Relationships

Take One Cup of Love, Sprinkle with Blessings, Serve Warm

Sometimes a simple cup of coffee can become a mindfulness moment.

Posted October 28, 2013

When I stopped at a local meeting spot for a cup of cappuccino, the design captured my heart. Oftentimes we order coffee on the run, but this cappuccino sent me into a mindfulness moment. Yes, I was in a hurry, but I had to stop a while to admire the cappucino design. I was immediately reminded of the “hot cuppa” study from Yale researcher Professor John A. Bargh with Lawrence Williams of the University of Colorado in 2008. As the Yale news pointed out at the time, “Our judgment of a person’s character can be influenced by something as simple as the warmth of the drink we hold in our hand.”

It seems that a hot “cuppa” reminds us of those childhood days when we snuggled into our mother’s arms or the arms of someone who loved us. It is, however, a bit more complicated as the study reported. YaleNews | With Hot Coffee, We See a Warm Heart,

Dr. Bargh of the Yale ACME Lab, “Automaticity in Cognition, Motivation, and Evaluation" is director of the research group that “focuses on unconscious or automatic ways in which our current environmental surroundings cause us to think, feel, and behave in ways without our conscious intention or knowledge.”

Therefore, the next time you want to talk with someone whom you care about and to whom you wish to convey some positive feelings, serve a warm cup of tea, coffee, or even chicken soup.

To generate warm feelings

Another method of generating warm feelings is through forgiveness and gratitude. Our pediatrician’s wife once told us the story of a person who really created difficulty for her. She would actually cross the street when she saw the woman approaching.

Then one day, she sat down, wrote a simple forgiveness prayer, and then began wishing the woman blessings — ten to be exact. The next time she saw her nemesis approach, she greeted her. “It amazed me,” she said. “Somehow I just couldn’t muster up that old anger and resentment again.”

In essence, the gift of the cappuccino reminded me – who is just off crutches – of the need to slow down, observe, and heed the advice of PsychologyToday.com colleague, Susan Krauss Whitbourne, Ph.D.. In a recent post she said, "Prevent accident-proneness from getting the better of you with some mind control”

It's time for me to begin to show more appreciate for the warm cuppa. And after admiring the designs, and even before sipping, taking a moment to smell the coffee.

A cup of warmth, sprinkled with blessing, may be just what the doctor ordered.