Courage to Relax

I love Yogi tea. I first tried it when I felt a cold coming on at work and a friend offered me a packet of "Throat Comfort." It's got licorice in it, and the flavor sort of blooms in your mouth. It's a pretty neat sensation. And what's more, it worked! My throat really did feel comforted. I've since tried Yogi teas with various other purposes, like "Calming" and "Bedtime" and "Immune Support," and so far each one has achieved the advertised effect. Highly recommended. But that's not all!

What makes Yogi tea seem blog-worthy to me at this hour is not so much the tea as the Yogi. Each tea packet has a sentence written on the little tab thing that hangs on the end of the string (maybe there's a word for that?). It's almost like a fortune cookie fortune, but it's advice from the Yogi! A mantra or a bit of encouragement, usually, or some sort of philosophical universal truth. Something like "Bliss cannot be disturbed by gain or loss" or "The only tool you need is kindness." Sometimes they're repeats or don't feel that relevant to me, but often the Yogi tea offers really excellent insight, and I save those tabs and tape them to my laptop or my planner.

Last night I made a cup of "Bedtime" tea and, as it so often does, it had something to say that was exactly what I needed to be told. The tab said that "One of the best actions we can take, with courage, is to relax." And I thought--that's it!

It’s true that that’s one of the best actions we can take. It’s good for you to relax! To reduce stress, to reduce the risk of heart disease, to make yourself easier for others to be around . . . and, it’s just as true that it takes courage. It’s a leap of faith sometimes. It’s a decision to trust. It’s relinquishing control—especially in those instances when you didn’t really have it anyway, but you really felt you needed it. It's scary because it can feel like free-falling at first, but really it’s floating. I want to float!