When she has a decision to make, her first response is often very quick. A yes or a no feeling. She knows it in her body.

Then her mind catches up and the familiar questioning and self-doubt appears. Was that sensible? Have I made a mistake? Should I reconsider? And on, and on.

That stuck a nerve with me because I’m learning to trust myself more, especially in uncertain situations. I think I used to assume that a good decision would somehow feel certain. That once I knew, the doubt would disappear.

I’m not sure it works like that.

You can feel clear about something and still experience anxiety afterwards. You can make a brave decision and still wonder whether you’ve got it wrong.

I’ve started thinking of this as The 2% Doubt. That small bit of uncertainty that remains even when most of you knows.

The problem is when that 2% gets loud enough to drown out the original response.

Maybe self-trust is partly learning to notice the difference between what you knew at first, and everything that arrived afterwards once your mind had caught up.

They might both deserve attention. But they aren’t necessarily saying the same thing.

p.s. Your pause for tea this week is brought to you by Pumpkin Chai - discover more teas here and listen to this week’s podcast to learn more and brew together.

© eteaket

02: How CEOs Hone and Harness Their Intuition

Suzie talks about knowing remarkably quickly whether something feels right, then doing the detailed thinking afterwards. Laura Huang’s article for Harvard Business Review is an interesting read because it asks what intuition actually consists of. Rather than treating gut feeling as something mysterious, she looks at the experience and information that may sit underneath a seemingly instant judgement.

Read now: Harvard Business Review

03: How Bauhaus design duo Josef & Anni Albers’s archive is being revived by an Italian design brand

This Monocle piece about the Josef & Anni Albers Foundation and Italian tile-maker Mutina contains a small moment I loved. After two years of experimentation, the team describes finally reaching a design that simply felt right. The interesting part is that the gut feeling came at the end of a long process, rather than replacing it. It made me wonder whether instinct and careful thinking are really opposites at all.

Read now: The Monacle

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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Suzie Millar has made some significant changes in her working life, from studying law to becoming a chiropractor, founding the Scottish Bee Company and now building the Natural Larder Collective.

But what interested me in this conversation was what sits underneath all that movement.

Suzie talks about the strong gut feeling she gets when something is right, the doubt that often follows after she has made a decision, and the strange combination of being willing to take big risks while not particularly enjoying the uncertainty they create.

We also talk about ambition, failure, family, learning to lean on other people and her growing sense that constantly pushing forward may not always be the answer.
What emerges is a conversation about getting better at recognising your own signals and trusting them, without pretending that removes the doubt.

Suzie’s simple suggestion if you are unsure what comes next: get outside, make some space, imagine yourself in the different possibilities and notice which one feels right.

Today’s episode is brought to you by: Pumpkin Chai, a flavoured black tea blended with real pumpkin pieces & pumpkin seeds giving the tea a silky smooth finish. Combined with a liberal sprinkling of spices including cinnamon, ginger and cloves this tea evokes sensations of crisp autumnal days, golden leaves crunching under feet & curling up next to an open fire.

In this pause for tea, you’ll discover:

• 03:02 Suzie on being driven from an early age, and why that drive has always been more about competing with herself than with other people.

• 08:50 The “fire in my gut” feeling she gets when something feels right, and why other people’s doubts can sometimes strengthen her resolve.

• 11:34 Why Suzie can take considerable risks in business while still experiencing the anxiety that comes with them.

• 17:53 Moving away from the belief that she has to do everything herself, and learning to use the people around her for perspective and support.

• 20:23 Her fear of failure, and why she now encourages her team to talk openly about the things that did not work.

• 22:35 The thinking behind the Natural Larder Collective and her ambition to give good independent food and drink brands another route to growth.

• 31:46 Why a strong board has become one of the most useful parts of building the business, without taking away her independence.

• 41:03 The habit of moving immediately onto the next thing, and how old to-do lists have helped her notice how much has already happened.

• 43:19 Building a business alongside family life, and the point at which moving the office out of the family home became an important boundary.

• 50:24 How Suzie now finds clarity: write things down, then ask herself whether what she is considering feels like a yes or a no.

Resources and Links

Make sure you’re getting eteaket’s Tea Mail to be the first to discover awesome teas, like Pumpkin Chai so you can create more space in the middle of everyday life.

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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The tea we drink every day. The same walk. The same view from the window.

Familiarity helps us move through life efficiently, but it can also mean we stop paying much attention.

This week, I’ve been taking my first cup of tea outside more often and noticing small things I would usually miss - new growth, signs of decay, birdsong, the changing morning light.

It made me wonder what else I’ve stopped noticing because I think I already know it.

A simple experiment for the week: choose one familiar thing and look again.

Your tea is a good place to start.

p.s. Your pause for tea this week is brought to you by Blooming Marvellous - discover more teas here and listen to this week’s podcast to learn more and brew together.

© eteaket

02: “The daily practice that could rewire your brain”

In his TED talk, Timm Chiusano describes becoming fascinated by something mundane on a walk home and developing a practice of deliberately noticing ordinary things.

Watch now: TED

03: “What if your life turned out to be ordinary?”

Nadine Levy writes an interesting article in The Guardian about our resistance to ordinariness and what happens when we pay closer attention to everyday life. How can we make ordinary less feel less repetitive?

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

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This Tea Pause is about familiarity, and how easily the things we know well can begin to disappear into the background.

Using a cup of green tea and the idea of beginner’s mind, we practise paying fresh attention to something ordinary. It’s a reminder to stop relying on what we think we already know, and instead to look again and notice what is actually there.

Perhaps nothing changes. But you might notice a flavour you normally miss, a detail in your surroundings, or how quickly your mind labels something familiar.

You’ll leave with one small practice: choose something you do regularly this week and approach it with fresh eyes.

Today’s episode is brought to you by: Blooming Marvellous, a a flavoured Sencha green tea with rose petals, fruit pieces, mallow flower and sunflower petals, with notes of lemon, vanilla and red berries.

Because it is a tea I know very well, it makes a useful one for this practice. Instead of drinking from memory, I can slow down and notice what is actually showing up in this particular cup.

In this pause for tea, you’ll discover:

• 00:49 Why familiar things can slowly disappear from our attention

• 01:27 Why a tea you already know well is ideal for this practice

• 04:49 What I’ve been noticing by taking my first cup of tea outside

• 07:57 Beginner’s mind and the practice of approaching familiar things with fresh attention

• 08:43 Tasting the first sip before your expectations take over

• 10:15 A simple way to practise this with your tea and surroundings during the week

• 12:44 How the same cup can become a different experience as it cools

Resources and Links

Make sure you’re getting eteaket’s Tea Mail to be the first to discover awesome teas, like Blooming Marvellous so you can create more space in the middle of everyday life.

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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This week’s Pause for Tea is about intuition, particularly those moments when you sense something needs to change before you can quite explain why.

I’ve been experiencing that with these solo episodes. They’d started to feel harder and less enjoyable, but with plenty of other things going on, it would have been easy to simply plough on. Pausing for tea gave me the space to pay attention to that uncomfortable feeling rather than immediately override it.

So, over a cup of Second Flush Darjeeling, we explore intuition not as a magical answer or something we should blindly trust, but as information worth noticing.

We’ll try a simple practice for bringing a decision or situation to mind, considering the options available to you and noticing our response before trying to reason our way towards an answer.

Today’s episode is brought to you by: Second Flush Darjeeling, a delicate, floral black tea with the distinctive fruity, grape-like character often described as muscatel.

It’s a tea worth paying attention to as you drink, which feels particularly fitting for a pause about noticing the finer details we can easily overlook.

In this pause for tea, you’ll discover:

• 01:20 The uncomfortable feeling that led me to think about intuition

• 01:40 Why tea creates a useful interruption in a busy day

• 04:17 A tea practice for something you’ve been thinking about

• 07:01 Why intuition is information worth noticing, rather than something to blindly obey

• 07:46 Trying a possible decision on for size and observing your response

• 09:20 Why I’m bringing practical tea routines back to these solo episodes

Resources and Links

Make sure you’re getting eteaket’s Tea Mail to be the first to discover awesome teas, like Second Flush Darjeeling so you can create more space in the middle of everyday life.

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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I’ve been thinking about how much weight we give to what we’ve already invested.

Time, training, effort, expectation.

I felt this strongly when I was a lawyer. I had spent years studying and qualifying, so leaving carried its own pressure. Part of me felt I had to make all of that investment mean something.

What changed was realising I had to answer the question in front of me, rather than keep answering for the person I had been when I first chose that path.

That has stayed with me.

Sometimes the useful question is simply:

If I arrived here today, knowing what I know now, would I choose this again?

The answer might still be yes.

But if it isn’t, that is worth noticing too.

p.s. Your pause for tea this week is brought to you by Jasmine Chun Hao - discover more teas here and listen to this week’s podcast to learn more and brew together.

© eteaket

02: Stuck In The “I Can’t Just Walk Away” Trap?

This episode of The Career Change podcast with Rikke Hansen, explores the “I’ve already invested so much” trap and the fear of throwing away a long career.

Listen now: Career Change Podcast

03: Time Is Not Running Out

The Psychology Today article looks directly at career transitions, sunk cost and the idea that previous skills travel with us rather than disappearing when we change direction.

Read now: Psychology Today

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 episode is about the weight of sunk cost, and what happens when the time, effort or identity tied to a past decision starts influencing what we choose next.

I reflect on my own experience of leaving law after years of study and training, and the difficulty of recognising that something can still have been valuable without needing to remain the right path forever.

The shift is simple: to notice whether you are choosing something because it still fits, or because you have already invested so much in it.

By the end, you’ll have one question to sit with over your tea:

If you arrived at this point today, knowing what you know now, would you choose it again?

Today’s episode is brought to you by: Jasmine Chun Hao, a light, delicate and floral tea, with a freshness that suits this episode well. For me, it brings a sense of lightness and fresh perspective, which makes it a good tea to sit with when you are looking at something again with clearer eyes.

In this pause for tea, you’ll discover:

• 00:52 Why past investment can make a decision feel heavier than it really is

• 03:41 Using the cup in your hands to come back to the present moment

• 05:04 My experience of spending years training and working as a lawyer before questioning the path

• 06:30 Why changing direction can feel like calling the original decision into question

• 07:03 The moment I realised I had to answer the question in front of me, rather than the one I had already invested in

• 07:49 What may have changed since you made your original choice

• 08:10 The question to ask when sunk cost is keeping you stuck

• 09:50 Why a fresh-start moment can help you look ahead without automatically repeating what came before

Resources and Links

Make sure you’re getting eteaket’s Tea Mail to be the first to discover awesome teas, like Jasmine Chun Hao so you can create more space in the middle of everyday life.

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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Recently, I did exactly that with a bespoke tea blend.

I was super excited about the original idea, then I kept adding to it, trying to improve it, trying to make it more unique.

Eventually, the project stalled. It had become too complicated to make it work, and I was frustrated because I really wanted the original idea to happen.

Then I had a conversation last week that changed the way I looked at it: Make the hard things easy.

I went back to the blend with a simpler lens and suddenly saw another way forward.

A version that made more sense and still something I’m confident people will love to drink.

Maybe the simpler version is the one that actually gets made.

Now I’m looking at lots of other things wondering what else I’m making harder than it needs to be.

p.s. Your pause for tea this week is brought to you by Kuki Cha - discover more teas here and listen to this week’s podcast to learn more and brew together.

© eteaket

02: Is perfectionism just procrastination in disguise?

In this podcast episode, Jon Youshaei looks at how prolific creators produce imperfect work rather than waiting for everything to be exceptional.

Listen now: TED Business

03: The perils of perfectionism

This Guardian article separates perfectionism from healthy striving. You can still care deeply about doing good work without endlessly refining it. “Good enough” can simply mean allowing something to exist, learn from it and improve.

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 episode is about what happens when a good idea becomes so complicated that it stalls completely.

Erica shares a real example from developing a bespoke tea blend. What began as an exciting idea disappeared down a rabbit hole of complexity, technical challenges and stubborn determination to make the original version work.

When she paused to see things through a simpler lens, she finally saw the way forward. By letting things flow more easily she realised she could stop pushing, while maintaining standards and not giving up on the idea.

You may notice where perfection, possibility or too many variations are making something more complicated than it needs to be.

The question is, what happens if you make the hard thing easier?

Today’s episode is brought to you by: Kuki Cha, a Sencha green tea made using the stalks and stems from Sencha production. It’s light and clear with gentle grassy notes and a slightly sweet, nutty character.

It brings a sense of simplicity, which makes it a fitting tea for an episode about stripping away unnecessary complexity and seeing what makes sense.

In this pause for tea, you’ll discover:

• 01:29 A simple invitation to notice one thing that has become harder than expected

• 04:22 How wanting something to reach its full potential can stop us taking action

• 05:08 The bespoke tea blend that became so complicated the project stalled

• 06:30 What changed when Erica stopped pushing and looked at the blend through a simpler lens

• 07:00 The question to ask when you’re holding onto the perfect version of something

• 08:39 Why something great that can exist may matter more than something amazing that never does

Resources and Links

Make sure you’re getting eteaket’s Tea Mail to be the first to discover awesome teas, like Yellow Gold Oolong so you can create more space in the middle of everyday life.

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 of us make tea while doing something else. Whether it’s checking email, preparing for your next meeting… scrolling. We’re often onto the next thing before we’ve even noticed the cup in front of us.

But the beauty of tea is it encourages a natural pause.

You choose the leaves, boil the water, pour and wait for the leaves to steep. That pause can be tiny, but it’s enough to interrupt the usual momentum.

When I actually pause for tea, I notice more clearly what is going on. I’m more aware of how my mind is, how my body is feeling or what that niggling thought is trying to tell me. It’s about noticing, not fixing.

I invite you to try this with your next cup.

Make your tea without doing anything else at the same time. While it steeps, take one breath and notice where your attention is right now. Then sip and become aware of what matters next.

Sometimes clarity begins with giving yourself a few quiet minutes to notice.

p.s. Your pause for tea this week is brought to you by Yellow Gold Oolong - discover more teas here and listen to this week’s podcast to learn more and brew together.

© eteaket

02: Welcome to the Scrolling Backlash

This recent article in The Atlantic explores the growing dissatisfaction with algorithmic life and the desire to renegotiate our relationship with phones.

Read now: The Atlantic

03: What it means to truly pay attention

In the espisode of How to Be a Better Human (TED, Jan 2026), meditation teacher, Kevin Townley talks about how to practice the art of looking and the deep Buddhist wisdom that can be found in every museum. He talks about awareness as something strengthened through practice, including simple meditation.

Listen now: How to be a Better Human

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 episode began with an unexpected pause. A guest had to cancel at the last minute, which gave me the chance to do something I realised I had not properly done before: explain why I care so much about tea, attention and clarity.

I share a little of my journey from litigation law to founding eteaket, and how years of working with tea led me to become increasingly interested in what happens around the cup as well as what is in it.

The core of my message is simple: instead of treating tea as something else to consume while you keep moving, use the pause it already creates to notice where you are.

We explore why tea works so well as an object of attention, how to build a simple tea meditation practice, how to choose a tea without rigid rules, and why bowl tea is one of my favourite ways to slow the experience down.

The episode finishes with a guided tea meditation to help you pause, notice what is actually there, and choose what matters next.

Today’s episode is brought to you by: Yellow Gold Oolong, a whole-leaf rolled oolong that opens gradually in the bowl and can be re-steeped several times.

It works particularly well for this practice because you can watch the leaves change as they unfurl, while the tea itself develops over successive steeps. For me, that makes it a good tea for attention. There is enough happening to notice without needing to control the experience too closely.

In this pause for tea, you’ll discover:

• 02:07 How my move from litigation law into tea began, and why the process of making tea started to matter as much as the drink itself

• 07:21 How the natural pause already built into making tea can create space for greater awareness and clearer choices

• 08:32 Why slowing down is not about forcing yourself to feel calm, but noticing what is actually there

• 12:08 Why tea works so well as an object of attention, from aroma and heat to taste, movement and bodily sensation

• 14:17 How to create a simple tea practice without needing a special space, lots of equipment or a long meditation session

• 18:07 Why I love bowl tea for meditation, and how its simplicity helps you slow down and pay closer attention

• 20:22 A guided bowl tea meditation to help you notice what feels noisy, what you need and what matters next

Resources and Links

Make sure you’re getting eteaket’s Tea Mail to be the first to discover awesome teas, like Yellow Gold Oolong so you can create more space in the middle of everyday life.

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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I’m not a painter. I’ve never been particularly good at drawing.
And that was kind of the point.
There was no business case for it. No content plan. Nothing I needed to turn it into.

I could just enjoy painting.

After six weeks travelling with my family, that small moment helped me admit something I’d probably known for a while.
I’d let work take up more space than I wanted it to.

I love my work, which can make the boundaries harder to notice. But I also want time with my family and room for things I do simply because I enjoy them.

Coming home, I realised I can’t keep hoping for more balance while giving work first claim on all the available space.

So I’m making some changes.

And keeping the paintbrush.

p.s. Your pause for tea this week is brought to you by Second Flush Darjeeling - discover more teas here.

© eteaket

02: “How Creative Pursuits Can Quiet the Noise of Stress”

This article in Psychology Today explores creative hobbies, attention and stress, while also making the relevant point that investing too heavily in one area of life can squeeze out others.

Read now: Psychology Today

03: Forget hustle culture

Watch Yancey Strickler’s TED talk from April 2025, “Forget hustle culture. Behold the Artist Corporation”. The Kickstarter cofounder questions hustle culture and explores alternative ways for creative people to build sustainable working lives.

Read now: TED talk

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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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

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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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

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

Join free now

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.

Join free now

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

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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 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

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

Join free now

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

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

Join free now