About a year ago, when I first started working as the general manager in a deli/café, I decided I needed to do a coffee tasting. Coffee is a huge part of the business and as I hadn’t had any coffee for at least 4-5 years, I wanted to get an understanding of what it is that we sell. So I tried a decaf espresso, which was full-on.
FROM HIDEOUS TO REALLY TASTY
I hated it. Espresso, which is pure and neat in its extraction of the coffee, has nothing to disguise it and my reaction was immediate, as if my taste buds were saying to me: “What are you doing – are you crazy? This is hideous!”.
I then tried the espresso with some soya milk and this was not so invasive but still full on… I only managed to have a couple of sips of each and that was it. Then, an hour later, a headache appeared and my stomach started to feel weird.
The one thing that really shocked me though was the quick change from “What the heck are you doing, this is hideous” to (after a disguised, milky, soya flat white and a few sips of that) going “Hmmm… this is actually really tasty”.
How quickly it started to grow on me! It reminded me of when I first started to drink alcohol and started smoking. They were both naturally hideous and my body didn’t want to do either, but I overrode what I really felt so I could fit in, be accepted and look cool!
UPPING THE COFFEE ANTE – I GET SEDUCED…
My ‘romance’ with coffee didn’t end there – recently I had to choose a new blend of coffee for our customers.
So the coffee tasting began… I was having a look at the crèma, which looked perfect, and the smell was alive with lots of different scents – liquorice, almond and chocolate jumped out at me!
At that point I was slowly getting seduced all over again and I thought: “I’ll try it – I need to know what the coffee I have chosen for the deli tastes like.” Isn’t it interesting how the mind will quickly justify an action to make it OK to do! This was the start of the override again…
There were two types of blends so I had a couple of sips of each espresso and then another couple of sips of two flat whites.
By the end of the second espresso I could start to feel the change in my body… and by the end of the second flat white I was starting to like it, enjoying the flavours… I stopped there, knowing which blend was going to work best for the deli and the customers…
FEELING THE IMPACT OF COFFEE – THE HARD WAY
But for me, it was too late – by the end of the second flat white I was really starting to feel ‘off the wall’ and super-racy! “Oh my goodness! What have I just done?!” I’m thinking. It felt like I was on drugs big time… really bad speed, or something like that! My head felt really strange – like it was going to pop or explode. My heart was going super-fast, and I was completely off the wall in my behaviour – all the deli assistants were laughing at me, as they could all see the change in me.
It lasted for quite some time – we’d started the coffee tasting at 10.30am and I was still feeling traces of it at 8pm that night – and the following two days I had these really intense, full-on headaches that were hideous. I could see how people can get hooked – if I’d had another coffee, all those symptoms would have disappeared instantly.
This week I had another trip to the roastery, but this time I decided that I would spit the tasting – my body thanked me for this!
I LOVE MAKING COFFEES, BUT WHY WOULD I BE ANYTHING ELSE BUT ME?
I started making coffees when I was 15. I love making coffees, and I still do.
I love the smell of coffee and I still do, but I don’t like what it does to my body so I don’t drink it any more. It’s like some foods and how they taste and what they do to my body: I have decided to leave them out of my diet because I don’t like how I feel after I’ve eaten them, even if they taste amazing at the time – it’s not worth it!
However, this most recent coffee tasting experience really confirmed for me that I just don’t want to feel like that anymore. It also confirmed for me what happens when I let my mind override and ‘explain away’ what I’m really feeling in my body and know is right for me.
I feel so AMAZING when I’m just me – without anything else influencing me – and I know now: NOTHING ELSE is acceptable!
I’m at a point in my life where what I have chosen is SERIOUSLY AWESOME and I feel SERIOUSLY AMAZING for it. I feel so clear, on to it, light and consistent. I have so much respect for my body and myself that I am not prepared to compromise any more.
Inspired by the Awesome work of Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine.
By Natalie Hawthorne, London, UK
827 Comments
Overeating must be one of the most frequent ways we override our body.
I have never drunk coffee, nor tea for that matter but I have had my vices that I know aren’t good for me, still do in some forms. Energetically there’s a disturbance in order for me to accept and like the taste of something that isn’t supportive physically. I can’t stop a certain food or a behaviour until I address the underlying energy.
Being open to feel our bodies, changes everything in our life, and the ensuing effects that take place can then be put into a True relationship to our health and healing as you have shared Natalie.
It is amazing how willing we can be to override our body’s clear communication about certain toxins that we are tempted to eat or drink but the more we are willing to listen the more it becomes clear that it is not worth sacrificing feeling awesome for a quick taste fix with unpleasant consequences for us and those around us.
Natalie this is such great blog exposing the not so good and wonderful side of coffee, blogs like these need to be more in the public eye for so many people in our society are addicted and think that it is normal.
Shocking how caffeine has been incorporated into the fitness industry, as in its now quite normal to have coffee before and after training.
It was a revelation for me to understand that when I used to have a mega latte after a gym class that this speedy hit from the caffeine combined with the mellowed out feeling of having exercised was a specific altered state that I was wanting. A kind of bombed out mellow feeling with a kick. All perfectly legal and because of that no one bats an eyelid. And also because I was so used to taking my body up and down, that what I was doing never really registered but if I was to do that now I would feel like I was on drugs, hang on a minute, I would be, just legal ones!
When we stop any addiction, we have put on/in our bodies and have overridden the bodies first reaction, could it be the bodies painful withdrawal is an amplified reminder of what it told us in the first place?
When I stopped drinking tea and coffee I was sick for two weeks as the toxins left my body, I swore I’d never drink them again and here I am 25 years later, very grateful for my choices to follow through on that. I’ve never even been tempted to drink them since.
I can remember experiencing the same ill effects when I stopped eating sugar. I was incredibly ‘ill’ for six weeks as decades of accumulated toxins poured out of my body. It was shocking to feel but at the same time it made so much sense; the toxins we feed our body, whether it be food, drink or chemical substances do build up, as our bodies are simply not equipped to deal with them. Six weeks on I began to feel so much more alive and energetic than I had ever felt in my life, so to continue to live sugar free was a no brainer, as the saying goes.
I gave up drinking coffee while going through menopause, as each time I drank some my heart felt like it was going to jump out of my chest. So, I changed to decaf and had no further heart jumping issues, until one day within 10 minutes of finishing a cup in a local café I started to feel the old symptoms arise. I was shocked to say the least, until I realised that I had not been given a cup of decaf coffee but an ordinary caffeine filled one. A most unpleasant experience but at the same time a great confirmation of the ill effects of coffee on my body, and the last time I ever drank any sort of coffee, decaf included.
Having cut foods such as coffee and chocolate out of the diet and not having them for some time, is really a shock to the system if they are then introduced some years later, as you so clearly experienced Natalie. When the body is used to a clean simple and light diet, it becomes very quick to send signals to tell us something is not right when a food or substance that is no longer eaten or drunk is reintroduced. And it is this clarity that enables us to feel so much more, on so many levels.
It is so true how we can find exactly the right flavour to hide and override the bodies natural knowing and wisdom.
When we start to acknowledge that our body is a vehicle of expression, to express who we are, what we put in starts to change too. We all know coffee can be tasty in our mouth but what does it do with the quality we want to live in and the effects is has on our sensitive body.
Our body has actually all the wisdom we need. Some things might seem a great idea, might look and taste good, but what they actually do to the body is not supporting, This can be food, drinks, substances but also behaviors and thoughts. The world would be a different place if we all honored and treasured our body.
Our mind is more than willing to compromise the body and to close our hearts, just as it is super quick and easy in justifying an action where the body actually says ‘no, please, don’t do that. And the more we have made these choices the more difficult it is to hear the voice of the body loud and clear, although if we want to we can always start to listen again.
There are so many ways to be seduced in life textures, tastes, smells, visuals and sounds and yet the being wants to experience and experience life in its many variations.
One of the best ways to permanently have more energy in our life is not to have any caffeine and to live a lifestyle that makes this possible – the transition period is not easy but the energy levels are worth it.
I agree Christoph, it certainly is a process of being open and willing to feel and explore a different way, and when we choose to be all of who we are then Boom with out fail we are full of vitality and joy.
When we are stressed we tend to drink coffee but that only serves to make us even more stressed. What is required in those times is to allow ourselves to be still rather than racy.
I have never ever considered the effect of caffeine on those around us until today. We all know that when someone lights up a cigarette, that we all inhale the smoke but we don’t discuss the effect of a person’s caffeine intake on those around them. Ok, so it’s not quite the same, as in those around a coffee drinker don’t somehow imbibe caffeine too but whilst I sat with someone today, who had had a few coffees, I was very aware that it felt quite an assault on my body, I felt energetically bombarded by the intensity that they were speaking with!
When we have a foundation of love in our body, it is easier to listen to our body and honour what it is telling us. Thank you for sharing how your body was with, and then without coffee, our body is so wise.
Correct Lorraine our bodies are very wise and when we surrender to it and let go what it is communicating to us is gold.
What a gorgeous example of how certain food and drinks have a negative effect on us. Which we one day will no longer take based on how we feel from it more than its pleasant taste.
What I love about this writing, is how sensitive your body was to the caffeine, because you allowed it to be so.
Correct Shami, it has always been sensitive but going through the motions of life and growing up I shut down that sensitivity. So it has been a process of letting go and through it I am able to feel the things that are not supporting me also.
Thanks for sharing this – I dont think we appreciate as a society the extent to which we need coffee. It has become an industry that is like wine – where people seek the best. And are totally hooked. In fact, it can be seen as a hangover cure to lots of wine the night before, It goes to show how we can get really sucked into things and addicted.
It can be really intense and full on when we stop taking a poison that we have been drowning ourselves in. To be able to come to the surface and breath our own breath again instead of the influence of the poison feels em-powering and life changing not only on a physical but also on an energetic level as well.
The smell and atmosphere in coffee shops is very alluring, it goes with dark chocolate and beautifully presented pattisseries it’s no wonder that we are drawn to the drink. The sad thing is it is a drug like any other which took me years to finally give up.
A great exposure of how we so quickly normalise what is not true for us when we override and dishonour the truth we initially feel. And so, with all that is abusive in this world, how we are with ourselves and what we have allowed to be normalised, what is so beautifully shared and offered here is the way we can restore a loving and honouring way of being and living for ourselves and together through honoring our truth, the truth we feel in our bodies.
Very good point. We numb part of our experience so that we can then enjoy that sharpness of the kick and the raciness of the experience rather than feel it as a big disruption for the body.
Carola I love your use of the word ‘restore’ when you talk about ‘restoring a loving and honouring way of being’ because I feel it’s so supportive for us to remember that we have all lived this way before and therefore it is simply a matter of ‘when’ we return and not ‘if’.
The worst drug for our bodies is the way our spirit controls us so we need to have the ‘off the wall in my behaviours’ episodes and raciness with no physical drugs needed just the manifestation from our spirit, which feels absolutely terrible in the body creating some of the worst hang-over ever.
I have been making a lot of coffees at work recently (I haven’t tried it because I know I’d also be very unwell!!) and it’s something I really enjoy, but I can really feel the seduction of coffee, the rich smell and the the creaminess – you can a 100% tell it’s a drug. It feels amazing when we begin to put the quality we feel within us above our desires for food or drink that may alter that quality.
I love and agree with your suggestion ‘to begin to put the quality we feel within us above our desires for food or drink that may alter that quality.’
I agree Meg it sure is super cool when you come to a point within yourself where you know that the flavours, textures and deliciousness of certain things are just simply not worth it any more.
So many people don’t have a connection to how amazing they are within, so reaching for foods, drinks or experiences to bring a sense of stimulation, distraction, excitement, etc, is a way to fill the void of not being connected to ourselves. Once we reconnect to our essence and feel who we are again there is nothing outside of ourselves that can be greater than the feeling of who we are, so letting go of anything that is harmful or not supporting us becomes much easier, we just cannot help loving ourselves. That’s definitely been my experience.
Yes that is what I have found Melinda, it becomes a lot easier when we are coming from a place of truly loving ourselves and experimenting and listening to how our body responds to things. Making a loving choice from here and honouring what the body is communicating to us.
We can still be tempted for a long time whenever we feel low but gradually raise our minimum standard so we are damaging ourselves less and less in the process.
Yesterday at work I had an amazing conversation with my work colleagues about coffee and how the industry has grown so fast and how supermarkets are using it as a leverage to get customers by giving away free coffee. Maybe next time we could go the next step and talk about what it does to the body and why we drink it.
Julie yes that would be great, I have had several conversations with my customers, ones that are up for understanding their addiction and it has been awesome how honest some can be, I know for me at first I didn’t want to look at my exhaustion because I knew I would have to look at my choices. Today though the felt marker of making choices that are self-nurturing and feeling vital from not holding back and contracting the thought of putting coffee into my system is an absolute no way ho say.
Its a beautiful picture – with the heart shape in the froth. And we have so many ways to disguise it, the flat white, the Americano, my favorite – the Mocha, or with sugar, syrups etc. But when you get to the bottom of it, caffeine is a drug that is used to treat exhaustion… the number 1 epidemic in the world!
Yes Simon no.1 epidemic in the world yet we are the ones that are demanding such volumes and variations. What if we stopped felt and looked at our exhaustion.
Giving up coffee is basically impossible if you are exhausted – how would you work otherwise. However, if you are really well, then coffee feels like an aggressive intrusion and not drinking coffee is much easier.
It is such an aggressive drug, like A class drugs, once you are taking it there is the roller coaster of being up and then the massive drop of feeling down, so you reach for the pick me up and so it goes on. Sugar and alcohol is also the same… they are all exhausting and which we don’t want to feel and avoid the emptiness inside that is what we are longing for. How twisted and corrupt is that yet so easy to get sucked into. Breaking these cycles and behaviours are needless to say life changing which comes from us making the choice to break them and not be locked in them.
This is a brilliant blog about how coffee affects our body. I learned a lot reading it so thank you.
Like any drug that slowly gets a hold on you, coffee is something that we can become quite dependant on to get us going but the trouble is the body being the most amazing thing that it is will try its best to rid itself of something that is foreign to it, so it is not long before you need more and more. The more coffee that we drink the more we need because it exhausts us as well as everything else in life that is not true, so it becomes a vicious circle that we just don’t need in the first place.
It is an interesting mix – the most active, alive and vibrant people I know are the ones that really look after their diet, the way they live. They treat themselves like a high performance car, taking deep care, the right inputs, regular servicing and the results are clear to see. This is quite the opposite to forcing our bodies to do what we need them to do, throwing in whatever we think will keep that force going.
It sure is a vicious cycle as you say Kevin and what is crazy also is that we have accepted this as a normal way to be where it is so far away from being our normal, vibrant and harmonious selves that we are. But with the force and impact of the caffeine you can’t even truly feel or connect with our inner truth.
“I feel so AMAZING when I’m just me – without anything else influencing me – and I know now: NOTHING ELSE is acceptable!” The statement is so cool Natalie — its a statement that says to me this person is a person who is truly successful.
Yes Sam. I never would have thought that this would be what we could base success on but the reality is if we have this honouring and loving relationship with ourselves then of course this is absolutely a successful way of living.
It is lovely to return to this blog knowing that the desire to drink coffee has completely gone from my body because that racy feeling that I once lived with is no longer something I am interested in feeling in my body.
I had that the other day Fiona with Sugar, being offered some and not an ounce in my body was wanting any as I simply prefer feeling steady, still and relaxed in my body.
A great confirmation that the habit has not been broken but the choice to bring more love to the body has.
Exactly Nattalija, as tempting and as inviting as it all looks, body love is way more my focus and now for me it doesn’t even look tasty or inviting. Such a great transformation and honestly not an ounce of me has considered what weight I was and over sheer will power would I not eat it. It has come over a period of time Loving myself more and more and bringing more awareness, so when I did eat it I couldn’t handle the effects that it had on my body. This I have noticed is changing and deepening as well so we can never feel we are at a point of mastering. Simply always checking in and feeling how the body feels and the quality of your being after you have eaten.
Yes, this is becoming stronger for myself too. I can only handle very small amounts of sugar because if I eat certain foods where the sugar content is too high I’m left feeling nauseous and exhausted both of which are feelings I don’t enjoy and I’m valuing how I feel more over the quick fix of the sugar. I am also feeling that my body actually prefers the taste in foods which are good for my body, it’s like my body craves for greens if I’m not eating enough and even the taste of cakes and sweet delights is far less appealing.
It is simply life changing when we come to the realisation that what we have been eating and drinking has been harming us, the next step from this realisation is to then take action and to say no to that type of abuse – this can take time but is so so very worth it.
Yes Sam it can take a while and what I have come to appreciate is when we deal with the issues as to why we go to such foods then it can be truly healed and naturally without any force or trying you let go of the food or drink that doesn’t serve the body.
It sounds like coffee is an easy addictive. What is addiction? Something we can’t let go because it makes us feel a certain way. The fact is we want and choose to be addicted to things that keep us away from feeling and being our true selves. Why would we not choose to be addicted to being and feeling amazing instead? It’s actually more simple.
I remember those headaches all too well, especially when I would come off the coffee and try to detox, then start to feel better and then the thought ‘one won’t hurt’ – then back to square one.
Overriding is the beginning of every slippery slope and dodgy decision I make. Instead of putting focus on how incredible it is that our body knows exactly what it needs and is good for it, we focus on what we think we will get out of the override. That can range from a moment of tasting something sweet, salty, stimulating etc. to fitting in with the crowd.
It is quite a paradigm shift in what society is doing: they drink coffee to feel happy, and you don’t drink coffee to keep on feeling well, not happy, but ongoing amazing. What would you chose?
It sure is Elizabeth, and what I find fascinating is that everyone knows how it is having an effect and that it isn’t great yet to consider why we want or need it. We know that if we start to look deeper there is actually a lot more going on than we care to admit.
We often hear people say that smoking is not good for your health and that too much alcohol is also bad for you, but rarely do you hear people putting the effects of coffee in the same category. It’s very telling when we as a humanity have gotten to the point where we cannot function without our morning coffee but isn’t this showing us how exhausted we are, and that coffee can be an addiction. What is not common knowledge, is the long-term effects of drinking coffee and what it does to our bodies.
Yes, because coffee doesn’t leave the obvious physical traces the other two do as permanent exhaustion is too common for people to realise the connection with coffee (or because doing research that involves giving up caffeine is too hard?).
It is extraordinary how we can adapt… Even to the constant ingestion of a proven psychotropic beverage!
I gave up my coffee addiction over 20 years ago and I have never ever looked back. Caffeine is so poisonous that I found the 7 days of withdrawal worst than that of giving up cigarettes. I gave up because I no longer wanted to be a slave to an industry that profits off such things or partake in a substance that dictated the movements in my day. I was claiming myself back. Some years later I came upon Universal Medicine and realised that I poison myself even more than any substance with denigrating thoughts that keep me down, so from then, there has been a whole new poison to discard of and replace with the knowing of the grandness of who I innately am and I tell you this process has taken a lot longer than 7 days!
Yes, our addictions can come in many forms not just food and beverages though these are easy to relate to. When we do not deal with the source of our addictive behaviours such as negative self-talk being one, we cannot truly address the behaviours that are born out of these untruths.
Thank you for exposing how the mind plays tricks on us so that we easily slip into starting to justify our actions when if we only listened to our bodes messages then it is loud and clear that even having a sip or two is a slippery slope into disregard and abuse.
It is the same with emotions- when we don’t observe how we are feeling and what is going on for us but instead go into the emotions it can have a similar effect on the body- of feeling like something else is taking over. I am learning to be much more honouring of what my body feels so that I can be more aware and not allow myself to be taken by the emotions of events in life.
So true and I can feel how I have used this in the past as an escape and wallowed in my emotions as a way of avoiding feeling empty.
It is interesting to observe the impact on society of coffee today. It has become an additional extra to our daily dress. Clothes, shoes, coffee to start the day. Could it be possible that coffee is driving our day and sustaining our levels of energy?
Yes there are coffee shops on every corner a bit like petrol stations, and if we fill up with the incorrect fuel much like our cars the body will eventually break down.
I had a decaf coffee recently and it resulted in a sleepless and anxious night and a very difficult day at work afterwards. As delicious as that coffee was i know I never want to feel that way again. I haven’t been tempted to try it again since.
Leonne the temptations are always there and sometimes we fold and go with it, tastes pretty good usually and then as you say bam the body cops it. The more I listen, honour and respect my body the more I feel vital, joyful and alive.
It really is quite something when the body says… ‘I can no longer eat this anymore’ and whilst the taste buds and ‘smell buds’ might be in disagreement the body does have the last word. Making myself feel ill, racy or bloated is not worth the yummy taste for 2 moments compared with a week of feeling not great.
Lies grow on us not by attrition but by us negating and overriding what we have felt. Our spirit has free reign once we have ignored what our Soul has to say. Thanks Natalie for brewing this blog up.
Love the pun Joseph, but that is exactly what is happening and how the spirit is brewing up an illusion that your body is doing well and functioning. So awesome to crack the veil.
“I love the smell of coffee and I still do, but I don’t like what it does to my body so I don’t drink it any more. It’s like some foods and how they taste and what they do to my body: I have decided to leave them out of my diet because I don’t like how I feel after I’ve eaten them, even if they taste amazing at the time – it’s not worth it!” – Natalie, this is so beautiful to feel how you have been able to bring in the strength of self care and self love to say no to something that does not support your body! I love how you shared the details of your experience too – Very inspiring indeed!
Many year ago I gave up coffee, three years ago when I went out with friends and had decaffeinated coffee it had a racy affect on my heart and whole body. So thank you Natalie, for sharing about your experience with coffee, and the funny thing is that when I gave up coffee I also gave up sugar and sugars and sweet fruits have a similar effect on my head and body as coffee.
Yes Greg I too noticed the different levels of effects sugar was having so the process of not taking that into the body was a transitional one. From sugar to honey and maple syrup and that was much better than refined sugar but then over time it became a place when I would just get strong headaches. So now it is nothing and it feels so much better. We are always refining and tweaking to where we are at and it is just a matter of listening to the body.
wow this is so exposing of how easily we are attracted and even addicted to things that harm us – isn’t that weird? Points to something else going on here. It seems we have different openings with similar results. For one it might be coffee and for another it could be relationship, food, gambling, certain thoughts etc etc. Might find a clue here: http://www.unimedliving.com/unimedpedia/word-index/unimedpedia-spirit.html at Unimedpedia Spirit!
Awesome thanks Nicola such a support to get a better understanding on how habits, patterns and behaviours can dominate our lives. How simple it is and it is just a choice.
How do we learn? From feeling the impact of the choices we make on our body. So if we remove these feelings we have you can see how we stunt ourselves from any growth at all. This is the harm of substances like coffee that take us away from feeling the truth. But it really can apply to anything we use to stimulate us and escape from reality. Thank you Natalie.
Well said Joseph, all substances take us away from feeling the truth which is a representation of how we don’t want to take responsibility for our choices. When you start to address the checking out and the numbed way of living, life starts to become a lot more enjoyable.
Caffeine is a poison the coffee plant puts out to kill bugs. The body responds to this dose of poison with a spike of adrenaline and this is what people do to themselves to kick start themselves in the morning and of course what peaks must drop and so the yoyo effect with the nervous system goes on. Even decaf has traces of this poison so I am not surprise at your body’s reaction.
Then we add sugar, which could be concluded to be even worse than caffeine?
That’s what I have also started to appreciate and get that if our bodies are clearly telling us that something doesn’t agree with it then we have to respect and honour what the body is telling us. So many times in my life I have overridden what I have felt to keep up with all those around me. It is such a point of return when we say hey I know what is best for me and my body and that’s why I am choosing it.
The taste, smell and flavours of food can be so seducing but oh so momentary whilst the after effects last way much longer.
It is absolutely the consequences of our choice and how the body is not able to avoid such outcomes of what we chose.
It is so amazing, a science of its own really, how our bodies continually refer to us the truth of our choices, and the effect our choices are having on our body and being. And what an insidious trap it is to engage the energy of overriding this truth, as it is what leads us to accepting abuse to be normal. And yet when we honor the truth in our bodies, our being is freed to shine the amazingness of who we are, of which there is nothing in this world that can compare to this feeling.
So beautifully shared Carola and yes an insidious trap we can get sucked into of overriding the truth. When you say no to this and honour our bodies as you say it truly is beautiful and the more you confirm this the more power we are.
It is so common nowadays to drink coffee that we forget that it is deeply toxic to the body. This is a very convenient forgetting on our part.
So true Elizabeth, there is no denying the toxicity of coffee, as the body is constantly reflecting this truth. Yet in our indulgence in overriding the body’s intelligence, to avoid responsibility we continue to find ways to mask this with flavours, sweeteners and blends, with our bodies left feeling far less than vital and free.
Correct Carola and Elizabeth, the avoidance of the responsibility that a) we got ourselves to a state of being that is exhausted and b) that if we were vital what could we then be capable of living. We know deep down that there is so much more but keep paying so much less and it isn’t actually that much fun at all, yet those moments of taste sensations and pick me ups are what we call a high. How lost are we really?
It’s interesting that when coffee is stopped how there is a detox to go through, aches, tiredness, exhaustion, headache, I have experienced this myself and seen it in others, it speaks for itself that it is a poison to the body, and then If tried again the effects on the body can be clearly felt and we get to feel the true impact it has on our body.
Yes Ruth it is unquestionable once you go through the phase of having the poisons leaving the body it is a very tangible experience. This is what has been the final confirmations when stopping coffee, alcohol, cigarettes, drugs, sugar.. The more we let ourselves feel the truth of what the body is communicating to us then the more you feel what is harming the body.
I used to love mugs of seriously strong black coffee during the day. After stopping drinking it for several years, I was offered a coffee that was infiltrating the air in the area with a powerful and evocative smell and I was seduced into deciding to have one small cup to see how it tasted again.
Seriously ill choice – which my body left me in no doubt about – within less than 5 minutes, my adrenals kicked in and I could not stop shaking from head to toe and for a while even unable to sign my name on a document that needed to be completed.
A while ago I had an operation which I needed eight weeks or so to recoup but being self employed I went back to work after about three. I had absolutely no energy so I turned to my old mates caffeine and sugar, bad move! I started having the odd decaf and over a period of time became quite dependant on it to the point if I couldn’t get a decaf, I would have a full on coffee and then it got to the point where decaf wasn’t cutting the mustard so I was mainly having the real McCoy and I have to admit it felt like I was fully addicted and something I would have trouble stopping. Caffeine is a drug and no matter what anyone says it is not good for you in any amount. At the end off the day I always felt knackered. Into the second week of kicking the habit again I started to feel normal and had energy left at the end of the day and I am feeling so much better in general. What is crazy is the amount of coffee places that have popped up everywhere over the last few years. The thing that people are using to cope with their exhaustion is only making their exhaustion worse.
That’s so true Kev, the vicious cycle of an addiction you know is not supportive or working for you yet you couldn’t possible imagine your life with out it, and if you did you certainly would panic that it wasn’t there for your next hit. The amount of times I have had customers totally hanging and in desperate need for their caffeine fix they can get a little edgy to say the least.
‘However, this most recent coffee tasting experience really confirmed for me that I just don’t want to feel like that anymore’ Sometimes we may judge ourselves by having fallen in eating something that we know doesn’t support us, but sometimes we need that last confirmation, to definitely close the door to it.
Absolutely Amparo, it was like that with everything that I have stopped that I couldn’t handle any longer feeling out of sorts or totally smashed by what I had consumed. if you do it for any other reason then you haven’t truly honoured what you felt and there has to be a level of imbalance because it truly wasn’t your call from you body saying No More.