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Tea-Time for Clarity

Writer: John Blue
John Blue
Aug 25
18 min read

Practicing Mindfulness During Breaktime




Check out this lecture on VIDEO: https://youtu.be/FIa3vK-DUEQ



Hello friends! My name is John Blue, and I’m a Daoist monk and a doctor of Chinese medicine.

When I was in graduate school studying medicine, I hadn’t yet learned how to structure my time wisely. Because of the culture I was raised within, there was still the strong idea that more is better, and that rest is for the weak. So I spent all my time trying to achieve more, to do more, and to be more, and I even framed my downtime as “productive” diversions so I was maximizing my time. Sound familiar? I know that many of you are listening to this, hoping that you’ll create the same kind of experience, and hope that this ancient tea ceremony method will unlock your latent potential, or make you more productive, or something. I want you to open your mind to the idea that this is exactly the sort of mindset that you need to take a break from in order to genuinely rest. Even if only for 15 minutes at a time. Today, I want to show you how an ordinary cup of tea can become a real break. A practice of attention, restoration, and human connection.But I get ahead of myself. For now, rest quietly, and if possible, sip a cup of tea.


While still in school, I was fortunate enough to wander in through the door of a tiny teahouse in the dry & sweltering desert of Arizona. There was a tiny woman with an enormous presence who greeted me at the door. Almost against my will, she swept me over to a table and poured the latest tea she had been sampling.


I had one of those funny human experiences where my brain didn’t know how to interpret the signals coming from my body. Have you had one of those moments? She poured out this deep amber liquid that was very different than what the television had made me expect from green tea. Likewise, when I began to sip it, and I exhaled this velvety blend of roasted nuts and orchid flowers, I only remember thinking that I didn’t know how to respond to her questioning look. It took an entire tea session before my brain had begun to build the infrastructure needed to understand what I was experiencing. Somewhere along the way, I noticed that I stopped thinking about what came next. My attention settled onto the color of the tea. The warm taste. The fragrance. For the first time that day, there was nowhere else I needed to be. 


I was lucky enough to spend years studying with Master Zhuping, the woman who had welcomed me inside. She always moved quickly, but never seemed to hurry. Even pouring water looked elegant and effortless. There wasn't a wasted movement or a spilled drop. At first I thought she was simply making tea. Later I realized she was teaching attention. How to cultivate something profound while doing ordinary things. 


While working at the tea house, I had the chance to practice the art of tea each day. It had a profound impact on my way of life and how I approached study, work, and rest. Soon I was offered a new way to explore the art of slowing down with volunteers. The master asked me to run a tiny teahouse in the middle of the Tucson Botanical Gardens, offering tea ceremonies to the visitors. I would provide a new way to sit and enjoy the gardens, and to experience good tea, often for the first time. The look of wonder on their faces must have mirrored my own on that first day. I was also struck by how often visitors mentioned feeling stressed when they arrived but felt deeply refreshed after the short ceremony. 


As a side note: While it was a marvelous opportunity to cultivate my skills with tea, as a shy autistic guy, it also helped me to connect with new people in a structured, harmonious environment. So, to my fellow introverted and socially awkward friends out there, pay attention. Tea gave me a way to be with people without feeling overwhelmed. Don’t miss out on this chance to make new friends or to deepen the sense of community at your workplace without the sense of dread or overwhelm. I consider it a powerful life hack.


Let me share what the Master showed me on that first day. Let’s make a quiet cup of tea. 

Like any ancient art, you can spend your entire life deepening your skills with the tea ceremony, collecting tea ware, and cultivating wisdom through the practice. I highly recommend seeking out a genuine tea master and taking classes. Today, we don’t have the weeks required to learn a sophisticated tea ceremony. Instead, we will start simple and add sophistication as we go. Remember that you can always ask me questions afterwards, and I’ll continue to help as long as I’m alive.


Let’s begin as simply as possible and see what we can learn from the experience. I’ll take a glass, some tea leaves (this is the same rock oolong tea that Zhuping served me on that first day), and put about 4 grams into the glass. Then I’ll add boiling water over the leaves.

And here is the first lesson about enjoying tea: using good ingredients makes good tea.


If you have a glass that hasn’t been washed, or maybe has a layer of soap on it, the tea will taste like soap. If you use water that tastes bad, the tea will taste bad. If you have tea leaves that are mostly dust and stem, then the tea will taste bad. So start with a clean glass. We prepare the vessels before we prepare the tea, just as we prepare ourselves for the practice. 


Some kinds of tea don’t do well if they are in water that is too hot for too long. Using a simple glass cup like this will quickly release the heat so that the tea doesn’t become bitter from oversteeping. A glass with a lid or a thicker wall will retain the heat longer and brew the tea more strongly, so choosing your glass will make a big difference.

Also, if your hands are sensitive to heat, you might choose a mug with a handle, double walls, or some other way to keep your skin comfortable. I’m just using a simple drinking glass as an illustration of how easy it can be to enjoy tea.

I’m using 100°C boiling water, but you can use much cooler water if you are brewing a more delicate tea, like a jasmine green tea. You’ll have to experiment to find the right level of heat for your leaves to release the best flavor.

If you steep tea without enough heat in the water, or for too short a period, then you simply get a mildly tea-flavored cup of water. That may be exactly what you enjoy. No judgments here. …It’s just not my cup of tea. 

If you steep it hotter or for longer, you’ll get a much darker tea with a stronger flavor. But be cautious, because too much heat or too much time can ruin some kinds of tea. This oolong is very forgiving, but some teas will release bitter or astringent flavors if you use water that’s too hot or if you leave them sitting for too long.

Some teas also taste better with different kinds of water. Try different sources and see which makes your tea taste the best. My oolong seems to taste best with water that still has some mineral content. Water that has gone through a filtering process that removes many of those minerals won’t make this particular tea quite as delicious.

Like everything else, you want to experiment until you discover the water that you most enjoy with your chosen tea.


Now let’s talk about tea leaves.

There are everyday teas, there are special teas, and there are teas that have caused empires to rise and fall.

The good news is that these days we have access to wonderful, high-quality tea that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg. It is sadly true that much of the tea you may have had in the past was sold in little bags filled with the dust and broken pieces leftover from processing. Small wonder that it didn’t taste very good.

Learning how to buy tea that actually tastes good is worth the effort.

The teahouse that I worked with, and still buy tea from today, is called Seven Cups, but there are many wonderful sources these days for quality, reasonably priced tea. I prefer loose-leaf tea because it is beautiful to look at, and I can clearly see the quality of the leaves.

That said, any tea that brings you joy is the right tea. Black tea, green tea, white tea, oolong, puer, herbal infusions... they all have something to offer.

One of the joys of high-quality tea is that it can be infused around seven times. Each infusion reveals something a little different, so the experience changes over time. My own favorite is usually the third infusion.


In fact, the name of the teahouse, "Seven Cups," comes from a poem written by Lu Tong over twelve hundred years ago:

“The first cup kisses away my thirst,

and my loneliness is quelled by the second.

The third gives insight worthy of ancient scrolls,

and the fourth exiles my troubles.

My body becomes lighter with the fifth,

and the sixth sends word from immortals.

But the seventh—oh, the seventh cup—if I drink you, a wind will hurry my wings toward the sacred island.”


So let’s recap. Enjoying tea can be incredibly simple. A glass, some leaves, and some water. The higher the quality, the better the drink. Life is exactly the same. Good water. Good leaves. Good attention. Good rest. Good friends. Good connections. Good work.


And this is the first skill to develop through your practice of the tea ceremony. Learning to pay attention. You must cultivate the ability to feel what is happening within you. This is a wonderfully pleasant way to strengthen this skill that meditators often call mindfulness. When you sip your tea, what’s the first flavor that you notice? What’s the aftertaste? How does it make you feel? Do you notice the warmth of the cup in your hands? The complicated aroma of the tea? The changing color of the water? Over and over again, studies show that this type of meditative attention will significantly reduce stress, anxiety, and depression while improving cognitive flexibility, memory, and mental performance. And if all that wasn’t enough to convince you, I’ve even read studies showing that it makes you more attractive. We call it the “meditation face-lift!”


So, let’s pause for a moment to enjoy this practice. Let’s take a good, relaxed, upright posture. This helps to keep the mind and senses clear. When our body is collapsed and our breath is suppressed, our mind become foggy and our energy level drops. So, not only will good meditation posture help you at work, but it will actually make your tea taste better. 

Sit in a chair that places your hips a bit higher than your knees, if possible. This will allow you to soften your hips and back more easily. 

Move to the front of your chair, if that’s comfortable, and let the weight rest just in front of the sitting bones (ischial tuberosity), rather than behind them. 

Line your shoulders up above your hips, with the crown of your head facing upward. Then, using that vertical alignment, relax all the way through your body to the chair and the ground. All the way to your fingers and toes. 

Breathe naturally and comfortably. 

Exhale through your mouth, and feel your whole body soften. Release any of those spots where you are gripping for no reason. 

Inhale through your nose, and allow your mind to become clear. We aren’t trying to force anything. We are simply letting go of the tension and agitation that is causing us to be numb and dumb. 


As you feel your body soften and open, and your mind becomes brighter and clearer, notice how your emotional tension also begins to ease. This is because they are all related. Stress can only exist in a stressed-out body-mind, and it’s exhausting. As you unclench the fist in your mind and heart, notice how you are feeling lighter and more open. One part softness brings one part clarity. This is the yin & yang balance of the body-mind, and it is the state that you want to cultivate during your daily tea ceremony break. With time, it becomes easier and automatic. You sip your tea and allow your awareness to settle into the present moment, letting go of anything else that is in the way. It becomes a refuge from the workplace and becomes more potent every time you practice. 


Just this is enough. If you remember anything from this discussion, take this lesson with you. A meditative cup of tea can be transformative, even when it’s so simple. And it’s a delicious place to cultivate foundational skills like a soft upright posture, a relaxing breath, and mindful attention. 


Let’s talk about breaktimes. When was the last time you took a real break? Not a break where you checked your phone. Not a break where you answered a few emails while eating lunch. Not a break where you scrolled through the news or thought about everything waiting for you when you got back to your desk. I mean a break that actually left you feeling refreshed.

For many of us, those kinds of breaks have become surprisingly rare. We step away from our work and maybe even go to some kind of breakroom, but our attention never really follows. Our bodies may leave the desk, but our minds remain tangled in meetings, deadlines, and notifications. Our emotions remain caught in workplace drama. We return to work having spent time away, yet somehow feeling no more rested than before.


One of the great insights of Daoist philosophy is that life unfolds through rhythm. Day gives way to night. We breathe in, and then we breathe out. Nature doesn't function through constant effort. It moves through an elegant dance of rest and activity. Yin & Yang. And this intentional interchange is how qi, vitality, is cultivated. 


Our workday must also follow this cycle. We are remarkably capable of focused work, creative thinking, and solving difficult problems. But we are not built to sustain that intensity without pause. Just as the body depends on sleep each night, the mind also benefits from small moments of renewal throughout the day. The tea ceremony has been providing these moments of healing for thousands of years. 

Somewhere along the way, many of us began treating a workday like a marathon of uninterrupted concentration. We wear our busyness almost as a badge of honor. We answer one message while thinking about the next meeting, eat lunch while reading or talking, and call it multitasking. Then we wonder why, by three o'clock in the afternoon, our minds feel dull, and our patience begins to wear thin.

The problem isn't a lack of breaks. The problem is that downtime looks exactly like work. If you've spent the morning looking at a screen, your break often involves...looking at another screen. If you've spent hours processing information, your break may involve reading the news or scrolling through social media, asking your brain to process even more information. Our bodies may have stopped working, but our minds never receive the message that it's safe to rest.


This imbalance seems to have spread to work cultures everywhere. Workers finally united, but only by their sense of exhaustion! Yet the antidote has been cultivated for thousands of years in all of those various cultures. And they often plan the break to balance the kind of activities at work. If you spend all day talking, you might demand a time of silence and solitude. If you are already feeling isolated while working, planning a gathering to socialize and reconnect with workmates over a pot of tea can be invigorating. 

I have experienced various versions of the teatime ritual all over the world. In a mountain clinic in Costa Rica, I found a similar ritual using chocolate or coffee, instead of tea. And when we had been sitting all day, we would go for a quiet mindful stroll with our drinks instead of spending more time in a chair. Snacks became important to keep our blood sugar stable. Some South American friends would even allow time for a short nap.

While apprenticing under a master of Japanese carpentry, when break time came, we would sit quietly and sip tea out of little cups, even while on a rooftop. It always made a difference in the quality of our work. We would sometimes wait to do delicate work until after our short rest, so that we were able to give our best efforts. Often we don't notice how much mental and emotional weight we've been carrying until we finally put it down. Only then can we do our best work. 


Managers should take note of this principle! Before any difficult task or meeting, make sure that your team takes a short break so that they can bring their A-game to the table. If you are adventurous, you can even incorporate a group tea ceremony into your planning. 


So, let’s explore how to include others in our teatime ceremony. 

For this, we will need to expand our teaware a bit. Let’s start with a teapot. For beginners, I recommend getting one with clear walls. This way you can monitor the progress of your tea leaves more easily, and it is lovely to watch the color of the water change. Later, you can invest in a pot that is well designed for your favorite kind of tea. As with the glasses, some hold heat and pressure better than others, and should hold enough tea to fill all of the cups in your group. 


The cups can be as large or as small as you’d like, and I prefer cups that are white on the inside so you can appreciate the color of the tea. The beauty of your teaware is part of the joy of your ceremony, so take the time to choose objects you love. 


Because the tea steeps more strongly at the bottom of the pot than at the top, if you pour directly into the cups of your friends, then each cup will have a different flavor of tea. To avoid this, you can also use a tea pitcher. This is another chance to share something of beauty during the ceremony. When the tea is done steeping in the pot, you gently pour it into the pitcher, and then use that to share with your friends. 


One benefit of having smaller teacups is that it invites more opportunities to connect with the community at the ceremony. Include the rule that you cannot pour tea for yourself. When your little cup is empty, a friend must reach over and refill your cup. These small acts of generosity and interest are fantastically nourishing to any relationship. It can be especially healing when a person with a higher level of position at work is willing to pause and refill the cup of someone lower in the hierarchy. 


Remember, even during the group ceremonies, you are still cultivating stillness and softness. If you are the one leading the way and steeping the tea, then it’s up to you to model that quality of ease and release. When you pour the water, pause. Don’t do anything for a moment. Allow the momentum of the movement to settle.

…Notice how quickly your mind is leaping ahead to the next thing. Instead, pay attention to what is happening in the moment, exhale any gathering tension, and becoming clearheaded again. The tea isn’t asking you to become a different person, but to embody who you are in this moment. Take your time. This is the heart of the tea ceremony. You are here. Now. And now. Then pour the tea. 


The ancient Daoists noticed something similar thousands of years ago. They observed that when pond water is stirred, it becomes cloudy. Nothing is wrong with the water. It simply needs time to become still and settle again. Our minds are the same. When we move continuously from one task to the next, one conversation to another, one emotion to another, it's as though we're constantly shaking a cup of muddy water. We try harder to think clearly, but effort doesn't make the water of our mind clear. The wisest thing we can do is simply set the cup down. Teatime was never simply about drinking a beverage. It becomes an invitation to pause. The kettle cannot be rushed. The leaves open in their own time. The fragrance rises whether we're paying attention or not. A cup of tea quietly reminds us that most worthwhile things don’t happen quickly.


And why is it worth the wait? Because the purpose of a break is not simply to stop working. It is to become the kind of person who can return to work with a clear mind, an open heart, and refreshed energy. And those qualities come from the space that you make, not from something that you add. My Daoist Master Modaozhang would say, it’s not something that you do. It’s something you don’t. In a cup, while the structure is beautiful and necessary, it’s the empty space inside that makes it possible to fill with tea. We are precisely the same. Our minds are so full and busy that there is no room for insight or attention. Our nervous systems are so overloaded that there is no possibility for sensitivity or careful action. If you want to be good at your job, you must become an expert at breaktime. A restorative tea ceremony brings us back into relationship with ourselves.

Caring for ourselves isn't something separate from living well. It is part of living well.


One of the things I appreciate most about tea is that it asks for very little. It doesn't ask us to become experts. It doesn't require expensive equipment. It doesn't ask us to believe anything. It simply asks us to stop, if only for a few minutes, and give our complete attention to one ordinary act. Making tea. Holding a cup. Taking a breath. Watching steam disappear into the air. These things seem almost too simple. Yet if we're honest, perhaps simplicity is exactly what we've been missing. Our days are full of complexity. Our minds are crowded with information. The world continually asks for more of our energy. Tea asks for less. And asking for less, it makes space for us to rest and refresh ourselves. Those are small gifts. But they have a way of changing the quality of an entire day. Perhaps even the quality of life. 

So, let’s gather together the threads of this discussion. I know this is a lot, so I’ll summarize what we’ve been exploring.


Most of us spend our time hyper-focused on performance and trying to do more and be better versions of ourselves. I certainly thought that way throughout my life at school and work. We believe that we need to push harder and squeeze ourselves to become a better person. Yet, this is a tremendous misunderstanding of how nature works. Imagine being a person who loves to inhale. You decide that for the rest of your life, you’re only going to breathe in, and plan to exhale as little as possible. How long are you going to last? The fact is, becoming an expert in exhalation is a part of gaining skills in breathing. They are not two separate skills. The same is true for activity and rest. Creativity and quiet mindfulness. Charisma and contemplation. Being a strong and dynamic leader means learning how to listen and follow when necessary.You can’t have one without the other.

A work culture that does not emphasize the importance of clarity and rest, is absolutely weakening their capacity for high-quality work. They are not separate. They are one thing. Leaders should be taking notes. This is the wisdom ancient masters brought into our modern culture, and it has never been more desperetly needed.


So we learned to cultivate the skill of resting. Of letting the momentum and the swirl of the workday momentarily come to a stop. To reconnect with ourselves and our workmates, to release any stress that has been accumulating in our nervous system, and to restore the breath that we have been holding. Can you feel it happening as soon as you bring your awareness to your body?


In making space for this ancient ceremony, we are refueling and building a launching pad for our career. They are not separate. They are one process. I’ll say that again. Rest is success. Use the tea as a medium to practice these skills. 


If you’ve been inspired to begin investing your time in the tea ceremony each day and to make your break time as nourishing as possible, let me remind you of the steps. Ready? You can take notes.Cup. Tea. Hot water. Settle. Enjoy.Honestly, it can be as simple as that.


That being said, you can invest as much as you’d like into the beauty and enjoyment of the practice. I highly recommend it! There are lots of artful and elegant bits of equipment you can include to make your break time full of beauty and enjoyment, expressing yourself fully. If your workplace is dreary, then resting your eyes on a chosen work of art each day can be very nourishing indeed!


If you want to be more elaborate with your practice. Explore the gongfu tea ceremony. Take the time to arrange your tea tools, settling your mind, your breath, and your body. Heat the water, and use it to wash and warm the cups, the pitcher, and the pot, so they bring out the best in your tea. Add the leaves to the warm and empty pot, and shake the leaves a bit to release the fragrance. The leaves can smell wonderful by themselves. Add the hot water, and remain present with the steeping process, resting in stillness and releasing tension the way we practiced earlier. When ready, pour the tea into the tea pitcher and appreciate the color and the fragrance again. You may need a small filter to place in the pitcher if your teapot does not have one already. Enjoy your tea! If you have workmates, share the tea and smiles with them, and allow them to pour for you.


Settle your body and restore your mind as fully as possible during your break time. Return to work feeling refreshed and more prepared than ever. And each time you practice this ceremony, allow the skills of relaxing and settling to warm and refill your heart, like the tea itself. 


So, the next time you take a break, make a cup of tea. Don’t make it another task to add to your list. You don't have to perform a ceremony. Just make the tea. Then, before you take the first sip, ask yourself one question. "Have I actually arrived?" Sometimes the answer will be no. That's all right. The tea will wait.

Thank you!


🟦 Research Resources 🟦

A Systematic Review of Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and Its Effects on Mental Health and Academic Performance https://doi.org/10.2174/0118743501379520250716121048


Mindfulness Training Improves Working Memory Capacity and While Reducing Mind Wandering https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23538911/?utm


Meditation Programs for Psychological Stress and Well-being: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/1809754




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