Coffee: My Life is Better Without It
A monologue..nothing against coffee lovers
Addiction is something that you cannot stop. If I need to drink coffee every morning, then it controls me. I don’t want it to control me. There are other endogenous brain chemicals I would prefer to be controlled by — love, compassion, serenity, gratitude, that are both elevating and non-addictive.
For the last few years, I have been on and off with coffee. While I never drank more than a cup a day, something instinctively did not feel right about its consumption. If I drank today, I would totally enjoy it, and want it again tomorrow. And the worst part? I had to look for it outside of myself.
I used to be a smoker. I smoked cigarettes for 7 years, and now it has been 15 years since I quit. So I know what addiction is like, and how useless it is for any individual who is trying to become healthier, and better.
The ‘high’ that I got from coffee was great. And the ‘low’ few hours later — not so great. It would disturb my sleeping patterns. Worst of all it would make me short tempered, and affect my precious relationships — like the one with my partner, who is not a coffee drinker and thus emotionally stable.
I have done a lot of research and seen a lot of YouTube videos from experts, health professionals, doctors and common people. While there are arguments for and against coffee drinking, I have come to the conclusion that the coffee business has been made popular by the large companies that masterfully maneuvers the marketing, be it in commercial settings, or, one that arouses feelings of homemade, organic, aromatic lifestyle. Any drugs, when marketed well, sells, especially when there are no restrictions.
I have learned that coffee is a neural stimulant, and when used by normal people under common circumstances (like consuming it every day) is unhealthy. Aggressive marketing, research funded by coffee businesses, and the addictive property of caffeine — all these combined, has misinformed the public about the real effects of coffee. It has given the public the illusion of a better life — a life that needs coffee.
I do enjoy chocolate cake, hot cocoa, green tea, Thai tea and many other drinks that have some degree of caffeine content. But I make sure that I do my research well to make sure what I consume is not harmful and addictive (with negative side effects).
Any person looking to find the truth about harms/benefits of coffee should be able to answer this question: if you know that you could live well without ‘needing’ at least a cup of it every day, would you still take it? And if you did, what is your reason for letting yourself fall victim to an exogenous chemical that is not good for you?
I decided that I’d rather be free from it, and seek that “high” state through other means like meditation and exercise that are under my own control and have no side effects.
Coffee makes my teeth yellow, gives me bad breath, gums pain, and mentally I become unstable. It hurts my relationships with others because the chemicals in my brain are not in balance when I communicate with them. And harmonious people can feel that.
Also, I realized that doing conscious things like meditation, exercise, yoga, healthy diet while at the same time, consuming coffee is like taking 2 steps forwards and 2 steps back. You don’t really progress because you are not being honest to yourself. You are pushing yourself to build your muscles, become flexible, live consciously while at the same time, quietly feeding poison to your cells. It simply doesn’t work.
Try all other healthy endeavors without coffee, and the effect is exponentially better.
One important lesson that I learned when I tried to quit smoking was the “cold turkey” method. As hard as it may be, simply stopping it is more likely to work that tapering off. For instance, if you smoke 10 cigarettes a day, it is much easier to just stop, that to slowly cut down from 10 to 9, and 8 until 0. While it may take you several tries (it took me 4 tries, and some crying), the cold-turkey method is much more effective. Tapering off didn’t work.
We are more emotional than we think. Cutting down 1 cigarette per day seems logical but the fact that we are fighting an addiction means that we are fighting our strong addictive emotion. When you stop the source that feeds your addictive emotion, you allow yourself to “break” that neural connection in your brain responsible for the addiction, much faster.
Likewise, if you feel like you need a cup of coffee everyday and you don’t want to be addicted, try cold turkey. You will be forced to seek other healthier alternatives that are much more meaningful and in alignment with the live you want to live. And if you fail, go cold turkey again.
Today, I don’t drink coffee. I feel much better with my body and my mind. My relationships are genuine, because I know my communication is free from the “high” effects of caffeine. My “high” state instead comes from the natural calm that I get from exercise, meditation and authentic self-love.
I have also learned that my life is more meaningful when I can remove things I don’t need. Coffee is one of them. I don’t need it. It makes my life complex. It takes away from developing relationships. It destroys me, just like any other harmful drugs. If I free myself from coffee, I allow my mind to engage in other things are are healthy and meaningful.
I don’t want to live a shallow life — the illusion of doing a lot, being productive, getting high (and low). Coffee makes it easy for me to live this shallow and meaningless life.
Without coffee, I am free. I live better, simpler. And I don’t need to do further research on coffee, just like I don’t need to know anything more about super hero books that I am not interested in reading. My power comes from being liberated. Anything that controls me — be it chemicals, food, relationships, is not healthy for me.
The 50 trillion cells that make my body are all intelligent and they all deserve to be happy and healthy. I have no right to feed them poison. They take good care of me, and are constantly working for my survival and growth. Simply because having the power to decide over my cells does not give me the right to hurt them (and hurt myself eventually).
Just because coffee comes with all types of fancy, high-class names does not make it any healthier or better. Neither do the fancy, sophisticated machines are used in making them. A bigger, fancier gun is still a gun. I’d rather learn to be in peace with myself and my environment and live a meaningful life building better bridges.
I want my happiness to be genuine and have control over it. I want to live in alignment with the needs that also nurture and grow my cells, my body, my environment, my relationships, the planet, and the universe. There is no room for distractions, especially well-marketed, harmful drugs.
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Upen Singh writes about people and progress. He is interested in making lives better.
Having traveled over 25 countries he is always seeking new adventures to learn from and share. He has an M.A. in Developmental Economics from West Virginia University.
He lives in Thailand, Nepal and the United States, constantly traveling. He is currently involved in a development project in far-west Nepal.
