I remain on sabbatical as I continue to work on a book. In the meanwhile, I’m excited to present you with another essay by Cecile Popp, whose work I featured April 2:
https://whatsonnicolepartonsmind.blogspot.com/2021/04/redefining-abundance-expats-journey.html
If you like clear, direct, fine writing, this most recent piece by Cecile is a great example - Nicole
The leaves begin to unfurl as soon as the hot water touches them. I watch as the liquid in the glass teapot turns yellow and then, orange. Three minutes later, I have a perfectly brewed cup of tea.
Green tea. I’ve always liked the sound of it, but never actually enjoyed drinking it. Until now.
A few weeks ago, I would have been on my second or third cup of coffee by this time of the morning. For two decades I’ve been the kind of coffee drinker who goes to bed looking forward to her morning cup. I drink mine black and strong, first thing in the morning, hours before breakfast.
I started drinking coffee in my early 20s. An electric coffee maker on the kitchen counter made me feel more “adult.” It became a necessity a decade later when my babies were young and got me out of bed at 5 am.
My grandparents had owned a coffee plantation in Tanzania in the 1930s and ’40s. Subconsciously, I think I believed drinking coffee somehow connected me to them.
The Beginning of the End:
The pandemic has meant added responsibilities, stress, and minimal physical activity. A year in, I was considerably heavier than I’d been when things first shut down. I was tired, but wired. I had aches and pains; brain fog. I was irritable and harried, always working but not productive. I decided to get help and saw a functional medicine practitioner.
After a lengthy initial consultation and lab work, she told me my stress hormones were out of whack. Formerly benign words suddenly sounded scary coming from her mouth: Cortisol, thyroid, insulin. She put me on a 30-day elimination diet. The first thing to go? Coffee.
I was only mildly anxious about cutting out gluten and dairy, refined sugar and alcohol. But it was the coffee I really worried about.
As I’d expected, the first three days were tough. A headache that wouldn’t subside. Sluggishness. Constant hunger. To say those first three days passed slowly would be an understatement. I drew a calendar in the back of a notebook and began crossing out the days. Thirty seemed a long way away.
Shifting Perspectives:
As my body adjusted to no coffee and began to detox, I felt better and started to exercise again. I expected these physical changes.
What I hadn’t expected were the more subtle psychological shifts.
The green tea my doctor had encouraged me to drink had become a delightful ritual - without the frenetic, obsessive, insatiable quality of my coffee ritual. I truly enjoyed my cup of green tea until the end, whereas my coffee ceased to be enjoyable beyond the first two or three sips. I began to wonder whether the reason I had more cups of coffee was to try to recapture the taste of that first sip.
Within the first week, I noticed a growing detachment to my coffee-less mornings. I’d forget to cross off days on the chart, and would check in and discover three more days had passed, just like that!
After 30 days, the most surprising take-away had nothing to do with coffee. Rather, the experience turned out to be about “freeing” myself from something; reclaiming my power.
I showed myself I could make changes and stick to them - even difficult changes. This gave me confidence in myself. Now, I’m looking around for “what’s next?”
Happily Ever After:
The best part of all? I’ve rediscovered my love of coffee - almost as if I’d let it go, and it came back to me. A week ago I had my first post-detox coffee - a strong espresso from a local independent roasting company. The bliss stayed with me for two days.
© Cecile Popp, 2021
Cecile Popp is an educator, writer, lifelong learner, mother of three, Canadian expat living in Turkey. Her YouTube channel is From Canada to Adana. Her essays are at cecilepopp.com/10things/
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Wonderful!
ReplyDeleteSo glad you enjoyed it, Ron!
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