Stress, anyone?

I just can’t help myself. If I don’t have anything to obsess or stress about, Lord knows I’ll hunt something down. It’s really quite annoying. Oftentimes, if I’ve had a relatively peaceful day, I’ll find myself having nightmares that evening…nightmares about ridiculously exaggerated daily events! I feel like I have some sort of autoimmune condition where my sanity attacks itself over and over to the point where I’m a complete mess!

It all started when I was younger. It was fun back then; I would make lists to stay organized, I would make sure I was always responsible, always on time, and always adhered to the social norms. Looking back, it was actually a pretty rough life for a kid in elementary school. I was constantly under my own self-imposed pressure to be perfect. I also read a lot (not a bad thing) and developed a grammatical intelligence far beyond my years. I loved reading other kid’s papers in school and correcting all of their grammatical errors (how weird is that?!). This further contributed to my perfectionist mentality.

What the heck does all of this have to do with cooking and health, you might ask. It actually has a lot to do with it, in my kitchen anyway. Yes, I want to find that perfect combination of ingredients and create meals that everyone will love, but that won’t always happen. And I don’t need to beat myself up if it doesn’t. Preparing food should, first and foremost, be a therapeutic activity.

For me, cooking has become the ultimate in healing. Not only is my body healed when I cook with whole, organic foods but my mind is also restored. That may be an odd thing to say since I think most people view cooking as a pesky household chore, but I think it needs to be approached differently. I have found that when placing more of an emphasis on quality of ingredients, your grocery store purchase suddenly becomes much more valuable. No longer do I throw a few boxes of mac and cheese on the shelf and forget about them, but now I know every single food that is in my kitchen and where it can be found. Also, when I have really great ingredients in my home, it’s difficult NOT to make nutritiously dense meals.

When I’m super stressed, I find comfort in slicing veggies for a homemade soup or creating a flavorful meat sauce on the stove. On those days when I’m full of anxiety, I usually go for more familiar dishes and skip the twenty step gourmet meals. Cooking familiar foods simply and from scratch is a very therapeutic experience. Maybe it’s all those succulent aromas, maybe it’s the feeling of being in my own kitchen away from the world, or maybe it’s just knowing that I’m going to be eating a deliciously healthy meal, but suddenly my soul is happy. I encourage you all to find that peace for yourselves.