Meditation in a Tea Cup

Meditation is a challenging practice, even though it sounds relatively simple. 

To meditate, you begin by finding stillness. You try to keep your mind clear and focused on your breath.  When your mind wanders, you acknowledge the thought and then return to meditating. Sounds easy but the mind is a wild thing with over 6,000 thoughts in a single day.(9) And that’s the main obstacle with meditation – the constant flowing of thoughts. 

But the purpose of meditation isn’t to stop the thoughts nor is it to clear your mind. The purpose is to not be distracted by the thinking. The thoughts are going to flow no matter what. Meditation is a tool that helps us not get carried away by our own imagination. It’s also a form of exercise for the brain, building mental resilience when under stressful conditions. 

Even though meditation can be elusive, it is a growing wellness practice. The number of practitioners steadily increased from 2002 to 2022, growing from 7.8% to 18.3% of the U.S. population.(3) According to a 2023 Mellowed survey, approximately 41% of people who meditate do so for less than 15 minutes, and only about 12% meditate for longer than 30 minutes. Most people practice meditation 2 to 3 times a week, while 16% have made it a daily habit.(7)

Health Benefits of Mindfulness

Those who meditate daily are on the right track, according to a 2016 Harvard presentation on mindfulness. Researchers found that just 10 to 15 minutes of mindfulness each day is enough to reduce the body’s production of cortisol—the stress hormone. When we experience stress, the sympathetic nervous system is triggered, activating our “fight, flight, or freeze” response. This leads to an increase in heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing rate, accompanied by an adrenaline rush. While this response is a natural survival mechanism, prolonged activation can lead to chronic stress. Meditation engages “rest and digest” response of the parasympathetic nervous system and induces a relaxed state while lowering blood pressure and heart rate.(4)

Stress has a profound impact on the heart. According to the World Health Organization, cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death globally.(10) No one is immune to stress and everyone has a heart. The mindfulness practices recommended in the Harvard presentation—such as meditation, yoga sun salutations, breathwork, and body scans—can all be done in just 10 to 15 minutes a day to help manage stress and promote heart health.(4)

The presentation also highlighted that meditating for at least 27 minutes a day can improve brain health. In a small study with 16 participants, half were assigned to a meditation group, while the other half served as a control group. Both groups underwent MRIs before and after the 8-week program. The meditation group showed new brain matter growth, while the control group showed no changes, suggesting that the improvements “had not resulted merely from the passage of time.”(4)

Tea Mediation

With only so many hours in a day, schedules can quickly become packed. An unconventional yet delightful way to sneak in 15 minutes of daily mindfulness is by making a cup of loose-leaf tea. 

This is about the time it takes to boil the water plus the time to steep. Drinking the tea extends the mindful moment for as long as is needed.  This practice, called tea meditation, has even been embraced by universities like UC Davis and Boston University, which offer tea meditation sessions to help students manage stress and promote well-being.(1)(8)

Tea meditation blends mindfulness with the ritual of making tea. There’s something inherently special about brewing loose-leaf tea that tea bags simply can’t match. From scooping the leaves—admiring the tiny leaves, flowers, and herbs—to inhaling the aroma, placing the leaves in the strainer, and pouring the hot water over them, it’s an experience that engages all the senses. As the water steeps, you watch the color change and smell the scent as it rises, filling the air. The process demands attention and care, making it an opportunity for mindfulness. You can’t rush the water to boil, and there’s no shortcut for steeping the tea. It's a quiet moment to simply be, allowing time to slow down. In a world full of distractions, making a cup of tea becomes a moment of stillness that nurtures patience.

In addition to its calming ritual, tea is packed with beneficial compounds. It contains phytochemicals and antioxidants, and specific blends can target particular health benefits.(6) For instance, green tea is rich in catechins like epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) and L-theanine, an amino acid. EGCG is thought to help calm the mind, while L-theanine is believed to improve focus, making it an excellent combination for mindfulness practice.(5)

While tea isn’t typically a heavy source of vitamins and minerals, it’s rich in polyphenols such as theaflavins, flavonols, and catechins.(6) Polyphenols, naturally found in plants, are known for their anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties.(2) A 2019 observational study published in the Molecular Nutrition and Food Research Journal found that consuming two to three cups of tea daily was associated with “reduced risks of total mortality, cardiac death, coronary artery disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes.”(11)

Concluding Thoughts 

Meditation is both a challenging and simple practice that has become a cornerstone of modern wellness and health. If we committed to meditating for just 15 minutes a day, our hearts would grow stronger, and if we extended that practice to around 30 minutes, we could even promote brain growth. However, just as challenging as the practice itself is finding the time to meditate.

Fortunately, there are other ways to cultivate mindfulness and nurture a compassionate heart beyond traditional meditation. One such method is tea meditation—a gentle, yet powerful practice. It takes only 10 to 15 minutes to prepare a cup of loose-leaf tea, and you can take as much time as you wish to savor the experience. The tea itself offers a variety of health benefits, depending on the blend you choose. Tea meditation provides the perfect combination of self-care, helping to foster a calm mind, a gentle heart, and a healthy body.

Bibliography

1 - Boston University. “Stress ReLeaf: Weekly Tea Workshop Offers a Place to Students to Relax, Unwind.” Published September 15, 2023. 

2 - Cleveland Clinic. “Foods Rich in Polyphenols — and Why They’re Important.”

3 - Davies, Jonathan N. and et al. “Prevalence and 20-year Trends in Meditation, Yoga, Guided Imagery and Progressive Relaxation Use Among US Adults from 2002 to 2022.” Scientific Reports 14, no. 14987 (2024).

4 - Denninger, John and Sara Lazar, David Vago. “Now and Zen: How Mindfulness Can Change Your Brain and Improve Your Health.” The Longwood Seminars at Harvard Medical School, March 8, 2016 Conference:  4, 6-8, 9, 18-19. PDF Download.

5 - Gilbert, Natasha. “Drink Tea and Be Merry.” Nature 566 (2019): 8-9. Download PDF. 

6 - Harvard T.H. Chan, School of Public Health. “The Nutrition Source: Tea.”

7 - Mellowed. “Meditation Statistics: How & Why People Meditate.”

8 - University of California, Davis. “Mindfulness Tea Meditation.”

9 - Tseng, Julie and Jordan Poppenk. “Brain Meta-State Transitions Demarcate Thoughts Across Task Contexts Exposing the Mental Noise of Trait Neuroticism.” Nature Communications 11, no. 3480 (2020).

10 - World Health Organization. “Cardiovascular Diseases (CVDs).” Published June 11, 2021.

11 - Yi, Mengshi, Xiaoting Wu, Wen Zhuang, et al. “Tea Consumption and Health Outcomes: Umbrella Review of Meta-Analyses of Observational Studies in Humans.” Molecular Nutrition and Food Research 63, no. 16 (2019).

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