what is

Cha-link is a special mindfulness meditation method at tea time that helps purify yourself and grow your inner peace in a busy and stressful life. Cha-link enables you to heal yourself by focusing on brewing loose-leaf tea carefully, gently and delicately based on effective meditation techniques. Your mind will be filled with tenderness and gratitude after the 20 minutes of practice. Plus, making it a habit naturally trains you and changes your brain to better deal with your fatigue and stress.

Negative Effects

TODAY

Our minds and hearts are exhausted. We are losing peace and compassion with the extensive use and negative effects of technology.

Understanding the negative effects of technological developments while enjoying their benefits is the first step. Then we need to learn how to deal with them and make it a healthy habit!

What will happen

if we lose compassion?

Many problems seem to be caused around us because people have no energy to care for others and our world. It will take away tenderness from your mind and from this world as a result as below.

You will suffer from a lack of care for...

1. yourself

2. other people

3. the environment

Technology vs. Brain

Mind-wandering

Increase of multitasking

Multitasking, which is not an easy job for our brains, has become common at work and home due to the improvement of work efficiency and the spread of web applications.

Without knowing, you are actually dealing with an increased need to multitask on a daily basis. For example, you may think you are having a break or resting when you are playing with your phone, but your brain is actually WORKING while you are using multiple apps at the same time.

Societies of Info-besity(Information Overload)

Not only about information overload but also updating and uploading information has been accelerated and we are exposed to too much information all day long. Whenever we check our phones, we are annoyed by unimportant notifications. Our brains are already worn out as they are not able to process this excessive quantity of information.

mind-wandering

Multitasking and info-besity cause negative mind-wandering or “monkey mind” which prevents us from focusing on one topic.

When our minds are wandering, our thoughts don’t stay on the task-at-hand but are distracted by other topics, thoughts, and feelings. We negatively remember our past failures and suffer from anxiety. We worry about the future. Stress is caused by multitasking and info-besity although some studies say that mind-wandering can enhance creativity.

According to the studies, Mind-wandering can have various bad influences on us.

1. A big energy consumer

It has been found that mind-wandering is an inefficient use of our energy. Mind-wandering accelerates the exhaustion of our brains.

2. Making us unhappy

The research by Killingsworth and Gilbert, professors at Harvard University, shows we spend almost half of our daily lives thinking about something other than what we are doing, and this mind-wandering typically makes us unhappy.

3. Using attentional resources

Attentional resources is a psychological term describing the total amount of attention available to perform cognitive tasks. This is limited. If we pay too much attention to our distracted and chattering thoughts we don’t have enough attention to allocate to caring for other people and ourselves.

WHY

Mindfulness

Neuroscience has proved that mindfulness helps reduce stress, improves concentration, and increases our Emotional Intelligence and compassion. Mindfulness has been applied in medical and business fields around the world today.

In the 1970s Professor Jon Kabat-Zinn developed a program “Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction”or MBSR, to cope with pain, stress, and disease. His ideas have been accepted and applied around the world.

In 2007 Chade-Meng Tana, an ex-Google engineer developed “Search Inside Yourself” to gain better self-awareness, to improve communication skills and to lead with compassion. It has become popular worldwide.

Brain Plasticity

 – You can change your brain!

While your brain can be deformed by stress or anxiety, you can also train your brain for positive changes.

Brain networks related to cha-link

Critical changes of the brain by mindfulness practice happen in three types of neural networks;  Default Mode Network(Waster), Salience Network(Commander), and Central Executive Network(Samurai).

Mind-wandering is in a state of the DMN (Waster) activated which consumes 60% to 80% of total brain energy. On the other hand, CEN (Samurai), in charge of planning, making decisions, controlling attention and managing short-term memory, is active when you are concentrating on a thing. SN (Commander)  has a role to switch between DMN (Waster) and CEN (Samurai) depending on the information from outside and our physiological phenomenon. It also takes care of empathizing with others as it’s associated with the stimuli from inside and outside of ourselves.

Changes of a brain by cha-link

●Changes of the brain networks

During the cha-link practice, DMN (Waster) is resting and we can allocate our attentional resources to other people as our minds are not wandering. Plus, SN (Commander)  and CEN (Samurai) are activated and it will prevent our brains’ fatigue and develop compassion. The connection between SN (Commander)  and CEN (Samurai) will get stronger by cha-link practice. When SN (Commander) becomes active and sensitive to other people’s feelings, CEN (Samurai) works together with SN (Commander) and judges what we should do for them and take action.

●Changes of the brain regions

Based on mindfulness together with various meditation methods, cha-link practice changes some regions of the brain to help us deal with stress and harmonize with others.

Why Tea?

Origin of mindfulness

It is an English translation of one element of the Buddha’s teaching “The Noble Eightfold Path” in the 5th Century B.C.. Zen Buddhism emphasizes a mindfulness state of mind coming from meditation as a core practice.

Rikyu is the most important historical figure in Japanese tea culture because he developed the essential spirit and practices of the tea ceremony. He established a type of ceremony based on Zen Buddhist and mindfulness teachings.

Benefits

of Tea Mindfulness

Part of Your Daily Life

Making tea is a part of daily life for many people all over the world. So why not make your daily tea times mindful? You don’t need to find spare time for mindfulness practice.

Nothing Special to Prepare

We believe Yoga and other activities are great for mindfulness practice as well but you would need a mattress and need to change clothes. You can already start Tea Mindfulness today if you have a teapot and tea leaves at home.

The Tea will Taste Better than Usual

Mindfulness requires you to brew tea carefully and delicately. Tea is a tasty infusion if you become a bit patient and sensitive during the brewing process. The tea will be very enjoyable.

Concentration & relaxation by Theanine

A compound found in tea, L-Theanine, has health benefits to improve your concentration and make you relaxed. Traditionally, Zen monks used tea for their practice. Tea and mindfulness are a perfect match!

Reducing Plastic Use

Micro plastic pollution has become one of the biggest global environmental issues today. Instead of buying beverages in plastic bottles, brewing tea is an eco-friendly choice. (Especially in Japan)

How do you practice

cha-link?

This is a special way of brewing loose leaf tea developed by Rica. It is based on her specialties as a master of Japanese leaf tea ceremony, a Japanese tea instructor or sommelier and a mindfulness specialist

Points of cha-link

First, check your mind and body and become aware of your breathing.

Pay attention to your senses: the sound and movement of boiling water, the color, shapes and aromas of the tea leaves, the temperature and weight of the teapot, the texture of tea cups, and the sound and vibration when you put a tea cup on a saucer.

Then, enjoy the tea with full and enhanced awareness.

Some other meditation techniques and training methods for the autonomic nervous system are part of this practice.

You can enjoy tea mindfulness with your own teapot and cups anytime.

Have a

mindful time

Brewing tea carefully, slowly and gently.

Make your daily tea time mindful! With a deep understanding of cha-link, you are now ready to take good care of your mind and soul. Now we share everything about cha-link on our email magazine so you can already try practicing cha-link at your home. We are also holding events for you to experience cha-link in a temple in Tokyo so please come and join us whenever you feel tired.