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When it comes to your health, what's in your cup is a very important topic. The beverages that we take in on a day to day basis really add up and can take from or add to your life in a big way. If you're drinking 60g of sugar sodas, even if it's one a day, you'd better have a pretty good workout schedule or be blessed with a super high metabolism to keep that off your belt line. If you're having more than one soda per day, you are raising your risk of diabetes and heart disease.
On the other hand, enjoying a cup or more of tea a day can extend your life by helping eliminate cancer causing free radicals from your body. Drinking tea can also help promote healthy gums, skin, hair, weight loss.... the list goes on and on.
This holiday season, and as we approach the new year, I want to focus on a different side of what's in your cup though. Have you ever considered that if everything is made of energy, then your thoughts are actually energy? This energy has a larger outreach than you may know. You may have heard or read, "As a man thinks, so is he." Well, these thoughts extend beyond affecting only the individual. More and more studies are being conducted that indicate that collective thought can actually change the outcome of situations. That's a story for another day, so before I get off the subject too far, I'd like to propose that you do two things between now and New Year's Eve. Actually, if you're up for it, continue these things throughout the new year.
One; drink more tea. Do it for yourself and for those who love you. Two; each time you enjoy a cup of tea, focus on a new world peace. Focus on and believe in the possibility of an end to all the bloodshed and violence in the Middle East, Somalia, throughout the world and racial tensions in all societies. All issues and points of view start with individuals. The right mind set and focus can make a remarkable difference and bring about real change.
I lift my tea cup to you as we enter 2012. Good things are headed our way!
Many of the herbal teas offered by California Tea House are grown at small, organic farms in California; these farms also provide many of the berries and flowers found in other teas. Even large chains like Wal-Mart have begun to offer and promote organic products. In my experience, organic products taste the same as coventionally-raised and produced food items, yet cost much more. So, what gives? Why is it important to eat and drink organic, even when it coems to tea?
1. It's important to support small farms. Most organic farms are small farms (source), which means you can feel fairly safe in that your organic dollars are not supporting unethical labor conducted in third-world countries.
2. By choosing organic, you are choosing to protect the health of farm workers. Because organic products are not grown using dangerous pesticides and chemicals, farmers who work on organic farms do not risk their health by coming into extensive, close contact with these toxic substances (source).
3. It's green! Because organic farms do not use as many chemicals as conventional farms, less energy is used applying these chemicals. Many organic farmers use naturally-occurring fertilizers, and because organic food is typically sold closer to where it is grown than conventionally-grown food, less energy is used for transport (source).
4. There is research indicating that organic foods contain more vitamins and minerals than conventionally-raised food (source).
By drinking tea comprised of organic ingredients, you are doing something wonderful for yourself, the earth, and society at large.
T ea lovers, rejoice: you can use tea to give your locks extra luster this winter!
How, you ask? Well, the tannins found in tea can thicken the shaft of the hair, which of course makes hair appear thicker. Although there's no science to back it up, I have also found that my hair appears much smoother following what I call a 'tea rinse.'
The method couldn't be simpler.
Brew three to four cups of your favorite green, white or black tea. (I have not tried herbal teas so while it's possible they may work as well, I can't vouch for it!)
Cool the tea until it's at least room temperature, if not a little colder.
Shampoo, condition, and rinse hair as usual. Allow hair to dry: it doesn't have to be totally dry, just not dripping wet!
Pour tea into a large bowl and flip your hair into it, being sure to get the tea all the way to your roots. Gently flip your hair back up and wrap it in a towel; allow it to sit for thirty minutes or so (the longer the better in my experience) and then rinse it out. Rinse with cold water for the shiniest results.
As a bonus, if you're like me and sometimes brew more tea than you can drink, you can always use the leftovers to treat your hair!
I'm guilty of often over-estimating and over-brewing how much tea I really want to drink when I steep it in a pot. Sometimes I'll brew a whole pot and think that I will want to drink it all, only to drink a cup and not want anymore. I hate wasting things, and so I've tried to be more careful about how much I might realistically drink and what to do with left over tea.
There is, of course, always iced tea. I've noticed that the same kind of tea tastes totally different cold then hot, and doesn't always call for the same additional ingredients, if any at all. For example, I always put milk in my chai, but left over chai iced tea that I leave to sit in the fridge tastes much better naked and alone.
That's not the only thing I do with leftover liquid. Every so often I put some in my tropical plants. Not only the liquid, but also the tea leaves themselves. Plants that like acid or alkaline, such as azaleas, hydrangeas, dogwood, raspberries, blueberries, and most tropical plants, thrive when their soil is enhanced with the acid from teas, especially black teas. Acid-loving plants don't need this often, maybe a few times a year, but it can aid in the fullness of their leaves, the vibrancy of their color, and the overall strength and productivity of the plant. If you have a garden, the spring is a good time to mix tea leaves in with the soil, or you can add liquid tea or leaves to water and water your garden with this mixture.
Otherwise, tea leaves are always a great addition to a compost pile. This helps to aid in the breakdown of organic matter in the compost, and gives the soil nitrogen. Nothing needs to be wasted!
Meditation is being proclaimed by magazines, medical journals, and adherents everywhere as the Next Big Thing: a cure for stress, for headaches, for pain, even for obesity. While I'm not personally in a position to make any huge claims about meditation's efficacy as a cure for any ailment, I can certainly say that it has helped me achieve and maintain a sense of balance in my own hectic life.
But meditating was extremely difficult the first several times I attempted it; it's difficult, in a world full of chaos and busy-ness, to attain a state of stillness.
I wonder now if, had I been a tea-drinker at the time, it would have been a little easier.
Sitting down with a cup of tea is often my gateway for entrance into meditation now; tea makes the transition from consciousness to awareness so simple.
If you are new to or intrigued by meditation, here is a simple step-by-step guide to turn your next tea-time into your very first meditation.
1. Bring your tea to nature. It's often easier to disconnect from the outside world if you are not surrounded by computers, TVs, cell phones, and so on. You can even just step outside to your backyard or porch and ask your family not to disturb you for a few minutes; the simple change of scenery will help you detach from your day-to-day life.
2. Try to stop using words. When you raise your cup to your lips to take a sip, just experience that sip and that sensation: don't name it. Naming things cheapens them, and starts your mind chattering. It's much easier to not start thinking in the first place than to try to stop the thoughts from flowing and disrupting your mindfulness.
3. Don't judge the thoughts that rise up through your consciousness. Just acknowledge them and let them go. Don't interact with them; don't reflect on them. Just let them be.
4. Focus on each sip of your tea. Continue focusing on the feelings and sensations without naming them: the touch of the glass or mug against your lips; the sensation of the tea filling your mouth, its flavor, its subtle intricacies; the way it feels as it slides down the back of your throat and into your stomach.
5. Spend as much or as little time on this exercise as you wish. Then get up and resume your normal life -- with a renewed sense of balance.
Mindfulness becomes easier in time. It is very counterintuitive -- but also very beneficial -- to spend time devoid of any thoughts or feelings. Using tea as a vehicle for meditation makes it simpler -- and, of course, also more enjoyable!
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