Anxiety in the Kitchen: Part 2

Let's go a little further in our investigation of anxiety in the kitchen. Turn to your zen-cuisine journal again, and look at the negative statements you previously recorded. It's time to use your creativity to transform these downbeat concepts into a happier tune. After you center yourself with a calming breath, or two, revise negative ideas into constructive ones with positive, supportive thinking. Write your new thoughts down on paper. As you find something positive to say, say it! Say it silently to yourself, or shout it out loud—make a mantra, a rhyme, a tune, and repeat it. Often. Continually replace negative patterns with positive energy. Show yourself that constructive alternatives to depressing, pessimistic thinking are possible. Tap into your inner joy, and discover the newly-emerging awareness that facilitates creation of these alternate trajectories of behavioral response. 

Zen-cuisine is the art of being mindful, and also of reinforcing patterns with repetition. Changing your thoughts, you change your experience. A key ingredient in this transformation is practice. Practice, and eventually a paradigm shift occurs and negativity transforms itself into constructive energy. Practice, practice, practice. Practicing zen-cuisine creates a balanced and calm kitchen environment. You are not simply learning to cope better with kitchen-stress, zen-cuisine practices allow you minimize stressful reaction in the first place. You gently teach yourself to move from anxiety to acceptance. Instead of entering the kitchen with apprehension and misgivings about cooking, you shift into a different mind-space, one of making food with confidence and ease.  

Whenever a negative cloud formation crosses the vast sky of your mind, zen-cuisine’s unconditional awareness reminds you of the sun behind the haze. You know you are part of a boundless creative process, in touch with the energy beyond ‘success’ or ‘failure’ in any particular kitchen project.  As you practice, you will gradually meet with less resistance, and you will develop more skillful ways of meeting resistance when it does occur. Practice acceptance and transformation, remembering the limitless capabilities of "the magical display of awareness" of the mind. Happy cooking!