How much did you smoke when you decided to cut it?
I find the extra creativity, and sometimes vastly different viewpoint on many matters in life (probably all of them) is invaluable. Another thing is (in some circumstances) almost constant stream of out-of-blue ideas, solutions to situations/problems etc coming from subconsciousness. In life as usual, these are much more scarce. Some of best ideas/decisions in my life came from those places, often Inception style (you get some basic idea, and explore more and more after it).
This fades away significantly if I smoke often and comes back in full strength when having a week or two breaks in between.
working out feels great, the harder the better (well till certain breaking point), but mentally those states are worlds apart, something around clarity vs expanded consiousness.
If I could cut the smoking part (don't smoke cigarettes/tobacco since that's a net lose for consumer on many levels), and have something like eye drops that would be something.
I bike commute to work for a significant amount of time (about 1:15 each way) and most days I get out-of-the-blue ideas and solutions to situations/problems starting usually around 45 minutes in. It also often happens that I get a shift of perspective/viewpoint on something that is affecting me.
If you are not getting any of this when working out may I suggest going longer? After all for most people the "runner's high" doesn't really happen unless you run for a significant amount of time (personally, same as for riding, it usually takes at least 45 minutes before it starts, for other people I know even an hour)
I have to say that when I can't ride to work but have to take transit (when it's icy out) I am definitely less effective due to the lack of this 2x/day burst of additional creativity (which is helpful on the way back too, get home, fire off emails and note some plans for the next day).
Note I have never taken drugs so I can't offer any comparisons.
That might be partly explained by it, my gym sessions/interval runs don't last more than 30-35 minutes.
But I also do plenty of stuff in mountains - hikes, alpinism, ski touring, climbing etc. These are 3-10 hours activities (apart from short&intense burst while climbing), similar to slow running (sometimes actually pretty intense). These could be classified as some sort of "high", but more in a sense of euphory, joy of being in nature, seeing some amazing places, random meetings with animals etc. But nothing comparable to other "high" states from drugs. Just 2 very different worlds, both amazing but for different reasons.
gym does not do it for me at all, as it's not really aerobic, and hiking in general requires too much brain power figuring out where to put your feet to allow me to get in the flow state plus in general it's not intense enough for long enough.
For me it really seems like working out at a high enough level that you'd have to stop after 1:30 or so that does it, if I have longer rides (I have ridden up to 5 hours) it does not seem to be hard enough, while if you go shorter it's too hard, there just seems to be something about the hard-but-manageable-effort that does it for some reason
Same deal with running, when I was marathon training and running for 2+ hours it did not happen as often as it did when I was half-marathon training and I was focusing on 1-1:30 workouts
I still do, and vaporize a lot(Magic Flight Launch Box FTW). Too much probably but it's at least not that harmful! Pretty much daily/all the time. I agree with all your points.
I find the extra creativity, and sometimes vastly different viewpoint on many matters in life (probably all of them) is invaluable. Another thing is (in some circumstances) almost constant stream of out-of-blue ideas, solutions to situations/problems etc coming from subconsciousness. In life as usual, these are much more scarce. Some of best ideas/decisions in my life came from those places, often Inception style (you get some basic idea, and explore more and more after it).
This fades away significantly if I smoke often and comes back in full strength when having a week or two breaks in between.
working out feels great, the harder the better (well till certain breaking point), but mentally those states are worlds apart, something around clarity vs expanded consiousness.
If I could cut the smoking part (don't smoke cigarettes/tobacco since that's a net lose for consumer on many levels), and have something like eye drops that would be something.