Everyday activities such as baking are good ways to flourish and enhance your emotional well-being. Baking provides a creative outlet – a way to express yourself. Time spent doing something creative that you enjoy is associated with an increased level of positive emotions.
Because you don’t live near a bakery doesn’t mean you have to go without cheesecake. – Hedy Lamarr, Ecstasy and me: my life as a woman (ed. 1966)
Baking relieves stress, calms anxiety, and boosts your senses of self-esteem and self-connection.
- Baking is a form of self-care. It is a good way to practice mindfulness because you must devote your physical and mental energy to the task. You must be in the moment — present and fully engaged — concentrate on step-by-step instructions, some of which are complex and require manual dexterity. Being in the flow helps you to feel grounded, especially when you feel anxious or stressed.
- It involves repetitive activities such as stirring, kneading, and rolling. Engaging in repeated actions has a meditative effect. It is passive and calming, allowing you to slowly convert unwanted negative energy into something positive as your mind drifts away from whatever thoughts are bothering you.
- Baking takes place within a finite amount of time determined by the recipe you are using, which gives you a sense of control over your environment and your life.
- Taking time to do something for yourself such as baking builds resilience and self-esteem, especially when it is accompanied by a challenge.
- Baking gives you a positive sense of purpose which increases your sense of self- connection.
The smell of good bread baking, like the sound of lightly flowing water, is indescribable in its evocation of innocence and delight. – F. K. Fisher, American food writer, The Art of Eating (1954)
Baking is a sensory experience.
- Baking is nostalgic. You probably have fond childhood memories of helping your mother bake, hoping for a chance to lick the spatula or an excuse to taste the cookie dough. The sight and smell of newly-baked foods such as bread or chocolate chip cookies may bring back those memories and the comfort and warmth associated with them.
- Working with your hands can be therapeutic when performing baking tasks due to the textures of the materials, such as the silky smoothness of flour and the elasticity of dough.
- Baking is creative, especially when you add your own personal touches to the recipe, such as changing the ingredients to suit your taste or creating a healthier version that tastes just as good as the original recipe.
- When you are done, take the time to admire and mindfully savor the taste of your creations.
Happiness is baking cookies. Happiness is giving them away. And serving them, and eating them, talking about them, reading and writing about them, thinking about them, and sharing them with you. – Maida Heatter aka “The Queen of Cake”, Maida Heatter’s Book of Great Cookies (1977)
Baking is a good way to connect with others.
- Baking with others is social. It is a good way to celebrate holidays and special events and foster inclusion.
- Baking with others is rewarding when it enhances the bonds of friendship and family.
- In addition to creating something delicious to eat, it creates new memories.
You know, little one, baking and love are the same – a question of freshness, and that all the ingredients, even the most bitter, turn out delicious. – Christian Bobin, French author and poet (1951-2022)
Baking for others is as rewarding to the baker as it is to the recipient.
- Creating something of value that is comforting to the recipient, such as food, is a time-honored way to communicate your love, appreciation, thanks, or sympathy to others, especially if you find it hard to express yourself verbally.
- The appreciation shown by the recipient will boost your mood – and the joy you experience when you bake for others will leave you with the warm glow of satisfaction that altruism brings.
- So – the next time you have a free day, choose a recipe that you like, gather the ingredients and equipment, preheat the oven, turn on your favorite movie or music, and bake something wonderful!
Written by: Marti Klein
- About the author: Marti is a health and wellness coach and the owner of Flourish! Health and Wellness Coaching in Dana Point, California, offering telehealth coaching. Connect with her at www.FlourishHWC.com or via LinkedIn. She received her graduate-level training in health and wellness coaching at Emory University, and looks forward to sitting for the National Board for Health and Wellness Coaching/National Board of Medical Examiners exam next month. She is dedicated to helping people enhance their health and wellness and has a special interest in lipedema, a chronic loose connective tissue disorder primarily affecting women. She is also the co-owner of Klein + Klein, a corporate communications consulting firm.