Meditation & Coffee - Mindful Coffee Break

A chilled out mindfulness meditation designed to allow us to give ourselves space and grace, as we gently bring our attention to something as simple and routine as the feel, smell, taste, and joy of our morning coffee.

Transcript

Hello! You are listening to Meditation and Coffee, The weekday meditation podcast that helps you start your day off calm, Aware, Intentional, Focused and most importantly, Awake. Because did you know that the word Buddha actually means awakened one? I'm Hannah, Your host and founder of the online meditation community Breathe Like a Badass, And I am obsessed with starting the day with good coffee and seriously simple meditation. As a trained meditation teacher and a female entrepreneur, My mission is to help anxious yet ambitious women cut through overwhelm, Negative self-talk, Constant comparison and fear so they can get the calm, Clarity and focus that they need to build happy, Fulfilling, Freedom-filled businesses and lives. Meditation is not magic, But it's a pretty good place to start. So whether your coffee is a shot of espresso, A latte decaf or even a tea or a chai, I invite you to join me every weekday to start your day off right. FYI, These sessions are recorded live on my Instagram page, At Breathe Like a Badass, So if you'd prefer to join in and watch them live, You can do so there every weekday morning between 8 and 8. 30am London time. The videos are also available after the live on my IGTV page. Now, On to the meditation and coffee. Good morning friends, We are recording. Happy Friday, Today's Friday. I'm literally wobbling the camera because I'm posting Mindful Coffee, Which is the subject of what we're going to be doing in our meditation today. So welcome, Good morning. If you haven't got your cup of coffee or tea with you today, I invite you to go ahead and get that together so that we can start in this coffee meditation. Just going back to the roots of what this meditation and coffee series is all about today, Right at the beginning, So I've been doing this now for what, Three weeks, Four weeks? I can't remember. But right at the beginning I said, You know, The reason why I called it meditation and coffee is because there's that parallel between the word Buddha, Which is often translated or often said that it means the awakened one, The one who has woken up. And also, You know, Of course, Then the kind of slightly cheeky parallel that I've drawn between waking up because of Buddhism and because of the Buddha, And then also waking up because you're having your nice morning cup of coffee. But the parallel is not as cheeky as that in the sense that waking up from a Buddhist perspective is about kind of waking up to your own humanity, To your own suffering, But also to the idea that your suffering can be relieved, That you don't have to live with it, That there is a route and a way to liberate yourself from the suffering that you feel as a human being. So that kind of is the Buddhist definition of waking up. But honestly, For me as well, Meditation and mindfulness allow me to wake up to everything that I feel like we so often forget in our society, In our day, That actually we do have permission to give ourselves space. We do have permission to take time out of our day just to sit. And especially starting the day where we may feel a bit more tired, Or we may not feel quite ready to jump straight into work, Or we may feel like we didn't want to get out of bed, Or we want to take some time in the morning to give ourselves grace and give ourselves mental and physical space to just sit and be and appreciate those morning moments that we have before we kind of go headlong into the day and into our responsibilities and our to-do list. There's a woman in my book club that I run, The Read Like a Badass book club, Which you can join if you're interested. Just drop me a DM on Instagram. It's a book club for women. We talk about loads of great stuff, Business, Entrepreneurship, Self-esteem, Mindfulness, All the good stuff. And she mentioned to me that when she'd been in lockdown, She'd been finding that starting her day with a cup of coffee and really taking her time over it and not having the coffee with her phone or not having the coffee with a magazine or a book or a podcast and literally just focusing on the coffee. And maybe you don't do this every day. Maybe you do this once a week or whenever it might be. But that idea that you can just focus on one thing at a time and give yourself the grace and the space that you need to come home to yourself, To draw a line under what happened yesterday or what's happened in the rest of the week and think, Okay, Cool, This is me, This is me, A new day. And I just take some time to ease myself into the day with my cup of coffee and appreciate the fact that I have this moment to do that. So that's what this meditation is about today, This morning. So again, I invite you to get your cup of coffee or tea, Decaf, Chai, Anything that it might be. Peppermint tea, Also good. Green tea, Matcha, Whatever you need. And bring it to your hands and hold it. And if you'd like with this meditation, You can close your eyes, But if you feel more comfortable, You can keep them open or, You know, Be natural. So if you feel like closing your eyes for some of it just to really focus, There are no rules here. It's whatever feels good, Whatever feels comfortable. But allowing yourself to take your cup of coffee in your hands and allowing yourself to feel the gravity of the space on your body, Rooting you and grounding you into position. So allowing yourself to relax as much as you can without dropping your coffee and bringing your attention to the top of your face, To the top of your head. Relaxing your forehead, Your eyebrows, Skin around your face, The skin around your eyes and your nose and your cheeks. Breathing as deeply as feels comfortable here. Deep breathing. Noticing the breath going in and the breath coming out and allowing you to relax as the breath comes out. Once you feel very rooted and grounded in place, Bring your coffee up to your nose and just smell, Just smell it. So, I'm going to go slowly here today. In your hands, Noticing anything you can feel, The warmth. Can you feel your other hand as you hold the cup depending on how you're holding it? The solidity of the cup, The shape of the cup. Have you got a big kind of old style rounded cup or are you holding it and it's quite thin and small and delicate? Does the cup itself have any significance to you? Does it have, Is it sentimental? Did someone that you love give you this cup of coffee or did you buy it in a shop because you saw it and you loved the colour of it? Was it maybe a wedding present or something that you bought online from a small business owner who you love? Is there a story behind your mug? It's okay if there's not but this one for example, I got it online from a small business and they do, It's got my initial on it and they do lots of, Of all the initials, Lots of different kinds of mugs but it's also got this gold handle and it's black and white polka dot and I just, I kind of appreciate it every time, Every time I use this mug it makes me think like, Oh yeah, I remember that story, I remember where I got it from and I really appreciate the design of it and it makes me feel a bit special because it's got this kind of gold handle. So noticing things like that and remembering the people that made you this mug and everything that it's gone through to be sitting in your hand today and just thinking about all of those links and how you're in this way connected to so many other people who have all worked to bring you this mug and this cup of coffee today and how even though they won't know you and you won't necessarily know them, You're part of this long line of people, This community. So I kind of like to think of that, I kind of like to imagine us all together lifting each other up. So once you've really appreciated your mug and remembered if there's a story connected with it or any connections that you want to honour, We can obviously now go to the actual tasting of the coffee which is arguably the point. So sniffing the coffee, Really bringing it up, Appreciating its warmth in your hands. Taking a really gentle inhale so that you can smell and even if you have herbal tea or something like that you might be able to smell something or maybe nothing, Maybe you're just inhaling. And as you smell, Bringing the cup to your lips and noticing the sensations and the texture. As you take a sip, Allowing the coffee or the liquid to sit in your mouth for a while and notice any tastes and also notice if you have an urge to sort of swallow quickly and take another sip straight away. Just notice that urge. Feel your arm holding the cup up and again allowing yourself to relax into what it feels like to be holding this cup today. Is it warm? Is it solid? Continuing to breathe and allowing your body to relax even more into this space, Into this time. And again, Noticing your arm and your hands lifting the cup to your lips and noticing the sensations and the small actions that you do without thinking that allow you to bring the cup to your lips, Take a sip, Taste, Appreciate, Swallow, Breathe, Bring the cup down and start again. I'minate. And remembering that if you get distracted, Your mind starts thinking about something else, Your to-do list or any number of things. You can choose to bring your attention back as soon as you notice and bring it back to the anchors of holding your cup, Noticing what it feels like under your hand, And your breath, Always the breath. Always coming back to the idea that whatever happens, Whatever's going on in your mind or your life, You can come back to the breath. Breathing in gently, Nothing special, Not forcing it in any way. And allowing yourself to breathe out. And really trying to get curious with this particular meditation on your urge to drink another sip. Is it just habit? Are you just drinking the coffee and getting it down as quickly as possible because you're like, Well I've got a cup of coffee so obviously I'm going to drink it. Or is it the taste that you're feeling in your mouth and you're thinking, Oh yeah I want some more of this please. Is it the bitterness that you're used to that makes you think, Okay yeah cool I'm starting my day. Is it because you're uncomfortable with the feeling of just sitting and the feeling of just noticing and that actually you're taking a sip because you're trying to avoid that feeling of being still perhaps. And if that's the case I would say allow yourself to be still for just a little bit longer. And sit with that discomfort and think, Well why do I feel anxious or restless when I want to sit still. What do I feel like I should be doing instead or what thoughts are coming into my mind when I'm trying to just sit here and take breaks between sips. Kind of feeling the coffee in my mouth and noticing how the flavour changes as I taste it, As I swallow it and then as I breathe. And that actually does change the flavour, I can feel it tastes more kind of like roasted, Tastes more bitter. And then actually the more that I breathe it almost tastes more caramel. So it starts off bitter and then actually almost becomes sweeter. The more that I breathe and focus on the taste. So I wonder if you could do the same thing with whatever you're drinking and notice how the tastes maybe changes as you breathe into it and bring all of your senses and your attention to noticing that. And allowing yourself to breathe and really open your chest if it feels good. Take up a bit of space, I am here, I have arrived, I am starting the day with my cup of coffee with a little bit more peace, Roundedness and mindfulness. Like just noticing things that we do without realising, Like getting a cup of coffee and gulping it down. How can we bring a little bit more awareness, A little bit more mindfulness to these habits and how does that change enrich or offer more clarity or just simply a little bit more appreciation really for these moments in our life that we might otherwise just miss. That we might otherwise just kind of bulldoze through in a haze of anxiety and rushing and haste. I know that I feel better on the days when I give myself these few minutes to sit and be with something that otherwise I might just rush through and not really notice. So if you had your eyes closed I invite you to open them. And taking a breath, A bit of a stretch if you feel like you need it. And yeah, Like I say, Just a really great practice in noticing the things that we might otherwise just rush through. And giving ourselves enough respect and enough grace and enough joy in our life frankly to take this time to be and appreciate and have that first cup of coffee, Have that first coffee of the day and make it almost a treat and a ritual and something that we look forward to and something that makes us feel good and really genuinely fills our cup up, Our physical and emotional and mental cup as well as the cup that we're holding. So thank you so much for being here for another meditation and coffee quite literally today. And I will see you next week. If you have any questions and if you've watched the replay let me know. Let me know what resonated most with you. And also if you have any ideas for future meditations and coffee I'm always taking requests for particular issues or anxieties or any other situations that people have that maybe you would like me to do a meditation for. So if that's you and you're thinking oh that would be good drop me a DM and I will put it on the list and I'll get to it probably next week. So thank you so much for being here. Like I say if you're watching the replay let me know. Let me know how it's going. And yeah I wish you a really great weekend. Take care of yourself. Allow yourself to rest. Rest is just as important as work. And yeah I will see you back here bright and early on Monday morning. Thanks so much. Bye. That's it for today. Thanks so much for listening and spending your morning with me. If you like this podcast and you are as obsessed with coffee and maybe meditation as I am please go ahead and leave a rating and a review on Apple podcasts or wherever you normally listen as it helps spread the word and get the message out to more brilliant women just like us who need it. You can also share with your friends on Instagram tagging me at Breathe Like a Badass. I always love to see you there. If you like this and you'd like to hear more from me and Breathe Like a Badass on how to use meditation to get the calm, Clarity and focus you need to build a happy, Fulfilling, Freedom filled business and life head on over to my other full length interview style podcast just search Breathe Like a Badass anywhere that you normally listen to podcasts. Thank you so much for listening and I will see you for the next one.

Reviews

Great as always!

Just what I needed

Thanks Hannah :)
I was able to savour my cup of coffee much more today thanks to you!

Excellent meditation to start the day with my espresso ☕️ Thanks and big hug from Panama 🙏🏽