Prepare Your Tea

Mindfully prepare your tea.

Don’t multitask. Immerse yourself into the experience.

You can use a mug, a teacup, a bowl–whatever you enjoy.

Pro-tip: Don’t overfill your cup or bowl so you feel comfortable holding it without fear of spilling.

When your cup is a comfortable temperature, hold it with two hands.

Then, recite the gatha/practice poem as you coordinate it with your breath.

Tea Practice Poem

This cup of tea in my two hands,

mindfulness held perfectly.

My mind and body dwell

in the very here and now.

Breath in while reciting (out loud or silently) the first and third verses.

Breathe out while reciting the second and fourth verses.

Then, in subsequent breaths, you can shorten the verses:

In: tea

Out: mindfulness

In: mind and body

Out: here and now

If you try this tea practice poem with mindful tea, I’d love to know how it goes! There are many ways to practice mindful tea, of course. Building mindfulness or meditation into your tea practice–especially if you drink tea daily or weekly–can be a convenient “trigger” or “cue.” When I prepare my tea, I am mindful. When I drink my tea, I do so meditatively, etc.

I find mindfully preparing and meditatively drinking tea such a beautiful and meaningful part of my day. Tea is so lovely and friendly–it’s a wonderful meditation partner.

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What’s Mindful Tea

Starting with a definition, or understanding, of mindful tea is a great way to begin.

What’s Mindful Tea?

Slowing Down: Countercultural Inspo

So many aspects of American culture work against cultivating rest and presence. Awareness and intentional resistance are explored in these posts.

Rejecting a Culture of Scarcity

Suggestions for Mindful Tea

There are so many ways to use tea to cultivate stillness, presence, and rest. These posts can help give you ideas to start.

Ideas to Invite Stillness into Your Life

Five-Minute Tea Bubble Meditation

Meditation Incorporating Tea Imagery

Video

Bonus Suggestions for Mindful Tea

1. Focus on PREPARING your tea. Don’t listen to music, or a podcast, or multitask. Give full attention to all the steps from filling your kettle until pouring your tea. Use all of your senses to immerse into the preparation.

2. Focus on DRINKING your tea. Notice the appearance of the tea, the feel of your cup, the sound of the pour, etc. Don’t do anything except be with and enjoy your tea.

3. Focus on PREPARING and DRINKING your tea. (See 1 & 2, above.)

4. Another suggestion for mindful tea: Hold your mug or teacup and LOOK OUT A WINDOW. Enjoy what you see outside between savoring your sips of tea.

5. Turn on a meditative or favorite piece of MUSIC. Sit comfortably and drink your tea while listening to the music.

6–Finally, take your tea OUTSIDE. Sit on your front steps with your tea. Or pack a thermos and cup and go to your favorite local park.

Connect with Me and Mindful Tea

I hope you find these resources and suggestions for mindful tea helpful, Tea Friend! We could all use a little more calm…and tea…in our lives.

If you subscribe to my monthly newsletter for tea lovers, Tea Infusiast News, you’ll find more tea content–including information about my regular Tea Mindful Together online tea meditations. These events are usually free to all subscribers.

You can learn more about me here, including my training in tea and meditation.

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Tea Inspiration List

• Have tea with someone you love.
• Have tea with a group of friends.
• Try a tea that is new to you.
• Savor your favorite tea.
• Go on a “tea walk” and drink tea outdoors. (Here are some tea walk tips.)
• Use your fanciest teaware.
• Use you coziest, easiest teaware.
• Arrange your tea space to make it visually appealing.
• Try mindful tea or a tea meditation. (Here’s a winter playlist I made to accompany mindful or meditative tea time.)
• Attend a tea festival, take a tea class, or visit a teahouse. Or, do all three!
• Exchange tea with someone you know and trust.
• Support a local tea vendor, tea shop, or teahouse.
• Check out a tea blog. (Congratulations, you’ve already accomplished this one! )

Are any of these ideas from the tea inspiration list new to you–or already favorites? I’d love to know!

If you are interested in finding out about online and in-person tea events, tea meditations, notice of new blog posts, giveaways, and more, consider subscribing to Tea Infusiast News. It’s my monthly newsletter for tea lovers.

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On this blog, I cover tea from many angles–from tasting notes, sparkling tea recipes, traveling with tea advice, cultural investigations, part of a mindfulness practice, and more.

Besides offering updates on what has been posted on the blog, in Tea Infusiast News I run giveaways, provide advance notice of events, and offer pre-registration opportunities and discounts to many of my paid events.

Additionally, I typically offer monthly events that are only open to (and free for) my TIN subscribers.

Lately, I’m fairly consistently offering two free monthly event for TIN subscribers. These events draw on my love of tea, my tea and meditation teacher training, and the fun of crafting. (You can read more about me here.) The only way to sign up is through the newsletter.

The CrafTEA Social

The CrafTEA Social an online gathering where we share (and often show) what craft we are working on and then work on it while we chat. Tea is optional! We were meeting on a Tuesday evening at 8pm ET / 5pm PT each month from September-December. I’m adding some midday (tea-time!) Saturday crafting socials in January-March 2026. After that, we’ll reassess schedules.

Tea Mindful Together

The next monthly event for TIN subscribers that I’ve been offering for a while is Tea Mindful Together. It’s an online, midday tea meditation. I run it on a weekday, usually around 12 or 12:30pm ET. It usually lasts around 30 minutes. I lead practices like guided meditations, journal prompts, and (always) quiet time for mindful tea. Join us to see how a midday break might change how you flow through your day.

How to Become a TIN Subscriber

Enjoy these monthly events for TIN subscribers–and all the other benefits of receiving Tea Infusiast News–by subscribing, below.

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Join me at my October online workshop, Tea with Your Inner Critic.

Are you tired of battling or feeling belittled by your “inner critic?” I was!

For some time, I’ve worked to pay attention to that critical voice I often hear inside my head–the voice that critiques, questions, and makes me feel or act small. What’s more, I’ve managed to befriend my inner critic.

Doing this work has been meaningful and rewarding. Now, drawing on my experience as a tea teacher and a meditation teacher, I’m excited to serve as a guide and help others begin to work with their inner critic, too.

Tea with Your Inner Critic

I’ve created an online workshop. Our goal is to help recognize, better understand, and begin to befriend our inner critic.

I will be inviting participants to join in a:

• tea ritual

• guided meditations

• journaling prompts

• and more

Live Online Workshop Details

Date: Sunday, October 5, 2025

Time: 2:00 – 3:45 pm ET

Price: $35 (regular registration rate); $30 (early bird registration rate)

I’ve designed Tea with Your Inner Critic to be a live, online experience. It will not be recorded.

Although I cannot share a recording of the live event, I will share other workshop resources afterwards.

Registration and Payment

$35: Regular Registration Rate

For people who sign up between September 9 – October 4, 2025.

Questions?

If you are interested in my background, I invite you to check out my page, “About Traci” or read about me on the Steap’d blog.

If you have any questions about this workshop, you are welcome to email me at teainfusiast@okso.org.

You can see my other upcoming offerings here.

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I used to feel like my week ran me instead of like I ran my week.

I was productive–writing, teaching, grading, attending committee meetings, meal planning, organizing my kids’ activities, and so on. But, it all felt disorienting and exhausting.

I always knew, for example, that work was stressful. But, I vividly remember the day I deeply realized how it was impacting me physically, mentally, and emotionally. I was walking from my car to my office. It was a beautiful day. I was walking at a leisurely pace. Suddenly, I realized my heart was pounding in my chest as if I had had been sprinting instead of walking. My body was responding powerfully to the anticipated stress. I knew I HAD to make a change.

Things That Stick, But Don’t

So, tired of feeling like time was managing me instead of the other way around, I explored many different systems to plan my week. 

Try sticky notes? Yes! 

Misplace sticky notes? Certainly did! 

Try computer program with on-screen sticky notes? You bet!

Watch my computer screen become overwhelmed with sticky notes? Sadly, yes. 

Convert to lists? Okay. This is going to work! (Spoiler alert–it’s not the answer.)

Use a planner? Use a customized Google Sheet? I tried both!

To be honest: some of these things can serve us well. The issue is: it’s not where to start or the most important thing.

Different Methods to Run My Week

Still, my week ran me. Frustrated, frazzled, and eager for a solution to planning my week better, I tried lots of different planning systems.

I worked with the Pomodoro Technique, Eisenhower Matrix, Atomic Habits, Essentialism, Growth Day, habit trackers and more. I learned valuable things from all of these methods. But, they didn’t appreciably change the way every day and week felt.

Things Finally Start to Shift

Then, something changed. I started to read and write about the cult of productivity and time scarcity mentality. I explored the latter in a post reflecting on the writings of Brené Brown Brown and Robin Wall Kimmerer. These were important perspectives as I began to shift in how I thought about time, planning, and work.

I took an extensive workshop on rethinking my relationship to what I did professionally. Have you ever created a document with bullet points of all your work responsibilities, committees, and activities? No big deal, right? When I did it, my list was two pages long! I was shocked at how long the list was. How did that list get so long?! I started to get curious about how my list of activities aligned with my actual responsibilities, goals, and humanity? HARD questions. 

Thinking about how my week ran me, I started to ask why. I thought over grind culture and immersed myself in people doing the important work of resisting it. For example, Octavia Raheem’s Pause, Rest, Be. deeply moved me. And, her book Rest is Sacred resonated deeply when she said you have to understand and change how you think about rest before you can transform your relationship to it.

Going Deeper

There were many other readings, teachings, practices, and experiences that influenced how I looked at my time and its relationship to me. For example, hearing my sister ask “How do you want to feel this week?” at a weekly group that she used to run opened a new way to think about my time. (Thanks, Kim!)

Throw in tea teacher training, meditation teacher training, deeper meditation and mindfulness practices (Thank you, Thich Nhat Hanh!), and working with this issue in a new way. What did I get? I found a better way to think about and plan my week. I now feel more energized, authentic, and content with how my days and week run.

When You Run Your Week

I have more time to take in beauty and to connect with myself and others. Every morning, I make time to step outside and soak up some morning sunlight. I arrange more time to go on tea excursions with my daughter. I schedule more lunches with friends. I plan meaningful events that replenish me. And so much more.

All of these things are opportunities to connect, empathize, and laugh more often. Being more efficient and focused at work and changing how I plan has helped me unlock all these other fulfilling activities in my week. And, I learned many other lessons about how to plan my week.

I wish that earlier, stressed and exhausted me–heart pounding between the parking lot and my office–knew then what I know now! I’m grateful, however, to finally know how to leave behind a life where my week ran me and, instead, cultivate how to run my week.

Inspired to Share

These changes and insights have inspired me to offer my September Serenity Series. I’d love to help other people think through how they can better plan each week! I firmly believe that doing this over time (the series meets once a week for a month) and with a supportive group helps us go further than we can go alone.

I’ve learned that it is not a list of things we do, but rather a series of questions we ask, that can help us craft a productive, humanely paced, and joyful week. 

No more “Sunday scaries;” no more dreading the upcoming week!

If you are ready for a new way to plan your week in a supportive group, the September Serenity Series could be for you. We meet online every Sunday evening in September. You can learn more by clicking the button, below.

The post My Week Ran Me appeared first on Tea Infusiast.

I offer sliding-scale pricing to make this experience more financially accessible.

Details about the Sunday Serenity Series

What is the Sunday Serenity Series?

This won’t be your standard “plan-your-work” series. We’ll tap into how we want to FEEL each week. I’ll also invite participants to plan nourishing activities—for example, tea sessions or time for a beloved hobby.

I’ve lived the life of overwhelm and tried so many different approaches to scheduling my week. I’ve written about that journey here, in “My Week Ran Me.” So, I’m excited to share my insight and offer a space in community where participants can ask new questions, find new insights, and make their own plan.

When does this series meet?

Dates: We meet online every Sunday in September 2025.

The meeting dates include: September 7, 14, 21, and 28th.

Time: 8:00-9:00pm ET

(That’s starting at 8pm ET, 7pm CT, 6pm MT, 5pm PT.)

Let’s defeat the “Sunday Scaries” together! 

What’s the Price and How Do I Register?

To sign up for the Sunday Serenity Series, please choose the pricing that applies to you, below. All prices are in United States currency (USD).

IMPORTANT note about the email connected to your payment method.

• If you pay using a name and/or email that you didn’t use for your newsletter subscription OR there is a different email where you’d like to receive correspondence about this event, kindly email me after you register. teainfusiast@okso.org

Rate for tea-friends experiencing tight finances: $34 for all four sessions

Suggested rate for the Sunday Serenity Series: $48 for all four sessions

Rate for tea friends in a position to help support the reduced-rate price: $58 for all four sessions

Questions?

To learn more about me, you can read “About Traci.”

For questions about this event, kindly use the “leave a comment” function on this post or email Traci. teainfusiast@okso.org

Hope you join us for the Sunday Serenity Series!

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Background for the Experiment

If you are a casual or more focused tea drinker you, might wonder why it would be anything new to drink the same tea every day. Many folks drink tea that way.

I’ll share why it is for me. I have dozens and dozens of teas at home. This is a benefit/challenge of being so enthusiastic about trying new teas. No judgment for anyone who doesn’t share the same tea goals!

Even with so many choices, I often enjoy certain teas by drinking them regularly for a while. In those cases, however, the teas are in my daily mix with some regularity, but not necessarily every day. And, I never planned to keep drinking that tea and focus on it every day for X amount of days.

Why I Tried 10 Days One Tea

I have been exploring Dan Cong oolongs more recently, as I have written about. I decided that with so many variations of this style of twisted-leaf, roasted Chinese tea from Guangdong province, it might help me better understand them if I focused on one for a while. Then, I wondered what it would be like to assign myself to drink the same tea every day for over a week.

So, I decided to start with the Jiang Hua (Ginger Flower Fragrance) Phoenix Dan Cong that Azenbor generously sent me. I have been so impressed with their tea after receiving samples that I have bought some at full price since then! And, I liked the sound of a 10-day experiment.

Glazed Clay Teapot Notes

After several days, I really dug into the tasting notes. Ginger Flower Fragrance Dan Cong is credibly aromatic and delightful to sip—floral and creamy and spicy. It has a silky mouthfeel. Azenbor’s tasting notes also mention “creamy mustard notes.“ That’s so true—like an excellent Dijon in the mix! It is really delicious. (And, if I had read that tasting note before trying it, I might not have looked forward to it. I’m so glad I didn’t pre-judge, because it’s absolutely delicious…to me.)

I steeped this Dan Cong at 195F / 200F (90C / 93C) using about 3g of tea in my 80ml glazed clay teapot. I started with a 5-second steep and added 5 seconds each time. This approach brings out all the delightful flavors and aromas and tames that bitter note that can otherwise become prominent in Dan Cong oolongs.

Unglazed Clay Enters the Chat

Another morning during 10 days one tea, I decided to use my lovely unglazed Chaozhou hogni clay teapot. Although this teapot is recommended for Dan Cong oolongs, I don’t always prefer it over porcelain or glazed clay. I must add–I don’t prefer it, yet?

Not intending to do this experiment, I realized that in the Chaozhou teapot I prefer 200F to 195F (93C to 90C) for this tea. Note—these teapots are very thin, so it’s recommended to fill them with a lower temperature water first—not to take them straight from room temperature to very hot. They might crack otherwise.

The unglazed clay softens the tea—folks might prefer it one way or the other. I find it very pleasant, but it usually mutes some flavor notes I enjoy when the tea is steeped in the glazed teapot. Going a bit hotter gave me that softness with more of the notes I had been missing. Nice discovery! I need to explore this more. I’m tempted to try the unglazed teapot at 205F (96C) another time.

Decision Made for 10 Days

One thing I didn’t anticipate and really appreciated. I enjoyed NOT having to choose my tea every morning. If you have ever suffered from decision fatigue, you know having one less decision to make can be a relief. Since I usually have two different teas every day, I still felt like I could be spontaneous for my afternoon tea choice. (Generally, I like choosing a tea based on how I feel.)

I really enjoyed the balance of not having to choose for one session and getting to choose for the other. This 10 days one tea experience made me wonder if I was dealing with decision fatigue and didn’t even realize it. Or maybe I am just enjoying the novelty of not choosing in the morning for a while.

Bodily Sensations from One Tea

I’m not sure what to say about any emotional or energetic effects the Ginger Flower Fragrance tea has on me.

So far, I notice calm energy. It definitely doesn’t give me frenetic energy. (I’m looking at you–and judging–Bao Zhong.) I think I don’t feel more sure about bodily specifics of this tea because we have had an unusual number of rainy (and cold!) June days in a row.

I did notice a “returning sweetness” in the back of my throat after sipping this tea. That bodily sensation with Dan Cong hadn’t been on my radar before this 10 days, one tea experiment. I don’t think it’s what tea heads officially call “hui gan.” They often describe that sensation as occurring after a moderately or intensely bitter tea (which this tea is not, steeped as I am steeping it). Some folks say that a “cooling” sensation accompanies it. So, I *think* what I experience is maybe not hui gan. But, I am delighted to notice this sensation and flavor at the back of throat after drinking Jiang Hua.

Final Thoughts

I enjoyed this experiment. I think I will try it for another Phoenix Dan Cong oolong. Another 10 days one tea in the future!

Do you have any Dan Cong, or even better–Jiang Hua Dan Cong–thoughts or advice to share with me? I’d love to know!

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In April 2025, I finished an online Masterclass in Interactive Guided Meditation led by Jack Kornfield. Initially, I was disappointed. I misunderstood the nature of the “cohort” system for this course. Despite that, I was fascinated and, at times, moved by the new tools and the deeper dives into some of the techniques I learned.

Overview of the Meditation Course

The course was divided into four long sessions, about two hours each. Since it is online, you can take it at your own pace, stop to take notes, etc.

The class focused on:

• working with symbolic images and language (keys, walking sticks, healing palaces, etc.),
• helping folks visualize or “know” the messages they were receiving,
• personalizing the meditation based on what the person you are guiding shares,
• and working with meditations exploring a past life.

The course’s content really called to me. It provided a lot to think about and be inspired by.

My Misunderstanding

I mistakenly thought, when I read about the “see one, do one, teach one” approach and that there was a cohort, that the course would pair us with someone to practice with. That wasn’t the case. We watched Jack lead these experiences on the video. We also heard the feedback of the meditation teachers who were attending live when this series was recorded. I was disappointed not to have someone to practice with.

Some Initial Take-Aways

Despite the initial disappointment about the experience, I learned a lot from seeing Jack Kornfield lead these sessions on interactive guided meditation. I enjoyed how he talked through how he led the trainings, too. It was also very helpful to hear folks share their experiences being led or leading the guided meditations.

I have been working these past few years trying to hear and trust my intuition. It has taken time since I’ve spend decades learning how to be rational, linear, methodical, and philosophical. There are some great advantages to the latter, and I’m thankful I have those skills. But, there are other way of deep knowing.

I’ve found that working with symbolic images or guided imagery can unlock deeper knowing and more bravery to explore this side of understanding. Throughout the class, when Jack said “You can know,” I felt like he was directly reassuring me along this path.

My Future with Interactive Guided Meditation

I’m definitely inspired to work more with symbolic language and creating meditation prompts that allow people to reach into their own psyches or to see what bubbles up from their intuition. I started that work before, so this feels like a nice extension of it.

As for the smaller, one-on-one interactive guided meditations, I need to practice and explore this way of leading meditations before I have any thoughts of possibly offering such a thing. As a teacher in Higher Ed long before I became a meditation teacher, the idea of differentiation and customization is something I’ve long worked with. I’m excited to learn how to transfer these skills into my meditation offerings in such a personalized way.

The meditations and observations motivated lots of notes and thinking. I’m looking forward to what these experience inspire in me moving forward. I’m glad I took the course!

Other Meditation Teacher Trainings

I’ve written about some of my previous meditation teacher trainings on the blog. If you’re interested, you can read more here.

If your interested in learning more about the class described in this post, you can find it on Jack Kornfield’s website at Masterclass on Interactive Guided Meditation.

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Background to the Monastery Visit

Although it was my first time visiting a Buddhist monastery, it wasn’t my first time interacting with monastics from Blue Cliff. As I have previously shared on the blog, Sisters and Brothers from Blue Cliff came to my university and ran a two-day retreat in the fall of 2025. It was amazing!

The director of my university’s mindfulness center–Michael, a wonderful human being–organized the trip for folks at my university.

I traveled up there with a group of students, other faculty members, and staff. The bus ride up and back was very social–a lovely way to travel and bond as a group.

Structure of the Days

This visit to the Buddhist monastery was such a gift. The structure, practices, and beautiful energy nourished me. The typical schedule shared on the Blue Cliff website, shown below, is the one I participated in.

05:00 am – wake up
06:00  am – sitting meditation
07:00  am – exercise (stick exercise or personal practice)
08:00  am – breakfast
09:30  am – Dharma talk or working meditation
11:30  am – walking meditation
12:30  pm – lunch
03:00  pm – working meditation or activity
05:00 pm – sitting meditation & chanting
06:00  pm – dinner
07:30  pm – activity or personal practice time
09:30  pm – noble silence

I loved all of it. I particularly appreciated that all of this community and supportive structure took place in the natural beauty of the Catskills area.

Noble Silence at the Monastery

I’ll pause to mention the practice of noble silence. This practice particularly resonated with me. It involved not talking from 9:30 pm until after breakfast the next day. I’ve done mindful eating with others in noble silence before, but never on a scale like during my first visit to this Buddhist monastery. We were not talking while dorming, walking, meditating, and eating with others.

Noble silence was incredibly powerful. It had more effect on me than I could have imagined. Practicing and being together without talking brought a kind of peace and a heighted a sense of unity of purpose. In effect, it meant we weren’t multitasking–not ever–during this time. It’s was a powerful way to touch the present moment more deeply.

Tea Memories from Blue Cliff

I have some special tea memories from my visit to the Buddhist monastery.

One morning, I took my steaming cup of tea outside to a bench protected from the elements. I had been in noble silence since the night before and was feeling very relaxed and tender-hearted after the morning meditation. The weather was misty and it was raining lightly. Fog veiled the surrounding woods. I watched the nearby birds and drank my tea in companionable silence next to another visitor also drinking tea. I was such a beautiful moment.

Another highlight of the trip was leading a tea meditation in the Big Hall for our group before we had our first dharma share. The intimacy of our small circle of chairs and meditation cushions in the huge hall was striking. It also felt great to serve the lovely group I traveled with. I love Thich Nhat Hanh’s gatha on drinking tea, so I used that, preceded by some other gathas I added on the fly, realizing our tea cups weren’t cool enough to hold yet.

Since the Visit to the Monastery

Since returning from Blue Cliff Monastery, I have being practicing longer sitting meditations. I’ve also started using the mindfulness bells on the Plum Village app. I was inspired to do this because I absolutely loved the mindfulness bells at the monastery–the quarter hour reminder to stop and reengage with your body, breath, and spirit. I’ve also been practicing mindful eating more often since returning.

It’s not a contest to practice or do more. I want to underscore that. This is what I feel called to do and find very supportive right now.

My phone was put away most of my visit to the Buddhist monastery. Otherwise, I would be able to share more photos–including the morning mist in the woods, the delightful mossy paths by the creeks, and the beautiful folks that I traveled with and the monastics who welcomed us with such a generous spirit. Those photos are only in my heart.

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