The Best Goals for a Better Life and Planet

Ringing in the New Year means jotting down personal goals and healthy habits you want to pursue. You might set monstrous goals and clamor to get to the gym or write that novel. After a few weeks, you burn out and quit. 

Having large goals is great if you have a process in place to accomplish them. But being realistic with your goals is also key to getting to the finish line. Small steps make an incredible difference.

Don’t make your New Year goals enormous. Instead, make them small and seemingly insignificant. 

Small, insignificant goals manifest results that have an astounding impact on your life. Some of our favorites are tea goals. 

When you set tea resolutions, you create healthier routines for yourself. Some of these also have a wide impact on the environment and the world around you. 

Switch out your teapot. Learn where your tea comes from. Host a tea party.

Little goals, rituals, and habits can change your personal life, influence your social circle, and sustain the planet.

Let’s dive into some of our favorite and easy tea resolutions that will make a tremendous difference this year.

1. Seek Responsibly Sourced Teas

Do you know exactly where your tea comes from? The tea industry is a huge place, and not all tea businesses source their teas and products responsibly. 

One of your tea resolutions can be seeking out reputable tea suppliers and teaware businesses. Find a few that make it a point to create their products with a helpful global mission in mind. 

These USDA-Certified Organic teas are grown on small tea plantations. They are Fair Trade certified, and Teabloom is proud to have close connections with all of their suppliers —  from their tea manufacturers to their blenders and their teaware glass artists. Every item in Teabloom’s collection is made with your health and the world's wellness in mind.

2. Switch To Healthier Teaware

You might wonder why Teabloom only carries glass teaware — it’s not just for looks. There are immense health benefits to using this special material. 

It’s called borosilicate glass. This glass is traditionally used in laboratories as a strong and chemical-free material. 

The founders at Teabloom wanted to create a line of teaware that was made from chemical-free and sustainable materials. 

A lot of traditional porcelain and metallic teaware is made with materials that leach cadmium and lead into your tea. This is detrimental to your health and the environment. Teabloom’s borosilicate glass teaware is easy to care for, strong, and lead-free. 

This tea resolution is easy. Simply switch out your porcelain or metallic teaware for sustainable and healthier borosilicate glass teaware.

3. Practice Mindful Tea Drinking

Tea is wonderful to use as fuel and excellent for practicing mindfulness. If you read our blog about Hygge, you understand the importance of living in the moment and harmonizing with those around you. Mindfulness and tea resolutions mesh together perfectly to create moments you can share with others or enjoy on your own.

Practice simple mindfulness as a tea ritual by making a cup of tea just for you. Pay attention to every nuance and take your time as you intentionally concentrate on what’s happening in the present moment. 

Once your tea is ready to drink, enjoy every sip and focus only on this simple task. Practicing mindfulness allows you to release the worries of the past and free yourself from the anxiety of the future. 

4. Support Small Tea Businesses

Have you ever hosted a tea party? Make a tea resolution to host an annual tea party. If you’ve never hosted before, we have a grand list of tea party ideas that will make all of your guests smile. 

Choose a theme to plan and gather the materials and decor you’ll need for the event. This is an excellent way to connect with your friends or community. It’s an exciting opportunity to build deeper relationships with people. 

Pro Tip: If you’re hosting an afternoon tea, keep it between 3 and 6 people. This is a manageable number of guests that keeps the party intimate and still detailed and elaborate. This kind of tea party usually involves scones, sandwiches, small savories, and desserts.

5. Host a Tea Party

Have you ever hosted a tea party? Make a tea resolution to host an annual tea party. If you’ve never hosted before, we have a grand list of tea party ideas that will make all of your guests smile. 

Choose a theme to plan and gather the materials and decor you’ll need for the event. This is an excellent way to connect with your friends or community. It’s an exciting opportunity to build deeper relationships with people. 

Pro Tip: If you’re hosting an afternoon tea keep it between 3 and 6 people at the most. This is a manageable number of guests that keeps the party intimate and still detailed and elaborate. This kind of party usually involves scones, sandwiches, and small savories and desserts.

6. Learn How to Steep Tea the Right Way

Did you know there is a right way to steep tea? Black tea steeps at a different temperature than green or white tea. Different kinds of teas need shorter or longer steeping times for their flavorful bouquets to bloom. If you don’t steep your tea properly, you probably won't experience the full range of its true flavor. 

Starting with the right kind of fresh water is key to making a delicious pot of tea. Never use water that has been previously boiled and cooled down because it changes the flavor. Make a tea resolution to learn how to steep your favorite teas the right way so you can enjoy all of your favorite hot teas and iced teas!

7. Learn About Different Tea Cultures and Traditions

Have you explored tea traditions and cultures outside of your own? Whether you come from Eastern or Western roots, discovering new ways to drink and make tea is always fun and exciting. 

Make a tea resolution this coming year to learn about one or two tea cultures you’re unfamiliar with. Try different tea recipes, experience tea rituals, and try different teas that you’ve never tasted before. 

The history of tea is prominent in so many cultures. Learn about the Japanese tea ceremony, the butter tea bowls of Tibet, and savory, salty pink noon chai.

8. Create a Healthy Tea Routine or Ritual

You can do yourself and the world so much good by improving just a little bit of your tea routine to make it healthier. It starts with the right kind of teaware, and we believe borosilicate glass is the best there is. It’s not only strikingly beautiful, but it’s functional and sustainable. 

Make a tea resolution to create a morning tea ritual to reflect on the day ahead. Or create an evening ritual to relax and unwind. 

Afternoon tea rituals are cherished in Western cultures and almost defined by their extravagant finger sandwiches and scones. This is a fun treat and can be a delightful respite in the middle of your day. 

Whatever tea routine you decide to create, make it fun, easy, and enjoyable. 

9. Switch to Compostable Tea Bags

Switching out your tea bags for loose-leaf tea is by far the best thing you can do for your health and the planet. Tea bags are notorious for wreaking havoc and mayhem in landfills. But, if you insist on using tea bags, we recommend using compostable tea bags. 

Teabloom has created a line of 100% compostable tea bags that return to the earth in only two months. They are filled with high-quality whole-leaf teas — never tea dust — and they were invented to combat the mass-manufactured tea bags that take much too long to break down and pollute landfills.

10. Drink Better Tea

Have you always made tea with tea bags? Take the plunge and switch to loose-leaf tea for your tea resolution. This is a big one that has a lasting effect on the planet and your taste buds.

Not only do you skip the tea bag fiasco when you switch to loose-leaf tea, but you also enjoy a better-tasting tea. Nothing compares to full-leaf teas that are carefully handled and meticulously crafted. The tea leaves in loose-leaf teas are usually hand-plucked and of better quality than the types of tea leaves or tea dust you taste with tea bags.

The quality is so much higher that you can usually steep your leaves more than once. You know that bitter flavor you sometimes get with tea bags? That’s not the case with loose teas, so do your taste buds a favor and make the big switch this year.

11. Replace Your Caffeine - Tea Instead of Coffee

Do you still crawl out of bed and need your morning cup of coffee? Or maybe you must recharge your energy with a cuppa joe in the early afternoon. If your coffee habits are strong and you want to ease into a better caffeine solution, we recommend switching out your coffee for tea.

A lot of coffee enthusiasts swear by good-quality matcha and have made the big switch. Matcha might have more caffeine than other kinds of tea, but you can also wean yourself off coffee with black or green tea. The great thing about tea caffeine is that it’s balanced with an amino acid called L-theanine, which doesn’t give you that crash you experience from coffee.

You might want to ease into this tea resolution and start by switching out a serving of your coffee with a cup of tea. Doing this instead of going all in with tea from the start helps your body adjust as you make the big switch from coffee to tea.

12. Explore New Teas

Are you a creature of habit when it comes to tea? You might reach for your same tea day after day — which isn’t the worst thing in the world if you love it. But if you have any urge to just try a different kind of tea, let this be your tea resolution.

There are a few ways you can go about doing this. If you are a lover of black tea, for instance, maybe try a new oolong tea or a white tea and break out of your comfort zone entirely. Trying new flavors might help you discover that you actually like a different tea much more. 

If you stick to only one specific flavor and type of tea — like English Breakfast — maybe expand to other kinds of tea within that family of teas. For instance, maybe you can try a Scottish Breakfast or an Irish Breakfast. Or if you love a tropical black tea, maybe you can try a tropical green tea or a tropical herbal tea. 

13. Share Tea With Your Loved Ones

As much as you love drinking tea on your own, you know tea is meant to be shared among good company. Make a tea resolution to share tea time with your loved ones even more than you do now. 

Instead of a coffee date, have them come over for a pot of tea. Or simply share your enthusiasm for tea with people who mean the world to you. It’s such a joy to share your love of tea with people who understand you. 

And if they aren’t as familiar with tea, this is a great opportunity to teach them the ropes. You might just open a whole new world of fun and flavor that they never knew existed. How fun is that?

14. Replace One Snack with Tea

This tea resolution also helps you stay a little healthier. You might be a snacking type, which means you love to nibble in the afternoons and especially in the evenings. But it’s widely known that eating right before bed may cause some people to struggle with sleep and may contribute to weight gain. 

This year, switch out just one snack for an unsweetened cup of tea. You don’t have to cut out snacking completely, but making this small change can make a big difference for your wellness. If you’re a late-night snacker and you want to switch out one of your goodies for a cup of tea, we recommend an herbal blend, which ties into our next resolution.

15. Find Your Caffeine Balance

Whether you think you are sensitive to caffeine or not, taking a caffeine inventory can be super important for your overall wellness. Measuring the amount and kind of caffeine throughout the day is a healthy tea resolution you can do this year. It might open up your eyes to whole new realizations about yourself and your body. 

If you are highly sensitive to caffeine, you might not be able to drink even decaffeinated teas in the afternoon. They might keep you up, and this makes sense because the half-life of caffeine is about 6 hours. So if you drink tea at 4 in the afternoon, 50% of that caffeine might still be in your body at 10 at night, which can make it impossible to sleep. 

It might be even more important for you to keep track of your caffeine intake if you think you’re highly tolerant. Experiment by weaning yourself off caffeine and reintroducing it. Take note if there’s a change in your sleep patterns, your energy, your metabolism, or anything else. 

This tea resolution catches people off guard who have lived on caffeine for so long. Your body might be accustomed to drinking a lot of caffeine, but regulating that intake and restricting caffeine in the evening might help your wellness more than you anticipated.

16. Cut Out the Sugar

It’s a struggle to change your tea habits, especially when you love them so much. If you adore your sugary boba, chai, or even black tea with milk and sugar, this tea resolution might be for you. This one comes down to what you want more in the moment: to drink your sweet treat or make a healthy change.

If you don’t want to cut out your sugary tea, that’s perfectly fine. But if you love the idea of truly enjoying the flavor of tea without sugar, sometimes you just have to jump in cold. Yes — just start drinking your tea without any sugar right now. 

Your taste buds will fight you, and it will take about a month before you start to get used to the flavor of tea without sugar or even honey. For many people who enjoy sweet tea, it’s impossible to taste the flavor of tea without sugar. But this will change if you make the switch.

Once your taste buds acclimate to not having sugar, you will enjoy the flavor of your tea so much more. In fact, you’ll enjoy it so much that when you try to add sugar to your tea again, you probably won’t be able to taste anything but sugar. Taste buds are funny in that way.

17. Use Tea for Something Other Than Drinking

Tea is first and foremost made for drinking, friendships, and wellness. But did you know that you can use tea in a plethora of non-drinking ways? Yes! You can use tea to clean, to deodorize, and even to help exfoliate.

Using tea in your soaps, oils, and aromatherapeutic practices is wonderful. You can also use tea as an ingredient in recipes and tea cocktails — I guess that last one is still drinking tea. You can even use tea as a cleaning agent to help with dirty pans or deodorize your carpet.

Start Your New Year's Tea Resolutions

The easiest place to start your tea wellness journey is right here. Teabloom is your healthy home and clean solution for all things tea. From their borosilicate glass teaware to their ethically sourced teas, you’ll find everything you need to get started on the right foot this coming year. 

Reach your tea goals and change the world around you one small cup of tea at a time. Every little change makes a real and lasting difference. 

Happy New Year!

www.Teabloom.com