A psychologist suggests that making baked goods for others could be beneficial to our mental health
Those who love to cook never back away from preparing a delicious dessert. They are ready to churn out one every time there is a recurrence and never miss an opportunity to show off their cooking skills.
Cooking a dessert is never a simple and easy thing, yet people who do it regularly are always happy, relaxed, and ready to prepare a cake or other desserts for the next event or occasion.
How can such a thing be possible? Psychology seems to have the answer ...
via huffpost.com
Churning out sweets has benefits for mental health and a person's creative expression. For some time now psychology has shown that having a creative outlet with which to express oneself considerably reduces stress regardless of whether it is painting, music or cooking.
Dr. Donna Pincus, professor of Psychology at the University of Boston, has, in fact, explained that stress is connected to numerous mental and physical problems and finding the way to manage them can be the solution.
After all, cooking sweets and desserts for other people has always been a real form of communication. For example, the custom of giving food to people who have lost someone dear to them is a way to communicate feelings of condolence. Moreover, those who find it difficult to demonstrate these feelings openly still follow these cultural practices and traditions.
Cooking sweets can, therefore, have positive effects on mental health similar to those produced by meditation, in fact, numerous courses of culinary art therapy have spread like those organized by the social and health worker Julie Ohana.
These meetings are part of the type of therapy known as behavioral activation since cooking sweets is a great way to focus on the present moment and the general framework of things.
Thinking about the recipe step by step, thinking about the recipe as a whole, thinking about when it will be ready and finally shared with others, means having an awareness of your actions and therefore reducing the negative thoughts that afflict the mind.
Cooking for others is also an act of generosity that increases the feeling of well-being and therefore reduces stress, these forms of altruism have tangible results on the emotions of people and has been documented for years in numerous scientific studies.
Sacrificing time cooking for others also has an emotional and physical meaning! To prepare something for the people we care about and for someone who will surely appreciate our dish, will bring greater benefits than when we cook sweets and desserts only for personal pleasure.
In short, the next time you ask someone to prepare a nice dessert, do not feel guilty: you do it for their own good!
