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More than a cup of tea: Tonic Herb Shop employee brings new meditation practice to town

By Tabitha Johnston - Chronicle Staff | Oct 7, 2022

A cup of tea brews in preparation for a tea ceremony on Tonic Herb Shop’s second floor. Courtesy photo

SHEPHERDSTOWN — Every Sunday morning at 9 a.m., community members gather together on Tonic Herb Shop’s second floor to participate in a meditative practice that is fairly new to town — a tea ceremony.

“It’s an old, traditional tea ceremony that Buddhist monks used for years and years. The name of the tea ceremony is traditionally called ‘Cha Dao’ — it’s called ‘the way of tea’ or ‘the art of tea,'” said Tonic Herb Shop manager Silvy Franco, who began studying the practice three years ago in Colorado and then brought it to the East Coast.

“We sit in silence drinking tea, and I kind of guide the experience about the ‘yin’ and the ‘yang’ of how we hold the cup and what it means,” Franco said, mentioning that, for each ceremony, she uses her empathic abilities to select the kind of tea she will pour and the variety of music playing in the background. “It influences the journey a person goes through.”

The hour-long experience costs $15 per person. No prior meditation experience is required, Franco noted. And, while the ceremony is experienced by most participants as the Buddhist monks would have, by sitting on cushions on the floor, those with physical limitations are welcome to use the provided chairs or couch instead. After the ceremony is finished, participants are given enough time to share insights they gained from the experience, either with each other or through journaling.

“We focus on the nostrils and breathing to get really present,” Franco said. “The tea is actually a really gentle medicine, to help the person drop out of their headspace and more into their heart. The way that it links with the shop, is that tea is a Shen Tonic. In Chinese medicine, Shen Tonics help the person come back to their heart space, which is seen as the seed of the soul. So, oftentimes, when there are distractions in life, we lose touch with our higher selves, and Shen Tonics bring us back — especially when done in a ceremonial space — to your heart, so you might need guidance after the ceremony is over.

The teas in a tea ceremony can vary, based on Franco’s perception of what might be most helpful to her customers. Courtesy photo

“Tea is a very gentle medicine. A lot of people are doing ayahuasca and mushrooms, and go through usually intense medicine experiences, whereas I feel tea called to me, because she’s so gentle with the nervous system and not intimidating,” Franco said. “When we use the breath work, it relaxes the body so much that the tea can go in there and it starts shedding away the layers of inauthenticity. Through the breath work, the tea herself, which is a medicine, and the music, it just guides the person back home to the Shen space, which is the heart space.”

To participate in a tea ceremony at Tonic, register at http://www.calendly.com/CommuniTEA/gathering.

Franco