February 9, 2022

If Creature Comfort From Tea IS Real...What Are The Best Teas For Calming, De-Stressing & Relaxing?

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.

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 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:

· Daily Crunches

· Meeting Deadlines

· Paying Bills

· Commuting

· Juggling Family Responsibilities

· Couples Communications

· On and On…

· They HAVE Their WEIGHT but DON’T crush you…

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

· Chronic Illness

· Tragic Accidents

· Loss of a Loved One

· Dealing With a Bad Boss

· Loosing Your Job

· Personal Relationship Problems

· etc, etc, etc

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

· 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…

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 and have a calming effect…

When it comes to hot beverages that we use when we look for Creature Comfort, Calm and are looking in particular 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…

Looking for suggestions for making more use of teas and herbals to maintain wellness by managing stress?...here are some suggestions:

High l-theanine Actual Teas:

· Silver Cloud, white tea

· Cloud Mist, green tea

· Gyokuro, green tea

· Kabusecha, green tea

· Lemon Ginger, flavored green tea

· Darjeeling, black tea

· Himalayan High Golden Tips, black tea

Particularly Calming Herbals:

· Time Out Calming Blend

· Stress Be Gone