Brandon Summer Self Care
My favourite self-care habit: Tea ritual
Most days, around 3-4 pm, I stop whatever I’m doing and make myself a cup of tea. I call this my Teatime and it’s one of my most important self-care habits. It’s a moment and opportunity for me to stop the day to take time to reflect on what I have done while preparing myself for what comes next.
Special tea rituals or tea ceremonies are important cultural traditions throughout the world from East to West, from Japan, China, India, Russia to England and Morocco, just to name a few. The Japanese tea ceremony is an art in itself, something I would enjoy learning more about and experiencing.
These rituals may differ in some aspects, but common features of all of them are an awareness of the moment, a heightened appreciation for small joys of life, and finding ways to elevate seemingly ordinary acts and moments to important memorable experiences.
Turning mindless habits into fulfilling rituals will help us slow down a little and rise above the daily chaos, inspire mindfulness, and teach us how to appreciate being more in the moment is incredibly important.
Why a tea ritual?
Drinking tea is an experience
The details of the presentation, the aesthetics – preparing and drinking good tea is a sensual journey appealing to sight, sound, smell, taste and feel.
Teatime requires attention
Making an enjoyable pot or cup of tea requires some attention. If you forget about the water, you need to redo it again and again to get the perfect temperature. If you leave the tea leaves in for too long, the tea will be unfit for human consumption. And if you forget about your finished tea completely, well, who wants to drink cold tea? In a way, it forces us to forget about daily tasks, impending deadlines, worries and anxieties and dedicate our full attention to the preparation. Then the enjoyment of a fresh cup of tea.
Tea has tons of health benefits
The health benefits of tea are virtually undisputed across the world. Tea is full of antioxidants, can boost your metabolism and brain functions, and through research has been possibly linked to reducing risks of a variety of diseases, including diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer.
A delicious pot of tea doesn’t have to be costly or overly time-consuming
The best self-care habits in my opinion are not too expensive and don’t require a lot of time and effort. You don’t have to ship in luxury tea from China, you can find very good ones in your nearest health, specialty store and of course the Dragonfly Delights Tearoom Gift Shop too.
A tea ritual doesn’t have to involve meditation, bare feet, and a three-hour long ceremony either. Although it would be nice to experience, if you ever have the opportunity to attend a traditional ceremony. A tea ritual is simply just taking a few minutes out of your day to slow down, reflect, and fully appreciate a little luxury of life.
The 5 basic principles of a tea ritual
Choose quality
You are worth the time and financial investment that it would take to find tea that you truly enjoy. Make the search for great blends part of the teatime ritual enjoyment. Experiment and definitely invest in some quality tea – the possibilities are virtually endless.
Find the right tools
I’m very particular about my mugs, teacups and teapots. I choose according to mood and season. Each must be the right size and shape. It’s also good to invest in a good quality tea ball or infuser. I prefer letting my loose leaves float in the tea pot, therefore I have an infuser that strains those leaves for me. And if you’re really fancy, a nice serving tray is also a good idea. I have a wooden tray given as a gift years ago, filled with fancy nuts. The presentation adds a lot to the whole experience.
Pay attention
A tea ritual is a good way to make ourselves focus and step outside the daily chaos, simply because the preparation requires our full attention. Slow down, breathe, relax. Be attentive to the sounds, choices, smells, sights and flavours of your teatime ritual.
Create the atmosphere
Designate a special place in your home for the tea ritual, whether it’s a cozy nook or your favorite armchair. For me this place changes based on season and time of day. Warmer months, the front porch is my favourite place to be. During the colder months I have been comfortable on the couch in the living room. Since I redecorated and moved to the third floor of our character home. I made a cozy corner with attention to where a tea tray will sit.
Take the time to enjoy it
This is not meant to be an hours long ceremony; you will not miss anything if you take 15-20 minutes out of your day for a ritual like this. Use this time to slow down a little, enjoy your tea with someone else or just get lost in your own thoughts.
Try this ritual, I encourage a daily routine, this can be a really powerful self-care habit that frankly, most of us desperately need.
