Namely, tea.  In case you haven't noticed, the present author happens to be a tea connoisseur.  So if I wanted to center myself...  I suddenly remembered that I had once read a novel which mentioned something called centering tea.  Exactly the kind of thing I was after.

The novel was Witchlight (1997) by Marion Zimmer Bradley.  Witchlight is an excellent example of well-written light fiction about a frazzled young woman named Winter Musgrave who struggles through some intense psychic disturbance.  Midway through the book, Winter makes herself a cup of "centering" tea.  The tea helps to calm her nerves and bring some sanity back into her life.  Bradley describes the tea as being of "a deep red, nearly the color of Burgundy, and had a woody, almost briny, scent. ... The taste of it went well with the honey she'd used to sweeten it."

Well, imagine that.  A tea that actually centers you!  A tea that can pull in all your scattered energy, resolve your traumas (Winter has plenty of them), and eventually enable you to live happily ever after.  I was going to figure out what this stuff was if it killed me.

Bradley doesn't list any ingredients for the tea, but I was so curious about it that I ended up sending an e-mail to her website.  One of her associates responded by saying that Ms. Bradley had Celestial Seasonings' Red Zinger tea in mind when she wrote the passage, although the magical effects of the tea as delineated in the book were imaginary.

Red Zinger?  Well, Red Zinger tea is all well and good, but as for centering... I took a look at Red Zinger's ingredients, but I couldn't see how any of them could possibly do the trick, especially since the tea contained some kind of non-herbal "natural flavors" (which probably gives it its dark red color).  Undefined "natural flavors" weren't going to center anyone or anything.  Then it occurred to me that perhaps someone else had put together a tea which could be described as "centering".  A quick search on the web netted one commercial site for a centering tea composed of spearmint, roses, lavender, lemon balm, dandelion leaf, and orange peel.  Another suggested oatstraw, mallow, sweet grass, and roses.  Once again, these teas sounded perfectly delicious, but I doubted that these particular assortments of herbs could induce any kind of centering. 

I then decided to contact Michael Tierra, author of one of my favorite herbals, Planetary Herbology (1987).  Michael was kind enough to give the question some thought and responded thusly:

The object of such a tea is to calm the nervous sytem, give strength in the center, which would be the Spleen and Stomach in Traditional Chinese Medicine: chinese zizyphus seeds (Suan Zao ren) is a great herb that has both calming and nurturing properties about 50%. Camomile also has calming and nurturing properties that helps digestion (the center 30%. Jujube dates is sweet, tonifying and promotes calm satisfaction use 4 pieces per cup of water (eat the dates). Chinese Anemarrhena root (Zhi Mu) clears heat, calms restlessness, reduces any irritation 10%. Licorice has cortisone-like, centering properties 10%. Mix the combination together in the above proportions. Simmer one to two teaspoons in a cup of water for 20 minutes. Cool and add honey to taste. It is also very pleasant with a little almond extract. I hope you enjoy it.

Well, this sounded more like it, but I was not familiar with the Chinese ingredients, which were difficult to find.  And I had long been convinced that any tea which would truly do me some good could only come from plants which I had grown myself.  Only the chamomile and the licorice sounded promising.

Well, I wasn't about to give up on the idea, and I started to search all of my herbal books for some mention of a "centering" effect.  Nothing.  I started to experiment with various herbal teas myself to see what I could discover.  Nothing.  I then started to wonder about real tea (Camellia sinensis), either green or black, China or Indian.  Could real tea have a centering effect?  After all, the caffeine in tea gives you a jolt of alertness, which might be considered a kind of centering.  But I had never read or heard mentioned that regular tea could ever in any way "center" you.  I didn't seem to be getting anywhere. 

But one day the answer came to me without the slightest effort.  If I wanted some centering tea, I simply had to make myself a pot of ... tea.  Any kind of tea. 

I realized that all tea is centering.   Regular tea, herbal tea, Red Zinger tea, or any other kind of tea you care to name.  It doesn't matter what kind of tea you set to brew in your own little pot, do it right and it will center you. Mind you, what matters here is doing it right.  I am not talking about iced tea, nor the ghastly stuff which comes in bottles (yuck!), nor the powdered crap, nor what you can extract from those atrocities called teabags.  You've got to take a moment in your day to fire up your kettle and properly brew some real tea in a real china pot.  And then when you settle down to drink it sip by glorious sip, you've centered yourself.  You're relaxing, you're letting go of all your mental chaos, and you can go into the living moment in all its richness and wonder.  Presence of cat optional.  And if that isn't centering, I don't know what is. 

But of course this is still not quite enough...next

Centering   •   M.C. Richards   •   Tea   •   Stones   •   Exercises   •   Meditations   •   Breath   •   Chakras  •  
Four Elements  •   Daoist Scriptures   •   Cult of Tranquility   •   Etc.