Caffeine Is a Drug: A Conscious Look at Our Favorite Ritual with Tonya Papanikolov

Show Notes: 

In this solo episode, Tonya invites us to explore one of the most normalized psychoactive substances on the planet: caffeine. From the coffee shop boom of the 1600s to her own decade-long dependency, she traces the cultural, physiological, and emotional imprint of caffeine on our nervous systems, creativity, and energy. With insights from researchers like Terence McKenna and Michael Pollan, Tonya unpacks the history, science, and spiritual implications of our beloved morning ritual and offers questions to help you tune in more deeply to your own energy, intention, and rhythm. This is not an episode about quitting caffeine, but rather about waking up to how we use it.

Topics Covered:

• The history and cultural power of caffeine, coffeehouses, and rebellion
• Why caffeine is considered a psychoactive drug and how it affects the body
• How caffeine impacts sleep, stress, creativity, and emotional regulation
• Tonya’s personal story of dependency, anxiety, and healing through awareness
• How a plant medicine ceremony changed her relationship with coffee
• An invitation to explore your true energy without external stimulation

Resources:

Links: Michael Pollen article: https://www.theguardian.com/food/2021/jul/06/caffeine-coffee-tea-invisible-addiction-is-it-time-to-give-up

Connect with Tonya:

• Follow Tonya on Instagram: @tonyapapanikolove
• Sign up for Tonya’s Newsletter
• Rainbo.com
• @rainbomushrooms

Instructions to Win a Bundle of Rainbo Products - Leave us Ratings and Reviews:

(Or watch the video instructions here)

1. Go to Spotify and search “The Rainbo Podcast”
2. Follow the Show and Rate the Show on Spotify, and take a screenshot
3. Go to Apple Podcasts
4. Search “The Rainbo Podcast”
5. Scroll down past a few episodes until you get to the “Write a Review” section
6. Write your review and screenshot before you hit Submit, as Apple’s system can take a while to publish
7. Send the Spotify screenshot and Apple review screenshot to info@rainbo.com
8. Be sure to go back to Apple Podcasts and hit submit on your review
9. We’ll pull a winner at the end of the month once we verify that your ratings/review went through to win a bundle of tinctures!
10. We’ll contact you if you win so you can select your bundle of choice
11. Check out all our bundles at https://rainbo.com/pages/bundles. Thanks and good luck!

Show Transcript:

[00:00:00] Hi, friends. Welcome back to the Rainbo Podcast. Today we're talking about the most widely used psychoactive drug in the world. It is a substance that we start our days with. We lean on through the afternoon slump. We build. Entire routines around it, and it's so ingrained in our culture that we often forget that caffeine is a drug, a legal one, a very celebrated one, but a drug nonetheless. Caffeine is stitched into the rhythm of our modern lives. It is the greeting that we give ourselves every morning. It's often a moment of pause or a little comfort. It's often even a drink that's consumed even before water in the morning. Beneath this ritual that we all love so much is something far more powerful. It's a compound that alters our state of consciousness. It affects our nervous system, and it subtly shapes our whole day. And I'm not here to demonize

[00:01:00] caffeine because I love caffeine. I consume caffeine. I have had a deep and very complicated relationship with it at times. I'm really just here to open the conversation and, you know, this is a conversation that invites curiosity ultimately, because we all deserve to understand the things that we put into our body, and especially the ones that we rely on the most, that we spend money on, that we have as routines in our lives. Most of us don't realize how deeply caffeine impacts our mood, our sleep, our focus, and even our sense of self. And when something becomes that normalized and that automatic, we owe it to ourselves to take a closer look and to make an empowered, conscious, intentional choice about. What that is in our lives. So in this episode, we're exploring the very, very nuanced, complex, deeply personal relationship that we all have 

[00:02:00] with caffeine. The pros, the cons, the science, the history, and what it might mean to. Question our dependency on this beloved ritual. So before I do, I wanna acknowledge the people, the thinkers who have really helped shape and reshape how I understand coffee and tea. So caffeine as a whole. How I've understood it as not, not just a harmless habit, but as a psychoactive substance with real physiological and societal effects. And I will say my complex relationship with this started much earlier than me learning that it was a drug. I'll tell you a little bit about my story and my history with caffeine, but I wanna speak to Terrence McKenna because he's the first person that really. Described that I read of anyways, that described caffeine as a tool of the dominator culture. So as a substance that [00:03:00] reinforces linear thinking and compliance. And that hit me so hard, really just understanding that caffeine is a tool that shaped our industrial world, our working culture. And that hit me so hard and I, I really. Started to ask myself if this morning ritual I had was reinforcing the patterns that I was trying to liberate myself from. Michael Poland's work also cracked something open for me. He has an amazing book that's called, this Is Your Mind on Plants, and he frames caffeine, not as neutral, but as a drug that is so normalized in society that we've forgotten that it alters consciousness, that it keeps us in this heightened. Very productive, consuming mode state, and that that is a state that has been placed into our culture by design. And so these insights have 

[00:04:00] radically shifted how I relate to my morning ritual, and they've planted the seeds of reflection and eventually change in my life as well. And so. I want to kind of take you back to my coffee journey and my relationship with caffeine because it is complex and nuanced. As I mentioned, I was addicted to coffee for many years in university. I was probably at my most unhealthy state in my life. Just in terms of the alcohol consumption, in the coffee consumption, and generally my diet and just being on a student budget and you. Really not knowing what I know today. So I was probably drinking around four to eight cups per day, and this was of like Starbucks coffee. So I was fried. I had next level anxiety at that point. Um, and I've really never had an addiction to anything before. I did not consume that amount of caffeine into my twenties, but that was a specific pocket where

[00:05:00] I was, you know, living in the library and by day anyways and, you know, just consuming all of this coffee. And so I started to. Uh, level out my caffeine consumption, but it was likely even to at least two cups a day into my, into my twenties. And, and then this tumultuous relationship really began. And so I again, have never been addicted to anything before, but coffee was this substance that had such a hold on me that I really couldn't shake. And it took me years to quit it. And I knew in my body that it was something that just. Didn't work well for me because of the jitters and the anxiety and the bowel movements and just, it really, really didn't work for me. And I knew this, and yet every morning I could not resist, and I would still find myself making a cup of coffee and going against my inner will. And so 

[00:06:00] I had this hypersensitivity to it, but I, I just couldn't really stop. And it was also suppressing my appetite. It was leading to afternoon crashes. I wasn't eating breakfast before drinking it, so my blood sugar was all over the place and I really started to, I. Feel this toxic relationship with coffee that I, I just couldn't leave. And I started to joke around being like, oh my gosh, this is like, you know, being in, in a toxic relationship with a person, who you just can't seem to get enough of. And then on February 14th, 2020, I. Right before my first Ayahuasca ceremony, I stopped drinking coffee for one day. I think it was one or two days that I stopped for. And after that ceremony, something really incredible happened, which was that I had zero desire for it. I actually. Didn't feel the need to consume it, and it wasn't something I went in with that intention of or asking for, but the plant really, that was her message

 [00:07:00] and her gift for me, which is this reset and this complete aversion to it. I just left that and I was like, oh, I'm not going to drink coffee anymore. It was just this, really simple decision that also came with this aversion and since then I have not gone back to consuming coffee daily. And let me be clear, this is not me saying you need to do ayahuasca or drink or consume that plant to get over your coffee addiction. So please do not think that that's my suggestion. That just happened to be the. Impetus for the change within me, and so please take that as a personal story, a grain of salt. I am not making the recommendation that that is what you need to do to reestablish a different relationship with coffee. I do drink matcha now, and that feels so much more supportive to my system. And now occasionally, maybe a couple times a month, I have a coffee

[00:08:00] as a treat and I love it and I really enjoy it, and quality really matters. I want to have the most delicious tasting coffee, but I've never returned to it as a dependency I don't think that there's anything good or bad about consuming it daily. It works for so many people, and it is such a beloved ritual for so many people. Uh, right now, my mornings I'll have a matcha, which is a single serving of caffeine, and in the afternoons I reach for something decaffeinated. And every year I do take a few weeks to cut out caffeine, cold Turkey, and it is very, very hard. I get really intense withdrawals, which not everybody gets, but I, I genuinely don't feel like myself for two to three weeks. But then on the other side of it, it feels really amazing and I get back in sync with my natural energy, my sleep rhythms, and that feels really, really good. So if you've never tried it, I do highly recommend experimenting with a caffeine break. You learn so much about your true energy and what 

[00:09:00] your body is really asking for. If you're somebody who struggles with sleep issues or. You know, anything along those lines, insomnia. It's also can be helpful to test out for some of those reasons. So I wanna get into what is happening in the body when we consume caffeine, because caffeine is often thought about as energy, but it is not energy. In and of itself, what it actually does is block a neurotransmitter in the body called adenosine. Adenosine is what builds up in our brain throughout the day, and it makes us feel tired, and it's basically the body's natural sign that's saying, Hey, it's time to take a rest. When we drink caffeine, the caffeine slips into the receptor that's meant for adenosine and it blocks it. So instead of feeling tired, we feel alert. We feel focused, we feel sometimes even euphoric. But that tiredness doesn't just disappear. It is simply

[00:10:00] being masked. And so caffeine is energy that is borrowed, and energy that is borrowed always has to be paid back. So caffeine stimulates the central nervous system. It nudges us into a fight or flight response, even if that's a very subtle fight or flight response. And this is because it increases our heart rate, our cortisol levels can spike. And over time that can dysregulate the delicate balance of our nervous system adrenal function. It can leach us of some minerals, and especially if we're using it to push through fatigue rather than listening to it. You know? So if we're constantly ignoring the bodies. Need for rest, and that rest can be like, like a 10 minute walk, a a 30 minute break. Oftentimes we're not even giving that to ourselves, which is wild to think about. One of the biggest ways that caffeine impacts our wellbeing is through sleep. 

[00:11:00] And whether we realize it or not, it can have an impact on our sleep, and this is because caffeine has a half-life of around five to seven hours and that meet and that can also be longer for certain individuals as well. But this basically means that if you have a cup of coffee at 2:00 PM that afternoon, coffee. That half of that caffeine is still gonna be circulating in your system at 9:00 PM and that can impact our sleep cycle. Our melatonin, it can block REM sleep. It can disrupt sleep, so you might be waking up more frequently. And even if you do fall asleep easily, the quality of your rest can be, somewhat significantly reduced. And if you fall asleep easily, that can also just be a sign that you're overtired. Michael Poland notes that not a single sleep or circadian rhythm expert that he interviewed in his book U uses caffeine themselves, which is so telling these scientists would not consume caffeine after they

[00:12:00] knew what it did to sleep. And obviously these are people that are highly invested in sleep and sleep research. But when our sleep is compromised, everything follows our mood, our immune system, our hormones, our cognitive performance, our emotional resilience. So sleep does, or caffeine does have hidden effects and a hidden cost on our sleep. And just remember, it's borrowed energy and borrowed energy always needs to be repaid. So coffee. Is really, I mean, there's a global love affair with this substance, and this also applies to T, but. Coffee specifically has really turned into the drink that most of the world consumes. So if we zoom out for a moment and just try to wrap our heads around the fact that over 2.25 billion cups of coffee are consumed every single day around the 

[00:13:00] world, and the average American drinks over three cups a day and 62% of US. Adults drink coffee daily and it is, one of the largest industries in the world. It's the second most valuable traded commodity in the world, which is second only to oil, which is just like, it's pretty. It's fascinating. The numbers are extremely revealing. It is not just a beverage, it's a ritual and a lifestyle and a culturally endorsed stimulant that shapes the way that we live, the way we work, the way we socialize. Of course, there's coffee shops and there's such a fascinating history of caffeine as well, so. Tea, for example, was originally used by Buddhist monks in China to help them stay awake during long hours of meditation. And in this

[00:14:00] sense, caffeine was kind of this ally and a way to sharpen consciousness and stay connected to the divine coffee on the other hand, really became. Revolutionary fuel and in in 17th century London, coffee houses were springing up and quickly becoming hubs of intellectual discussion and debate and political critique. And they were known as penny universities because for the cost of a cup of coffee, you could sit and engage in conversations with scholars and artists and radicals. But these conversations didn't go unnoticed. King Charles II grew increasingly nervous about what was being discussed in these caffeinated spaces, and he basically feared that there were gonna be plots and uprisings and a collective awakening that could challenge the institutional power that was in place, which was him and the monarchy.

[00:15:00] So in 19, sorry, rather, in 1675, he tried to ban coffee houses altogether, claiming that they were breeding grounds for scandal and unrest. So in a way, caffeine, in many consciousness, all. I start that over. So in a way, caffeine, like many consciousness altering substances was seen as a threat to the status quo. Something that could awaken the mind almost too much, which is. So wild to think that caffeine, tea and coffee were tried to, they were, they were attempted to be outlawed at one point. Terrence McKenna really describes caffeine as this tool of dominator culture. Which is a substance that supports the linear productivity compliance over intuition, over

[00:16:00] softness, over rest, and Michael Poland points to the colonial violence that is baked into the history of coffee and tea, especially when the British essentially turned to India into a tea producing colony, displacing people and. Extracting labor for the West's addiction to this stimulant. And so I have wondered, you know, this is a substance that's helped us awaken and at this point in human history and and in its use, is it keeping us obedient? Is it keeping us focused on that dominator culture in that ability to produce? These are very interesting questions to, to me. So caffeine is well known for enhancing concentration, for boosting alertness, and improving short-term memory. And these effects are incredibly 

[00:17:00] helpful when it comes to logical thinking, staying focused, and completing linear tasks, of course, like essentially checking things off of our to-do list. But creativity and you know, the kind of creativity that thrives in spontaneity and abstraction and divergent thinking often requires a very, very different mental state than logical, linear, you know. Focused task oriented energy and studies have suggested that creativity benefits from what is known as diffuse thinking, which is essentially a relaxed and open mental state that allows the brain to connect distant ideas and form novel associations. In contrast to that, caffeine narrows our focus and enhances a. 

[00:18:00] Type of consciousness that's known as convergent thinking, which is great for problem solving and you know. Finding a single correct answer, but it might inhibit some of that lateral, imaginative, wider thinking, wider lens. A 2017 study published in consciousness and cognition found that. While 200 milligrams of caffeine improved problem solving, speed and focus, it had no measurable effect on creative thinking tasks like brainstorming or generating, you know, alternative uses for objects, and in some cases in it even hindered performance in more open-ended creative challenges. And that's because. Creativity often flows when we are slightly unfocused, right? It's kind of during daydreaming when we're walking, when 

[00:19:00] we have the idea in the shower, when we're simply letting the mind wander that. That creativity and that that spontaneity state kind of emerges. And that state is linked to alpha brainwaves, which are dominant when we're calm, yet kind of, you know, calm and alert, I would say not hyperstimulated. And so while caffeine might help us. Polish that final draft of whatever we're working on. It might not be the best companion when we're trying to tap into visionary, abstract or intuitive ideas. And so all of this is to say is like, this to me is so fascinating and it, and it really, I think creativity is ultimately something to be constantly explored. It is a, a craft, it is something that we work with throughout our lives, and to me it's something that warrants a lot of experimentation, right? So all of this information to me, makes me think about, what would happen if for

[00:20:00] one week I did a self experiment and maybe oriented my day so that my first two to three hours. Are filled with meditation and journaling and working on a creative project. Could I do that without any caffeine? Could I lengthen that out and spread a little bit of time between my morning and those first few hours of my day when my mind is so unadultered and I'm coming out of a dream state and when I'm coming out of Gamma Theta. Delta. Those are all, you know, theta and Delta are the states that we're in when we're dreaming, when we're waking up, when we are just reemerging to our conscious selves. And that's a very precious brain state. Those are states of mind that should be highly cherished for creativity. So all that's to say is maybe this spark some ideas about how you want to.

[00:21:00] Explore with your creativity and with your daily routines and rituals. As Michael Poland puts it, caffeine might sharpen the pencil, but it doesn't necessarily write the poem, which I love. Okay, so is caffeine actually bad for us? Is it good for us? Caffeine is the most. Studied psycho psychoactive substance on earth and its affect our high. Start that over. Caffeine is one of the most studied psychoactive substances on earth, and its effects are highly individualized. So moderate caffeine intakes, which are typically defined as up to 400 milligrams per day, which is a lot. That's three to four cups of brewed coffee. I'm not trying to, you know, make any judgements here, but I think that's a lot of coffee, a lot of caffeine. That amount has been linked with a number of health benefits. So these health benefits are reduced risk of type two diabetes, lowered

[00:22:00] incidents of Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease protective effects against certain types of cancers like liver, colorectal, endometrial, lower risk of stress, lower risk of stroke and cardiovascular disease, potential reductions in depression, and in some studies even. Even suicide risk, has been affected by low doses of caffeine. Caffeine is also known as a ergogenic aid. This basically means that it enhances physical performance and it's used by athletes to improve endurance, to reduce perceived exertion, and to increase strength output in training and competition. So important to note when caffeine is consumed in excess or when people are particularly sensitive, it can have the opposite effect, and this is where it. That sensitivity is, of course highly, highly personalized. So again, this, the effects of caffeine are highly individualized, and it's very

[00:23:00] important to know and track and understand how it might impact your body, your mind. So some of the negative impacts of caffeine in the body are increased anxiety and panic attacks, insomnia, or a disrupted sleep. Schedule, sleep pattern, digestive, uh, issues including acid reflux, cortisol spikes, adrenal stress, increased risk of of heart palpitations or blood pressure. And there's also a genetic component as well. Some people are fast metabolizers of caffeine. While others process it slowly and might experience heightened effects for much longer. Your liver enzyme capacity plays a major role in this. And then there's the dependency factor, which is kind of like while caffeine withdrawal isn't classified as an addiction in the same way that opioids or alcohol are, it can cause very. Real, physical and

[00:24:00] psychological symptoms like headache, fatigue, low mood or irritability, difficulty concentrating. For me, there was like an immense difference in, um, in my drive and in my determination, and so it's really not about caffeine being good or bad, it's really about your relationship with it. Dose, your nervous system, your awareness, all shape this experience. I have a very, very slow processing ability for caffeine, so I can't really, I, I will be up very late at night if I have a coffee, um, anytime after noon. So I really tried to have my first, um, dose between the hours of eight and nine to really know that most of that has left my system because sleep is such a priority. So tuning into your natural energy, how do we, how do we do this? When we strip away the

[00:25:00] stimulant, what's really left? And it's one of the most revealing and transformative questions we can ask ourselves because energy and true energy is not something that we buy or we brew, or we. Borrow. It's something that is innate and something that is within us. It's something that we cultivate, and if you've never connected with this natural energy, it is such a powerful way to really understand what your baseline is. Who are you without this consciousness altering substance? The real substantial energy that we can cultivate in our lives comes from sleep, of course, deep quality sleep, honoring our circadian natural rhythms, whole nourishing foods that stabilize our blood sugar and fuel our cells, our mitochondria. It comes from movement. Breath work, spending time in nature to stimulate natural dopamine and serotonin breath is one of the most fantastic ways to get energy in a fast amount of time to really

[00:26:00] change your physiological state. Adaptogens and medicinal mushrooms can, you know, regulate the stress response and nourish our adrenals. And you know, cortis is a mushroom that. Is naturally energizing different mind-body practices like meditation, stillness, spaciousness can connect us to our natural energy states, emotional regulation and nervous system balances and practices. And then lastly, doing what we love, feeling aligned in our purpose and. Being in that connection can be such a powerful way to connect to your own natural energy. Caffeine often masks, fatigue. But fatigue is really a signal. It's your body asking for support, not for suppression. Not to say like, oh, I need to have another cup of coffee to mask this. Over time, as we wean off of the artificial highs and start to nourish

[00:27:00] the the deep systems within us, we can. Really rediscover this truth that the body is so wise and that maybe we wanna stop masking this need for rest. Maybe when we really care for our body and give back to it generously, we can become more attuned to our natural rhythms. And when we rest, when we act, when we pause, we actually start, stop outsourcing our vitality. So this conversation has you, if this. So if this conversation has you reflecting on your relationship with caffeine, maybe even wondering what life would feel like with a little less stimulation and with a little more real energy. Stay tuned. I have been working on something behind the scenes at Rainbo for

[00:28:00] many, many years. Something that I designed to support our mornings. Or our afternoons with intention and clarity and choice. And is it caffeine free? Yes. But there's also a caffeine option as well. And that's all I wanna say for it now, but just know that something very nourishing has been brewing and is coming very, very soon. So to close us off in this episode, I. I wanna reflect on how caffeine is one of the most normalized, celebrated, widely consumed psychoactive substances on earth. And as Michael Poland puts it to be, caffeinated is not baseline consciousness. It is an altered state, and it just happens to be a state that most of us share. So. We rarely question this. We bond over it. We structure our days around it, and 

[00:29:00] yet, how often do we actually pause and ask, why do I need this? Do I need this? What is this doing to me? Really? And perhaps even more importantly, what is possible without it? Am I willing to give up one of my favorite rituals and connect to. What my natural energy tells me. For me, cutting back on caffeine didn't just improve my sleep or ease my anxiety. It opened a door to deep, deep listening, and it revealed the ways I had been overriding my intuition, my willpower, my rhythms, what my body was saying to me. And when I came back to drinking it, I, I came at it with such a different level of awareness and with such an empowered decision to consume this and to stop and to give myself breaks every so often. And so this episode is not like about. Convincing you to quit. It is really just an invitation, a you know, permission

[00:30:00] slip to become curious about your relationship with stimulation and with energy, and if you allowed yourself to explore. Energy in its natural unaltered form. What would happen? What would that feel like? Have you ever tried that? What rituals would change? What parts of yourself might return? What would your creativity look like? So this is really meant to be an exploration of sovereignty over your biology, over your mind and over your day. And there is no right or wrong way. There is really just knowledge and that is awareness. And that is. Power. So there's nothing inherently wrong with caffeine. I love caffeine. Maybe this is just an option to take a pause and notice how you feel without it. Notice how you feel with it. Notice what's underneath the stimulation. Notice if you can listen to your body a little bit more. Notice if you can take a rest notice if you can bring a different intention to that morning. Brew

[00:31:00] energy is not something we need to chase. It's also not something we need to borrow. It's something that we remember. It's something that we cultivate, something that we return to, and it's something that's so powerful to feel when it's really our true natural energy. So thank you for listening to this episode. I hope it stimulated some interesting thoughts and ideas for you. And as I mentioned. Stay tuned over the next few weeks because we have something really exciting coming your way.