Have Control Over the Energy that is Being Put into Your Food
Remember your favorite food that either your mom or your grandmother made. I also have a favorite dish my dad made me once I never forget. Have you ever asked yourself why that food is your favorite dishes of your mom? I want to tell my favorite one and its story. When I think of a favorite dish of my mom I always think of two dishes; one of them is stuffed bell pepper and the other one is mantı you can call it “Turkish Dumpling”. The reason I chose stuffed bell pepper is that I always had good memories of that food in the house, I don’t know which one comes first; either I love that dish because my mom makes the best-stuffed pepper, or my mom makes the best-stuffed pepper because I always filled burst of excitement and joy and her energy was elevated and motivated to make the best-stuffed pepper in the world. It is not a coincidence that one of our favorite family stories is related to home-cooked meal tables. Because of the energy. When you cook your own food, you have complete control over the energy you give to the food.
As you can tell from your own memories, all those favorite food remind us of the love, compassion, or joy of those people we love. Or the opposite way, remember if you separated from your partner at the dinner table or heard sad news when you were eating, you always remember those memories once you eat the same dish. The reason behind this is also energy. The mood we are in is so important when we cook because we transfer that energy to the dishes we make. That’s also the reason that you go to the same restaurant all the time to get your favorite dish!
There is something that aligns with you and that business energetically. But you can not have control over the chef’s spirit every day. However, if you want to be more centered and connected to yourself, you need to have control over your energy and the sources of your energy.
Have control over your food’s freshness and aliveness
The vividness and aliveness of foods are so important, more than you think. A lot of times in our busy modern lives we tend to forget the reason we eat; which is to sustain the energy and nutrition that is required for us to live. So, there is no coincidence that it is at the center of our lives. Besides, remember the days you feel fatigued and sluggish, therefore you need to push through the day instead of thriving in it. Yes, it is related to how much dead food we eat. The only way to control that is to be able to cook your own food as much as often. Cooking your own food gives you the freedom to choose your ingredients, and cut and use them fresh at least most of them. Besides, trust me in any way, the ingredients that you use would be fresher than anything you buy a food that is a store made. That’s a reality generally speaking.
Cooking is Self Compassion and an Act of Love
Well heard the information but did you really think about it? Ask yourself how many times you prepared a meal for your loved ones for special moments or events. And what makes them more special is usually because we made everything with our hands, we cooked, prepared the table, used the best linens and cutlery and our favorite plates. Why not do that for ourselves? Why not have dinner dates with ourselves? Why not use our favorite plate with our favorite linen for ourselves? Lighting our candle, having our favorite kombucha (don’t roll your eyes ok 😀 ) , maybe a piece of low music without any lyrics to prevent your mind to leave the moment, and just you and your meal.
I can hear that I don’t have time for it. I understand that when you have kids, family responsibilities, and 9 to 5 jobs, it is very hard to keep up with daily special routines. Then I would highly recommend to you either once a week with yourself or with your family, a cooking date. Everybody cooks together. I absolutely believe once you start that as a family ritual, you will change the shift in you and the energy around you. A lot of times we don’t recognize how we strengthen our willpower with just one small consistent act.
All you have to do is either you are just you in your life or your whole family, you are doing it for yourself and then your loved ones. That’s how it works. You have to have a love for yourself to give love to others. You can not give something that you don’t receive. That rule works for love as well.
Cooking can be an Active Mindful Act
Last but not least is the connection between mindfulness and cooking. Before getting into that I want you to know that in this world majority of people don’t make their priority list of acts themselves. People we adore! and we follow, read, and listen, they create our priority lists. They decide what has value or what’s not for us. Read that again and I would highly recommend contemplating on the question;
who is/are influencing your priority list?
who decides what is important and not for you in your daily life?
As our priority list; somebody decides what is an important task in our life and what is not as well. This system can be so brutal sometimes and also studies its lesson so well, the system knows our weak points as human beings. Definitely cooking is one of the propaganda tools that has been used in this system. Because you may not believe it when you hear first time but cooking your own food affects the system in so many ways. Very first, if someone has control over what they eat or how they eat, that means they have time to think for themselves and we know that this thinking process won’t stop just on eating; that person eventually starts questioning other parts of life and eventually will start to change the narrative in different parts of life. That’s why we can be trapped between hedonism and indulgence in so many ways and may think that we deserve someone to cook for us all the time because we work so hard for it.
But you have to ask yourself again who benefits from all that in long run? At the end of the day who feels shitty and feels that not live the life that has desired because of last-minute decisions after a long day of work? Is that you? So, you have to create your own list of priorities and don’t let anybody or the system categorizes the importance of daily actions in your life according to their benefit. Choose to take control of your life by taking control of your daily needs to stay in your center. Cooking is a great tool to help and improve that in multiple ways. I wanted to share the big picture related to mindfulness but also not only do you feed yourself better psychically and mentally by eating the food you cook, but the process of cooking can also be a great tool for mindfulness. If you realize all these daily acts either cooking your own food or practicing mindfulness or getting up early, and writing a journal all require effort and also consistency, and that is what makes them powerful. You have put in the effort to improve your life, your health, and your energy.
Have a beautiful Sunday.
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