There’s a certain satisfaction to making cakes, pies, and everything in between. Measuring the ingredients carefully, patiently taking every step, and creating something visually beautiful. Baking is good for you and your state of mind. Here’s why.
Until just recently, I did not use my kitchen much, except making a cup of tea or coffee, throwing some potatoes in the pan, or hastily putting together an omelet. Even simpler, my favorite food is sunny side up eggs with some bacon, and that’s how my kitchen smelt frequently. But since I’ve started to take my time and to enjoy every step of the way, without just chasing the process to the destination, I have discovered the joy of making cookies or muffins. I have found that baking is good for you. Mentally and emotionally.
6 reasons why baking is good for you
1. Mindfulness
Baking is a process that requires you to be there fully. To pay attention with all of your senses. Sight, smell, touch, hearing, and, of course, taste. When you focus on what you are doing, the whole world just falls away, and it’s like you are meditating at your working station.
Creating baked goods is a delicate process. It’s a stimulating form of chemistry, and it’s not that difficult to upset the balance. But you won’t, if you pay attention to details. One more thing: be mindful when you’re eating, too.
2. Stimulation
Speaking of those details, for me baking is like solving a puzzle, by adding all the pieces. And I have always found puzzles to be incredibly stimulating to the mind. They make your memory better and open you up to seeing the world in different ways. Outside the box. Micro or macro.
3. Bringing joy
I am not sure I can be close friends with someone who doesn’t like sweets or baked goods. For me, a cookie is a smile. A piece of cake is happiness on a plate. When you bake something, most of the time you will share that something with your partner, your friends, your children and all the other loved ones. There’s a reason why sweet things are always a reward for something!
4. Relieving stress
When you’ve had a bad day, baking can be a form of therapy. It’s so absorbing that you can’t help but forget your sources of stress for a while. Baking can make your anxiety more manageable because the phantom demons haunting you cannot be as powerful in the same place as a dough or batter, cookie cutters, and chocolate sprinkles.
Not to mention that after a bad day, creating something beautiful and sweet with your hands will give you a feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment. No matter what you’re making.
5. It’s healthier
Even if you cook with white flour and sugar, your products will be healthier than most of the things you pick up in the supermarket aisles. Using the butter you’ve melted yourself is better than the fat in processed sweets you buy. If you bake, you’ll know precisely what the result contains and how to pace yourself. There is plenty of value in being informed.
6. Creativity
Another thing I love about baking is the way it can unleash creativity. Sure, you can make standard cookies or pies, but you can embellish and decorate and create new, imaginative shapes with your dough, or cookie cutters or toppings. Baking your own sweets makes them your own. They say something about you and how whimsical you are.
