Flour Power

Finding a little bit of peace in the kitchen

The kitchen is somewhere I feel very comfortable and content generally. If I’m particularly stressed or dealing with a lot of worry, I have a tendency to gravitate towards it.

My kitchen is tiny. It’s actually under the stairs in my house. I rely on the wall space for hanging things and have learned not to hold on to too many mugs. Despite it’s size, it’s still a place where I get to use my creativity, relax, and have fun. It’s not just my kitchen I love though. I can make myself at home in anyone’s – Maybe that’s the real reason I became an OT. Kitchens offer us the perfect environment for so many activities. They can be social spaces as well as doing spaces.

You’ll often find me on rainy days making time-consuming broths for ramen dishes or preparing something hearty in my worn out, heavy, old cast iron pot. I’m content when I’m preparing food. Over time and with a lot of practice, it has become a lot easier for me and much more natural.

A few weeks ago, following a considerably exhausting week, I decided to make my own bread and in this blog, I’ll attempt to explain why engaging in this sort of task can be such a powerful way to relax.

I reach for bread recipes when I feel wound up or even emotionally low because the process is rhythmic and slow but also requires a higher degree of focus for me than a lot of my go-to activities when I’m not feeling my best (including but not limited to scrolling, binging box sets and staring into the abyss). It fits the ‘Act Opposite’ skill promoted in DBT really well, which is a go-to for me.

Having selected my favourite simple recipe from BBC Food (thank you Mr Paul Hollywood) and walked to the local shop to pick up some simple ingredients I set to work. Weighing, mixing, kneading. Making your own bread is a time-consuming task for sure.

Life can be very hectic and although I’d generally consider myself to a be pretty calm person, my brain can feel very busy at times. Engaging with simple, pleasant tasks can often feel unproductive when the to-do list is so very long. I’m sure many of you out there have experienced that strange sense of guilt when you’ve opted to do something you enjoy rather than tackle some tedious DIY or a cleaning task at home. I’m not entirely sure where this feeling comes from, but I assume it has a lot to do with the expectations society puts on us or the unbalanced beliefs we have about how we should or and shouldn’t be spending our ‘free’ time. It’s not often that I reach a state of ‘flow’ these days, but when I am mixing and kneading dough, it happens. In flow state, we are simply doing.

‘Flow is a subjective state that people report when they are completely involved in something to the point of forgetting time, fatigue, and everything else but the activity itself’
- Csikszentmihalyi, M., Abuhamdeh, S., & Nakamura, J. (2005).

Csikszentmihalyi and their pals suggest that to reach a state of flow we need three things:

Clear goals
What is it that you’re hoping to achieve, what’s the end result you envision? Is baking bread part of a longer-term goal of becoming a pro baker or is it purely because there is simply nothing better than fresh crusty bread at lunch time? Maybe it’s relaxation that you’re seeking or an opportunity to unwind.

A balance between perceived challenges and perceived skills
Requiring enough attention to hold your focus rather than being an automatic task or something that you do not need to attend to such as washing the dishes or hoovering.

Clear and immediate feedback
This could mean seeing a project taking form. Feeling the dough transform from a damp gloopy ball to a soft, airy thing of beauty when kneading, or noticing the bread rise as it bakes.

To me, reaching a state of flow is blissful. When I achieve that state, I’m fully immersed in, and deeply focused on a task. My senses become heightened, and I’m more heavily connected to or aware of, the sensory stimuli around me (smells, touch, sights etc) which is very grounding and calming. There is almost a sense that time has slowed down. Tasks feel somewhat effortless when you’re in a state of flow. Yes, even kneading bread.

The benefits of meal preparation tasks extend past the realm of physical health and nutrition. Yes we all know that preparing balanced meals from scratch with lovely ingredients does wonders for our bodies, but what else? Why not just buy the ready meal or the prebaked loaf from Lidl?

When we consider the tasks involved with making food, we can identify a lot of other positives including provision of routine, cognitive skills, fine and gross motor skills, as well as relaxation given what I’ve already covered.

Townsend (1997) identified that cooking or preparing food is a way that people organise their time, discover meaning and engage in occupations that lead to pleasure, fulfilment, and control over their environments. It is a tool in OT which is also used to help people build their confidence, concentration and co-ordination, leading to improved self-esteem (Haley & McKay 2004).  

So, whether it’s something you do for the benefits associated with the ‘doing’ or more aimed towards a tasty end result, baking, or food preparation in general, is one of my top recommended activities for those looking to improve their mental health.

References

Haley, L., & McKay, E. (2004) ‘Baking Gives You Confidence’: Users’ Views of Engaging in the Occupation of Baking, British Journal of Occupational Therapy March, 67(3)

Csikszentmihalyi, M., Abuhamdeh, S., & Nakamura, J. (2005). Flow. In A. J. Elliot & C. S. Dweck (Eds.), Handbook of competence and motivation (pp. 598–608). Guilford Publications.

Townsend E (1997) Occupation: potential for personal and social transformation. Journal of Occupational Science: Australia, 4(1), 18–26.