Okay, in some situations, when your brain needs a quick increase in alertness, or you need a shot of adrenalin to stay awake, coffee can certainly help you out. Please, just don’t use it all the time. It will wear you out, especially if you add it to the stress of big-city living.
To shift away from coffee, use a process of transitioning. Don’t pull the plug on coffee overnight—it will make quitting harder on you, in more ways than one. First, begin the process by switching to decaf. You can do half decaf and half regular for a few days, then go all the way to just drinking decaf. The next step is adding some black tea and drinking only one cup of coffee. Do this for a couple of days. Still feeling good? Make the leap to drinking only one cup of black (or green) tea each day. Have herbal tea at night, and you can start enjoying better sleep.
Is this all starting to feel okay to you? Then it is time to fall in love with the ritual of tea drinking, allowing coffee to be a once-in-a-while thing that gives you some jitters. Yes—to your great surprise, you will now feel a difference when you drink coffee. And be careful. The jitters are what trapped you the first time, since you felt so alive or alert when you had that one cup. Don’t be seduced again. The feeling won’t last long, and then you’ll be back on the same rollercoaster. Gently let go of your coffee addiction by experiencing how much closer you can be to yourself when you’re not in a constant state of anxiety and caffeine-induced stress.
Having put my addiction to coffee behind me (although I still have a love affair with coffee), I now have a new ritual. I sit with my cup of tea, breathe in its bouquet, and completely indulge in its fine nuances. A sense of relaxation and calm sweeps over me. My memories of busy days fueled by quick cups of strong coffee can live on in my mind—and still bring a smile to my face.
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