Tea Time

Miss Pekoe
Tea is one of the healthiest beverages in the world! And my friends don’t call me Miss Pekoe for nothing. I started drinking organic white tea over ten years ago. I continued because not only did I enjoy the entire brewing process, the taste, and the relaxing effect, but, my skin started glowing. So, now I can declare…,
“Why go for a nip or a tuck when you can sip tea from a cup!” There I am (above) in a real tea house praying to the Tea Gods to keep our cups warm and full!

White tea will help relax you and have a positive impact on your skin. This is a delicate (low caffeine) tea, and therefore you don’t want to use boiling water, allow it to cool for a minute or two before pouring. Follow the instructions and step into a whole new world, even for ten minutes a day. If looking, feeling, or staying young is something you seek then give White Tea a try. For those who may feel a little stressed out, or overwhelmed…. keep in mind, the ritual alone of preparing such a fine brew is enough to reap some health benefits. You can not be uptight while preparing loose leaf tea. Tea transports you to another time and place, or keeps you mindfully present if that is your intent. You may not be able to fly to Paris but you can buy a box of Hediard (black) tea (served in the most fashionable and exclusive places in the world) and feel famous. One of my teapots has Chandeliers on it. Using it makes me feel so luxurious and I forget that the word laundermat is still in my realm of living. Purchase a porcelain cup and saucer from Home Goods and carry on!

I also recommend Rishi Tea Company. You can trust that you will be getting only the finest leaves. Most of us don’t think about soil, climate and altitude when buying tea, they do! They also consider how it’s processed. They even have teas that come with a guide book with maps and photos showing where the tea originates. They elevate tea and tea drinking to a whole new level.

Another outstanding tea company is Upton Tea Imports. Their enticing catalog describes each tea in detail. They have an enormous/eclectic selection including Holy Basil Purple Leaf. Right now I am relishing their Christmas (Mélange Noel) tea. I buy it in bulk and store it in my empty Santa Claus Tea Tin (I bought the expensive Santa Blend from Hediard and now that it’s gone, each season I fill the can with Upton’s similar (less expensive) version. This treasure is composed with vanilla, orange peel, rose petals, black tea, cinnamon and cloves. I share it with friends and family all month long.

There is a fantastic tea that actually helps with weight loss and concentration, and happens to be my personal favorite. We’ll talk about that one soon. I speak from experience, over twelve years of daily sipping. I know that fine loose leaf tea truly is a little bit of heaven in a cup. If God is a drinking man/woman, I imagine there is tea in his or her cup.

I have to run... I am being beckoned with a whistle from my tea kettle!

Sat Nam

Mantra Mama

As promised, my great Ageless Aunty will be appearing on this site soon….
But first I want to share some magic words that have helped me to de-stress, de-age, and delight….*Sat Nam* pronounced saaht--nam….it means I bow to my higher self, truth, God! I first learned this profound mantra in Kundalini Yoga. Practicing Kundalini Yoga in my opinion is one guaranteed path to Agelessness. Everything about this practice promotes joy, unlike anything else I have ever experienced. We chant, we dance, we sing, we move, and we meditate, opening up our hearts, elevating our spirit, and somehow that inner peace and happiness that was there long ago, miraculously emerges. Bliss is possible with Kundalini Yoga, and it remains one of my favorite ways to stay Ageless.

Recently, when I started thinking about putting this blog together, I was experiencing major stress factors in my life, on all levels, and things were mounting. I wanted to add something to my Kundalini Yoga practice and I signed up for stress reduction class (that in itself is an Ageless thing to do). The course happens to be about Qigong. I am new to this ancient energy practice but I can already say…it is miraculous. You can feel it activate the body’s natural healing ability. I call it Feng shui for the psyche because as you breathe you can feel the flow. I went in feeling overwhelmed and came out feeling fully alive and let the problems roll off of me. You can look up Qi-Gong online, and I will be talking more about it as I get deeper into the practice. Our instructor gave us a CD to take home to help learn the movement flow. The voice on the disc is a calming and loving Chinese man walking you through this energy practice. As he stops at each part of the body he says things like… “illuminate the heart. Heart I love you.” I felt so relaxed and calm during the class, and more important afterwards. The instructor (a doctor) promises that many of his students have had amazing results from doing this work. I can promise you too, it is worth a try! Ten million people around the world are glowing from practicing Qigong…I am glad I am now one of them. If you clear out all the negative energy you make room for positive vibrations to get working. And picture how positive energy looks on you. Think of how you felt on a really good day in your life. Follow this blog and I can assure you that many more ways as to how we can uplift ourselves will appear. Slowly we become the embodiment of Agelessness…breath by breath, vertebrae by vertebrae…it is possible. Ahh….
Sat Nam…..