Slowing down creates the space to notice what usually passes unseen. When life is moving quickly, so much of what shapes our days happens just below the surface—small habits, quiet reactions, subtle ways we relate to ourselves and others. When we give ourselves room for quiet moments, with tea, with ourselves, with the people around us, we begin to see those subtleties more clearly.
Tea practice has a way of inviting this kind of awareness without forcing it. Sitting with tea naturally slows the pace, giving the nervous system a chance to settle and the mind a chance to soften. In that settling, we begin to notice how we move through life and relationships, where we rush, where we resist, where we soften, and where we stay present.
This week, we’re inviting that awareness into both practice and reflection. As part of the Golden Mirror Reset, we’re exploring the Five Elements not only as forces in nature, but as living energies within ourselves and the people we care about. Consider this a gentle call to pause, pay attention, and see what arises when you give yourself enough space to notice honestly.
Take a breath. Pour a bowl. See what shows up.
This Week in Practice
Three Bowls Can Be Enough
This week, keep your practice simple: three bowls of tea a day.
A daily tea practice doesn’t need to be long or elaborate to be meaningful. Many of us carry an unspoken belief that practice has to look a certain way in order to “count”—a long, uninterrupted session, a carefully prepared setup, or a stretch of open time where nothing else is asking for our attention. When those conditions aren’t met, practice often gets postponed or quietly dropped altogether.
Three bowls—about fifteen minutes—is a complete practice. It’s enough time to arrive, to settle, and to stay in relationship with tea. Enough time to feel the warmth of the bowl in your hands, notice the first few sips, and allow your attention to land where it is.
On busy days, this might mean heating only enough water for three bowls while you’re already moving through your morning—getting dressed, preparing for the day, tending to what needs tending. Heating just enough water keeps the process simple and contained, so even a small window of time can become a real practice. While this isn’t always how we want practice to look, it can be a supportive and honest way to build consistency without pressure or self-judgment.
What matters most is the quality of attention. When you sit down for those three bowls, let it be just you and the tea. Let the practice be contained rather than rushed or fragmented. No multitasking, no scrolling, no mental rehearsing of what comes next.
Let the time be small and intentional. Sometimes the most sustainable practice is the one that fits into real life—and invites us to show up fully for what’s actually here.
Five Element Insights
Seeing the Elements in Yourself and Others
This past weekend, we kicked off the first class of our Golden Mirror Reset, exploring the Five Elements through the lens of relationships and the self.
Often, we’re taught to understand the elements by observing them in nature—water flowing, wood growing, fire rising. While this is valuable, one of the most powerful ways to truly bring the elements to life is by noticing them in yourself and in the people around you, especially those you’re in relationship with. When the elements become personal, they stop being abstract ideas and start to feel immediate, lived, and real.
Seeing the elements at work in daily life—how someone responds under pressure, how they express emotion, how they create boundaries or seek connection—can deepen understanding and soften reactivity. It gives us a different way to interpret behavior, both our own and others’, with more curiosity and less judgment.
As Colin shared in class:
“When you see the elements in yourself and others, you can notice patterns of growth, creativity, stability, boundaries, and flow. It changes the way you understand relationships—and yourself.”
“So much of our challenges in relationships come from expecting others to be different than they are. When you start to see people as they truly are, based on their elemental makeup and early experiences, you can cultivate greater compassion.”
Watching the full class offers a deeper look into how these elemental energies show up in real relationships, and how learning to recognize them can shift the way we listen, respond, and relate.
The Golden Mirror Reset is a seven-week exploration of the elements, attachment patterns, and how these forces shape our inner lives and relationships. Each week focuses on one element, offering practices and reflections to help you feel these energies more directly in yourself and in the people around you.
If you’d like another way to ground yourself in the elements, we’ve also shared a short guide that’s been used in past retreats and courses. It offers a practical, personal way to explore each element, helping these teachings feel accessible and relevant in everyday life.
What We’re Drinking
Water Element Bundle
This week, we’re sitting with teas from the Water Element Bundle, curated to support stillness, trust, and connection with your inner depths. These teas are especially supportive when you’re feeling restless, scattered, or in need of a quieter kind of clarity.
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Water Fairy (Yencha Oolong)
Supports inner listening, intuition, and connection with what’s unseen but deeply known. -
Vapor Lake (Shou Puerh)
A grounding tea for reflection and patience, offering a steady mirror for meditation and insight. -
Interbeing (Shou Puerh)
Helps settle the nervous system and align emotion, intuition, and quiet resolve.
Together, these teas invite you to slow down, listen more deeply, and move with calm, steady presence.
Current Inspirations
The Five Elements by Dondi Dahlin
This beautifully illustrated guide offers a fresh, approachable way to understand the elemental forces in nature, in ourselves, and in our relationships. Dahlin’s clear explanations and practical exercises make it easy to see how the elements show up in daily life, helping cultivate balance, awareness, and connection—both inwardly and with the world around us.
Friends of Living Tea
Meet Jess Ryan
Jess Ryan is a dear friend, Living Tea ambassador, herbalist, tea ceremonialist, and psychosomatic plant guide. Through the Way of Plants Healing Center, she supports deep emotional, relational, and spiritual healing by weaving together tea ceremony, somatic awareness, Jungian analytics, Five Element alchemy, and plant spirit medicine.
Jess creates spaces where the nervous system can settle, intuition can reawaken, and people can reconnect with themselves, with others, and with the natural world. Her work reflects a deep respect for the intelligence of plants, the body, and the subtle ways healing unfolds when we feel safe enough to listen.