I'm Quitting Coffee (and Maybe You Should, Too)

I love coffee. It's been part of my daily routine for more than 10 years. But my relationship with it must come to an end. I became too dependent on it to go on my day-to-day. That's unacceptable. 

I wrote in a previous post about attachments being the root of all suffering in our lives. Well, I have to practice what I preach. I'm attached to caffeine to work and have motivation in my daily life. But I shouldn't depend on any particular substance for energy or motivation. So, I have to bite the bullet and quit caffeine once and for all.

The decision came quite abruptly. On Saturday, I decided to postpone the morning coffee until after my meditation session. It didn't make sense to have coffee right after meditation. To my shock, I had the "best" meditation session in a while. That's when I decided not to have coffee for the day and give it a try.

I'm on day 4 without coffee at the time I'm writing this, and the first 3 days were quite bad. No energy, motivation, and headaches made my days quite miserable. Today, I feel better, at least without headaches and more energy. Yet, I feel quite empty. But I know it's part of the process of withdrawal. Sometimes, you have to go through hell to reach heaven.

This year I also quit porn and video games for good. But those were a piece of cake compared to leaving caffeine. Especially since I don't like this feeling of lack of motivation. But this is the price to pay after years of abusing caffeine. 

I used to have coffee twice a day, once in the morning and then at around 1 PM. But in the last weeks, I've limited my daily consumption to the morning. I noticed that I didn't get a genuine boost in energy from caffeine. Quite the contrary. I felt robotic and a little more anxious. Yes, my mind is more active, but that doesn't mean it's better. 

Without coffee, I'm relaxed and in peace. My heartbeat is now quiet again. After all, coffee puts you in flight or fight mode. What I perceive as energy is stress (if you want to get into more details, check the book "Caffeine Blues.")

I've tried to quit coffee last year with mixed success. I went through the withdrawal phase and survived. Actually, I lasted several months, and things were good. Until one day, my mind convinced me to have "just one coffee." I had it, and I stayed high the whole day. Only one cup of coffee sent my energy and motivation to the roof. Sadly, it only lasted once. Because on the next day, the effects weren't as powerful. So, instead of one, I needed two cups of coffee. 

That's the problem with caffeine. To sustain the "benefits," you need more and more. At some point, we use coffee to reach a new baseline. Without it, we feel like shit. That's the main problem I see with my caffeine dependence and the main reason I decided to stop it.

Now, I hope to learn from my past mistakes. I am aware that all those caffeine highs are temporary, and if I'm not careful, I will relapse again. In our caffeinated society, it's challenging to say no to coffee, especially when you like it. Maybe in the future, I can develop a healthy relationship with it, where I don't consume it for performance but for pleasure. But at least until the end of the year, I will stay clear of it. 

Should you leave coffee?

Of course, I won't tell you what you should or shouldn't do. After all, I would have laughed at quitting coffee a few months ago. 

Something similar happened when I decided to follow a plant-based diet a couple of years ago. If someone would try to convince me about being vegan, I would have laughed at the idea. Actually, I used to mock vegans and vegetarians. I loved meat, too. But one day, things clicked, and I made the change. 

Now, it's similar. It was the right time to quit coffee. It may not be the best time for you. But for some of you, this may spark the interest in the idea. You may have noticed that coffee doesn't help you that much like it happened to me. From those, a couple may also make the decision to quit caffeine.

That's the reason I don't like when people try to force their ideas onto others. Somehow, we don't want to change when others try to impose their will on us. It has to come from within us.

In any case, if you want to wait and see how my experience unfolds, I will keep you updated and write a post after 30 days without coffee. I hope by then to recover my energy and motivation. It scares me a bit to stay like a zombie forever, but I know I have to trust the process. 

Sometimes, one just needs to wait and be patient. 

If you liked this article, subscribe to my newsletter to get access to free self-improvement principles every week.