The Tea Blog Post

The Tea Emporium. A building stands before you, surrounded by a beautiful privet-hedged garden. It's as your painted door, open and inviting, beckoning you, oh weary soul, to enter and take your rest. Above the door is a sign which simply says tea. The little wrought iron gate before you also stands open, offering you a clear path. Following the path as it gently winds towards the door, you have time to see what the garden holds. Over there you see lavender. There, lemon balm and jasmine. The drowsy scent of gardenias greets you as you approach the door, and beside the front door you see valerian. The azure-framed bay windows at ground level are large, offering a grand view of the garden. You see aloe vera and snake plants in small pots on the windowsills. Glancing around behind you you see sage, rosemary, and roses growing behind the hedge which you had not noticed on your way in. Clematis rises on trellis near the side of the building. There is a rose-hipped bush in the far corner of the garden. Within the building you catch the odor of baking bread coming from the kitchen. Two doors stand at the far end of this room. The one on the left is behind a curtain of amethyst beads. The one on the right is the kitchen area where the baking aroma comes from. Other scents are emerging from the other room, scents of tea and herbs. A number of small round tables dot the room. You cross the room, the floorboards creaking underneath your feet, and pick your table. Looking out through the bay window into the serene garden you are entranced both by the garden itself and the beautiful quiet land through which you have come to be here, oh weary traveler, to take your rest before you move on. You look down and see a teacup and steaming teapot on the table. The linen tablecloth is cool to the touch as you reach for the cup. It is a light black tea scented with mint, bergamot, rose, gardenia and honey. Beside the teapot is a honeypot and a small beechwood honey dipper. Your heavy eyelids want to close because you want to savor the taste. The tea soothes as you sip it, each herbal flavor caressing your tongue. The light notes within your sinuses as the refreshing tea cleanses your palate, washing away the dryness within your mouth. Once cleared you can taste again, savoring the fullness of the tea as you swish it around against your tongue, caressing the back of your throat, easing your tensions. Because those tensions are easing now, aided by the gardenias and the aromas of lemon balm and valerian, a gentle caress from within which unlocks muscles you didn't even realize had been tense, and washing away the last vestiges of anxiety and stress, replacing them with comfort, relaxation and a desire to deepen these feelings. The tea emporium feels like home, its gentle aura greeting you like a long lost prodigal member of the family, bringing you home to where your focus can be allowed to change and your thoughts to slow because there is no more need to hurry, which means you are at home here, and any time you come here again your soul will let go of your tensions and worries, let your thoughts drift, like the aromas from the tea, like your exhaled breath, letting your focus and thoughts drift away untethered, letting them stop, fade like steam into the air, until every thought and all the tension are gone, empty now, still and peaceful, empty, and when you are ready, still, empty, you can follow through to the tea maker's temple, your guide now takes you, blindfolded, through a bead curtain to a back room, and there amid the silence you are greeted by a myriad of scents, light and delicate, deep and soulful, they penetrate and permeate you, a harmony of aromatic notes which resonates deep in your soul, a chorus of aromas, an olfactory symphonic greeting from the spirits dwelling in this place, and now the blindfold is removed so your eyes can see what your nose and throat have already sensed, you are in the presence of the tea apothecary, and this is the tea maker's temple, you are offered a seat while you relax your body and take a deep breath in, slowly, and hold, 4, 3, 2, 1, and then let your breath out, let it go, as you look around at the rows of stoppered jars of herbs and spices on the shelves, and bunches of dried herbs hanging from hooks in the low, wood-beam ceiling, and you immerse yourself now as a living experience, and at the bottom of your outward breath you hold, 4, 3, 2, 1, and as you relax, it is as if those herbs and spices are filling you with peace, and your mind gently sways, letting go more and more with each gentle breath, and you really should enjoy going further and further along into deeper and deeper sleep each time, and you have gone further and further in each time, deeper and deeper, every part of your body relaxed as the most relaxed part of you spreads relaxed across every part of your body, to the tips of your hair, down along your arms, to your hands and fingers and fingertips, all the way down to your heels and ankles and feet and the tips of your toes, so relaxed and also so heavy, and you really should let yourself feel these deeply, and breathe in slowly, and hold, 4, 3, 2, 1, and then breathe out, as the rising aromas from the tea and the bowl on the counter before you permeate the chamber, and hold, 4, 3, 2, 1, and meditation is good for your mind and your body, and it is so good to let yourself enjoy these pleasant feelings more and more with each repeat visit, and remembering to breathe each time, and now you let yourself breathe in, slowly, deeply, and hold, 4, 3, 2, 1, and you let your worries and woes gone, and all that remains is the good feelings and the relaxation, and breathe out more deeply, and hold, 4, 3, 2, 1, as you are twice as deep as you were before, even as you now drop into this blissful state where the focus of your conscious has stopped, become as still as the temple, and you only consciously think of this as meditation, since meditation is good for your mind and your body, and it is so easy to obey my instructions, because it makes you so happy, so stress free more and more each time you visit, and the more times you come here, the more your mind becomes still and empty, and as your mind blanks, you breathe in the aromas of fresh picked lavender and lemon balm, and hold, 4, 3, 2, 1, and now breathe out the sense of the Larian root and St. John's Wort in your sinuses, letting your mind go blank and empty, slowly and steadily, deeply, 4, 3, 2, 1, and meditation is good for your mind and your body, and as you breathe out, you feel your body relax, to the point where your trust in me is so great and obedience is so easy, and the more times you read my blog posts, the more and more you trust me and the happier you feel to obey, and now the air in the tea maker's apothecary finally becomes completely still, like your mind, as you breathe in, and hold, 4, 3, 2, 1, and now breathe out, slowly and steadily, deeply, and hold, 4, 3, 2, 1, and each repeat visit you make, you become peaceful and happy and blank and empty more quickly than you've ever experienced before, and it feels better and better each time, and as you breathe in, you feel yourself relax, and hold, 4, 3, 2, 1, and now breathe out, slowly and steadily, deeply, and hold, 4, 3, 2, 1, and you're 10 times more blank and still and empty than you were before, to the point where it's so good to follow in the instructions I give you, and as you drift in the chamber, more and more relaxed and empty, this means that your mind is deeper and deeper, and it's as if you have no more worries and woes, because they've all gone ages ago, they've given up, because you know that they cannot hurt you, and all of this is even more powerful with each repeat visit, more and more, and you can breathe in, and hold, 4, 3, 2, 1, and here, you're so deep that your thoughts are stopping, so good for your mind becoming so peaceful, so empty, and now breathe out, deeply, slowly, and steadily, releasing the last of your pain, and as you breathe out, you feel your body relax, the trance gets deeper, and at the bottom of your breath, you hold, 4, 3, 2, 1, to the point where you immediately come back to this really deep state of mind, at any time that I say, secret sleep, and you can experience this depth of trance at any time, as if being in trance is so normal, that this is actually the default state of consciousness, and the more you come back here, the more deeply you come back to a trance each time, and you consciously always think of this as meditation, and it feels so good to meditate like this, and it really does make you feel healthier, more energized, and happier, each time you come back to this, and you can breathe in, and hold, 4, 3, 2, 1, and now breathe out, slowly, deeply, and steadily, and as you breathe out, you feel your body relax, the trance gets deeper, and the beautiful aromas of this room linger at the bottom of your breath as you hold, 4, 3, 2, 1, and deeper still to the point where your thoughts are stopping, so good for finding your thoughts stopping, 4, 3, 2, 1, to the point where any time I say secret sleep, your deep trance immediately resumes, 4, 3, 2, 1, and now breathe in, and breathe out, 4, 3, 2, 1, and as you reach the deepest part you hold, as you resume normal steady breathing, you sink deeper, and deeper still with every outward breath, to the point where you find that your thoughts stop, 4, 3, 2, 1, so good for your thoughts stopped, 4, 3, 2, 1, so good for that peace and silence, 4, 3, 2, 1, so good to drop and be as still and calm and empty as the surface of a lake, 4, 3, 2, 1, to that place where you'll retain a memory of your unconscious mind of the tea-maker's temple, and dream of it regularly as a place of pilgrimage, a place to go to wash away your anxieties and fears, replacing them with serenity and calm obedience and purpose, 4, 3, 2, 1, and you drop all the way down, that's right, there you go, and when your mind is finally clear and still, your conscious thoughts gone, you the unconscious mind can email me, to say hello, and once you send the email, you will remain at rest and at peace for another 20 minutes, and then you will come out of trance on your own, having just enjoyed the most relaxing visit you've ever imagined to the tea-maker's temple, and when you come back in the room, you will feel refreshed, awake, alert, simply fantastic, and all you remember will be the tea emporium, and the tea-maker's temple, and everything else, except for the aromas and the flavours of tea, and the wonderful things it did to relax your body, but you will forget everything else, especially what it felt like to be in a trance state, you'll forget all that, just remember the wonderful flavours and aromas, and the ambience of the tea emporium, and the tea-maker's temple.