May 2, 2023

Managing Stress with Tea… A Key to Wellbeing & Longevity…

Life’s Ups & Downs are Unavoidable…but with the Downs can come Damaging Stress…Maintain Perspective, with Tea…

OK, so where does tea come in on all of this?

Let’s see…Creature Comfort…Creating Calm…Tea…Does it really work? How? If it is calming, is all tea calming? Which teas are best? …

Ok, so to understand calm and creating it, let’s take a closer look at calm.

Calm is really about maintaining a peaceful, relaxed state of emotion or state of mind throughout life’s continually changing circumstances.

Keeping your Cool or keeping your Calm is really a skill, a craft or an art. It is something we learn to manage by understanding circumstances and controlling the way we react as we travel the unpredictable path of life…and tea is there to help.

If Creature Comfort from Tea IS Real...

What Are The Best Teas For Calming, De-Stressing and Relaxing?...

Tea can actually help, so knowing the right teas to rely on and when gives you an advantage in your ability to maintain perspective, a larger factor in maintaining wellness than you likely are thinking…

Creature Comfort and Creating Calm is really about our ability to manage stress. It is stress inducing developments that are the ones that push our anxiety buttons and bring stressful circumstances to us.

So, Creating Calm is actually Stress Management, and the key to managing stress as best we can is…understanding it. We cannot avoid stress in our lives, but we can be at our best in managing it…and this is where tea can play a welcome role.

Stress Is Conflicting Reactions and Ultimate Frustration…

When we encounter a stressful situation, we first receive information that we perceive as something undesirable or wrong. Our immediate reaction is to find a quick fix to bring things back to the status quo.

This desire for immediate action can trigger the Fight or Flight reaction. It is when the circumstances are beyond our ability to immediately fix the situation, when we find ourselves in a sustained compromised position leading to increased anxiety, that we can experience sustained stress.

Two Types of Stressors…Normal stressors affect us continually:

Normal daily stuff…getting to work on time, planning dinner, coaching the game or a million other day-to-day demands that require us to get things done create a continual flow of Normal Stressors. Cups of tea throughout the day provide a continual refuse of sanity to manage the daily flow in stride with perspective.

Daily Crunches
Meeting Deadlines
Paying Bills
Commuting
Juggling Family Responsibilities
Couples Communications
On and On…

They HAVE Their WEIGHT but DON’T crush you…then there are these…

Major Stressors are infrequent…but can stop us in our tracks:

These are the more serious ones…usually that won’t go away easily. Here we need tea in a big way to maintain that perspective when so much is making you feel like you could loose it.

Chronic Illness
Tragic Accidents
Loss of a Loved One
Dealing With a Bad Boss
Losing Your Job
Personal Relationship Problems
etc, etc, etc

This is where Stress management Excellence comes in and where we all need to be great at it. And this is where tea provides comfort, perspective and strength to go forward, helping with clarity of decisions and taking things down notches allowing you to more easily see your way through to the next steps. Maintaining that perspective is crucial because this is what you are up against…

Stress Effects Combine…Prolonged overproduction of valuable cortisol, the stress hormone, has a counterproductive effect:

It is when it does not go away, and when we don’t control it…when we loose perspective that the compounding effects of stress do their damage effecting wellbeing & longevity.

Prolonged Stress Decimates the Gut
The Gut Produces Inflammation
Inflammations Weakens Immunity
Weakened Immunity and over production of cortisol shortens Telomeres
Shorter Telomeres Create An Opening For Cancer and Accelerate Aging

Telomere Damage Shortens Our Lives…

The damage of telomeres caused by over production of cortisol is responsible for the shortening of DNA chains and is directly related to longevity…all triggered by stress…

If you have ever lost the tip of a shoelace, you've seen your shoelace begin to unravel...something like a DNA chain with damaged telomeres...accelerated aging...

What To Do?...

What are the tools we have to stay in control, to manage our life situations, to restore perspective and manage our stress?...

Music
Deep Reading
Adequate Sleep
Exercise…Sweat
Nurture With Superfoods…Tea of course…
Yoga and Focused Breathing

OK, so…How Can Tea Help Me?...

Two Basic Ways…Tea Is A Natural Therapeutic…

First, Psychologically…

The experience of drinking tea is emotional. As we get to know our teas, we develop a connection with each tea that is something beyond the ingredients in the cup. We become familiar with the characteristics of the tea, which leads to an understanding of the tea, an appreciation, admiration, and emotional connection.

The feeling of appreciation makes us anticipate the tea we are about to enjoy and lifts our spirit…Just based on the color and aroma of the broth even before we have had a sip, our happy (pleasure) hormone is triggered, we are pleased, uplifted, and emotionally calmed.

Then Physiologically…

The ingredients in Tea are comprised of bioactive compounds with cellular targets related to the cardiovascular, chemo preventative, metabolic, neuroprotective, and other benefits. These compounds include the valuable amino acid l-theanine proven in studies to lower blood pressure, have a calming effect and improve sleep quality…

When it comes to hot beverages that we use when we look for Creature Comfort, Calm, and are looking to maintain our sanity/perspective we think about both Actual Tea (Camellia sinensis) and Calming Herbals.

Which are best for Creature Comfort, Creating Calm and Managing Stress?

The good news is many, and your specific answer will vary based on your preferences, but here are some considerations:

When it comes to the Actual Teas, high l-theanine teas are a great bet because in addition to the satisfying aroma and flavor characteristics, they will offer a larger portion of the calming properties. Shade grown and high mountain teas are usually good choices for an abundance of l-theanine.

Don’t fret about the caffeine in high l-theanine teas because of the synergistic relationship the l-theanine has with the caffeine and its ability to be conducive to calming, relaxation even helping us drift off to sleep when our head hits the pillow.

For herbals, most have no caffeine, but many also contain aroma and/or active ingredients that can both psychologically and physiologically help with our desire to ease tension, relax and calm.

Steeping Tea Can Calm Us…help maintain perspective, help us manage stress leading to better longevity, and that awareness in itself will make our lives better…yes it IS true…Creature Comfort From Tea IS Real…