Seriously, Check out Purely Tea, A+ Product and Customer Appreciation

Hi there!  This is the post for Purely Tea.  Please check them out, I think they are fantastic.  On Instagram earlier today Purely Tea was being really awesome and suggested I write a blog post to help direct some people to their new page.  And here I am, a huge smile on my face as I type this.  The biggest thing that I want to share with this post is the amazing story behind Purely Tea and also their care and appreciation for their customers.

Purely Tea recently did a vote/poll regarding the name and logo of their brand and I must say I am a big fan.  I gave my review of their glass tumbler on Amazon and I definitely think I should share it here too.

The official logo of Purely Tea - this is not my product
and I beg their forgiveness for using it w/out expressed permission.

Not only do I admire their recent vote/poll and their direct contact with customers, but they have a great perspective.  They were looking to the future and that ever elusive "something" that they wanted to achieve.  They did something for themselves and their health, it was a big gamble but I am going to make sure I spread the word and help them along, not only as a fellow tea drinker but because I need to support HAPPINESS.  Just going to their site lets you see these amazing people, their family, and their love of tea.  The owners of Purely Tea are just regular people that chose to make a change in their life in order to be happy and that is something to be admired and supported.



Ok, enough of my silly fan-girling.  Here is my Amazon Review/Feedback:

5.0 out of 5 starsA new favorite for my on-the-go tea drinking life...
ByE A V Non November 10, 2015Verified PurchaseI am a serious tea drinker and I need a travel bottle that will be able to take the hits and keep on working. I was a bit skeptical of the glass bottle at first but honestly I could not be more pleased now that I have it. I haphazardly threw it in my bag this morning with several other items and it kept whole. As a good test of it's ability to steep my tea, keep it clear of leaf debris and keep it warm I put in one of my more tricky blends and it performed perfectly. I would definitely state that the infuser is not meant for SMALL LOOSE LEAF, broader leaves are a must, but I am not complaining at all.
Word to the wise: if you are using a leaf that becomes bitter with over-steeping, you will want to be mindful of this and make sure you properly remove the infuser basket in the appropriate amount of time. This is an efficient infuser and you will want to keep your steeping timed for best results.
Definitely would buy again and very well may for holiday gifts. :D

** I received this bottle for a discount in exchange for an honest review **

 Additionally there have been some Q&As that I was able to respond to - here is one of them:

Question:I just got one as a gift but no instructions or directions, are there any available?

Answer:If you got the whole kit you can pull it apart and see the cylinder, the tea infuser that can be loaded from the bottom. Usually I keep the lid on put the tea in the basket and then fill just below the lip - you don't want to go over the lip of the basket. I know I use mostly green teas so I can wait the short time for it to steep. You can remove the basket when your tea has steeped and then screw the bottom lid back on and turn back upright. It's wonderfully easy. Always remember to clean the infuser and tumbler regularly.I hope this helped. If you need any further info, let me know. 

By E A V N on December 27, 2015

Honestly - I could go on all day but you really should humor me and check out Purely Tea's new website at https://purelytea.net/,  Consider becoming a customer and order one of their glass tumblers :)

They are working on getting more tumblers up on Amazon and I am hoping they read my letter (reference earlier post) and at least entertain some of it.

Best of luck Purely Tea!  Tea Leaf Therapy is cheering for you!

End of 2015 & Fibro Shatters My Fav Tea Tumbler

So I felt like doing a year-in-review for the blog as well as my tea adventures.  It has been an amazing journey.  I found out that I really love blogging but I also like the forum available through Instagram and Twitter.  I am on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, and Pinterest.  I have business cards and even a personalized email via gmail for Tea Leaf Therapy.

I went from almost daily blogging to periodic and sporadic posts.  However I have thoroughly embraced the snapshot actions of Instagram and Twitter.  In addition I have enjoyed the forum permitted by the blog and twitter/facebook to spread awareness for fibromyalgia, self-care, depression, and anxiety disorders.  I am blessed to have the support of my family and friends but sometimes the pain clouds my mind and I need to have a place to relax and breathe.  Tea has been that safe "place".  I have a tea nook at home full of a ton of various teas, loose leaf and bagged.  I have started collecting cool tea cups and even pins (Thanks Jacqs!)

If you have been watching my almost daily Instagram posts you've seen me posting a ton of photos with various stress helpers (aka my stuffed animals) and several fun photos that make me smile and hopefully can help others to smile.

My fibro has been getting progressively more of a trouble and my hands and feet are certainly feeling the effect.  There are some days where I hope I don't have to write or type anything but thankfully all of the breathing techniques and clarity meditations (facilitated by making, pouring, and drinking tea) have been able to help me keep perspective and find the happiness in each day.

So in that vein, I am posting about something that made me sad and happy.  If you've seen the pictures via Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram, you will have seen a beautiful glass tea tumbler in it.  Well, we hit the end of the year on Thursday...and apparently my fibromyalgia really wanted to ring out 2015 with a bang.  I lost balance and grip causing my tea tumbler from Purely Tea (previously known as #Uendure) to fall and explode on impact with the driveway.  No one was hurt but I immediately started to cry.  I have been a bit more emotional with my fibro near the end of the year since it has claimed a cup or two and now my tea tumbler.

David gave me a hug and comfort as Rich picked up the bigger glass pieces.  David then told me that he'd get me another tea tumbler from Purely Tea and suggested I write them to let them know about the broken tumbler and make a suggestion or two about possible silicon sleeve to protect it from falls or any other ideas, as well as my encouragement of their brand.  So last night I wrote a letter/contact to Purely Tea.  So while my tumbler was broken, I was still able to do something positive and that is the lesson I am taking away from 2015 and bringing a happy Red-Panda-Girl (explanations later) outlook in spite of the things that make me sad or upset.

Welcome to 2016 and the continued adventures of Tea Leaf Therapy...

Seasonal Thoughts Over Tea

Hey everyone, I feel the need to make this statement especially in the face of recent tragedies and the talking points that have come out of it all.

No generation had everything all right or wrong. At no time has society been easily painted with one brush or one color. In respect to each other, please remember that when you use trite generational oversimplifications you dismiss the good things achieved or accomplished by each group. Nothing before or after us will be the same as we experience.

What we can do, instead of pointing fingers at each other to say that someone holds more culpability than we, is start moving FORWARD rather than looking back. Looking backwards will only make us repeat the same mistakes and fall over the same stumbling block time after time. And instead of walking alone, let’s try to walk together. Let’s allow ourselves to be open to dialogue, be ready to LISTEN rather than put energy into being heard. Try to remember your kindergarten teacher’s favorite idiom, if you cannot say something nice… Better yet, just think before you speak, listen to what you’ve heard and give it a moment of thought before you say something unkind or without proper thought.

Researching your own point of view and supporting facts, as well as looking into the facts from others is also useful; not for use as “ammo” but so you can understand your own views and those of others without relying on “rhetoric” and “talking points” alone.
Let’s be better than the people causing death, destruction, and terror. Let’s show them that they don’t have it right, that the world isn’t cringing in terror of them. Reach out to your fellow people and SEE them. By seeing them, recognize their humanity, smile at them and acknowledge them, be kind to them not for any other reason than they are alive and you are happy that they are. The “Golden Rule” only works when we treat others like ourselves, but as I can see it, we don’t really treat ourselves well either. So love yourself. Love your flaws and faults. Celebrate your “beauty” (inner and outer). But don’t keep looking inward, because we are more than just this shell we inhabit. We are our experiences and our actions. When we act with dignity, we know how to treat another with dignity. When we love ourselves, we can love others.

I’m sick and tired of seeing hate, fear, and anger being the only language we speak. Those are forms of speech too, but they don’t solve anything. Our outrage is warranted but outrage does nothing without action and action to HELP is better than action to HARM.

In this holiday season, in this time my tradition calls the dark days we are given time to look within in order to be reborn with the sun. So let us reflect on ourselves and our actions and MOVE FORWARD as better people, and become lights in the darkness, become hope for happier days. Don’t let your anger and fear keep you trapped in the darkness without a light, let yourself reflect the light of the sun, even during the dark days. You may never be as brilliant as the sun, but the moon is breathtaking too and gives soft light to the night in which we walk.

#peace #blessings #darkdays #rebornlight

Open Letter to Tea Companies Advertising “Magical Weightloss” With Their Tea

Dear tea companies posting about “weight-loss” teas,

I understand that there are some companies out there whose majority purpose is selling tea as a weight-loss aid.  I am not going to knock your statements about helping the body detox, feel less bloated, ease digestion, or aid in weight loss.  I actually fully support the above statements as mostly honest assertions.  What I am taking umbrage with is your use of a single body type to demonstrate your effectiveness.  While I do not doubt that the pictures you keep reposting on Instagram are patrons that use your product, I do want to question the level of efficacy that those photos assume.  Or more specifically the unnecessary reminder to anyone without 4-8 pack abs who wants to have less bloating, a healthier digestive system, and a body detox work for them (those who do not fit the oft-used model figure) that they will likely NOT attain with the use of your tea.

Honestly, all the power in the world and tons of support to the ladies that are using the tea in conjunction with healthy living and possibly intense workout regimens.  I am not and will not be dissatisfied with those ladies.  I am, however, as an avid tea drinker and blogger asking you to have more well-rounded reposts or advertising photos utilizing a range of body types and women/men that have benefited from your tea.

I have definitely benefited from the Fit Life Tea 28-day teatox and will happily thank them for the lessening of bloating and the ease of digestion that I have felt while using their tea.  I will also thank them for giving me a tasty way to stay hydrated during one of the usually worst months for me as a fibro sufferer.  I’m not a model and even when I did have a more socially acceptable figure I did not show my stomach but I have noticed the benefits of the teatox.  I post often about drinking their tea and feeling good, many times assisted by their tea.  

One thing that I do find disconcerting is that while I have been drinking this teatox and working to have a healthier me, I have also been bombarded with images of ladies benefiting from other tea companies’ body aiding tea and have actually felt worse for not being able to fit the mold.  It hasn't been the fact that there are ladies with very beautiful bodies being shown, but that they seem to be the only body-type being shown.  They seem to be the only body-type for a good part of my feed and that is sometimes difficult to scroll through.

I drink tea to calm down, to have less stress, to stay hydrated, to have a delicious cup, to help my body cope, and yes to detox and possibly aid in weight-loss.  I am not saying you should completely do away with the model-concept of tea that assists weight-loss but perhaps instead of only pushing the physical aesthetic, you could also give a nod to the physical rewards not just viewable on the surface.  

I don’t know if the only people posting are only of a particular body type and if they are then great but try reaching out to a broader market by including more than one body-type to possibly benefit more than just those that already have their full-body-act together.

Many cheers and hopes for continued future success!

Tea Life Therapy Blogger, Emily

P.S. to all the ladies (we should also target more gents) out there that are of the body-type being shown, congratulations and keep on being awesome!  This is not a knock on you and I sincerely hope you are proud of yourself, your health, and your own efforts to have some seriously rocking physical features.  Best wishes and many smiles.

P.P.S. Later post incoming about my pitch to tea companies to target people with chronic illnesses (cause I'm a spoonie and I love tea)

Days When Fibro Ruins...Life

(sorry all - no tea...just therapeutic sharing)

Recently my ability to take things in stride seems to be at a minimum.  I have been having random flare ups in among the day-to-day crap and trying to not talk about it or even admit that I'm floundering in a sea of disappointment.

Last month David and I went to an AGB event and I was in pain, got overheated, and had been having negative mental consequences from everything involved with fibro.  I was pushing myself because I didn't want to be "that girl" who falls back on her illness and cannot just push through it.  I have been trying not to admit when I have been pushing too hard and it all seemed to pile up at game.  This isn't the first LARP event in the hot weather that has taken me out of commission for a few days but this was one of the worse ones.  In among the pain I also get very depressed, not because of anything but my already crap self-image and then being conscious of being a burden or a drag.  I had a pretty bad episode of fibro fog at one point during the day and got caught up in the emotions of my character when in the midst of trying to sleep off some of the worst effects...I failed at staying down and actually "in-game" lost my cool.  After losing it, I immediately got sick and had I been eating properly probably would have vacated my stomach contents.

I've been trying to figure out how to be more self reliant and more capable but it seems that I am losing what little ground I have gained in dealing with my symptoms.  I actually can drive a little by myself now and even managed a night drive home from my moms the other day but little things like walking in a straight line, stepping up or down stairs, opening a screw-top lid, or staying active for more than a few hours at a time seem to be deficiencies.

Tonight my emotions got the better of me and I just broke down crying.  David had been trying to work with me to figure out a healthier way to participate in the things I love to do and actually manage to have friends beyond a few.  I was lamenting the fact that I wanted certain people, who I think are pretty awesome, to actually like me...and I wanted to figure out what I was doing wrong.  This led to a discussion about me being better about balancing my feel-good and feel-crap moments so I am not collapsing or being completely worn out right in front of people.  David was being wonderful and caring and trying to help...but all I could hear was my own fears and criticisms about being worthless.  He didn't realize until about part way through explaining an issue, that I had completely taken a left turn back at the beginning and was quickly speeding off an emotional cliff.  So when he caught me mid-cry...it just made the dam break.  I had an emotionally exhausted cry and admitted to my darker thoughts and concerns in my despair from being "a broken doll".

I'm sick of being sick.  I'm tired of having to take naps all the time.  Of having to break up my "off-work" days into smaller segments of activity.  I hate having to let friends down because my ability to move or handle life is impaired.  I am angry at having to cancel plans to see family because I got sick from a completely idiotic stress moment at work.  And most of all I am sick of being handled like I will break at any second...and when people don't handle carefully...actually breaking.  It's infuriating and depressing - there is no other way to say it.  My ability to focus is out the window with fibro fog affecting my brain.  I have been trying to keep active and work out in short bursts but I HATE my body and I feel horribly ugly.  I look at myself in the mirror and wonder how my husband looks at me without being ill.  I try to stay calm and collected at work but my ability to cope with stress and frustration is completely poured into getting out of bed and functioning like a human being that I don't have a ton of spoons to dedicate to not overtaxing myself.

Today is not a good day.  Today was a day of ruined plans and crying.  Today was a day that my headaches got worse and not better.  Today was pretty low in the emotional stability department.  Today I cried not just for me but for the cost of dealing with me, of caring for me, to someone I love with my whole being.  Today I had dark thoughts.  Today I hugged my husband.  Today I tried to put things and feelings into words, to try to name the demon of pain that is warping my emotions.  Today I told my husband that I love him.  Today I tried to be the best person I could be.  Today I tried to be a good friend.  Today I prayed for a friend who is in the hospital.  Today I cried for someone else.  Today my fibro kicked my ass but today I kept trying anyway.  Today was not a good day but I hope and I will try
for a better tomorrow.

Blogging: Therapy, Sharing, Helpful...Not Another Stress

I generally suck at doing things half-way, I'm usually an all or nothing kind of person.  So when I started tea blogging I was posting a few blog posts a day, I was writing any thought I felt was worth putting down on the page and I was unapologetically issuing word vomit forth.  My use of the phrase "word vomit" isn't so much an ethical or quality assessment of the entries themselves, I actually think I was posting some good things.  What happened though was that I was stressing myself out trying to find something to post, I wasn't just posting when I found a worthy topic, I was thinking any random thought that came to my mind was needed.  I was also measuring my output by the amount of the page taken up or how many photos I included.  I was making myself sick by trying to make myself better.  I am still drinking tea every day and I am still happily trying new flavors out but I have taken a step back from the dedicated blog posts every day.  I am coming back now because I want to and not because I feel an obligation to.
If you follow my FB page or my Instagram you will see that I still do random posts there, but I started to dislike posting on Blogger, probably because I wasn't feeling inspired to write rather than an obligation to write.  No one should lose their voice that way.  It sucks.
So...I think I have found my voice again.  I will keep blogging, but I will blog when I want and not when I feel I must.  So - if you still follow this blog, then I encourage you to have patience with me and to watch the various means of posting that Tea Leaf Therapy has available to it, I will post where and when I want and I hope that in doing this I will share something substantial and helpful with you or at least offer some insight or comfort.  Thank you for reading this.  See you again soon!

That Time We Fought Unending Hordes of Kobolds...

It is Friday - so it's GAME NIGHT!!  We're playing a D&D campaign, that Rich is DM'ing, that is set in FUTURE Barran (yes, the same world base as our LARP chapter).  We're a small party of level three characters.  The Adventurer's Guild set our group of novices out into the woods...we happened upon a few small bands of kobolds.  The ones we fought are pictured to the right.  Anyway, so we thought it was just a few small groups but ultimately it turned out to be the location of the MF'ing CLOWN CAR OF MF'ing KOBOLDS!


We killed 58 kobolds before we had to call it a night, at midnight.  I was already tired from the work day so to put this lightly I was so tired I couldn't put sentences together let alone effectively communicate my attacks.  SO I just stabbed things that came at me or just kept five-foot stepping to attack the next dodgy MF'er.  At about 10:30pm I was drawing in sidewalk chalk on our attic floor.  I put up a "here lies" for the infinite kobolds that we were slaughtering.

"15 Azthayir - HERE LIEZ [INFINITE] DED KOBOLDZ"

By the end of the evening I was so fed up with kobolds that I asked David to write "DEATH TO KOBOLDS" on my arm in Suudic.  Suudic is the alphabet that David created as the written language of the Apsuudi or Dreamtime in Barran.  Yes, I was having a moment.  Don't worry everyone, I did not get this tattooed on my left arm.  I do think I will get a Suudic tattoo or something else to tell David I love him (yes I am weird)...but this would not be my phrase of choice.

I drank a few cups of white peach tea from +Adagio Teas while we gamed and it was a delightfully light brew.  So, I guess here is a custom made sales pitch for D&D geeks, "When you're slaying unending hordes of kobolds in a low-level campaign, quench your thirst with a pot of white peach tea.  You'll be able to stay awake enough to continue rolling the minimum necessary to kill every last one of those annoying and dodgy MF'ers."