It seems like every month, tea shares another lesson about rest with me!
As I have mentioned in earlier posts, I’ve had to cut back my tea consumption. These days, I’m usually only drinking tea in the morning. The process of reducing my tea intake has made me confront one way I used tea that was denying me the fuller rest I need.
Tea Can Give Us Restful Pauses
Before I share this insight, I would like to emphasize that I regularly incorporate short, mindful tea breaks into my days. They feel gentle, affirming, and restorative. A day with these tea-and-rest pauses is so much better than a day without them. I still interact with tea this way almost every morning. I used to integrate afternoon tea pauses into my day, too.
My experiences with tea have shown its generosity as a gateway to rest and mindfulness. That’s one reason why, for example, I’ve offered tea and rest experiences. Registration, in fact, is open for my online Spring Rest Kit for Tea Lovers. (It’s my second online Rest Kit. Alas, I accidentally overwrote the post about the first rest kit.) But, I do want to share some limitations, in my opinion, of *only* using tea as a rest practice.
Tea Can Be Misused to Deny Us Additional Rest
After cutting back on tea and dropping the afternoon tea session, however, I realized I was often leaning on a small rest PLUS caffeine to help me power through work instead of resting the amount I truly needed.
When I am tired mid-to-late afternoon, it’s lovely to enjoy tea when I can. But, to be honest, I realize I often need deeper, mid-day rest.
I am not as consistent as I would like yet. But when I add a 20-minute yoga nidra session into my afternoons, it has been incredibly helpful. (Yoga nidra is a kind of embodied practice of rest and relaxation.) Instead of pushing myself through or caffeinating when I’m tired in the afternoon, I now try rest my mind and body more deeply. (Check out this short overview and amazing yoga nidra practice by Tracee Stanley.)
Bottom line: restorative tea breaks are incredibly helpful. But, they shouldn’t keep us from making time for deeper rest when we need it.
If I could drink more tea, I would! I miss being able to enjoy tea more often. But, even if and when I can add back daily afternoon tea session, I will keep scheduling yoga nidra. I think the the trap of time scarcity, about which I’ve written, distracted me from incorporating both practices before.
Your Thoughts?
How often do you schedule restful tea breaks? What other kinds of rest practices do you used? Let us know in the comments.