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How to Use Cooking as a Form of Self-Care

One of the goals of meditation is to achieve a state of mindfulness, where we are able to shed our minds of negative emotions and focus on the present. This allows a calm acknowledgement of emotions and thoughts to occur.

Mindfulness can reduce stress and anxiety, help people to face and overcome fears, reduce impulses to react emotionally and help bolster our cognitive functions.

Mindfulness is traditionally thought of in relationship with activities such as meditation and yoga, but it doesn’t have to be limited to those. In fact, we can get many of the same benefits from approaching other tasks in mindful state.

One area that is perfect for approaching mindfully is cooking, and it turns out that by doing so you can turn what many view as a chore into something that is therapeutic. Rethink your cooking experience to enter a mindful state. For eight ways cooking is like self-care , check out the visual by Kitchen Cabinet Kings below.

Mindful Cooking

To cook mindfully, you first need to set up your cooking process in a way that eliminates as many stressors as possible. Plan ahead so that you have plenty of time and an idea of how you’re going to approach cooking the meal.

Organize your ingredients and working area so that everything you need is easily reachable and uncluttered. When you’re cutting ingredients, take care and be precise. Feel the way the knife slices through the food. Be careful to make the cuts even. Choose recipes that you look forward to eating or are excited about trying.

As with any mindful activity, focus on the moment. Don’t rush through the process. Let all of your senses feed you information and let external worries fade away.

About the Author

Guest post by Megan Darmody, Senior Content Marketing Specialist at http://siegemedia.com.

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