Eshin Direct

I have been drinking more caffeine which is unusual for me, as I haven’t used the stimulant as part of my diet for a long time. Tea is perhaps the closest I get to a caffeine buzz¹ or the occasional ultra-sweet espresso² . However, since I started work, I’ve been on at least two coffee products a day.

On a health basis, I’m not a great fan of caffeine as a stimulant as the beneficial high results in a less favorable comedown. For myself, it means a dangerously continuing cycle of caffeine as I use each shot of coffee to bring me out of the down and then bring me above normal to cope with the original level of fatigue I was experiencing. Sustained periods of this, I am sure, do not bode well for my physical well-being.

On a competitive level, the need for caffeine is almost required to help sustain you through the day. It’s not so much about being able to stay awake, it’s more about keeping your mind alert and being able to cope with whatever the day throws at you. In some ways, I enjoy the perpetual buzz that my caffeine dose puts me in. But there is a price to pay and I usually pay for it in the evenings, when I crash out earlier than I used to if I haven’t had a caffeine dosage in the evening.

What’s my poison? Starbuck’s Caramel Frappuccino or a PCC Chillino Caramel Swirl.

On a positive note, my nicotine dependency has diminished given the limited time I have to smoke. I’m down to five cigarettes during the daytime – 08.50, 10.30, 12.30, 16.30, 18.00. The evening is down too as I’m banned from smoking around the flat³. According to Osho, my smoking habit is quite destructive for my own creativity. It means I’m subconsciously bored with what I am doing.

If you are talking to a person, always remember – it is almost hundred percent accurate – if the person starts to reach for his cigarette, it means he is bored, you should leave him now. He would have wanted to throw you out; that cannot be done, that will be too impolite. He is finding his cigarette; he is saying, “Now, finished! I am fed up.” In the animal kingdom he would have jumped on you, but cannot – he is a human being, civilized. He jumps on the cigarette, he starts smoking. Now is he is not worried about you, now he is enclosed in his own chanting of the smoke. It soothes.

Remember that next time I light up in front of you.

1. Tea, by the way, has a higher caffeine count than coffee. Since it is so diluted, it passes off as having less caffeine than coffee. [↩]
2. Again, this doesn’t have the most caffeine as commonly perceived since the water passes at such high pressure, and so quickly, through the beans, it actually draws out less caffeine from the beans. [↩]
3. It’s called being domesticated. [↩]

Tags: caffeine, coffee, drugs, nicotine, smoking, stimulants