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Coping with the Holidays (Day 9)

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Juliann Rasanayagam

This weekend I thought it would be a great idea to put a twist on a Christmas tradition that I have been doing for years now. Typically, a week before the holidays, you can find me in the kitchen baking up a storm. We love shortbread at our household and although I am a big cake fiend, I decided to bake a batch of cookies this year. However, keeping everything in mind from these past few weeks from our Coping With The Holidays Series, I decided to bake mindfully. Let me tell y'all, it was a struggle and a half. Here's why.

Firstly, I am naturally an impatient person. First thing on Sunday morning was to make a trip to the grocery store to pick up my ingredients. Once I arrived home with my purchase, the anticipation of baking was creeping up on me. The challenge that I was facing at that moment was that I wanted to bake right away, but the butter wasn't soft enough to work with, meaning, I had to wait. Waiting is my pet peeve. Being mindful, I noticed tension in my chest and my mind racing, but I knew that if the cookies were to come out successfully, I had to wait. I took a big breath, redirected my attention to the present moment, and focused on a new task.

When it was finally time to bake (literally 8 hours later), I was getting excited. I can feel the energy arise within me and the excitement was rushing through my limbs. I wanted to ensure that I was utilizing all my senses so that I can truly experience what it was like to bake mindfully. Well, this is where the challenge began. Naturally, my household is loud. Lots of conversations, TV running in the background, and over all chaotic. It was going to be difficult to have a "zen" baking experience in all the chaos. However, I had to remind myself that mindfulness doesn't necessarily have to be about meditative practices, but it's about being present in the moment without judgement to foster acceptance. And this is what I was learning to do. I set aside my expectations of having a peaceful baking session with Christmas music gently playing in the background and learned to accept my environment.

How did mindful baking differ from regular baking? Well, I began to tune into things that I didn't notice before. For the first time ever, I heard the sound of crushing sugar when I pressed my cookie cutter into the dough. I felt the resistance of the egg beater when beating my butter and I appreciated the sweet smell of mixed butter and sugar. Mindful baking also helped me emotionally. I didn't get upset when flour sprayed in the air when I mixed it with my batter and I didn't feel anxious while the cookies were in the oven. I learned about living with acceptance in the process. I didn't mind that the underside of some of the cookies were burned and eliminated the idea of creating perfectly shaped cookies. The joy of baking translated into creating happiness for others. I couldn't wait to package these cookies and deliver them to family and friends.

What did I learn from this experience? I learned that I take things way too seriously. I put unnecessary expectations on myself to make things "perfect" when really it doesn't even matter. This time around, baking was an enjoyable experience, rather than something I had to do. I learned to take it easy, and when I did, I enjoyed the process. Not only that, it made me savour those cookies that much more. Once the cookies had cooled and we ate our dinner, we decided to watch A Charlie Brown Christmas with a plate of cookies and a nice tall glass of cold milk. It was smiles all around.

I put mindfulness on a pause while I took these pictures so that I can share my experience with y'all. Take a look at how I made these super easy, super simple shortbread cookies last night.