Kitchen Karma

Steps to planting Katherine firmly in her happy place:

1. Wake up before dawn
2. Get dressed in a tank top, messy bun, glasses and pj pants
3. Turn on coffee and a great playlist
4. Spend all morning baking up a storm
   Note: Equally effective can be changing #1 to after work, #3 to wine (keep the playlist, add my hubs and my pup nearby), #4 to prepare a no recipe dinner fueled by inspiration and farm share veggies.

My kitchen is my haven, my safe space, the place that can relax me far more than any other form of “rest.” You may notice if you’d been to my place that I spend a whole lot of time in there, and now you know why.

By nature I am an introvert, and while I adore hosting events, being social drains my energy. Stepping into the kitchen for a minute and busying myself with something brings me back to center. It gives me a quick recharge to be fully present.

Baking for me is meditation. It brings me focus, lightness, even clarity sometimes. I show affection through my food and baking.

I’m not the best at showing or sharing emotion to some, so if I bring you a baked good, just trust me, I care about you.

Weeks after my mom passed away I dropped on the floor in my kitchen and let out a much-needed, much-overdo, loooong cry.

When we built our house I poured all of my energy and thought into creating the space, every inch of it has a purpose for the way I dance from cabinet, to oven, to countertop.

I had a life coach once tell me I should sit on the floor and journal in there. I haven’t yet, but I picture it often and that alone brings me peace.

Brain Nonsense

And yet even with this massive heartbeat of a place that brings me such energy, focus and joy, there are days that my brain tells me “you are too tired to go in there.” “You’re gonna hate it in there.” “Don’t you want to sit on the couch, pretend to watch TV and stress out instead??” (I believe they call that stresslaxing.)

If I can fight through that brain nonsense and get my butt in the kitchen, 95% of the time I will feel better within 15 minutes. That other not-so-great 5% typically happens when I’m trying to push past real, physical exhaustion.

Your brain can be a wonderful, beautiful, magical space that helps you find and create your happy place. But it can also be a huge jerk, trying to avoid your happy from every angle.

Sometimes you need meditation, therapy or other tools to help you through. And sometimes, when it’s not as bad, you may just need to tell your brain to zip it, and fight back a bit.

A great trick to fight past that thought is to give your task a time limit, “I’m just going to run in the kitchen for 10 minutes and make something quick.” A lot of times, that will help get you in a space where you feel at least capable of doing that thing. Then, that little glimmer of joy will kick in, that subtle reminder of why you love this place. And before you know it, you’re knee deep in flour and frosting spending way more time than you intended and rediscovering that ever elusive feeling of being grounded and centered.

Try this trick the next time your brain says you simply can’t take that walk, sit down and be quiet, clean the basement, go see a friend. Shorten the timeframe. Tell your brain you’re just going to take a 5 minute walk, set a timer to clean for 10 minutes, or set one for 2 minutes to sit in silence. Sometimes that can be enough to get you going, get your brain out of your way, and find your own version of kitchen karma.

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