Phil Stille

Phil Stille Create mental clarity, self-trust, and a more intentional relationship with cannabis. https://clearheadedhighs.xyz/about
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07/08/2026

Laith .geoo discussing deep fear someone was working through during one of his climbing trips.

She was working with a lot of fear around getting on the wall and jumping into the water. Laith sat with her, talked with her, helped her breathe, and stayed with the process as she worked through what was coming up.

Part of what made the story so powerful is that she had drowned in a pool as a child and had to be brought back with CPR. She had done Everest base camp, but still had fear around jumping into a pool. And through this experience, she ended up jumping off a cliff into the water.

As he mentions in this clip, fear can look very different from person to person. But there is an underlying principle of being able to find growth where constricted emotion lives, whether it is approaching something like climbing a wall or working with the emotions that arise around daily life circumstances and challenges.

To loosely paraphrase a wise man named Joe Hudson, “Joy is the mother of all emotions, but she does not like to hang out at your house unless all of her children are welcome.”

07/06/2026

In a conversation I had with .geoo we talked about using fear as an opportunity for nervous system regulation, and how he works with people through sea cliff climbing and indoor climbing to help them better understand and recalibrate the fear that shows up.

In this clip, I was bringing up how we can see this in everyday life by approaching life with the mindset that your triggers are your teachers. You do not necessarily need to go climb cliffs or do something extreme to work with fear. It can show up in a conversation, a decision, a relationship, a moment of shame, a moment of guilt, or the hesitation before doing something you know you need to do.

The more you can practice presence with those moments, reframe what is happening, use the breath, work with the body, and tell a new story around the experience, the more you are gradually training your brain and nervous system to respond differently in real time.

That is a big part of what I like about the way Laith talks about fear. He uses climbing as one doorway into the process, but he is also able to help people see how fear shows up in other areas of life.

07/05/2026

Fear in the mind or body is often an opportunity for nervous system recalibration. There is a purpose to the fight-or-flight response, but as my friend Laith .geoo talks about in this clip, there is also a way to work with fear so the body can learn how to move from hesitation into readiness.

Laith runs climbing trips and workshops where people work with fear in a very real-time way. Before someone gets on the wall, he has them visualize the climb: the moves, the breathing, the grip, and the moment where hesitation might show up. A lot of what he is doing is helping people notice that split second where fear starts to negotiate.

I like the way he talks about this because he is not trying to make fear disappear, and he acknowledges that fear is primal for a reason. It has helped keep humans alive for a long time. The point is learning how to relate to it differently, so the body can move from off balance to on balance through mindful exposure, repetition, and awareness.

Full conversation is available through the link on my home page.

06/29/2026

“Quit w**d, it’s bad for you” is very surface-level advice.

*This video is intended for anyone who is thinking they may need to quit cannabis, or at least questioning their relationship with it. This is not medical advice.*

I understand why people give that advice, and I know a lot of them mean well. I also spent a lot of time in that space myself and made videos from that angle.

Even then, I usually felt there was more to the conversation. Some people can have a fine relationship with the plant. Some people cannot. From my perspective, one of the simplest places to look is how fulfilled someone feels in their work and relationships.

If someone is in work that drains them, relationships that drain them, and they either feel unable to make changes or have no desire to make changes in those areas, then cannabis is probably not helping the situation. Granted, some people can feel okay if one of those areas is strong even while the other one is not. And frankly, whether cannabis is in the picture or not, these are areas worth making changes in. With cannabis in the picture, I think it becomes even more important.

Forging an intentional relationship with cannabis involves a lot of things, but fulfillment in work, relationships, and sense of purpose are foundational pieces of the conversation. Cannabis is a psychoactive plant, so what someone is bringing to it matters.

That may sound a little metaphysical to some people, but I think it is a very real part of the equation.

06/28/2026

In this clip from my recent conversation with Dr. Riley Kirk, we talk about an important detail in cannabis research that a lot of people may not realize.

There are scientists like Riley doing real work to better understand cannabis, but federal research rules have created a gap between what has been studied with government funding and what people are actually consuming in the regulated market.

For years, the cannabis that researchers have been allowed to study with government funding has not resembled the THC-dominant products many people are actually buying and using today. Riley explains that when the government-approved cannabis used for research was analyzed further, it looked more like h**p than what would be considered type one cannabis.

So when people talk about “the science” around cannabis, it helps to ask what kind of cannabis was actually being studied, and whether that matches what people are consuming in the regulated market now.

If you would like to hear the full conversation, you can follow the link on my page.

06/24/2026

There is a middle ground that often gets missed in a lot of quit w**d content online. Most of what you find tends to fall into one of two camps. Either people are telling you that you have to quit, that w**d is the problem, and here are all the benefits of stopping, or they are saying it is no big deal and there is nothing to think about. I think there is a more useful conversation somewhere in the middle.

I’ve documented my own process with this area for a little over seven years and have had pockets where taking a lot of time away from the plant benefitted me. But the pattern of self-sabotage always ended up showing up somewhere else in my life. As I began to address the nervous system I was bringing to cannabis, which is important when you look at the science, the effects and my relationship to the plant began to naturally change.

That is why I think this conversation has to go beyond whether cannabis is good or bad, or whether you should quit forever or never question it at all. Your mindset, your environment, your daily inputs, the people around you, the work you do, the content you consume, and the stories you are telling yourself about what is possible for your life all shape what you bring to the plant.

So if you have been back and forth with cannabis and feel confused by all the different messages online, it may be worth looking at how you are interacting with the plant instead of only focusing on whether you should quit. Look at what you are bringing to it, make intentional changes there, and see where that takes you.

If you would like a useful starting framework to begin with, you can check out six things that create clear headed highs on my page. You don’t need to give your email or download anything to access it.

06/17/2026

You do not have to be fully healed, fully clear, fully confident, or fully “ready” before you can help people. Whether you see a direct relation or not, I think it is a valuable thing to take in or affirm.

When my first mindset coach suggested that I offer some kind of guidance or coaching opportunity to the people who were commenting on my videos, my immediate thought and statement was, “Who am I to do that?” To which he said, “Who are you not to?” And I sat back and said, “Fair point.”

The idea of our capability to help others, or how much value we feel we have to offer, is one of the sneakiest places the inner critic shows up. It can sound like, “Who am I to do this?” or, “This isn’t good enough yet,” or, “I still have too much of my own stuff to work through.”

All of that is the same s**t as any other aspect of a negative inner narrative. Just more extensions of the inner critic that we already focus on practicing awareness around with cannabis, self talk, and the way we relate to ourselves.

These negative thought patterns are not always isolated to one area of life. They can show up around relationships, work, money, cannabis, purpose, and confidence. But underneath it, they are often connected in a nonlinear way through the brain, nervous system, and even the endocannabinoid system.

So if resistance comes up around offering your perspective to someone who wants to hear it, or sharing your perspective online, or speaking in front of a group of people, that does not automatically mean the resistance is telling the truth.

More often than not, it just means you touched an old pathway that is pretty deeply embedded. That part of the brain wants to keep you safe. You are likely already aware of the idea that the ego or subconscious does not usually like to divert from what is familiar.

If this resonates with you, please know that you are able to help more people than you can possibly imagine. You already are, even just in your smile or occasional laugh around others. But beyond that, your life experience as a whole and the lessons you will continue to learn are worthy of being shared with those who either desire it or happily

06/10/2026

Cannabis use disorder is a term that gets thrown around a lot, and in many ways I think the current conversation around it creates more confusion than clarity.

In this clip from my recent sit-down with Dr. Riley Kirk , she helps unpack what the term actually means and some of the criteria that currently go into determining whether someone qualifies for it.

Loosely speaking, both addiction and cannabis use disorder point toward a similar mechanism. Continuing to engage in a behavior despite negative consequences. Certainly there are situations where that is happening and should be taken seriously.

What makes this conversation interesting is that some of the criteria used to determine cannabis use disorder are incredibly broad. Dr. Riley points out that building a tolerance and spending time preparing or consuming cannabis can contribute toward qualifying someone for CUD. By that definition, she would technically qualify.

The interesting question then becomes: does that label actually tell us something meaningful about the quality of someone’s life?

Dr. Riley is a cannabis scientist, researcher, published author, and educator. She has strong relationships, meaningful work, a supportive community, and a healthy relationship with herself. Cannabis is not creating chaos in her life. It is part of a life that is already functioning well.

That doesn’t mean cannabis use disorder isn’t real. It means we need to be thoughtful about how we define it, how we measure it, and whether the criteria are actually helping us identify people who are struggling versus people who simply consume cannabis regularly.

If you’d like to hear the full discussion, you can find it on my page. 🙌🏼

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