Andy Devaney
The British have always known a cuppa can steady the ship, but now there’s a new label for the feeling—and a fresh report to back it up. Tea and Sophrology is the headline finding from a Tea Advisory Panel (TAP) report revealing for the first time, how making a daily brew can help maintain inner calm in today’s frenetic lifestyles.
The report—TEA AND SOPHROLOGY: How drinking tea taps into our inner body & mind zen—pairs published science on tea and health (mental and physical) with Sophrology, the gentle mind-body discipline that has been quietly winning fans as a lifestyle trend. It’s been written by dietitian and TAP member Dr Carrie Ruxton, with Dominique Antiglio, author of the best-selling The Life Changing Power of Sophrology.
And if you’re expecting incense, chanting, and an instruction manual the size of a phone book, you can put the kettle on and relax. This is calm made practical—breath, movement, a bit of visualisation—and, crucially for the British constitution, a mug in your hand.
Lead author, Dr Carrie Ruxton, says: “What we do to our bodies affects our minds, and vice versa. We cannot deal with them as completely separate entities.
This is why optimal health depends very much on a whole-body approach, providing the right diet, exercise, sleep patterns and opportunities to relax and de-stress. Tea and Sophrology go together as they can both influence the whole body by targeting points of stress”.
What is Sophrology, and why is it turning up next to the biscuit tin?
Sophrology was developed 60 years ago by Colombian psychiatrist and neurologist, Professor Alfonso Caycedo, who combined yoga, meditation, zen and classical relaxation to help individuals build balance and harmony. Think of it as “dynamic relaxation”: not collapsing into the sofa, but using the body to settle the mind.
Sophrology expert, Dominique Antiglio explains: “Daily practice is achieved through a unique combination of relaxation, breathing, gentle movement and visualisation.
The practice is easy enough to be incorporated into daily life because it doesn’t need any special equipment or much time. The goal is not just to bring a focus to the five body systems but to develop a deeper awareness of our body in consciousness, and to use it to unlock harmony between body, mind and soul.”.
Put simply: it’s designed to fit into real life—before work, between meetings, or during that familiar mid-afternoon wobble when your brain tries to walk out without you.
The report’s big idea: five body zones, one kettle
The TAP report matches different teas (black, green, herbal) to five body zones targeted by Sophrology—and recommends an exercise for each zone that you can try at home or in the office. It’s a tidy framework: instead of treating stress as one big fog, it breaks it into places you can feel it—head, shoulders, chest, stomach, and lower body.
That’s where Tea and Sophrology become more than a catchy pairing: the ritual of making tea acts like a natural pause button, while the Sophrology exercises give that pause some structure.
The new poll: how Britain actually drinks tea (and what it does to us)
Alongside the science, TAP gathered tea-drinking stats from a brand-new poll of 1,000 British adults, and the results are reassuringly on-brand:
- Black tea (the classic cuppa) is the tea most drunk in the UK, as chosen by 49 per cent of respondents
- On average, people drink four cups of tea a day
- Men usually drink four cups a day and women will have three cups on average
- Over half of people (55 per cent) drink different types of tea and herbal infusions depending on what time of day it is
- 43 per cent of black tea drinkers say it helps them start the day
- 34 per cent find drinking black tea to be calming
- 32 per cent think a cuppa makes them feel less stressed or anxious
- 98% of tea drinkers add milk to their tea making it a useful source of calcium in our diets
- 60 per cent say their mood influences their choice of tea
- 58 per cent think that a cup of tea helps them if they’re having a busy or stressful day
- Excluding water, tea (63 per cent) is seen as the healthiest drink ahead of soft drinks (9 per cent) and coffee (8 per cent)
In other words: we already self-medicate with a mug. The report is essentially saying, “Fine—now do it on purpose.”
The five zones: what the report says, tea by tea
1) Head, brain and face: focus, mood and the “too many tabs open” mind
The report points to evidence around caffeine and attention, and how L-theanine (an amino acid unique to tea) works alongside caffeine to support attention switching and ignoring distractions. It also highlights a study where daily consumption of 3g Matcha green tea decreased markers of stress and anxiety compared with a placebo.
You’re also given a Sophrology breathing exercise aimed at calming an overactive mind—details are in the report—but the logic is simple: slow the breath, reduce the mental noise, and let the tea ritual mark the transition.
Fun fact from the report: 50 per cent of people say their mood changes after they’ve had a cup of their favourite tea.
2) Neck, throat, shoulders, arms and hands: tension, strength and a surprising calcium angle
For the place many of us carry stress (hello, shoulders up by the ears), the report flags research linking regular tea drinking to greater hip bone mineral density in women—potentially due to tea polyphenols and also the milk many people add.
It notes that six mugs of tea with 50ml semi-skimmed milk could provide around 370mg of calcium a day—nearly half of the Nutrient Reference Value—then suggests a Sophrology exercise that engages shoulders and arms to restore energy.
Tea fact: Men usually drink four cups a day and women will have three cups on average. Around 98% of tea drinkers will add milk.
3) Chest and upper back: heart, lungs and the “breathe properly” reminder
The report leans on the large body of research around tea and cardiovascular health, including findings that drinking four to five cups of tea daily may reduce the risk of high blood pressure. The proposed mechanism: flavonoids supporting vascular function via nitric oxide.
It also points to meta-analyses’ findings that both green and black tea drinkers have a reduced risk of heart disease than those who don’t drink tea, and includes a breathing-focused Sophrology exercise (tummy breath vs chest breath) to relax the system.
Tea fact: 32 per cent of Brits believe a cuppa makes them feel less stressed or anxious.
4) Stomach and upper digestive system: metabolism, fullness and the “diet slowdown” problem
Here, the report argues that daily tea drinking appears to counteract the dip in metabolic activity often seen during reduced-calorie diets, potentially linked to catechins and caffeine affecting thermogenesis, fat oxidation, and muscle preservation.
It adds that green tea appears to increase leptin levels (the “feel fuller” hormone) in studies longer than 12 weeks, and pairs this zone with a visualisation-based Sophrology exercise aimed at easing tummy tension.
Tea fact: Excluding water, tea (63 per cent) is seen as the healthiest drink ahead of soft drinks (9 per cent) and coffee (8 per cent).
5) Lower abdomen to feet: gut microbes, grounding and the “roots to the earth” reset
The report highlights a study where daily green tea for 10 days increased Bifidobacterium in the gut, suggesting a potential prebiotic effect—often associated with reduced bloating and IBS, improved nutrient absorption and reduced risk of infections.
It also nods to kombucha as a fermented tea that provides beneficial microbes plus tea polyphenols, then delivers the most vivid Sophrology exercise of the lot: eyes closed, connect to lower tummy and legs, walk on the spot, and visualise “strong roots” grounding you to the earth. It explicitly points readers back to the TAP report, Tea and Sophrology: How drinking tea taps into our inner body & mind zen.
Tea fact: Over half (55 per cent) of people drink different types of tea and herbal infusions depending on what time of day it is.
The takeaway: a ritual you already have, with a method attached
What makes Tea and Sophrology a smart fit is its realism. Most people are not going to overhaul their lives on a Tuesday. But they will boil the kettle. The report’s pitch is that your daily tea break can become a deliberate micro-practice: a small, repeatable moment that reconnects mind and body—without turning your schedule into a self-care spreadsheet.
Concluding, Dr Carrie Ruxton, says: “Sophrology aims to bring harmony and balance to our lives by reinforcing connections between our mind and our bodies. As a method of ‘dynamic relaxation’, tea is the perfect way to bring this practice into our everyday lives”.
