Written by Jennifer Millette
As you prepare your tea, let your breath become slow and smooth. Gently allow your mind to focus on your task as much as possible. Once your tea is ready, take your time pouring it into your cup and get comfortable in your seat.
GROUND: Once you are seated, take some time to feel your feet on the floor, and your body supported by the surfaces it is touching.
BREATHE: Feel your breath, slow and smooth, moving in and out of your body.
SENSE: Hold your cup, notice how it feels in your hands. Prepare to sip, pausing to look at and smell the tea. When ready, slowly sip and notice the taste. Continue enjoying your tea in this manner.
If you are feeling inspired, consider these words from Thich Nhat Hanh, Vietnamese Zen Master and mindfulness expert, while you sip and savor:
“Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the world earth revolves. Slowly, evenly, without rushing toward the future.
Live the actual moment.
Only this moment is life.
You must be completely awake in the present to enjoy the tea.
Only in the awareness of the present, can your hands feel the pleasant warmth of the cup. Only in the present, can you savor the aroma, taste the sweetness, appreciate the delicacy. If you are ruminating about the past, or worrying about the future, you will completely miss the experience of enjoying the cup of tea.
You will look down at the cup, and the tea will be gone.
Life is like that.
If you are not fully present, you will look around and it will be gone.
You will have missed the feel, the aroma, the delicacy and beauty of life.
It will seem to be speeding past you. The past is finished.
Learn from it and let it go.
The future is not even here yet. Plan for it, but do not waste your time worrying about it. Worrying is worthless.
When you stop ruminating about what has already happened, when you stop worrying about what might never happen, then you will be in the present moment.
Then you will begin to experience joy in life.”
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