Cooking and being in the kitchen for many people can feel like a chore and headache, especially for busy working mums who are always having to make the decisions daily about what is made. Cooking doesn’t always have to be rushed or a stressful experience. Cooking, especially fresh seasonal produce offers a wonderful opportunity to train the mind to be more present.
Mindfulness is an assured meditation practice. From meal prep, to making the dish and then eating the food, the experience and action of cooking can be the tool to help you to be present and mindful. Take a moment before you begin to ground yourself in the present moment. Take a breath in and out slowly before you build a positive and loving relationship with food.
Noticing your intentions with food is a choice.
As you gather the ingredients you need from the fridge or cupboard notice your body and how its moving. How it is preparing to cook. Make an effort to move slower than usual and notice the actions taken.
As you chop, peel, stir, pour, kneed or whisk; the art of mindful cooking is to anchor the mind and focus your attention, fine tuning the senses to bring them to life. Bring your attention and focus fully to the task you are doing. Use all of your senses and allow them to immerse you. Tasting, smelling, seeing and hearing the changes that are happening. Allow yourself to feel all of the experiences and notice how different even utensils can feel. How you grip them. Tightly or gently? Notice the first smells to hit you and the aroma in the air. Using all of your senses allows you to feel present and complete in what you are doing. It also helps you to fully invest emotionally in what are doing… and believe me LOVE really is the secret ingredient to cooking all food.
Lastly,
As you serve your finished dish – and you are ready to serve – do 3 very important steps:
Pause – appreciate what you have made. Bring gratitude to the energy that went into bringing the food into your kitchen in the first place.
Eat – Enjoy with all of your senses the flavours
Reflect – allow the positivity and sense of accomplishment to sink in. Revel in how good it tasted and how different you felt.
Practice this through the week when you are cooking and you’ll begin to form a habit of feeling and being more confident and positive in the kitchen and around food.
