5 Reasons You Should Rethink Your Relationship with Coffee

I used to be a coffee addict.

Coffee was the thing that got me out of bed in the morning, my nirvana, my muse. I never thought I would, or could, give it up.

But recently, I started noticing that coffee didn’t perk me up the way it used to. Rather than my muse, it had become my crutch, my Achilles heel. I felt useless in the mornings until I had my coffee, and the thought of not having it was enough to cause me emotional distress.

Because of this, I decided to seriously re-evaluate my relationship with coffee and caffeine in general. I cut down my coffee consumption over the course of a month and then quit it altogether. I’m not going to quit it forever, but a little coffee hiatus hasn’t been a bad thing. It’s helped me reset my priorities and understand the effects of what I put into my body.

Here are a few signs that you might need to re-think your relationship with coffee and how to address them:

1. Coffee helps you feel normal. If it takes more a cup or two of coffee to help you function on a basic level, maybe you need to re-evaluate your caffeine consumption. Ideally, coffee should give you that extra boost when you need it, but if you’re depending on it just to function, you might want to consider cutting down your consumption bit by bit. Start by drinking half a cup less over the course of a week, then see if you can continue that trend for a month.
2. Coffee is the only thing you look forward to in the mornings. If coffee is your only reason for waking up in the morning, you might want to go back to basics and figure out what else gets you excited and motivated. Instead of hitting the coffee pot first thing, take five minutes each morning to do something other than drink coffee. Maybe it’s running, yoga, journaling or spending time with your kids. Whatever it is, make sure it’s something that brings you joy!
3. Coffee is disrupting your sleep, causing heartburn or some other medical issue. We’ve all had the coffee jitters at some point, but if you’re starting to notice indigestion, headaches, anxiety or acid reflux, coffee may be to blame. It’s important to remember that coffee is actually a psychoactive substance and its effects go far beyond making you more alert. If you’re experiencing any of these issues, consider cutting out coffee after a certain time of day or switching to milder options like green tea.
4. Coffee is the salve that’s helping you tolerate a negative work or life situation. If coffee is the crutch that gets you through the workday, it just might be distracting you from a larger problem. If you took coffee out of the equation, would you be able to get through meetings? Or would you be able to deal with your living situation, partner, roommates…without coffee? If the answer is an emphatic ‘no,’ take some time to think about what the root issues are and how address them.
5. Coffee is eating up a large part of your budget. A latte every now and then is a nice treat, but if you’re spending $5 or more on coffee on a daily basis, you might have a coffee-related budgeting problem. Try bringing your own coffee from home in a thermos. It’s much more eco- and wallet-friendly!

All this to say that coffee is not inherently bad or good, but like any relationship, sometimes it’s good to take a step back and evaluate what you could do differently to improve the relationship. You might be surprised at how your outlook on life changes.