Sunday 24 November 2013

Week 47 Update: Pour, Stir, Mix, Bake.

A week of mindful cooking. Focusing not on the end result of the cooking process but on the process itself.

Now, I love to cook. But sometimes, it's all too much - another day, another bunch of meals and snacks to cook/prepare. Really? Can't we just have pizza?

This week's challenge gave me a chance to step back from the meal/snack/drink and instead be present with the measuring, chopping, pouring, mixing, stirring, baking ... If I'm honest (which I am), I didn't always remember the challenge I'd set for myself and so I often found myself distracted while I prepared our meals. But on those occasions when I did remember, what a difference it made. It never ceases to amaze me how the way we think about what we're doing impacts on our expereince of the the situation so much. If I'm focused on how annoying it is to have to be in the kitchen again then I feel frustrated, tense, overwhelmed. If, instead, I focus on the process, forgetting for a while what comes next, then it's just the moment - no result.

I had a couple of baking fails this week - something no self-confessed baking lover enjoys. I was pleasantly surprised to find myself reasonably unaffected by these less-than-perfect outcomes. Perhaps my mindful approach in the kitchen offered me a new perspective on perceived failure ... Yes, in fact, I'm sure it did.

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