I've actually always been a passionate coffee drinker - because of my Italian roots, I was practically born with it. In stressful times, such as A-levels, university or general exam times, on long car journeys, after all-nighters or during stressful days at work - nothing worked without coffee. But it wasn't just the effect and the reassuring certainty that there was something to comfort or cheer me up - I loved and celebrated coffee! Whether it was a fluffy cappuccino (with plant-based milk, of course) in the morning, a small black espresso after lunch (Italian rule: no coffee with milk after 11am), a spicy Pumpkin Spice in the fall or a Café Fredo in the summer - every time of day and season had its specialties and I loved them all.
The general assumptions about what harmful side effects coffee could or would have - I had known for a long time and never really bothered me. After all, it was my decision whether and how much I consumed. For example, a friend told me back when I was at university that she wouldn't drink coffee because it dehydrates the body and gives you cellulite. Yes - I also had cellulite - like 90% of all women - but that certainly wouldn't stop me from drinking coffee. Nervous conditions, palpitations, insomnia - I think everyone who has ever consumed 4 or more cups a day over a longer period of time has experienced this first hand and knows that this usually gets better again after reducing the daily dose or generally not drinking coffee after 4pm.
Four years ago, I had an unpleasant experience with an intestinal bacterium called Clostridioides difficile - which can get out of control due to the intake of antibiotics and of course had to be treated with antibiotics again. 3 months of antibiotics and 13 kg later - thanks to the pharmaceutical industry - the bacterium was dead - and with it my entire intestinal flora. My previously resistant "cow's stomach", as I always called it, which had never let me down in countries like Egypt or Syria, was completely ruined. From then on, nutrition in general, but also drinking coffee, became increasingly unpleasant and had more and more consequences - I could no longer drink bitter or burnt espresso and coffee that was simply drunk out of politeness, and in general I immediately noticed how my stomach rumbled when I drank coffee. I became even more selective about my coffee consumption - but that didn't stop me either.
So how did it come about that I stopped drinking coffee?
Let's put it this way - it wasn't planned and it happened overnight.
I drank my last coffee in October 2023. In preparation for a healing retreat, you're supposed to stop drinking coffee a few days beforehand, among other things. Of all the food restrictions, this was the hardest for me - especially now that the days were getting shorter and colder again, I loved my hot drink in the morning. I was sure - after the retreat, the first thing I would have again would be a huge cappuccino from my home portafilter - the 4 days without coffee before the retreat were just too hard.
During the retreat, however, something changed in my body and my consciousness. I even developed a real aversion to coffee - I found the smell alone unpleasant - I no longer wanted to try it at all. It was as if my body's intelligence now knew exactly that it wasn't good for me and that I no longer needed it. Somehow it was still hard for me to imagine being able to cope with everyday life without coffee and I missed the ritual of a hot drink in the morning. Tea was simply not an alternative. I heard from a few retreat participants who had initially had a similar experience to me that they no longer liked coffee either - but some of them drank it again anyway. That was out of the question for me. Back at home, I remembered that I had once drunk golden milk a few years ago - I had all the ingredients at home and so I made myself a fresh cup of golden milk. At first, it was quite an adjustment to integrate the preparation of golden milk into my daily routine - but now I'm so used to it that I take a freshly prepared one in a thermos cup to work every morning.
About a month later, I happened to come across an article highlighting the benefits of golden milk - and it said that turmeric, especially in golden milk because it is activated by black pepper etc., helps to decalcify the pineal gland. A topic that had been on my mind for several weeks. I was really surprised by this - my body had intuitively led me to a coffee substitute that also helped me to decalcify my pineal gland and thus further my spiritual development. In addition, turmeric has an antioxidant effect and can help to regenerate cell damage in the body and protect against new damage after about 30 days of daily consumption. I now love my daily golden milk so much that I even took all the utensils with me on my skiing vacation - so that I wouldn't have to go without it there either.
But back to coffee. Many people ask me how I cope without coffee in the morning or whether I can feel a difference.
The answer is clearly yes!
I am much less tired without coffee. It may seem hard to imagine, but once all the withdrawal symptoms were gone, I noticed that I was clearer and more alert when I got up in the morning. I was never one of those morning grouches and was always there and productive in the morning - but I noticed another huge difference compared to before. Especially on such gray and rainy days, where you can't really get going, I still feel clear and present. A big advantage is of course that when you stop drinking coffee or stimulants, you learn to listen to your body. You only have a certain amount of energy per day, depending on many different factors. You can of course use coffee and other drinks to get your body to provide more energy at a certain moment, but you will then lack it elsewhere. If you listen to your intuition and how your body feels, when and how much energy is available, take breaks or go to bed earlier in the evening instead of letting yourself be bombarded by streaming platforms or social media, you will live more and more in harmony with your body and understand the signals it wants to send you - hopefully before they manifest themselves in the form of illness or other things.
Other benefits of not drinking coffee include much better digestion and much better body odor. Fortunately, I have never had a problem with body odor - but have now found that people who suffer from their own body odor should try cutting out coffee, apart from diet of course (carnivorous diet). Coffee and cigarettes are among the strongest factors when it comes to body odor.
Another point I came across thanks to the lovely "Heyhalosol" is the following: consuming coffee disconnects you from your prefrontal cortex. This is a part of the frontal lobe of the cerebral cortex that is responsible for receiving sensory signals and giving them emotional evaluations based on brain content. This creates a relationship between brain activity and action tension (source: Wikipedia).
So if you are decoupled from your prefrontal cortex, you remain in the reptilian brain, another part of your brain, and this part only knows the primeval alarm reactions flight/ fright/ freeze - you've probably heard that before. This means that no matter what happens - the main actions always correspond to one of these three types of action - flee/avoid - be afraid or freeze/be unable to act. This is not only difficult for trauma-prone people like me, as we are allowed to unlearn this pattern over and over again - but also for all people, as it puts us in a state where we are quite easy to manipulate and control. And to encourage this state, there is free coffee for employees in every Matrix office ( the more you know 🙃).
If the preparation of golden milk is too complicated for everyday life or you really need something to give you a little boost, you could switch to alternatives such as matcha latte or cocoa with bioactive mushrooms.
I'm currently trying these out too. I've been using ceremonial cocoa at irregular intervals for some time now - just whenever I have the time and I think the heart-opening and grounding effect would do me good. However, if you are looking for something that you can incorporate more into your everyday life, there is now a wide range of drinking chocolate that is enriched with mushrooms as required.
For example, you can use Lion's Mane, which calms the gastrointestinal tract and the nervous system, or you can add Cordyceps - "the energy mushroom". This increases energy and stamina. You can buy the mushrooms and add them as you wish or there are ready-made mixtures in which several different mushrooms are added.
I'll link you to a supplier I trust (unpaid advertising)
- but there are many more suppliers on this topic.
I hope you enjoy trying it out and please let me know in the comments whether you live with or without coffee and whether you have ever tried mushroom cocoa.
Light and love
Your Elle ✨
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