Life’s Ups & Downs are Unavoidable…but with the Downs can come Damaging Stress…Maintain Perspective, with Tea…
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 to stress 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 mitigate stress, 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 continuously:
Normal daily stress…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 refuge 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…
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
- Loosing 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 lose 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?...
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 teas 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?:
High L-Theanine Actual Teas:
Particularly Calming Herbals:
