Lekha Singh || Make Tea Not War

"You know you can't rush life and you can't rush tea. You'll burn the leaves, burn your tongue, and you won't get the flavor. Tea for me has always been my ritual, my form of meditation. So no matter how busy I am, I'll put the kettle on and I'll have that slowing down moment." Alicia Henry, BudhaGirl and founder of the Naked Sage tea company says between taking sips of her Heart open, Mind open tea blend, in her home in Venice California.

"I lived in NYC for 8 years wore all black and stilettos and was in and out of the United Nations and auditions. The whole gamut. Now I am barefoot and wearing flowers and riding my bike around Venice and have a tea company. Same heart, same woman but adapting to a different environment. Even as I landed here the words 'heart open, mind open' kept coming to me. I kept repeating the words to myself as if it were a mantra. I said to myself open yourself up, and I prayed to open myself up to opportunity and whatever was supposed to have come my way. I was supposed to be here for a week and a half. But what happened during that time was so powerful that I wound up everything in New York City and came to live here." 

Now her instagram (@Aleesh_henry)  profile reads "Tea•Love•Flowers•Kale | Co-creator of APSARA | Naked Sage Tea | Model | Wellness Warrior on a mission to create a WELLNESS REVOLUTION!"

Recently she co-created Apsara  a company that puts together tea ceremonies combined with meditation, mindfulness and restorative yoga.  But what she likes to do best is using her knowledge of herbal alchemy to create teas that heal and have no artificial flavors or aromas. Hence the Naked in the name, and Sage for wisdom.

"Teas can cleanse the mind and the body, drinking tea is a form of meditation and we can be supported by the infinite intelligence of the plants that are in a tea. By drinking the tea you are allowing that intelligence or call it wisdom in the plant to be part of the day and sometimes to heal you. Tea can calm you down and help you tune into the minute beauties of life, and see what we usually miss. So that's where I'm at..."

"The first thing I do when I come home from somewhere is take all my jewelry off, but these BudhaGirl all weather bangles are so comfortable you can wear them all the time. No need to take them off.  I can wear them even when I go surfing," she says as she goes into the yard to feed the chickens.

[gold all weather bangles | black all weather bangles | temple chain | budhaboy ivory | torque | Rajasthani Friendship bracelets]

[photos by Lekha Singh]