Anxiety Baking – How Did It Become a Thing?

As life continues to be so much more stressful for younger generations like the Millennials, they are developing new procedures for self-care. Chief among them? Anxiety baking, a simple and pretty affordable habit for them. 

A new piece in The Atlantic highlights the rise of anxiety baking as a coping mechanism for the stressful times they live in. Beyond the political turmoil that has been getting all of the attention lately, there is also the huge amount of debt, in student loans or otherwise, the lack of job security and working ungodly hours for employers who see them as expendable.

According to the Stress in America Survey, an annual survey released by the American Psychological Association, the situation out there is pretty bad. 45 percent of people who responded said that they lay awake at night because of stress. 62 percent said that the political situation is a significant stress factor in their lives. Work, money, health, and personal debt were also major factors in their sleepless nights.

When there’s that much stress, how do you cope with it? Some work some changes in their diets, but sometimes those changes can be above their financial means. Others turn to stress eating as a coping mechanism. But if we are to look at social media, one of the solutions is bright, colorful, happy and quite sweet: anxiety baking. Or the act of baking to alleviate those anxious feelings.

How does anxiety baking work? 

Baking works to alleviate anxiety in so many ways. First of all, any activity that you do with your hands has a calming, soothing effect on your body. It’s not that much of physical labor, but the constant motions help you disconnect from your worries for a while. It’s also a mindful activity because it completely absorbs your focus and keeps your firmly rooted in the present moment. In that way, you could say that baking is related to meditation and mindful activities, like for instance doing the dishes. All you have to do is get into a mindful state.

And on the other hand, there is the creativity and the opportunity to play around and exercise your imagination to your heart’s content.