Mindfulness With A Cup Of Coffee

This meditation is about curiosity,

Mindfulness,

And bringing both attention and intention into your daily life.

If you'd like to actually share a cup of coffee with me during this practice,

I'll wait for you to get your cup,

And then just go ahead and restart or unpause this recording to continue on.

Now often we think we don't have time to meditate or encourage mindfulness throughout the day.

We feel it's required that we set apart an undistracted piece of time,

And that's absolutely wonderful to do.

And I do it myself as a daily practice.

But the point of meditation isn't just that we're mindful during those 5,

10,

15 minutes that we're engaged in concentrated meditation.

We hope that it actually spills out into our daily activities as well,

That we can be mindful throughout the day.

That's sort of the point,

Right?

Now we may not realize that we're given opportunities to engage in mindfulness throughout the day,

But it's really a matter of making the choice to take advantage of some of these opportunities.

I think you can be mindful with most anything that you're doing.

Some things are going to be more challenging than others.

And I have found that even something as making or drinking a cup of coffee can give you an opportunity to practice your ability to be mindful.

Now while drinking a cup of coffee or tea or any other beverage might sound very simple,

It's actually a little bit more complex than say the typical breath-based meditation.

In breath-based meditation,

Typically we're focused not even on the entire breath.

We're focusing on a specific part of the breath and trying to keep attention on that single thing.

And obviously when we get distracted by our thoughts,

Then we come back to that single thing.

When drinking a cup of coffee,

There's a lot going on.

And the challenge here is to be curious about what is going on,

But remain focused on the process and the experience of drinking that coffee.

Now many of us have probably kind of gotten used to coffee and sort of put it on autopilot.

It's sort of a thing that we do while we're doing other things.

And the challenge here will be to say,

Hey,

We're really focusing on this act of drinking coffee.

This is the center of our attention and it's often easy to slip into other things as we're taking a sip.

And much like breath-based meditation,

These idle thoughts will creep in.

So we want to come back to the experience of drinking the coffee.

Now before we get into it,

There is one thing to realize.

If you have a space where you're less distractible at work or at home,

You can probably get through this process in a shorter amount of time.

But if you are at work and distraction is,

Or at home,

And distraction is just part of life,

As we all know,

Don't feel that you have to start over just because a child came in and asked you a question or a coworker needed you to address something.

You can continue on where you left,

Very much like many of the other meditation practices,

With a slightly longer gap.

And in my view,

Any amount of time spent on mindfulness is going to have positive benefits.

So even if you're effectively breaking it into a couple of mini-meditations rather than one longer meditation,

That's defined by how long you take to get through your cup of coffee.

That's just fine.

So at this point,

Hopefully you've gotten your cup of coffee and it's cooled down enough that you can actually take a drink of it.

Go ahead and pick up that cup and hold it.

And kind of feel how the cup provides some weight in your hand.

Perhaps you feel the warmth of the coffee coming through the wall of the mug or cup.

If it has a handle,

You might feel that difference between the hand holding the handle and the hand that's maybe supporting the other side of the mug.

Feel the textures.

You can already smell the coffee,

The aromas coming off it.

If you don't have a lid on it,

Then you may also see the reflection of things in the coffee.

See it swirling around in your cup a little bit.

You might see the oils glistening on top.

Notice the change of color in the coffee.

Let's go ahead and take our first sip.

Now as you take that sip,

You probably feel the warmth in your mouth obviously,

But then I feel it progressing down your throat,

Down into the belly,

Starting to warm your belly up.

You can probably taste the coffee or the aftertaste of the coffee as it slowly dissipates in your mouth.

Again,

Looking at the cup before we take our drink.

Be mindful of the experience of holding it,

The warmth,

Textures,

Smells.

Take another sip.

Maybe this time you sort of feel that mixture of air and coffee,

The bubbles,

The texture as it comes into your mouth.

As the heat kind of starts to again go from your mouth,

Slide down your throat into your belly,

Adding some more warmth to your belly.

You might feel the warmth slowly leaving your throat.

You might have already left your mouth to some extent.

You might notice now after a second sip that the taste profile has changed a little bit.

Maybe you're picking up some other flavors you hadn't noticed the first time.

Again,

Noticing our cup.

Maybe the weight.

Take another sip.

Maybe this time we hold the coffee in our mouth a little bit,

Feel the warmth,

Feel it moving around,

Feeling the texture of the liquid.

This will often taste a little bit different than when we just swallow it down right away.

Again,

Swallowing and feeling the warmth going down into our belly.

Enjoying the feeling of the cup in our hands.

Take another sip.

Maybe now you can again feel the coffee in your mouth.

Maybe you can notice different parts of the flavor showing up on different parts of your tongue.

Feel it going down your throat and again warming your belly.

Maybe that sensation of heat isn't quite as intense anymore,

Either as the coffee is cooling or your body sort of gets used to it.

Again,

That aftertaste,

The secondary flavors coming out from your cup of coffee might be pleasant,

Might be unpleasant.

But just experience and appreciate and realize that it's part of that awareness that we're building as we're drinking.

Another sip.

Again,

Feeling the warmth in the belly,

The warmth in our hands.

Maybe the warmth is less than it was,

Maybe the cup is starting to feel a little bit cooler to the touch.

Again,

Swallowing and feeling the heat.

Maybe the heat is less intense now.

Maybe the flavor is again changing as you swallow,

As you hold it in your mouth for a moment.

You now notice how the coffee feels not just on your tongue but on the roof of your mouth,

On the side of your cheeks.

Another sip.

Again,

Feeling the coffee sliding down your throat into your belly.

Flavors of the coffee.

And at this point,

I think you probably have the idea and I'll let you continue on and finish your coffee.

I will finish mine.

And thank you for joining me and experiencing how you can be mindful of something as simple and as complex as a cup of coffee.