Thanks for joining me on our pause for tea this week.

Sometimes we know something before we’re ready to admit it. A feeling keeps resurfacing, or we notice that the way we’re spending our time no longer quite matches the way we want to live.

In this short Tea Mind practice, Erica reflects on returning from six weeks travelling with her family and realising that work had started to take up more space than she wanted it to.

Picking up a paintbrush simply for fun helped reveal something important: not everything we give our time to needs to be useful, productive or connected to our work.

Over a cup of tea, you’ll create some space to notice what may have been quietly asking for your attention. You’ll consider what becomes possible when you say it plainly, then choose one small action that responds to what you’ve noticed.

Today’s episode is brought to you by: Second Flush Darjeeling, a delicate black tea with a fresh aroma, characteristic muscatel notes, gentle depth and a clean finish.

Because the flavour reveals itself gradually rather than all at once, it’s a fitting tea for an episode about paying closer attention. Let it be an invitation to notice what is already there, both in your cup and in your life.

In this pause for tea, you’ll discover:

• 00:49 Giving a quiet, slightly uncomfortable truth enough room to be heard

• 02:35 Using your first sip to bring your attention back to what’s actually here

• 03:23 Noticing what has been taking up most of your attention lately

• 03:36 What six weeks travelling with family helped Erica see differently

• 03:58 Picking up a paintbrush without needing it to have a purpose

• 05:11 How recent conversations about slowing down and creativity planted seeds for change

• 06:37 The question that brings the practice into focus: what haven’t you quite admitted to yourself?

• 07:54 Turning what you’ve noticed into one small, realistic action

Resources and Links

Make sure you’re getting eteaket’s Tea Mail to be the first to discover awesome teas, like Second Flush Darjeeling.

Previous episodes referred to:

• Episode #84 Sarah Robertson on the Courage to Slow Down

• Episode #80 Eleanor Cunningham on What Keeps Calling You Back

Discover new teas

Thanks for pausing for tea with me today.
If this helped, I’d love a quick comment, a heart, or a share. It genuinely helps this post reach more people who need a calmer next step.

Erica x

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Recently, I had to decide whether to move into larger premises for eteaket and The Tea Mind.

More space meant more events, more wholesale opportunities and the chance to welcome more people.

It also meant taking a leap.

So I kept revisiting the decision.

While I was thinking, there were events we couldn’t host and sales we didn’t make. There was also the time I spent reopening the same question.

That reminded me of something James Watt said when I met him years ago at the Edinburgh Book Festival:

“Shoot first, aim later.”

I’ve never taken that as permission to make careless decisions.

I take it as a reminder that there comes a point when thinking stops producing useful information.

Action gives you real information.

You make the call. You see what happens. Then you adjust based on reality rather than another imagined scenario.

So if there’s a decision you keep reopening, try asking:

What could I learn by acting that I can’t learn by thinking about this again?

You might still need more information.

Or you might realise you’ve thought about it long enough.

p.s. Your pause for tea this week is brought to you by Ginger Gut Balance - discover more teas here.

© eteaket

02: Thinking, Fast and Slow

In Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman explores how we move between fast, intuitive judgements and slower, more deliberate thinking. Both have their place, and both can lead us astray. What I find useful is the reminder to notice how we’re thinking about a decision, rather than simply thinking about it for longer. Sometimes a choice deserves more scrutiny. Sometimes we’ve already done the thinking and another round won’t tell us anything new. Has more thinking stopped adding useful information?

Read now: Thinking Fast & Slow Book

03: Jeff Bezos's “one-way door / two-way door” decision framework

A one-way-door decision is difficult to reverse, so deserves careful deliberation. A two-way-door decision is reversible, so can usually be made much faster and adjusted afterwards. Read more about it at this blog…

Read now: fs.blog

Thanks for pausing for tea with me today.
If this helped, I’d love a quick comment, a heart, or a share. It genuinely helps this post reach more people who need a calmer next step.

Erica x

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Thanks for joining me on our pause for tea this week.

This short clarity practice is for the decision you keep revisiting. The one that comes back while you’re making tea, working, or trying to focus on something else.

Some decisions genuinely need more time. Others reach a point where more thinking stops giving us useful information. Meanwhile, carrying the undecided decision has a cost.

In this episode, Erica shares a decision she faced about moving into larger premises, and what delaying that choice was costing in missed opportunities, sales and time spent repeatedly reconsidering the same question.

Over a cup of tea, you’ll consider what waiting is costing you, what you may already know, and whether taking action could give you information that thinking cannot.

You’ll leave with one decision brought into clearer focus and a next action that can help you move forward.

Today’s episode is brought to you by: Ginger Gut Balance, A black tea with bright peach, earthy turmeric and a gentle ginger spice on the finish.

It’s a crisp, steady cup for a practice centred on making decisions. The gentle heat of the ginger also gives you something tangible to notice as you move from thinking about the decision to considering what action might teach you.

In this pause for tea, you’ll discover:

• 00:49 The decision that keeps taking up mental space

• 03:54 Erica’s decision about taking the leap into larger premises

• 05:18 A useful question: What is waiting actually costing me?

• 05:37 The “shoot first, aim later” idea that Erica returns to when she catches herself dithering

• 06:39 What do I already know that I keep asking myself to reconsider?

• 06:59 Why action can give you information that more thinking cannot

• 07:22 How deadlines, budgets and other constraints can help narrow the options

• 08:18 Choosing the next action that will give you real information

Resources and Links

Make sure you’re getting eteaket’s Tea Mail to be the first to discover awesome teas, like Ginger Gut Balance.

Discover new teas

Thanks for pausing for tea with me today.
If this helped, I’d love a quick comment, a heart, or a share. It genuinely helps this post reach more people who need a calmer next step.

Erica x

The Tea Mind is reader-supported. To get new posts (and support my work), consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

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A little more research, a few more notes, maybe even another version of the idea.
It can feel productive.

Meanwhile, the thing itself remains untouched.
I’ve noticed how easy it is to spend time building around what needs my attention instead of looking directly at it.
So during my pause for tea this week I’m asking myself what I’d do if I could no longer improve the plan.

Most of the time, the answer is surprisingly clear.
Sometimes the next step has been obvious all along.
It was simply buried beneath more thinking.

p.s. Your pause for tea this week is brought to you by Rose Petal Purify - discover more teas here.

© eteaket

02: The Hidden Cost of Overplanning

In this podcast episode, Chase Jarvis explores how planning can become a way of avoiding exposure, uncertainty, and action.

Listen now: Spotify

03: In Uncertain Times, Ask These Questions Before You Make a Decision

The Harvard Business Review article suggests we focus on better questions rather than better predictions. Particularly useful if you're an endless planner!

Read now: Harvard Business Review

Thanks for pausing for tea with me today.
If this helped, I’d love a quick comment, a heart, or a share. It genuinely helps this post reach more people who need a calmer next step.

Erica x

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Thanks for joining me on our pause for tea this week.
I invite you to lean into that feeling of skirting round the edges, appearing productive, but not actually getting the thing done.

When something matters, it’s easy to believe that more thinking will eventually create more certainty.

Sometimes it does but often, it simply creates more complexity.

Together, we’ll notice why some decisions stay unfinished, how uncertainty keeps us circling, and what becomes clear when we stop trying to improve the plan long enough to look directly at the thing itself.

Today’s episode is brought to you by: Rose Petal Purify, a delicate white tea with rose petals and a gentle hint of Thai ginger. Light in flavour and simple by nature, it mirrors the theme of this episode. White tea asks very little of us. It doesn’t compete for attention.

In this pause for tea, you’ll discover:

• 01:00 Why some problems stay with us long after we’ve started working on them

• 03:20 What the steam, aroma, and first sip can reveal about attention

• 04:18 Why doing more preparation rather than starting can lead to more pressure

• 05:26 The difference between productive work and productive-looking work

• 05:58 How uncertainty persuades us to keep thinking instead of moving

• 06:45 The question that cuts through complexity

• 08:00 What tea leaves can teach us about beginning before everything feels ready

Resources and Links

Make sure you’re getting eteaket’s Tea Mail to be the first to discover awesome teas, like Rose Petal Purify.

Discover new teas

Thanks for pausing for tea with me today.
If this helped, I’d love a quick comment, a heart, or a share. It genuinely helps this post reach more people who need a calmer next step.

Erica x

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Maybe a conversation, a decision or a sudden breakthrough.
Listening to Sarah Robertson on The Tea Mind podcast reminded me that it rarely happens that way.

For Sarah, the shift unfolded over years.
Becoming a mother changed what mattered.
Burnout taught her to pay attention to her body and journaling helped her hear her own thoughts again.

Eventually, the business she had built no longer reflected the person she had become.

The difficult part wasn’t making a new plan.
It was trusting a feeling before she had evidence to support it.
I think many of us spend too long trying to explain why something feels off instead of simply noticing that it does.

So when you’re pausing for tea this week, ask yourself: “Does the life I’m building still nourish the person I’m becoming?”

Listen to your own response.

p.s. Your pause for tea this week is brought to you by Royal Earl Grey - discover more teas here.

© eteaket

02: How I Work with Amantha Imber

Adam Grant reflects on his own experience of burnout and the practical changes that helped him work more sustainably.

Listen now: Spotify

03: The Imperfectionist Newsletter

Oliver Burkeman’s newsletters continue exploring finite time, enoughness and building a meaningful life rather than an endlessly optimised one.

Sign up now: Oliver Burkeman

Thanks for pausing for tea with me today.
If this helped, I’d love a quick comment, a heart, or a share. It genuinely helps this post reach more people who need a calmer next step.

Erica x

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In this conversation, I sit down with writer, brand designer and creative mentor Sarah Robertson to explore what happens when the version of success you’ve worked so hard to build no longer feels like your own.

Sarah reflects on the shift that began after becoming a mother, the growing sense that something wasn’t quite aligned, and the courage it took to step away from a successful business to create work that reflected her values rather than her expectations.

Together we talk about redefining success, trusting the little nudges our bodies give us, and why clarity often arrives through small moments rather than dramatic breakthroughs.

If you’ve ever felt that your work no longer fits the person you’ve become, this conversation reminds us that clarity doesn’t always ask us to do more. Sometimes it simply asks us to listen more closely.

Today’s episode is brought to you by: Royal Earl Grey, bright, gently citrusy and quietly comforting. A tea that invites you to pause rather than rush.

In this pause for tea, you’ll discover:

• 03:03 How motherhood became the beginning of a shift in Sarah’s definition of success.

• 10:36 The conversation that challenged what success really meant.

• 16:03 Why reconnecting with your values is different from changing them.

• 18:36 Following a feeling before having a logical explanation.

• 21:10 How burnout and postnatal depression taught Sarah to trust her body again.

• 22:59 The return to journaling & the simple practices that helped creativity come back.

• 31:05 The unexpected conversation that gave Sarah permission to build something new.

• 33:12 Why working with smaller businesses brought more joy than chasing bigger projects.

• 40:04 Why helping people tell their story is about far more than branding.

• 47:38 Why finding your voice isn’t something you do before you begin. It’s something you discover by showing up.

Resources and Links

Connect with Sarah Robertson

Sarah Robertson is the founder of Fonn, a storytelling studio built on curiosity, creativity and connection.
After two decades of helping founders find their voice, she created the Brand Seasons® Method, a cyclical approach to branding designed to support the natural evolution of a business.
She is the creator of the Brand Seasons® Playdeck and Playbook, tools used by founders, makers and creatives worldwide.

Website | Instagram | Substack | LinkedIn

Make sure you’re getting eteaket’s Tea Mail to be the first to discover awesome teas, like Royal Earl Grey.

Discover new teas

Thanks for pausing for tea with me today.
If this helped, I’d love a quick comment, a heart, or a share. It genuinely helps this post reach more people who need a calmer next step.

Erica x

The Tea Mind is reader-supported. To get new posts (and support my work), consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Join free now

I often get to the end of a week and wonder where the time went.

Then I noticed something. That feeling of being behind was coming more from the things that hadn’t happened.

Whether that was the email I’ve ignored all week, the idea that I still hadn’t started on or the conversation that never quite finished.

Those things might not have been on my to-do list anymore but they were occupying my attention.

On reflection, many of them didn’t actually need action. They simply needed me to accept that they were over.

Before rushing into the next week, I’m pausing for tea to decide what I can put down and what genuinely deserves my attention now.

p.s. Your pause for tea this week is brought to you by Yellow Gold Oolong - discover more teas here.

© eteaket

02: Unfinished Tasks Can Silently Drain Your Energy

Neuroscientist Wendy Suzuki explains "open loops" and why incomplete tasks linger in the background of our thinking.

Read now: Economic Times

03: Attention Residue: The Hidden Tax of Context-Switching

Explores how unfinished tasks continue occupying mental bandwidth long after we've moved on. Highlights the fact that unfinished things often live in our attention rather than our calendars.

Listen now: Economic Times

Thanks for pausing for tea with me today.
If this helped, I’d love a quick comment, a heart, or a share. It genuinely helps this post reach more people who need a calmer next step.

Erica x

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This week, we’re sitting with a feeling many of us know well. You look up and wonder where the week went.

Rather than turning that feeling that into a story about falling behind, this pause for tea offers a different perspective.

As the tea slowly unfolds, you’ll notice how unfinished things often take up space in our attention long after they disappear from our calendars. You’ll reflect on what you’re still carrying, what no longer needs your energy, and what genuinely deserves your attention next.

By the end of this episode, you may realise that a week can remain unfinished and still be complete enough to leave behind.

Today’s episode is brought to you by: Yellow Gold Oolong, a hand-rolled Taiwanese oolong that sits between green and black tea. It offers gentle sweetness, a touch of fresh grass, and a deeper earthy finish that develops over time.

Its steady, evolving flavour mirrors the theme of this episode. Things often look different when we’ve spent a little more time with them.

In this pause for tea, you’ll discover:

• 01:09 Why some weeks feel faster than we remember agreeing to.

• 02:03 How slowly opening tea leaves offer a different relationship with time.

• 04:13 Why some of the busiest feelings come from things that never happened.

• 04:48 How unfinished intentions continue competing for attention.

• 05:19 The habit of turning lost time into evidence against ourselves.

• 06:36 A question about what you’re still holding against yourself.

• 07:05 The difference between something being unfinished and something simply being over.

Resources and Links

Make sure you’re getting eteaket’s Tea Mail to be the first to discover awesome teas, like Yellow Gold Oolong.

Discover new teas

Thanks for pausing for tea with me today.
If this helped, I’d love a quick comment, a heart, or a share. It genuinely helps this post reach more people who need a calmer next step.

Erica x

The Tea Mind is reader-supported. To get new posts (and support my work), consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Join free now

The calendar fills up, the emails get answered, the small tasks keep moving… Yet one thing keeps returning to your attention.

It might be a decision, a conversation or a project that you’ve been desperate to do for far too many months.

When I pause for tea and tune into how I’m feeling, I sometimes realise I feel a little uneasy. It’s not because I’ve not made progress. Often it’s because for yet another week, I’ve failed to make progress around the thing that matters most.

That moment of noticing changes something.

What keeps finding its way back into your thoughts?

p.s. Your pause for tea this week is brought to you by Sea Buckthorn Blend - discover more teas here.

© eteaket

02: Before You Decide: 3 Steps To Better Decision Making

Explores what happens before a decision is made and why better decisions often come from creating space rather than reacting quickly.

Watch now: TED Talk

03: Unfinished Tasks Can Silently Drain Your Energy

In this Economic Times article they highlight work by neuroscientist Wendy Suzuki around why unfinished things occupy attention long after they leave our to-do list.

Read now: Economic Times

Thanks for pausing for tea with me today.
If this helped, I’d love a quick comment, a heart, or a share. It genuinely helps this post reach more people who need a calmer next step.

Erica x

The Tea Mind is reader-supported. To get new posts (and support my work), consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

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Some weeks are really busy and yet there can still be a feeling that something important hasn’t moved at all.

In this week’s pause for tea, we sit with that feeling of being active without feeling like you’re making progress.

Together, we’ll notice the difference between movement and momentum. We’ll explore why certain decisions, conversations, and unfinished things keep returning to our attention, even when everything else is getting done.

You’ll leave with a little more clarity around the thing you’ve been circling and a simple invitation to look at it directly.

Today’s episode is brought to you by: Sea Buckthorn Blend, a bright, tart infusion made with sea buckthorn berries, apple, cranberry, and hibiscus. The flavour is fresh, slightly sharp, and naturally energising.

In this pause for tea, you’ll discover:

• 01:00 Why feeling busy and feeling progress aren’t always the same thing

• 02:45 Using the simple ritual of tea to arrive where you are

• 05:30 The unique tiredness that comes from returning to the same thing repeatedly

• 05:58 How a full calendar can sometimes hide what still needs attention

• 06:27 A reflection on where you’re active but not progressing

• 08:03 Recognising the one thing that deserves your attention next

Resources and Links

Make sure you’re getting eteaket’s Tea Mail to be the first to discover awesome teas, like Sea Buckthorn Blend.

Discover new teas

Thanks for pausing for tea with me today.
If this helped, I’d love a quick comment, a heart, or a share. It genuinely helps this post reach more people who need a calmer next step.

Erica x

The Tea Mind is reader-supported. To get new posts (and support my work), consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Join free now

You might have closed your laptop for the day, dinner is ready and you’re straight into your evening. Yet part of your attention is still focused on that unanswered email, a meeting you’re replaying or a task that’s waiting for tomorrow.

Your day doesn’t end because you got everything done. They end because we've reached the point where we've done enough for today.

What keeps following us into the evening isn’t always the work. Sometimes it’s the attention we’ve left attached to it.

I’ve started ending my workday with a cup of tea and a notebook.

When I've done enough for the day, I write down everything that's still whirling in my mind. I sort it into Now, Next, In Progress and Later.

Nothing is finished simply because it’s written down. It just has somewhere to wait.

That small ritual gives me permission to stop carrying the day into my evening.

Tomorrow knows where to begin. Tonight, I don’t have to keep holding it all.

p.s. Your pause for tea this week is brought to you by Big Red Rooibos - discover more teas here.

© eteaket

02: Misery Loves Company - If There Are Snacks

A fascinating piece on "Admin Nights" where people gather to tackle life admin together. It touches on unfinished tasks, open loops, and why seemingly small obligations consume so much mental space.

Read now: New Yorker

03: How More Focus Leads to a Better Life

In this practical TED talk, brain expert Mark Tigchelaar shows how we can improve our attention span and concentration, by using insights from neuroscience. He explores attention, focus, and how cognitive overload affects everyday life. Time to focus on attention management rather than time management...

Watch now: TED Talks

Thanks for pausing for tea with me today.
If this helped, I’d love a quick comment, a heart, or a share. It genuinely helps this post reach more people who need a calmer next step.

Erica x

The Tea Mind is reader-supported. To get new posts (and support my work), consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

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Some days end on paper but our minds don’t get the memo!

You finish work, close the laptop, and move into the evening. Yet part of your attention stays attached to an unfinished email, a conversation, a decision, or a task that didn’t quite get done.

This episode is an invitation to pause for anyone who struggles to leave work at work.

Together, we’ll explore why unfinished things can hang aroundlong after the day is over, and why carrying them into the evening rarely helps.

As you sip your tea, you’ll be invited to notice what you’re still holding onto, what truly needs your attention, and what can wait until tomorrow.

Today’s episode is brought to you by: Big Red Rooibos, a caffeine-free herb from South Africa with a soft, but at the same time tart, flavour with top notes of oranges and dried hay. Rooibos has a naturally settling quality. It doesn't demand attention. It simply invites you to slow down enough to notice what's already here.

In this pause for tea, you’ll discover:

• 01:04 Why your workday can end while your mind keeps working

• 02:40 Using the sensory experience of tea to return to the present moment

• 04:23 The value of allowing something to remain unfinished for now

• 05:35 A different question to ask at the end of a busy day

• 06:00 What you’re still carrying from today & whether it truly needs your attention

• 06:44 Why some problems stop benefiting from more thought

• 07:09 The idea that a day can be unfinished and still be over

• 07:32 Choosing one thing to leave where it is until tomorrow

Resources and Links

Make sure you’re getting eteaket’s Tea Mail to be the first to discover awesome teas, like Big Red Rooibos.

Discover new teas

Thanks for pausing for tea with me today.
If this helped, I’d love a quick comment, a heart, or a share. It genuinely helps this post reach more people who need a calmer next step.

Erica x

The Tea Mind is reader-supported. To get new posts (and support my work), consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Join free now

Maybe a better plan, a more well-defined goal or perhaps a better implemented first step. But chatting to Eleanor Cunningham on The Tea Mind Podcast this week reminded me that clarity can be found in a different way…

After years of building a successful business, opening new locations, managing large teams and carrying increasing responsibility, she realised she felt furthest away from herself when she was doing the most.

What brought her back wasn’t another project. It was space.

Space to walk, to notice and to paint again. In that space, she was able to hear what she had been ignoring.

Most of us live so full-steam ahead that there’s little time for stopping to smell the roses. But it’s important to allow time to notice the little things… whether that’s how we’re actually feeling or just something beautiful that catches our eye.

As you’re pausing for tea this week, I invite you to give yourself 10 minutes without a purpose. Maybe talk a walk or sit outside with a cup of tea. No phones allowed. Pay attention to what catches your eye.

Who knows, you might find whatever it is you’ve been looking for.

p.s. Your pause for tea this week is brought to you by Sea Within - discover more teas here.

© eteaket

02: The Power of Everyday Creativity

In this TEDx talk, Emily Eisenhart encourages creativity as a way of seeing and engaging with life, rather than something reserved for professional artists

Watch now: YouTube

03: Does Life Feel Like It’s Speeding Up?

This Guardian article explores how attention, novelty, and awareness affect our experience of time.

Read now: The Guardian

Thanks for pausing for tea with me today.
If this helped, I’d love a quick comment, a heart, or a share. It genuinely helps this post reach more people who need a calmer next step.

Erica x

The Tea Mind is reader-supported. To get new posts (and support my work), consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

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This week, Erica Moore sits down with artist and entrepreneur Eleanor Cunningham.

Many people know Eleanor as the founder of Edinburgh Larder. But this conversation isn’t really about hospitality or art. It’s about noticing when you’ve drifted away from something important and finding your way back.

Eleanor shares how years of building and expanding a successful business eventually led her to realise that more wasn’t necessarily better. Growth wasn’t always the answer.

Over a period of time, she gradually returned to creativity, observation, and the things that had always helped her feel most like herself.

This conversation explores the pressure to keep expanding, the value of doing less, and what becomes possible when we create space to listen to ourselves again.

Yet more evidence that clarity can come from paying attention to what’s already there. So pop the kettle on and hit play.

Today’s episode is brought to you by: Sea Within, a restorative herbal infusion designed to support recovery, calm the nervous system, and help you reconnect with your body after cold water swimming, sauna sessions, or any demanding experience.

In this pause for tea, you’ll discover:

• 04:30 Why Eleanor left finance to build a business around local food

• 08:30 The connection between food, place, and feeling rooted

• 13:00 When growth stopped feeling aligned with what mattered

• 14:20 The moment she realised managing more wasn’t the same as creating more

• 20:00 How Covid unexpectedly opened the door back to art

• 21:15 Rediscovering a part of herself she thought she’d lost

• 25:15 Why creativity helped quiet a constantly busy mind

• 29:30 What a dog taught her about slowing down and paying attention

• 36:00 The link between regeneration in landscapes and regeneration in ourselves

• 46:20 Why doing less has become one of her most important life lessons

Resources and Links

Connect with Eleanor Cunningham

Eleanor Cunningham is an artist and entrepreneur whose work explores memory, belonging, regeneration, and our connection to place through abstract landscape painting inspired by East Lothian.

Website | Instagram | Edinburgh Larder

Dunbar Art Route

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Thanks for pausing for tea with me today.
If this helped, I’d love a quick comment, a heart, or a share. It genuinely helps this post reach more people who need a calmer next step.

Erica x

The Tea Mind is reader-supported. To get new posts (and support my work), consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

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And that’s all well and good until I find myself doing the opposite.

I often work from home, which is great, but sometimes it makes it harder to put boundaries in place. One minute I’m absorbed in an idea then the kids walk through the door. They come home full of stories. Small dramas, all the feelings and lots of dreams.

I hate the feeling when I’m half in my laptop and half listening to someone... I did that too much in the early stages of growing my business. Tyring to build something good for my family, while sometimes missing the family right in front of me.

It’s really hard because I love what I do. I love making progress on an idea, learning new things and creating more. But I don’t want to become so focused on the life I’m building that I miss the life I already have.

Those after-school conversations won’t last forever.

So, I’m making a point of actually pausing in these moments (over tea of course), with both listening ears on and no laptop in sight.

And remembering that the future I’m working so hard for is already here in some form.

What good things in your life might you be rushing through too quickly?

Maybe that’s worth pausing for before this season passes?

p.s. Your pause for tea this week is brought to you by Strawberries & Cream (infusion) - discover more teas here.

© eteaket

02: A Highly Scheduled Life Doesn't Serve Us: Has Living Intentionally Gone Too Far?

This Guardian article questions whether we've become so focused on optimising life that we've forgotten how to simply experience it.

Read now: The Guardian

03: Burndowns, Creative Energy, and the Longing for Real-World Connection

This podcast conversation between Claire Fitzsimmons and Liana Fricker explores the idea that burnout isn’t always about doing too much. Sometimes it’s the result of directing our attention and care towards so many things that we lose sight of what truly matters.

A thoughtful reminder that our energy is finite, and that protecting our capacity to care may be one of the most important choices we make.

Listen now: More Good Days

Thanks for pausing for tea with me today.
If this helped, I’d love a quick comment, a heart, or a share. It genuinely helps this post reach more people who need a calmer next step.

Erica x

The Tea Mind is reader-supported. To get new posts (and support my work), consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Join free now

This week’s pause for tea is an invitation to notice how easily our attention drifts into the future.

Many of us find ourselves living in “when things calm down”. When the project is finished, when the calendar clears or when the next season arrives.

But while we’re preparing for what’s next, life keeps unfolding.

In this episode, we explore the subtle habit of treating life as preparation for later and what it costs us when we do.

You’ll be invited to notice the small moments that often pass unnoticed. The conversations, walks, quiet mornings, and ordinary days that make up a life.

So pop the kettle along and pause for tea with me.

Today’s episode is brought to you by: Strawberries & Cream (infusion), Sweet strawberry notes, soft summer fruit flavours, and a gentle tang that lingers after each sip. It reminds us that some things are best enjoyed while they’re happening, not after they’ve passed.

A fitting companion for an episode about noticing the season you’re already in.

In this pause for tea, you’ll discover:

• 01:44 A simple reminder that some experiences are worth savouring while they’re here

• 02:15 Using the warmth of a cup of tea to arrive in the present moment

• 03:46 How life continues unfolding even when we’re busy planning ahead

• 04:49 What happens when life becomes preparation for later

• 05:11 Why meaningful moments often arrive in ordinary ways

• 05:52 The cost of constantly postponing your attention

• 06:19 What if some of the life you’ve been waiting for has already arrived?

• 07:22 What it means to fully participate in the season you’re living in right now

Resources and Links

Make sure you’re getting eteaket’s Tea Mail to be the first to discover awesome teas, like Strawberries & Cream (infusion).

Discover new teas

Thanks for pausing for tea with me today.
If this helped, I’d love a quick comment, a heart, or a share. It genuinely helps this post reach more people who need a calmer next step.

Erica x

The Tea Mind is reader-supported. To get new posts (and support my work), consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

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Most weeks, I look at seven days and convince myself there’s room for about three weeks’ worth of work.

Then I wonder why I feel overwhelmed and struggle to decide what to focus on.

I’ve realised the challenge isn’t a lack of time... it’s a lack of clarity about what actually deserves my time.

There simply isn’t enough time to do everything.

The challenge is recognising what deserves my attention most.

The calls, emails, requests, forms, and small daily disasters are hard to ignore.

But it’s all too easy to ignore that project that has been delayed again or that conversation that needs to happen.

So when I’m pausing with my matcha this week, I’m using those few minutes to get clear on what matters most.

This simple check-in is usually enough to focus my attention and make progress on what actually matters this week.

The rest can wait.

What’s the one thing that matters most to you this week?

p.s. Your pause for tea this week is brought to you by Ceremonial Matcha, a vibrant green tea with a clean, energising flavour, gentle sweetness, and a smooth finish - discover more teas here.

© eteaket

02: Perfection, Pressure & the Permission to Stop

This thoughtful conversation with Oliver Burkeman is about accepting limits, making peace with unfinished work, and choosing what matters rather than trying to control everything. Listen and feel the relief when you realise your list will never be finished.

Listen now: Hurt To Healing Podcast

03: Lost In The Scroll: The Hidden Impact Of The Attention Economy

This is a practical look at how the attention economy slowly fragments our focus and makes it harder to identify what deserves our attention.

Read now: Forbes

Thanks for pausing for tea with me today.
If this helped, I’d love a quick comment, a heart, or a share. It genuinely helps this post reach more people who need a calmer next step.

Erica x

The Tea Mind is reader-supported. To get new posts (and support my work), consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Join free now

As summer approaches, many of us find ourselves pulled in different directions. Family commitments fill the calendar, holidays need planning, and if you’re running a business, you may already be thinking months ahead.

It’s easy to mistake a full schedule for meaningful progress.

In this week’s pause for tea, we explore why overwhelm is often less about having too much to do and more about uncertainty around what matters most.

Through a simple reflection, you’ll create space to step back from the noise, identify the one thing that deserves your attention, and let the rest wait its turn.

You’ll leave with a clearer focus for the week ahead and permission to stop expecting yourself to do everything.

Today’s episode is brought to you by: Ceremonial Matcha, A vibrant green tea with a clean, energising flavour, gentle sweetness, and a smooth finish.

Matcha is often associated with focus and sustained attention. It felt like the perfect companion for a conversation about priorities, helping us slow down long enough to notice what truly deserves our energy.

In this pause for tea, you’ll discover:

• 02:49 How matcha can support a sense of focus and clarity

• 04:24 Why pausing is not the same as falling behind

• 05:00 The unrealistic relationship many of us have with time

• 05:40 Why overwhelm is often priority confusion

• 06:24 The difference between urgent noise and meaningful work

• 07:23 A simple exercise to make competing priorities visible

• 08:17 Why meaningful progress matters more than finishing everything

• 08:57 Helpful reminder: your list will never be finished

Resources and Links

Make sure you’re getting eteaket’s Tea Mail to be the first to discover awesome teas, like Ceremonial Matcha.

Discover new teas

Thanks for pausing for tea with me today.
If this helped, I’d love a quick comment, a heart, or a share. It genuinely helps this post reach more people who need a calmer next step.

Erica x

The Tea Mind is reader-supported. To get new posts (and support my work), consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Join free now

The things that weigh on us most are often the ones we’ve left unfinished.

An email waiting to be sent, a decision left unresolved, a conversation that never quite reached an ending.

These things rarely stay on a to-do list.

They follow us into meetings, walks, weekends, and all the spaces in-between. Each one occupies a little space in our attention.

Over time, that space adds up.

During this week’s Tea Mind, I found myself wondering what would it feel like to stop living in my head?

Sometimes, all we need is to pause and acknowledge what we already know.

A decision that’s ready to be made, a task that’s ready to be completed... or even a commitment that’s ready to be released.

Resolving creates space. And that space helps us think clearly.

p.s. Your pause for tea this week is brought to you by Breakfast Blend, discover more teas here.

© eteaket

02: The Comfort of Closed Loops

In this article, Lucy Jane Widdop reflects on why unfinished emotional and cognitive processes continue occupying mental space until they reach resolution.

Read now: Medium

03: How to Combat Decision Making Fatigue

In this TED Talk, Lenka Helena Koenigsmark explores why decisions become harder when our mental bandwidth is full, and how unresolved choices quietly drain energy.

Watch now: TED

Thanks for pausing for tea with me today.
If this helped, I’d love a quick comment, a heart, or a share. It genuinely helps this post reach more people who need a calmer next step.

Erica x

The Tea Mind is reader-supported. To get new posts (and support my work), consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Join free now