The Daily Mind

Daily Steps To Mindful Living

coffee

13 Reasons Your Brain Craves Coffee

Body, Nutrition

We’ve given tips on how to quit coffee using meditation, but that doesn’t mean everyone should just give it up altogether. The key, as usual, is moderation, and if you love yourself a good cup of joe, there’s nothing wrong with that in my opinion.

In fact, studies have shown that coffee is good for your health – although we have to admit the results of these studies vacillate regularly. At the moment, though, the consensus is that coffee – in moderate amounts – is healthy. [Read more…] about 13 Reasons Your Brain Craves Coffee

Originally posted on April 24, 2017 @ 10:00 am

4 Power Nap Mistakes That Kill Your Energy Buzz

Body

Power naps are supposed to perk you up and give you the second wind you need to get through your day in a better mood. But are you getting the most out of the quick zzz’s you take during your lunch break?

If you want to make the most out of your nap time and be that guy in the office who doesn’t look like a zombie by the end of the day, then you’d better brush up on your power nap strategy to avoid the common mistakes below.

Charlie BrownPhoto Credit: Cplbasilisk

No wonder Charlie Brown’s always so depressed –  he never learned how to power nap!

 

1. Extended napping – Hitting that snooze button and getting an extra 5 – 10 minutes may work for you in the morning, but when it comes to napping, it is the biggest mistake you can make. Naps are supposed to be just 15 – 30 minutes long for a good reason. This rule was not invented by bosses who wanted their employees back at their desks ASAP, but has been proven by research to be the ideal period for napping. In fact, napping for more than 30 minutes will not give your more energy, but will actually leave you feeling groggier due to sleep inertia. So before you hit the slow wave sleep (SWS) phase where sleep inertia is at its peak, you’d better wake up. You’ll still feel slightly groggy after a 20-minute nap, but you can bet that you’ll be able to shake it off more easily than you would an hour long nap.

[Read more…] about 4 Power Nap Mistakes That Kill Your Energy Buzz

Originally posted on October 3, 2013 @ 5:51 pm

Reader Poll: How Many Cups of Coffee Do You Drink Per Day?

Body, Nutrition

After yesterday’s post on how to quit coffee using meditation I thought it would be interesting to learn how many cups of coffee readers are actually drinking. I have created a little poll in the sidebar where you can leave your answer and let us all know.

If you are reading this in a feed reader or by email please stop by the site and cast your vote. The results could be interesting!

Originally posted on June 25, 2008 @ 7:53 am

Give Up Coffee: How To Quit Coffee With Meditation

Meditation, Mind

Give Up Coffee

“Is the cup half full or half empty?”

For a long time I have been addicted to coffee. Three to four cups a day addicted. After struggling with many different methods of giving up and quitting the world’s most popular drug I realized that my basic training in meditation could be the solution. In this post I want to talk about how I am going quit coffee using some simple meditation techniques. If you feel like you are drinking too much coffee then read through this post and apply the techniques to your own life. The meditations are basic and anyone can do them.

Why Quit Coffee?

Coffee is full of caffeine and caffeine is a drug. Like any drug it is addictive and this addiction is a negative thing for the body and the mind. Why? Because it makes you want more. You get a nice wake up jolt from the first cup but after a few weeks one cup is not enough and you need two. Then the same thing happens and after a year of drinking coffee you are on 4+ cups per day. I think it is called escalation.

Many studies have been done on the effects of coffee. Some studies say that coffee is a good thing and that it has many health benefits. For example, one study showed that drinking coffee lowers your risk of getting bowel cancer. Other studies, however, have painted coffee in a negative light. It is difficult to trust these studies because there are so many and they seem to come up with a different result every time.

So what do you do? What is the answer?

As far as I am concerned the best thing to do with coffee is weigh up the pros and the cons. You look at all the positive aspects of drinking coffee and then put them next to the negative aspects and see which column is bigger. In my mind the negative is bigger than the positive.

The Cons of Coffee
Here are some negative aspects of drinking coffee:

  • It is addictive: Anything that is addictive is bad for your mind. It makes you become a very dependent person because you feel like you cannot function without it. How many people do you know that have to have a morning coffee before they feel human? A lot.
  • It leads to other negativities: The other thing about addictive substances is that they lead to other negative substances. For example, when you drink a lot of coffee you will undoubtedly have sugar in it and sooner or later you will probably want more sugar. Another thing that coffee drinkers do is have a snack with the coffee. The more coffees the more snacks you have.
  • It is expensive: If you are like me and you buy your coffees from the local cafe or Starbucks then chances are you are spending a lot of money. Let’s assume you buy one coffee everyday and each coffee costs $3.00. In one year you will spend $1095 on lattes. Perhaps you drink more than one per day – after a while this adds up.
  • It makes you anxious: If you take a look at this post on foods that make you stressed you will see that I think that coffee is one of the main things that we consume that makes us stressed and anxious. When we drink coffee it speeds up our mind and then we have a crushing low afterwards. This is the main reason why I want to quit coffee.

The Pros of Coffee
Just to be balanced I thought I would include a few reasons why drinking coffee is a good idea. Seeing as this is a post on how to quit coffee it might be a good idea to skip over this section if you are a real caffeine fiend. [Read more…] about Give Up Coffee: How To Quit Coffee With Meditation

Originally posted on June 24, 2008 @ 12:56 am