Drinking coffee before meditating or using your morning coffee as a tool for mindfulness, could be a great way for you to include these practices in your daily life.
For those who have never meditated before, there are many benefits that make it worth doing regularly.
Initially meditating can be quite challenging, but it does become easier and using your daily cup to focus you could be the key to getting your meditation and mindfulness journey started.
Why meditate with a coffee?
Fitting a meditation practice into your life can seem daunting and impossible, especially if you have kids, a job, a partner, friends, family, sports, a good book, Netflix and probably a thousand other things that demand your attention and fill your days.
Considering that coffee is most likely already a habit, you could build your meditation practice from that delicious and invigorating ritual and use it as a trigger to build a meditation habit.
Meditating after a coffee
Perhaps the easiest thing to do is to just sit after you’ve finished your coffee.
You’ve just received some excellent benefits from drinking it: increased mental focus, clarity, a good mood from that natural release of dopamine, amongst other things.
+ Try to sit, close your eyes, and concentrate on your breathing for as long as you can.
+ It might only be 5 minutes and that is fine.
+ You don’t need to be crossed legged, wear tie dye or chant a mantra, just sit and be.
Mindfulness eating and drinking
Being mindful while eating and drinking can help you slow down, enjoy your meal more, and prevent overeating, and can help with weight loss. When you’re drinking mindfully, sip each mouthful thoroughly, put away distractions, and listen to your body’s signals that you’re full. It takes practice to eat and drink mindfully, but it’s worth it!
Mindful eating and drinking is a powerful tool to regain control of your eating. It’s also a way to take time out of your day and really enjoy something. It occurs at a conscious level. It is different from everyday consciousness, in that it is a heightened state that can be achieved through mindfulness in a variety of ways.
Mindful eating and drinking requires concentration and deliberate effort, so it is not something you do automatically. It’s an active process that takes practice. It takes some time, but with repeated practice it will help you change your relationship with food and eating.
Why try mindfulness drinking?
We’ve all been there before. You’re drinking your coffee and the next thing you know, the drink is gone but you don’t remember actually tasting any of it. Paying attention to what we drink and eat can be difficult, especially when we have so many other things going on around us. The next time you sit down for a coffee, try to focus solely on the cup in front of you. Taste every sip and savour the experience. You might be surprised at how much better it tastes!
Meditate with a coffee – Mindfulness coffee drinking
Another way you could practice is to actually use your cup of coffee as the mindfulness practice. After brewing your coffee, take your cup somewhere you can be still for a few minutes. If you need to get up 10 minutes earlier to do this, it will be worth it.
+ Sit comfortably with your coffee, with no phone, reading, TV or other distractions, this is a time for reconnection and stillness.
+ Now, smell the aroma as you lift the cup to your face, feel the heat of the drink as you take the first sip, hold it there a minute to let your taste buds register the flavour and texture.
+ Swallow and feel the warmth travel down your throat and into your belly.
+ Feel yourself settling into your chair.
+ Take some deep breaths.
+ Take another sip.
You may get distracted during the process. That’s okay, just bring yourself back to your coffee, hold the cup under your nose and inhale, feel the steam on your face, take another sip.
Let go of your thoughts and enjoy the moment. Feel yourself slowing down, enjoying the start of your day by not rushing, but instead enjoying this moment of your very own.
After your mindfulness coffee
+ How did this experience differ from the way you usually drink a coffee?
+ Did you automatically start to eat another sip before you were finished with the first one? Were you “satisfied” having one sip?
+ What would it be like if you ate and drank this way most of the time?
+ Do you think it would affect the amount and/or types of foods you eat and drink?
Is it bad to mediate whilst having a coffee?
Caffeine is known to assist with concentration and focus. When you drink caffeine, it enters your bloodstream and travels to your brain. There, it binds to adenosine receptors. This has the effect of blocking adenosine’s ability to bind to those receptors. As a result, dopamine levels rise.
Dopamine is associated with feelings of happiness, so it’s no wonder that caffeine can have a positive effect on your mood and, in turn, your meditation session.
Is it OK to meditate after coffee?
While coffee drinking and meditation do not normally go hand-in-hand, having a cup of coffee after you wake up isn’t likely to interfere with your practice.
In moderation, coffee and meditation can both be part of a healthy routine.
The benefits of meditation
There are so many benefits of meditation and mindfulness, you become happier, calmer, better at decision making, and better at dealing with difficult situations; it gives space, allows for ideas to flow, and shifts your energy.
Give one of these methods a try and dominate your day.
