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About Kara-Leah Grant
Kara-Leah is an internationally-renowned writer, teacher and retreat leader. Millions of people have been impacted by the articles, books and videos she has published over the last ten years. Her passion is liberation in this lifetime through an every day path of dissolving layers of tension into greater and greater freedom and joy. You can find out more about her, including when her next retreats are, on her website. Kara-Leah is the visionary and creator of The Yoga Lunchbox.
Wow.. thank you so much for combining all these different articles and books and adding your own experiences. I personally feel very ‘tight’ in my practice when I drink coffee.
Interesting article – Sharath is Jois´grandson though!”
I always drink a coffee in the morning – II don´t feel it has any negative effects but in the spirit of your investigation maybe I´ll try to observe what happens if I dont drink that coffee.
Thank you for all your effort
Michelle
Another increase of knowledge. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and ideas. it’s very helpful and inspiring.
Such a great read with links to both the father of Ashtanga as well as some of the Yogis and Yoginis of our current age.
I never drink coffee before morning practice as it just feel super counter-active to the state of mind I’m trying to cultivate through each step of my practice. Buuuut I do have 1 white coffee every day and I absolutely love it – it never makes me jump of energy or agitated it just makes me feel soooo satisfied (!)
“10 days off” challenge is now in the back of my mind – is there a reason for this amount of time from your perspective Kara-Leah?
Thank you, I’ve shared your article on my blog Facebook as well!
Hey Line,
Lovely to read your comment 🙂
The only reason I named 10 Days was because that was the original length of time I took off coffee, which totally changed my experience of what it felt like to drink it. So I know it’s long enough to de-condition someone to caffeine. Although everybody will be different… But it feels like it needs to be longer than a week. And ten days still feels do-able for those who really enjoy their coffee!
Much joy,
KL
I have been exploring yoga seriously for about 8 years and that included one entire year with no caffeine at all, despite the fact that I worked as a barista! I now drink coffee about 3 times a week and green tea almost every day, although never before practising. My experience has been that caffeine does make me more rajasic, however, as long as I can channel that energy positively and creatively, then there is really no clash with a yogic lifestyle. If anything, I feel more free now, as I don’t constantly need to restrain myself from caffeine, nor do I feel the need to judge others who use it. Maybe one day the desire will pass on its own, but for now I find that pursuit of awareness is more useful than the pursuit of supposed purity.
Hey Natalie,
Thank you so much for sharing your experience and perspective – it’s such a valuable way to learn. I love how you clarify between the pursuit of awareness versus the pursuit of purity. It’s such an important point. It feels to me like ‘purity’ is a natural by-product of ever-increasing awareness, but if forced on it’s own, creates all kinds of internal stickiness and conflict. There could be an entire other article in that!
Many blessings,
KL
I fully agree with you KL. I feel coffee is very addictive and tempting to many as it picks them up but it does so by robbing the imtenal organs of juice. This is essentially what all drugs do when they give you their highs. Coffee also pumps you up and activates your adrenal reflex which if done again and again will weaken your ligaments and make you prone to injuries.
Of course we are only human and sometimes need help to get thru the day, I don’t really believe anyone with a serious yoga practice will be so tamasic that they can’t get to their mat without a coffee, more likely that they’re so rajasic that they’re burning out and need to nourish their yin or deep inner energy. Perhaps if you find yourself in this category, wane yourself down off the caffeine, take high dose vit c to help heal your adrenals and take more time for rest, yoga nidra, pratyahara (withdrawal practices) and meditation. You might need to look at your yoga practice on the mat and see if it’s too rajistic, try not to try so hard, incorporate some slower flows and honour your monthly cycles.
Its too easy to get all pumped up on life and coffee but I’m the end it will leave you hollow. You need to be your own best friend first don’t let coffee take that place.
Cheers. PS I like decaf mocha haha
Hey Chaitanya,
Thank you so much for such a detailed and nuanced comment. You give some great insight and suggestions, which really add to the article.
Many blessings,
KL
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on yoga and coffee. I’m a passionate freediver and peace of mind and body is the most important thing. We also have the coffee discussion. Some are for coffee some are against. I have seen people dive to -90+ meters on a light breakfast and coffee… And believe me, you need to be utterly calm to dive that deep… Today, I’m not for or against. Instead I believe in harmony and balance. We all know when we are in balance and when we are not. That is the important thing. And back to freediving – I have great dives when I’m in balance and that is independent of me have coffee or not.
Great perspective Jakob – thanks for sharing. It’s what I’m coming to realise more and more too… all substances have a different impact on us depending on what’s going on in our systems at that time. Sometimes they nourish, sometimes they poison. Sometimes they bring us into balance, sometimes they take us out of balance.
I do like your blog posts, and share your desire for purity. However, I find it strange that you purify your body and insist even of moderating coffee, but see no need to purify your language, which, after all, reflects your state of mind and affects the minds of others. I guess my blood pressure was raised way more by reading an occasional f-word in the middle of your posts than by drinking my morning coffee (yes, I drink it with lots of milk and cinnamon) . I invite you to perform a similar exercise as the one you prescribed for coffee to see how it feels to use expletives . I’d say it doesn’t ‘taste good’, especially coming from the mouth of a yogi aspiring to enlightenment.. With respect, m
Hey Marta,
Many thanks for your comment. I understand exactly how it feels to use expletives, and consciously choose to use them. I feel the energy & power they contain and when that is called for, that’s the word I turn to. It’s something I’ve explored in conversation with a few close friends and fellow yogis, and it is something that comes up periodically on this website when I get comments from readers like yourself.
As for purification… right now I seem to be in a phase of recognising that the desire for purification itself may be symptomatic of a deeper underlying psychological impulse based on fear (you might call it a samskara). YOu can read more about that in my article How I Dropped the Ball on Day 338 of my 1000 Day Practice.
My sense of it now is that purity is something that comes about because of what has already happened internally. One can’t force that internal shift by imposing purity on the system. Everything we ingest through the 19 mouths of consciousness impacts us. Greater levels of awareness mean the purification happens naturally. Rather than seeking purity, the focus becomes that of becoming more and more aware.
This is the gayest shit I’ve read all week.
In what context are you using the word ‘gay’?
I sincerely agree with this post after giving up Coffee for the past two months. I was drinking coffee everyday for countless years and finally, through YTT, I realized how much it made an impact on my nervous system and overall health. Thank you for this lovely article.
Concetta
I drank a cup of coffee before reading your post, almost finished reading, almost, but wasn’t twirly enough, you definitely shouldn’t drink coffee, my mind is always on frenzy, but even for me this was too much😂 I think the only people allowed to drink coffee are the sattvic ones, because of their tendency to have an activated shushumna they less likely captivate people, so they need that rajasic kick to care about wordly affairs and for interaction with people. You can read about that in Swami Muktibodhanandas Swara Yoga as cited by Gregor Maehle in his Pranayama The Breath Of Yoga.
Hey!
Great article. I start practicing yoga on a daily basis 14 years ago. Stopped coffee few months before it. I really agree to this content. All my respect for such a dedicated work and collecting all this valuable information!!!
I also feel that the immediate effect is increase of Rajas, but then after a short while the Rajas is being transformed into Tamas (a reason why coffee drinkers will feel a need for another glass).
Keep it up! 🙂
A very interesting and well studied subject, thank you for taking the work out of it for me. I have been practising yoga for more then ten years and have only ever been to a class twice! I would love to go to more classes but live in a country where yoga is only just surfacing and classes are starting up in the larger towns. I study on the Net everything I can to follow a yogic life style but I really had no idea coffee was a problem so thank you for letting me know all of this. I have a coffee every morning once at work but then I can do without it as well. I love the flavour but it doesnt affect me and I can go for long periods without having it. I have watched how it affects others around me but its never affected me and I realise I can do without it with no problem. I normally drink herbal teas and never have milk or sugar but I love chai and often make it for myself but I dont take well to milk so often leave it out.
Coffee actually clears the mind. Its like a reset switch. Charges up the lower systems. What you do with that energy is up to you. Peace x
Thank you so much for your work, Im sitting here journaling my coffee maya as I do my Kundalini homework for Level 1 for the month and drinking coffee. I know it affects me. I know it affects my breath. But ,I really didn’t understand the subtleties behind it regarding the Gunas. The paragraph that sealed the decision to drop it for me was how my nevous system inbalance could affect the group conscious. Wow, that makes complete sense to me.
The cotrolled coffee drinking meditation is brilliant, but intuitively, I know what the answer will be. I’ll justify loading the Starbucks card and doing the grande dark drip with 2 shots and 2 pumps of peppermint again, that’s how I roll.
Thanks again
Satnam
Thank you for your detailed article. Very well structured and insightful. Spoken as a true teacher by merely pointing the way, with no compulsion.
Great article, thank you. I was struggling with whether to have one this morning so decided to look inside, then found this while drinking. I added cinnamon to it, thanks for that too!
Thank you for your research and personal perspective on this topic of coffee consumption and its effect on teaching and practicing yogasana. My own experience is that the more consistently I consume coffee the less I seem to witness the regulation of prana (yama) and I somewhat disregard my any focus on prtyahara (looking at this limb as the stopping of food to support the withdrawing of the senses). When I know I will consume coffee, I mediate more in the morning and do less asana. The longer term effects of coffee consumption seem to produce heat in the mouth and throat area which I believe adds to the ragistic state of “pushing” the energy resulting in the illusion of detoxifying which is really just sweating more when my yogasana practice is more active. I would not know the long term effects of this cycle of combining coffee and yogasana – pranayama. It may disrupt udan pran (coordinating vayu based in the larynx) from saman pran (digestive) not being as naturally active. This subtle aspects of the prana vayus is intuitive I throw this concept out to you all for experiment. Namaste
Yogi Bhajan was very against coffee (and all stimulants), though tea seemed to be acceptable. He even went as far as to say coffee is a poison for the body. It’s become clear that I am addicted to coffee. I have a French press and a jar of organic coffee that I am craving right now as I type. Coffee does have some benefits on the mind and the liver, but I’m not sure if it’s worth the stress on the adrenals. Coffee is acidic and quite hard on the teeth and digestive system.
Hi! Great article and enjoyed the high quality comments as well. I even think a rewrite using the new perspectives would make it even better!
For me Coffee tightens me up. I am als easily stuck in a hyperfocus, which is not always desired.
I am thinking of switching to Matcha again. It has a pick-me-up, but without the jitteryness. I am not even sure why I ever started drinking coffee again..