly sickly.

I was worried that by taking Kava to help meditation that I might grow some dependce on it.  So I do not do this every time I meditate and only in the meditation before bed when I do.

The practice does not seem to have a negative impact on my non-kava sessions, and enhances my sessions when I do partake of this root.

Actually, I would almost say that the practice with the root has made my non-root sessions better.  I seemed to be able to get into a relaxed state quicker even without the root after using the root for a while.

For preparation I found the following to be best for me.

First, heat some water to 140f.  The Hot water helps release the active ingredients to the Kava Root, but hotter and the root starts to gel up and breakdown.

Second, warm some source of fat, suck as buttermilk or coconut milk.  The fat helps release additional active ingredients.

Place the ground and dried kava root in a straining bag and poor the hot water over the root followed by the fat source.

Let this steep for about 1 hour.

After that kneed the contents of the bag in the water for about 5 minutes and then squeeze all you can out of the bag, being sure the remaining ground up root stays in the bag.

Drink the tea quickly for best effect, it is not to be shipped.

In about 15 to 30 minutes depending on dosage and how you react to Kava you will be reaching the peak of the effects, but you will start to feel numbness around your mouth almost immediately as the effects begin to come on.

It has a earthy taste, I like it, but many report they hate the taste.  Experimenting with flavor might be a route of exploration.

I’ve been doing work with bi-nural beets to mid-sleep cycle with some interesting results.  I wonder what happens if you mix this with Kava?