I don’t know exactly how long I’ve been drinking Yogi Tea, but I do know it’s a long time.
I suppose most people would read the little snippets of Yogi wisdom that are attached to the teabags, and then pop them in the compost when they’d finished their drink.
Not me though. Oh no! Way back when, I decided to keep them. All.
For a while I bluetak’d my favourites to the shelf above the kettle, throwing the others into a broken mug that I couldn’t bear to part with. But then the cup got too small. Oops!
Eventually I replaced the chipped cup with a beautiful glass bowl I found in Ikea.
It has a much greater capacity, and has also turned the tags into a lovely, tactile display – great for those moments when I want a bit of quick inspiration but don’t want to pull out a deck of oracle cards.
Because I’m a big kid at heart, sometimes I like to play let’s pretend games, just like I did when I was a little girl. Here’s a for instance:
It’s been my life long dream to have a cafe, so I like to imagine that, one day, this dish will sit on the counter near the cash-till. Customers will be able to pull a yogi wisdom as they wait to pay.
As you can see, sometimes the imagining becomes less imagination and more 3D role play…
Are you beginning to see what an important role this little plugin is playing?
Last year, during the first round of my allergy friendly chocolate course, I created a mini photo set up of how the cake counter of my cafe might look, sharing it with my students over on FB.
Hey, a girls gotta dream, right? And I’m a big enough believer in magic to think hope that this sort of imaginative play is bringing my desires ever closer.
Plus, it’s fun! Who says adults can’t play?
Take this as permission if you need it – play is good for the soul, no matter your age. And if anyone looks at you askance, feel free to tell them that The Sensory Coach said it was good for you!
When I had the light bulb moment that lead me to create The Sensory Coach, I knew I wanted to incorporate my yogi tea tags into the site. I knew there was a reason I’d hung on to them, that was about more than me. It had to be interactive, fun, and most of all, easy for visitors to use.
Try as I might I couldn’t find a WordPress plugin that would do exactly what I wanted. I got so sick of not being able to create what I wanted, that I came up with a rubbish work around, but it didn’t have the interactive quality I wanted, and it frustrated the pants off me on a daily basis. Honestly, it made me hate my site more or less from the start.
When I decided it was a case of revamp the site or kick it into touch, I knew that getting this, seemingly tiny, element of the website right, was key if I was going to feel good about the venture as a whole.
Maybe that sounds a little bonkers, or dramatic, but this little idea contains the heart of what The Sensory Coach means to me. I’ve even used yogi tea tags on my homemade business cards!
To you, my lovely visitors, the plugin will just be a fun way to pass a moment, which is exactly what I want it to be for you (the occasional moment of divine inspiration would be lovely too of course).
It’s highly likely I’ll never know what, if anything, visitors get from this little web toy, but I like that not knowing. It adds a lovely element of magical wonder for me, imagining how those ripples might show up in ways I can’t even begin to imagine (I have a fabulous story about the chance discovering of ripple effects, but I’ll save that for another time).
With all this in mind I went back to the drawing board, desperately trying to find a way to make the damn thing work because, try as I might, I just couldn’t get past this idea of the Yogi Wisdom ‘oracle’.
I was driving myself crackers trying to do something that isn’t my forte, so in desperation, I did what any sensible person wouldn’t do: I threw money I don’t have at the problem. Don’t try this at home kids!
I searched on Fiverr and found a highly recommended web dev, who could do the job for me.
It turned out to be one of the best things I’ve ever spent money on!
As well as solving the problem, it also gave me a little insight into how much easier life can be (if you have the money) when you outsource the aspects of your business that bring you to tears, or simply suck your time.
He made it really easy for me to implement behind the scenes, he tinkered with the first version to get me exactly what I wanted, and the whole process from start to finish took just a few days. All for $84.
I don’t mind admitting that I balked at the idea of spending that much on what is a super simple looking, free piece of interactivity, but OMG! It saved my nerves, it save me countless hours of frustration, and it gave me something that fills me with joy when I see it sitting there in the side bar.
And of course it also has the potential to bring a moment of pleasure to who knows how many website visitors in the future. So yes, it was absolutely worth the overdraft fees!
If you want his details just give me a shout, he deserves all the custom he can get. I’m not on any kind of commission, I just genuinely think the guy is brilliant!
Finally, here’s a little side story about the photos of the yogi tea messages:
Having tried out lots of different props to showcase the tags, I settled on a beautiful glass Scottish thistle drinks stirrer.
I bought it when we’d completed our own version of the Lands End to John O’Groats challenge, back in 2012, during our epic 9 months in a campervan.
I love that the colours lend themselves so well to the bluebell wood header of the main site.
At the time, I also bought one as a birthday gift for my friend Lisa. Sadly she died very tragically in 2018, so it’s a really nice way for me to include her here. Here’s a little section of her noticeboard where she kept a couple of meaningful yogi tags.
So there you have it: the whole story of how a seemingly simple little plugin came to exist. Bet you never imagined it was so detailed huh? That’s the thing though, once we start exploring something, we can find all kinds of surprising little snippets and details that add an extra element of meaning to life. Which is ultimately what The Sensory Coach is all about.
If you haven’t given the yogi wisdom generator a try yet, what are you waiting for? Head over to the drop down menu under the Bluebell Wood, and see what message the Yogi has to share with you today. There are 250+ different messages (I told you I drink a lot of tea) so that will keep you busy for a while – why not pop back every week or so for a new one? And if you happen to feel so inclined, you could treat me to a cuppa via Ko-Fi so that I can continue to discover new nuggets of wisdom to share with you.
Enjoy!
