Hannah chats about our love of tea and the numerous benefits of a good brew (with one in hand, of course!)
Our historic romance with tea (which we soon adopted as a staple) evolved from being a great excuse to get out the best china, to a stereotypically British ‘keep calm and carry on’ response to stress. We often default to offering ‘a cup of tea and a nice sit down’, with sugary tea being a valid go-to for anyone in shock.
I do love a cuppa and a good chinwag; when my daughter was little, the baby groups of choice were always the ones that dished out tea. For me, a cuppa can be a useful circuit-breaker; a moment of calm in the storm, whether it’s personal or professional, from battling mountains of nappies and sleepless nights to navigating organisational change in a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) environment.
Sometimes it feels like mindfulness requires meditation, stretching ourselves into ambitious yoga poses or pinching our children’s felt tips for a spot of adult colouring and it can be hard to make time. Turning tiny pauses in the everyday into mindful moments can be just as powerful. Simply feeling the warmth from a hot cup of tea or coffee penetrating our hands can pull us back to the present and ground us.
We know that at work, ‘watercooler’ or equally ‘waiting for the kettle to boil’ moments are great for impromptu catch-ups between colleagues who don’t necessarily work in the same department; a chance to keep up to date on what’s going on elsewhere. Increased hybrid working means there’s less of this happening organically and we need to be more intentional about it.
For busy teams often battling back-to-back meetings, it can be all too easy to stick with the official agenda and fail to really get to know or check in on each other as fellow humans. If this sounds like you or your team, protecting some time at the start/end of a meeting to find out what’s going on in everyone’s world can be a way to engineer this connection back into the mix. Check out ‘Changing your world through three cups of tea’ by Moale James for a deeper dive into the unifying power of tea in building relationships!
The cup of tea (or mug of char!) is the non-alcoholic version of that social drink; an excuse to make a new connection. As children, we thought nothing of inviting friends over to play, but now we’re all grown up, it’s much less creepy to say, “Would you like to pop round for a cuppa?”
The institution of tea staves off loneliness and isolation without us having to name those feelings, and is a small, tangible offer we can make if we see someone who may be struggling with their mental health. It comes with the ‘added bonus’ of a chat but doesn’t require the other person to actively seek out support, which may be especially hard to do if they’re not in the right headspace.
Who are you overdue a cuppa with? If you’d like a virtual cuppa with me, my kettle is always boiling!