Q&A with Lera Zujeva

London-based tea specialist Lera Zujeva is the founder of T-Lovers, a platform which celebrates the magical world of tea and the art of living slowly. Since she discovered its powerful benefits for peace, presence, transformation and harmony, she has dedicated herself to sharing them with the world.

When do you feel like the best version of yourself?

I am always the best version of myself – because this is the only version that is happening at this particular moment, no other version is available! But of course, there is lots of room for improvement. “Always being and always becoming,” as my teacher Adyashanti says. We are already perfect and whole, yet we are constantly growing.
 
Of course I am at my best when I am rested enough, fed enough, have enough quiet time to be in solitude just by myself, have tea, spend time in nature, and am feeling connected to my purpose. I really feel that in lockdown, when we are forced to stop, my best version is more consistently there. I am really able to just be throughout the day, just sit on my balcony, drink tea, read books, look at my amazing tree companion next to the house. And suddenly there is much more presence and connectedness with life.

How do you connect to your sacred femininity?

Through joy and pleasure. Just doing things that bring me pleasure. But for this I again need to slow down and stop – so that I can feel what will bring me pleasure and joy right now.

What do you need, in order to feel at home?

All I need to feel home is tea! Home is the feeling inside of us and I do truly feel that anything that brings that connection to our true self is going to make us feel home. At different points in time this can be different things, but I find that tea is something that instantly takes me to that feeling of homecoming.

What is your favourite scent? How does it make you feel?

I love sandalwood. I didn't know about it until recently. I was in an airport smelling one of the perfumes I like and a woman working there came up to me and told me that if I like this scent then it is probably a sandalwood that I like. And she showed me all the scents with sandalwood they had available, and I was so surprised, I loved them all! I like sweet scents...I have to say that I cannot get enough of the Peace Balm scent. This matches me so well!

Lera is wearing the Sultana kaftan in off-white.