No Caffeine ~ Original Haiku/Senryū
Yesterday was a rough day. It was a holiday! Yet... it was rough. Why? My wife convinced me to give up caffeine for awhile. No coffee, no tea. The morning started fine, but by afternoon it was getting to me.
At one point, I wrote this:
headache throbbing — the joy of
giving up caffeine
In fairness, it's not just my wife suggesting it for health reasons. Many people suggest getting away from caffeine for awhile. Famed botanist Michael Pollan wrote last year about his trials of giving up caffeine for awhile and seeing how it affected him. I really enjoyed his pieces about that experiment. Some alternative doctors suggest limiting and even completely giving up caffeine for the good of the body. Many of the diets that promote limited fasting suggest no caffeine during the fasts. On a spiritual level, many suggest giving up caffeine for awhile simply to let them body and mind feel what it is like to not be dependent on a drug.
All good ideas—in theory. Actually doing it... that's another story, isn't it? I could feel the withdrawal headache coming from a little before noon; it hit after lunch and gave a low throb of pain to the rest of my day. The tiredness also hit. I could keep it away as long as I was moving, but as soon as I sat down, my mind wanted to shut down. Not entirely unexpected. Pollan talked about how the first day was the hardest, and we can imagine that might be the case.
I made it through at any rate. And today I've been going without caffeine again. So far so good! But we'll see how it goes...
Depending on how you want to classify things, this is more a senryū than a haiku. Senryū is same in form as haiku, a short poem that may or may not be in the form of 5-7-5. The only difference is that whereas haiku focuses on nature (primarily), senryū focuses on human folly.
❦
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David LaSpina is an American photographer and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku. |
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I recently eliminated my afternoon coffees, replacing it with green tea. Caffeinated tea though.
I suspect I will re-add green tea after a period of no caffeine. As you know, it's tough to completely avoid tea around here. I think I'm going to try to stay away from coffee for the foreseeable future though
I'm going to stick with my morning coffees still. For now.
Best of luck to you. I weened myself off the stuff a couple of years ago, but it was brutal. And after about four months I started drinking it again.
I definitely was nice to take a break, though.
Thanks!
It sucked you back in! But that's good to get away for awhile, just so you know the process, eh? I may go back in the future too, but I'm going to see how long I can make this last.
It did. I found the hardest thing about giving it up was undoing the habit itself, especially while at work. I ended up drinking a lot of hot water instead of coffee, and I got used to that, but still, all the moments when I would normally make a cup of coffee, I had to find something else to do for each of those moments. And I couldn’t go to a coffee shop or a cafe because there was nothing for me to order. The only thing I’ve ever really drunk other than water is for most of my life is coffee. 😆
Sometimes I think about giving it up again, but I don’t want to treat my family to a week of bad moods. At least, that’s my excuse. ✨
Best of luck!
Giving up coffee is scary hehe. I've been lowering my coffee as well seems like the older we get we don't really need it. The body needs to relax not high all the time due to overconsumption on coffee ☕
That may be true as well. Not only do we not need it as much as we get older, but some of the side-effects start popping up more often, making it kind of not worth it anymore.
That make sense. Next step is completely stop which I'm not sure I can 🤣
that caffeine withdrawal headache is the worst!
hope the effects are lessening.
Perhaps you require
the gentle ritual of a
tea ceremony
They are finally getting better, thank you. Well, I'm still very tired... (one of the reasons I forgot about replying to comments till now)
After I'm long past this I may reintroduce green tea, but I think I'm staying away from coffee for the foreseeable future.
Easier said than done, it is hard to stay away from what the body is accustomed to, hard but realizable with a determined soul... Thanks for sharing .
I am in the same situation. I have to quit my 5 daily coffes .... but I can't do that. Caffeine is addictive as hell