Monday, July 13, 2009

Tea & Life: Tea at Work

I spend my weekdays in an office, behind a desk. Some days are stressful, others blissfully quiet, but all have the potential to become busy and/or stressful without notice.

As in most offices, the majority of my co-workers drink coffee. When I come in, the coffee pot is already working hard to provide them with liquid energy to get them through the day. While I’m just as addicted to caffeine as anyone else, I can’t stand the smell or taste of coffee, so I merely attempt to keep from wrinkling my nose as I walk past, travel cup of tea in my hand.

I don’t know if it’s the same for coffee drinkers, but for me, my cup of tea is my respite from the “busy-ness” of work. I drink mainly black tea, so the kick of caffeine is still there, but taking a sip isn’t so much energizing as quietly calming, centering, if you will. The flavors roll over my tongue calling attention to the moment, and no matter what is going on around me, I’m relaxed in that particular instant.

I’m a sipper – a 12 to 16oz. cup of tea will last me most of the morning, unless it’s a particularly stressful day. Another cup lasts most of the afternoon. On stressful days, I sip more – taking more “mini-breaks”, perhaps? On those rare occasions that I forget to make tea (or worse, left the prepared cup sitting on the counter), the work is harder, more forced, and less pleasant all around. Tea makes work so much more palatable.

Without tea, I suspect the entirety of my career would be fraught with drama, and far more stress than I experience now. I’ll not be testing the theory anytime soon – I’ll keep my tea, thank you.

My question to ponder for today is, does tea affect your work life? How?

1 comment:

  1. You know I never thought about having tea at work. I'm normally a coffee drinker there. I bet it would make me less tense if I drank tea...I gave you an award on my site. :)

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