There’s something appealing about the idea of a morning tea routine. A few quiet minutes, a warm cup of tea, and a soothing chance to gather yourself before the rest of the day begins.
But actually building a consistent health routine can be daunting.
Maybe you manage it for four or five days. Then Thursday gets away from you. Friday is chaos. Before long, the tea is back in the cabinet, and you’re back to rushing through your mornings.
Building a tea routine that lasts doesn’t require a perfectly ordered morning. A few small choices can make your tea easier to fit into your day, even when mornings get hectic.
Here’s where to start.
Start Your Morning Routine the Night Before
Tomorrow morning’s routine can start tonight.
A tea routine is a lot easier to follow when you’ve done some of the work ahead of time. Before you go to bed, set out your mug. Put your tea where you’ll see it. Choose the way you’d like to enjoy Healing Leaves, whether that’s loose-leaf, tea bag, or capsules.
Those little preparations remove obstacles between you and the habit you’re trying to build.
Behavior scientist BJ Fogg, founder of Stanford’s Behavior Design Lab and author of Tiny Habits, puts simplicity at the center of behavior change. His model suggests that making a behavior easier to do makes it more likely that you’ll actually do it.1
So give future you a head start. When you walk into the kitchen and everything you need is already waiting for you, there’s one less thing to think about.
Attach Your Tea to Something You Already Do
Your morning already has a routine, even if it doesn’t always feel like it. You get out of bed. Open the blinds. Brush your teeth. Take your vitamins and supplements. Start breakfast.
One of those things can become the reminder to make your Healing Leaves tea.
Author James Clear calls this approach “habit stacking.” It’s pairing a new behavior with something you already do regularly. The idea originated with behavior scientist BJ Fogg, who calls the existing behavior an “anchor.”2
You can think of it this way: “After I do something I already do, I’ll do my new thing.” Maybe it’s as simple as “After I feed the dog, I’ll make my tea.”
Choose something that happens reliably and make your tea the natural next step. Over time, you’ll find yourself reaching for the kettle without having to remind yourself at all.
Turn Steeping Time into Time for Yourself
We know that when mornings are busy, even five minutes can feel like a long time to wait for your tea. But you don’t have to stand next to the kettle watching the clock.
The five minutes it takes to steep your tea isn’t a bug. It’s a feature. Those few minutes can become part of your routine.
Read a few verses of Scripture or spend a moment in prayer. Look out the window while the house is still quiet. Write down what you want to accomplish that day. Or give yourself permission to be alone with your thoughts for a few minutes.
Your tea can support your body while those few quiet minutes give you a chance to tend to your spirit, too. With benefits for digestive health, immune function, natural energy and more, Healing Leaves makes your daily habit one that can support your wellness in several ways.†
Have a Backup for Hectic Mornings
Even with a little preparation, some days won’t go according to plan. Having a simpler backup can make it easier to stick to your routine.
If you normally prepare loose leaf, keep tea bags on hand for mornings when you want less measuring and cleanup. And when making tea just isn’t realistic, capsules give you another option.
Think of these as backups, not a whole different routine. You can plan for your usual morning the night before while still giving yourself an easier option when life intervenes.
Forget the Perfect Streak
We’re surrounded by reminders to keep our streaks going. Close the rings. Check the box. Don’t miss a day.
That can be motivating, until you do miss a day. Then it’s easy to feel like you’ve broken something and have to start all over again.
Habit research offers a more forgiving picture.
In a University College London study, Phillippa Lally and her colleagues followed people as they worked on forming new everyday habits. They found wide variation in how long it took those behaviors to become more automatic. More importantly, missing one opportunity didn’t significantly derail the habit-forming process.3
So if Wednesday morning gets away from you, you haven’t lost your progress. Make your Healing Leaves tea on Thursday.
Consistency matters. But your morning routine doesn’t need a perfect score to become part of your life.
Build a Consistent Routine That Fits Your Life
Your days don’t have to be predictable for your tea routine to stick.
Make your tea a little easier by preparing ahead of time. Connect it to something you already do regularly. Let the steep give you a few quiet minutes. Have a backup for the days when your usual routine doesn’t work.
And if you miss a day, just come back to it tomorrow.
Of course, your tea routine doesn’t have to happen in the morning, either. Choose the time of day that works for you, and use these same ideas to make the habit stick.
Whenever you choose to enjoy Healing Leaves, these small choices can help your tea become something familiar and welcome, a part of your day you look forward to.
† These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
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B. J. Fogg, Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2020); see also BJ Fogg, “Ability: Make Behavior Easier to Do,” Fogg Behavior Model. https://www.behaviormodel.org/ability
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James Clear, “Habit Stacking: How to Build New Habits by Taking Advantage of Old Ones,” adapted from Atomic Habits (Avery, 2018). James Clear credits BJ Fogg’s Tiny Habits method for the underlying anchoring concept. https://jamesclear.com/habit-stacking
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Phillippa Lally, Cornelia H. M. van Jaarsveld, Henry W. W. Potts, and Jane Wardle, “How Are Habits Formed: Modelling Habit Formation in the Real World,” European Journal of Social Psychology 40, no. 6 (2010): 998–1009. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.674