Moments of Relaxation

Since my gall bladder has been acting up so horribly I have had to learn to eat differently, relieve stress differently, and even stress differently if at all possible. (That last one is the really difficult one.) One of the things Oriental medicine says to do to help your gall bladder regain its energy and health is, of course, drinking tea.

For the past couple of weeks at three o'clock, I have settled myself down with a hot cup of tea -- sometimes it's coffee -- and a cookie of some sort, and just let the day settle away and permitted myself to have a breather for the rest of the day to begin. This has become one of my most favorite times of the day, and it really didn't take long for it to be that way. I look forward to my tea time any more, and when I don't have it, even on the weekends it appears, I miss it. There is just a span of time that seems empty in that bad sort of way. You know the way - when you know there is something you enjoy isn't there: the routine is broken.

Now, as time slips away toward bed, I have made myself a cup of "SleepyTime Tea" from Celestial Seasonings (TM) and am slowly letting myself prepare for bed. I haven't done this before, but I believe it is going to become one of those times I enjoy and look forward to. Letting the day go is difficult for most people, myself included, and if there is something out there that can let us "let go" of the worries of the day, then I believe it is a good thing.

Normally I am not a tea drinker. As you all know, I am a coffee person, but there is something inexorably good about teas and tea time. It was something I never fully noticed before. The truth is, I never let there be moments of the day, or evening, where I gave myself permission to relax and let go of everything, and I do mean everything like arguments, problems, worries. Slowly I have come to accept that these things are always going to be around me, in me merely because I am alive and human. But, if I give myself time to just let them go, they don't become burdens as quickly as they normally might. Instead, they are worked on differently and viewed differently.

Yes, I know, two weeks of doing this is not saying it has become one of those good habits, and I do realize there are a lot of things that can push me past those good feelings and those times of just "letting things go" - the important thing is that I am learning to do it and I am keeping it up. Willingly.

Yeah, I'm surprised, too.