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Tea Routine: mindful drinking
How often do you make a cup of tea and realise you can’t even remember drinking it? Perhaps you only got a few sips before something ‘urgent’ demanded your attention and your tea was abandoned to go cold all alone? This common scenario highlights how easily we can become disconnected from the present moment, letting our busy lives steal away simple pleasures.
This month, I encourage you to turn at least one of your cups of tea a day into a short mindfulness tea routine. Mindfulness, with roots in Zen Buddhist meditation, has been practiced for centuries. Buddhist monks found that tea helped them stay alert and focused during long meditations. Today, you can adopt a simple tea routine to create a calming space for your mind, pausing and bringing awareness to the present moment.
Follow these five steps to get started:
Be Present: As you make your tea, pay attention to every detail – the sound of the boiling kettle, the aroma of the leaves, the steam rising, and the colour change as the water infuses.
Breathe: Practice box breathing (inhale for 5 seconds, hold for 5, exhale for 5, hold for 5). Reflect on the journey of the tea leaves from the field to your cup.
Brew: Watch the leaves unfurl and the water change colour. Conduct a body scan to release tension and refocus on your tea and breath.
Sip: Hold your cup, feel its warmth, inhale the aroma, and savour each sip, noting the flavours and sensations.
Ground: After finishing your tea, stretch or do a simple grounding exercise to reconnect with your day.
Try this mindfulness tea routine for a week and observe how it impacts your day.
02
Wellbeing
I know from experience how beneficial meditation is (tea meditation or otherwise) so I loved this Forbes article covering 10 science-backed benefits of meditation.
3
Happiness
Are you mind-full or mindful right now? This article from Cool Minds has some handy tips on how to be more mindful.
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Thanks for joining me on our pause for tea to rebalance and thrive. It’s great to have you here and I really appreciate your support. Erica x