Meditation of the Day

Wake Up and Smell the Coffee

Get your favorite warm drink -- coffee, tea, herb tea -- and put it in a cup, then sit somewhere comfortable where you can hold the cup and rest. Hold it under your nose and breathe in and out. This is normal savoring activity, only you stay with it longer. Keep on paying attention right through your usual limit, whether it is one second or ten.

Hold the cup in both hands, and at just the right distance from your nose. You can close the eyes and give over to smell. You are breathing in and out as you smell, so enjoy the flow. Notice the sensations you have in your belly as you inhale the smell of your coffee. Be alert for sensations anywhere in your body.

Breathe the smell in for awhile, then take a taste. Notice what happens in the mouth and tongue as you sip, and what happens in the entire body.

Put the cup down on the table, or lower your hands and hold the cup in your lap, and enjoy yourself.

Then raise the hands again. It is a ritual movement, slow and gracious.

Continue in this way for a few minutes.

Many senses are involved in enjoying a cup of coffee besides smell and taste. Sight brings you information about colors, and shapes; touch informs you of the warmth of the cup and the smoothness of its surface; your motion sensors feed you sensations as you lift the cup to your lips.

Note: You may feel that somehow you are violating taboos by paying attention to your coffee. No one is allowed to have this much fun with something so simple. There is some sort of a rule against actually smelling and tasting for more than a couple of seconds. Only the very rich, or gourmets, or royalty, have permission to indulge themselves. You may find yourself getting anxious, even if you have plenty of time to get ready for work. When you break a taboo, there is always some sort of a warning buzzer that goes off. Pay attention to this and don’t push it too much in any one day. Simply notice the rule about not really paying attention, and come back tomorrow.

You can use sipping your morning drink as a meditation in itself, and also as a way in to a longer meditation. Many successful meditators I know use commonplace rituals such as this as a gateway into meditation.

Tip: When we do things habitually, without paying much attention, we ignore feedback from our bodies. Many people, when they start paying attention while eating and drinking, find they don’t actually like what they are putting in their mouths. Sometimes they find they don’t really like coffee, now that they are really tasting it; they like certain teas, or prefer water and juice. Or they find they are satisfied with just a sip and do not want to gulp.

Be prepared to study your preferences as you start paying more attention to taste. And take the time to explore what you really love to sip in the morning, at lunch, in the afternoon, and evening. If it’s good coffee, freshly roasted, have that. If it is herb tea or juice, have it available.