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How To Soothe Your Busy Life: COOK!

Does your life sound like this?

Up before the sun. Collapse into bed way after dark and run like Usain Bolt in between?

8 in 10 Americans Feel Stress

The inbetween is traffic. Appointments. Meetings. Deadlines. Family commitments. Flat tires. Plumbing leaks. And the incessant smartphone with its unending display of badges, news notifications, and email arrivals.

According to a recent Gallup poll, 8 in 10 Americans say they feel stress sometimes or frequently throughout their day and 41% say they lack the time to do all they want.

The result?

We are stressed to the max, bearing the burden in our bodies for a fight or flight response which is very necessary when outsmarting a saber-tooth tiger, and very much overkill for navigating traffic.

And don’t forget.

60% of Meals Eaten at Home are Cooked at Home

In the midst of the chaotic clatter and clamoring of competition for your time, you need to feed your family and yourself.

Today, less than 60% of meals eaten at home are cooked at home.

Yet, science is now telling us that cooking and sharing a meal around the home table is one of the most important activities that we can engage in.

Cooking Can Soothe a Busy Life

Cooking is inherently a creative endeavor.

A pinch of salt, a dash of pepper, a flash of heat and you have a pan-seared steak, or some sautéed vegetables or both.

And that’s dinner.

Better tasting than you could buy pre-prepared anywhere, and healthier for you too.

People Who Engage in Small Acts of Creativity Feel Like They are Flourishing

This brief moment of creativity, science says, in the kitchen not only feeds you, more economically, than eating out, it also feeds your spirit.

Researchers have found that people who engage in small creative acts everyday, like cooking and baking, experience a feeling that their lives are flourishing.

Cooking and baking can give you the opportunity to experience the moment. Because you see, cooking is about making decisions, adding ingredients at the right time, adjusting the heat as needed, giving your food a taste and adding a pinch of salt.

This is quite the opposite of most days when we spend restless days and nights pondering what’s to come or aching over what’s already been.

Take a moment this week to soothe your busy life and cook.

And take to heart the words of Henry David Thoreau, “It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about.”