How My Morning Coffee Ritual Helped Me Fall Back in Love with Life

You know how people tell you to stop and smell the roses? I was never that person.

We live in a fast-paced society that rewards the “hustle” you put out. I spent the majority of my life operating on this mentality. Rushing to finish high school to rush to finish college to rush to get a job.

And for a while, that worked for me. I felt happy and content with the life I had built, so I never thought I needed to “stop and smell the roses.” It almost seemed ridiculous - like an excuse people used to justify not working hard enough or for long enough.

I think a lot of us fall into this. We begin to tie our life’s value to the amount of work we do. The number of achievements we have, the amount of money we make. You get it.

It wasn’t until I burned myself out that I realized the power in smelling pretty flowers, and by that time, it was practically too late. All of my energy and inspiration had been drained from years of impractical work-life balance, and it felt like restarting from ground zero.

I was doing a lot of reading at the time, and I came across this random article that talked about being intentional with your time.

Until this point, I had never entertained the idea of intentional time or activities, so I almost skipped right over it. Had I done that, I don’t know if I’d be where I am at today.

The article talked about how being intentional with your daily activities can help being you a sense of peace and control (both things I felt I was lacking). So, I thought, why not?

The next morning, I set out to do a 10-minute meditation to try and spend intentional time with myself. I probably got 3 minutes into it before my mind started to jump onto every other topic in the world.

Being able to sit still and just breathe for 10 minutes wasn’t going to happen for me, so I gave up.

Yes, maybe I should have tried again. But at the time, it didn’t sound like something I was interested in.

Fast forward maybe a year or so, I was making my morning coffee per usual.

Measure out the beans, grind the beans, pour into french press, pour water, press. Add cream, add sugar, enjoy.

This simple format held more of my intentional time than anything else in my entire life. And I do it, every morning without fail.

I’m not sure what it was, but something clicked. I started to view my morning coffee ritual as a chance to connect with myself before the start of the day.

It was the most peaceful experience, and more importantly, I was able to do it for 10 consecutive minutes without distraction.

You see, I think when people hear of meditation, they are almost instantly put off by it. Sitting still feels boring, it feels pointless.

When I started to combine a conscious meditative act with my morning coffee ritual, I was not only able to better connect with my emotions, but I was able to bring myself peace in an otherwise busy life.

Let’s fast forward another year - to today.

I made my morning coffee a few hours ago.

Measure out the beans, grind the beans, pour into french press, pour water, press. Add cream, add sugar, enjoy.

The same as always but now with an entirely new meaning and purpose. My morning coffee ritual helped me fall back in love with life, and here’s how.

In a world where I felt like I needed to be constantly going, my morning coffee was my chance to intentionally connect with myself.

And once you do it with one thing, you’ll start doing it with a ton of others. Suddenly, brushing my teeth is more than dental hygiene - it’s a 2-minute chance to ground myself.

So, if you’re reading this, try choosing something mundane in your life and turning it into an opportunity to fall back in love with life.

You might end up being a “stop and smell the roses” person like I am now.