I am writing this as I settle down into my dorm room in Malaysia; after a year of foundation and one entire year of my undergraduate endeavour done completely online, I’m finally able to be the fully traditional, on-campus student at the university.
Leaving home and adapting to changes in your environment is very stressful. But like Headspace tells me, it’s all part of the process.
During stressful times like these, it’s essential to have an activity to alleviate that heavy and annoying burden off; For me, that would actually be cooking.
My relationship with cooking is a bit difficult to describe; It began from a sense of requirement, and then became a meditative activity (and perhaps a hobby as well). Cooking has everything I need to be self-aware and self-caring:
- It gives me an incentive to think about what I want to eat: To be self-aware and self-caring of my physical and mental needs.
- It requires me to be conscious of the process for whatever dish(es) I’m preparing: To be self-aware of my physical (re)actions as I interact with what nature has to offer—something organic but not human.
- It provides me with a sense of achievement once I make something: To be slef-caring and self-appreciative of what I’m capable of doing.
Cooking has been very effective in sustaining my health overall, not only physically but also mentally. Anytime I feel exhausted, there’s always a bit of incentive and energy left for me to whip up something. When I manage to prepare something then, I feel very satisfied and even partially rejuvenated. It’s the perfect stress reliever amidst a stressful envrionment change.
And while I cannot enjoy my culinary hobby as conveniently as I did in Japan, where I had a large kitchen and access to a wide variety of tools and ingredients, I am still capable of cooking and experimenting new recipes. Until I move to a place of my own, let’s hope I can continue to use cooking as my go-to meditative activity.
