The First Step To Bettering Relationship With Your Kitchen
We all carry something into our kitchen. For some of us, it is heavy grocery bags filled with food we are excited to cook, and for others, it is the weight of our daily lives and our internal stressors. Wherever you are, drop your baggage and leave it behind. How you do that? This blog is your introduction to finding harmony in your kitchen. In our next blog, I will provide more insight. I’m calling this series “Love Your Kitchen, Love Yourself,” as I believe the two are inextricably linked.
I want you to think about this blog as if it is your first kitchen therapy session, so please, read it with an open mind and an open heart. Ask yourself, ”how do I approach my kitchen?” Is it a prison, a stressor? Is your kitchen a sanctuary, a laboratory, a mess? Is your kitchen your playroom? Cooking does not need to be scary. Your kitchen can be an empowering place. Food has power – to nourish, fuel, comfort, connect and heal. To realize its true potential, you need to change the way you perceive your cooking space.
Reclaiming Your Kitchen
Who wants to spend time cooking in a kitchen that you hate? No one! Invest in making your kitchen a space you want to be in. By reinventing your kitchen, you are investing in yourself and in your health. It is so much easier and more fun to cook and food prep in a space that you love to be in. I am not saying you need to pay for a full kitchen remodel and all new appliances, I am actually saying the opposite! This kitchen remodel is a mindset remodel! You need to come into your kitchen with a better attitude. Creating a food preparation process that serves you is a great first step!
How Do You Approach Your Kitchen?
What is your relationship with your kitchen and the activities that occur there? Maybe, to you, it is as clear as not liking to cook. By feeling that you don’t like to cook, you automatically set yourself up to dislike being in your kitchen. Maybe your feelings toward your kitchen are related to your self-confidence. You may not feel like a good cook, so you feel guilty when you are in your kitchen. Maybe you shun your kitchen because food preparation is a perceived inconvenience. Your attitude toward your kitchen could be related to your season of life, your budget, or your busyness. We all have different reasons to feel different ways about our kitchen at different times. It’s important to know how you feel and take steps toward changing your mindset.
Kitchen Myths
I have been asking my coaching clients to tell me what their kitchen hangups are for a while now. I know that we all have hangups, and I know that they come in many different forms. Here are some common kitchen hangups:
Common Kitchen Hangups:
My shopping, preparing, cooking, and cleaning are not appreciated.
My kids won’t eat what I make.
My spouse won’t eat what I make.
I am only cooking for one.
I am ashamed of what I have contributed to my family’s eating habits.
I feel responsible for other’s health and wellbeing.
I am ashamed I don’t know how to shop, prepare, or cook healthy food.
I am exhausted.
I don’t have time.
I don’t get a lot (or any) help in the kitchen.
We need to move past our fears and try to look at our hangups in a new light. Don’t make excuses for your attitude toward your kitchen. Meet your feelings where they are, and work to free yourself.
Kitchen Happiness Starts With You
Before you can start cleaning up your kitchen, you have to clean up your mindset! You need to allow yourself to slowly let go of some of the hangups that are holding you back from being your healthiest version of yourself. You can grow spiritually and emotionally.
Learning To Be Your Authentic Self:
Fully feel and name your feelings.
Try not to analyze or judge your situation.
Ask for what we need.
Allow the process to happen and learn to let go.
As Brene Brown wrote in “Daring Greatly” and “Rise Strongly,” it’s important to get in the arena and know how to get back up! Even if you falter, forward movement is progress! I believe a big part of getting back up is getting support.
What Are Your In-Kitchen Hangups?
I want to know what is causing you to feel hindered in your kitchen. Click here to take a short survey and tell me about what is impacting you. Let’s confront your fears and conquer them together!
“In continuous health, healing and light, we heal through community support”
Brandy Lane Hickman
Inspired Nutrition, Health & Life Coach, Living Light
brandy@2bwellspringfield.com