How I Let Go of My Caffeine Addiction in a Week

You should totally read this!

Hi friend,

Here’s something I’m sure you’ll benefit from.

Also, my cohort-based course, Summit 21, will run its last cohort for 2023 in 5 weeks. If you want to learn how you can create sustainable systems from consistent writing, join here. We’ve sold out 8 out of 9 times so don’t be too late :)

Now, let’s get started!

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We Indians love our morning chai. I don’t know if it’s a consequence of colonialism and the love for English Breakfast tea by our rulers, but chai isn’t just a drink.

It’s a vibe.

Walk around in busy lanes, and it’s over the tea stall where conversations happen. No matter how busy you are, you always find time for your chai. In office breaks, you take a chai break with your teammates to relax and discuss how tiring work is or how annoying your boss is.

When you’re sick, you have chai with ginger. And for everything else, your Indian mum will tell you how chai and a few spices heal it all.

And no, I’m not talking about your Starbucks chai tea latte. That tastes like cardamom and sugar syrup to me.

But I’m not so loyal to my chai

It’s 45 degrees Celsius during summer in Delhi.

For the love of God, I can’t have chai when it’s so hot already. So I used to wake up and have a nice cold brew. It’s what gets my brain running to conquer my day and makes me feel invincible.

At 3 pm during my afternoon slump, cold brew and I get back to work together. It became a norm — to start work with a cold brew in my hand. It’s been my cue to start work and focus for the past three years now.

During holidays in Europe, I’m literally so grumpy before I pick up my morning coffee.

You tell me— you must be knowing people who get all grumpy unless they have their morning coffee. So I’m not the only one, yes? Okay, thank you for not making me feel alone.

But something changed two months ago.

I hopped on a diet to lose weight, but…

My dietician specialises in Ayurveda and told me how most Indians suffer from acidity and digestion issues because of chai.

Most people have it first thing in the morning, just like coffee. And that’s a recipe for acidity and indigestion.

Well, take my grandma, for instance. It’s painful for her to go through indigestion and acid reflux. Every day there’s a meal she won’t be able to digest — and that hurts – a lot. I’m not saying the reason for this is solely the tea she has three times a day, but surely, it adds up somewhere.

So my dietician advised me to limit my caffeine intake to once a day.

“Ayurveda is a science that provides us with the knowledge of how to prevent disease and how to eliminate its root cause if it does occur.” — Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Note: While I followed the principles of Ayurveda, I didn’t quit eating meat, I regulated it.

“But what about my morning kick?”

Something I learnt was that nature has everything we need to thrive, and we don’t need a stimulant for it.

For instance, this morning I had:

• a glass of water with 1/3 tablespoon each of cumin seeds, fennel seeds and carom seeds

• aloe vera juice

• coconut water

These three powered me enough to kick-start my day with focus.

Every day, I have different three glasses of water, all with natural ingredients.

It was easy to leave my morning coffee because of this as I was already getting the after-effects of coffee amplified and also in a better version than what coffee gave me.

The withdrawals

I didn’t experience any withdrawals because I didn’t leave coffee and go completely dry. Nor did I change one stimulant only to move to another stimulant.

I moved to nature.

A different ingredient every day.

It was fun but also so wholesome because I haven’t had such things before. So I could literally feel my system get so much lighter, soother, and more energetic. Coffee only gave me energy, but this gave me a sense of being healthy overall.

How I feel now

Honestly — powerful.

3 years ago, I left Instagram because I realised it made me feel ‘less’ in every aspect. It put the scarcity mindset on autopilot for me. And leaving it meant letting go of all that cheap dopamine and social validation and just be.

Be alive, in my senses, and more mindful.

I feel the same after leaving coffee.

Nothing else should decide how I feel about the day and my quality of work. Nothing should control my behaviour.

I should be in control of it.

I should own it.

So I feel powerful, but I also feel much healthier.

Breathing exercises, meditation, yoga, working out, and now a good diet helps me focus just fine.

“Health is not just absence of disease but a wholeness that involves physical, mental, and spiritual wellbeing.” — Sadhguru

Here’s what I recommend

First, read about what stimulants do to your brain and body. And know that just because something is widely prevalent doesn’t mean it's good — smoking, scrolling, caffeine, drugs.

We have resources from Earth to help us feel all things coffee makes us feel plus with more benefits.

Isn’t that amazing?

If I was going cold turkey on coffee, maybe I wouldn’t have managed it. So I recommend you replace your coffee with superfoods that can hydrate and energise you.

All the best!