For The Love of Tea

When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive – to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love. – Marcus Aurelius

For a long time, I wrestled with the difficulty of meditating immediately upon waking up. When you do that, you essentially sit down and go back to sleep. Bringing in a simple tea meditation ritual changed all of that. After I drink my tea I'm alert enough to sit in meditation without dozing off, so it's really worked out nicely.

This is one of my favorite parts of my day. I call this tea meditation, but when you fully engage yourself in what you're doing with mindfulness everything becomes meditation, so this is really just "drinking tea", nothing more than that.

To do tea meditation, you simply need to do every part of the tea making and tea drinking process with mindfulness. Take your time making your tea with mindfulness- heat up your water, get your cup out, pour the water, and sift the tea. Then, take your tea and sit down in a quiet place with it. Drink your tea like there's no tomorrow. Drinking this tea is the most important thing in the world.

After I'm done I put my empty cup down in front of me. I do this for each cup of tea I drink. Always remember that the process of tea meditation is nothing more than letting yourself concentrate on one thing at a time. End your tea meditation with giving thanks again and realizing the incredible moment you just experienced.

You can always do this with coffee too! :)

“Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the world earth revolves – slowly, evenly, without rushing toward the future; Live the actual moment. Only this moment is life.”– Thich Nhat Hanh