We live in a coffee culture; most of us would say we have come to rely on tea or coffee to 'get us going' or 'keep us going' for the day. I've been doing my own experiments with this. A cup of chai tea has been my go to in the mornings. I love the taste, the ritual, the mental startup that I get from it. But after a couple of months, I always find myself sleeping lightly at night time; the caffeine overstimulates my nervous system.

So I started not having my black tea, and substituting with a calming herbal tea (chamomile, lavender, lemon balm, peppermint). I found that not only did I sleep better, but I feel more grounded, less edgy and have more patience during the day! It makes me wonder if, in this culture where we all seem to be so highly strung, whether we need, not more uppers, but more downers to help level out our cortisol levels and induce more parasympathetic nervous system activity - the chlll out factor - in our lives! It's working for me so far!

Throughout the day, I have a bunch of different teas; it usually goes something like this: Calming herbal, Rosehip, Peppermint, Turmeric and ginger, Roasted dandelion root (my 'black coffee'), Rooibos. They all give me a chance to sit and tone down for ten minutes, which helps me moderate my stress levels during the day. These little pauses can be enough to stop the stress levels climbing too high and allow you to keep some zen factor during a busy day ;)

Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash