Mindfulness is a practical tool that can help manage challenging emotions, but it can also be hard to know where to start. We spoke to Susan Verde to get some easy tips that parents can incorporate into daily life – no fancy app subscription required.
‘In the Kitchen With…’ celebrates female founders and creators. This week we talk to Julia Gralberg, Founder + Owner, Lux Nomade.
This week M+K sits across the table with Dr. Anna Sulan Masing, Writer, Editor and Academic. She tells us about her latest project, SOURCED, and reflects on creating community and the power of kindness during lockdown.
My sister. I remember once, when I was finishing my PhD and I had nothing in my fridge but some old broccoli. My sister was over and she somehow made an incredibly delicious soup by finely cutting the broccoli and a mix of spices and of course onion and garlic. I opened the wine.
There are so many! I think at the moment I am craving chicken curry. And also toast with butter and vegemite.
That taking things slow is a good thing! I am often in a rush – with cooking as well, high heat does not get the onions nicely softened! I also think that people appreciate the effort of cooking, even if the outcome isn’t perfect, which is something that can also transfer over to life!
Have a nap. Or listen to Mariah Carey, call my sister, walk the dog – then post it all on Instagram! Creativity is about having space to think and ponder, and often you have to occupy your body in something unrelated to let your brain be free to wonder. I then sit with my notebook and free-write; hand writing articles allows me to link ideas with arrows, lines, drawings. It allows to cross out, but still see the thinking in case I need it again!
Probably poetry books. Most weeks I read poetry, and I try to do so everyday. Poetry kicks your brain out of thinking in formulas, or patterns; you can let the words wash over you, there is no need to understand, take in, ‘learn’ from poetry (I think), you can simply enjoy and be affected. In spring I was particularly into reading my collection of Rumi’s poetry – I found the way food and drink was written about was interesting. I am in between homes at the moment so most of my books are in storage so all I have is Surge by Jay Bernard, but I am staying with friends who have a few books which I am keen to read! So much of my reading is for research that I think I often find books that are transformational because I am purposely looking for books to change my work.
Walking the dog. Having to go out each morning is super important for both of us!
Trust your audience. This is something I have always believed in, but after the 8 week panel discussions for Black Book on decolonising the food world, this topic kept coming up. There is an audience for good work, for diverse voices, mainstream media needs to trust this and be better. But more importantly, on a personal level, I need to trust my ‘audience.’ I have worked hard – for many years, I am not young! – and through thorough and engaged work I have built up a network of people who trust and engage in my work and that care about what I put out into the world. This has shown with SOURCED, a new project investigating food and drinks systems. We’ve had positive early engagement and I have faith that it will grow into something really powerful.
I am incredibly lucky and the last six months have really shown incredible kindness – from friends dropping off bread, to commissioning me to write (paid) for their blogs when I lost my work and my card declined when at the supermarket! And, during a very difficult few weeks friends couriered to me my favourite whisky! I was actually in bed, because it was all a bit much… I was in floods then! Not that I think booze is the way out of a dip in mental health, but the gift was incredible and a wee sip after dinner did give me a perspective and reminder of not being alone.
You need to put yourself out there, you have to be part of the conversation. I don’t cook often so when Riaz Philips asked me to contribute to his Community Comfort Cookbook, raising money for UK BAME COVID-victims, I was hesitant. But you can’t do that, there are things too important to fight for and you have to offer everything you have. It turns out that my very simple cake recipe has been a hit – easy is a good thing! Recently I attended a ‘congee brunch club’ that Jenny Lau organised with the Hackney Chinese Community Centre. We discussed how to expand the community to include East and South East Asians and how to create a robust safety net and address the racism that the community has endured. I can get quite shy about being at events, but it is important to show up, in person despite a pandemic, and not just sit at a desk.
Sunny days, for a wonderful network of friends that have let me stay in their homes whilst I find my new home! And gin, always; whisky and wine too.
“Storytelling and food has always gone hand and hand, I can’t seem to do the one without the other…” Anna Sulan began writing to tell stories through theatre, which grew into a freelance writing career, a PhD and developing projects around food and creating communities. She co-hosts successful food podcast Voices At The Table and is the co-founder of Black Book, London.
To connect visit:
Website: https://www.annamasing.com/
Twitter: @AnnaSulan
Instagram: @AnnaSulan
Marmalade + Kindness launches HARVEST, the first digital food magazine devoted to cooking as self-care and self-development.
Adamantia Velonis, Founder, Marmalade + Kindness shares her personal shopping guide to Oxford and the beloved products getting her through lockdown 2.0.
This is a simple greek vegetable stew. My grandmother used to make this for me as a child and it’s delicious with hummus and crusty bread to mop up the sauce. It doesn’t look like much but it’s vegan, super healthy and hits the spot. The quality of the ingredients makes a difference, so try and buy organic to let the vegetables shine.
“Food is our common ground, a universal experience.” James Beard
As views across society become more and more polarised, consider the power of remembering our similarities. Food is an area we all have in common and is a powerful way of building connection across many barriers. As you are cooking the meal, reflect on other ways of building connection and empathy.
The coronavirus pandemic has created a new generation of home cooks, who see cooking as an opportunity for connection and mindfulness, explains Adamantia Velonis, Founder, Marmalade + Kindness.
Here are 9 ways practising ‘mindful cooking’ can reinforce your yoga practice beyond the mat, says Adamantia Velonis, Founder, Marmalade + Kindness.
The COVID-19 pandemic has shifted everyone’s needs and made us consider what we really ‘value.’ Now, more than ever, as we assess what is fundamentally important to us, we have an opportunity to explain values to our children and how ‘values literacy’ supports their well-being explains Adamantia Velonis, Founder, Marmalade + Kindness.
In elementary school, I remember sitting cross-legged during assembly. That day we had a guest speaker, an alumni, who was working as a local TV personality. She told us that ‘each one of us has gifts, something special that we are good at, but that it’s our responsibility to make sure that we actually use and develop these gifts…it’s not enough just to have talent.’ These words have stayed with me ever since, not because I practised them. But because I didn’t.
As a child, I was deeply creative and loved learning for the sake of it, but somewhere along the line – studying to get top marks, completing two law degrees, working in the corporate world – these gifts got lost. Focused on the end goal, rather than enjoying the process, I’d forgotten what activities ‘filled’ me up, and brought me strength through joy. Buried in the daily grind of emails, long working hours and (as a young woman) constantly being marketed to, I had become so disconnected from myself, I wasn’t sure what I was striving for anymore, let alone whether the direction I was moving in was making me happy.
Fast forward a few years and I saw a values-based coach. The process that led me there was long and serendipitous, but it was a true ‘aha’ moment to consciously uncover my key values and strengths. When I saw the results of the testing it was like a blurry image had suddenly sharpened into focus. Love, gratitude, creativity, love of learning, and bravery: ‘That’s me!’ I felt like I had ‘gone back to basics’ and finally understood what made me tick. But it was also sobering, as I had to face the reality of the gap between the life I was living and living a life with personal meaning. The two were not the same.
And this is why values – knowing our personal values – is so important. They aren’t esoteric but provide a framework for daily life. A lens through which we can evaluate opportunities and make decisions so that we can focus our time, energy, and resources on what actually matters to us (not what we are told to value – whether it be from family, friends or society at large).
When I first moved from Australia to the UK, I was faced with a difficult period of adjustment as I was struggling to find my feet in a new environment, away from my family and friends. Over this period cooking became my outlet and I started making a lot of my grandmother’s traditional Greek recipes as a way of reconnecting to my family, feelings of comfort and my heritage. And I realised that cooking was an activity I kept returning to (not just because we need to eat everyday!) but because it incorporates so many of my strengths.
It was a way of harnessing my creativity, as I was being resourceful with ingredients, developing new recipes and experimenting with ‘plating up.’ It was an opportunity to experience gratitude – for food and nature, and also to express love, by sharing meals with others. My love of learning was rekindled as I was developing a sense of mastery and improvement. And I was calling on bravery, to give me the strength to try new techniques, even if they didn’t work out. By approaching a daily activity, like cooking, through my values, and paying attention to my habitual reactions and behaviours in the kitchen, there were many ‘teachable moments’ that I could apply to other areas of life. In this way, cooking became my meditation.
As cooking is a deeply immersive experience, recruiting all your senses during the process, you can cultivate an awareness of the present moment, resulting in similar benefits to a formal mindfulness practice. Several studies show creative activities, like baking can support stress management, while another study found that “maker” activities, like cooking, are particularly beneficial for young adults. The benefits of cooking with children are also well documented, as it has been found to be an excellent therapy for children managing anxiety and helps children learn.
Three decades of research have also uncovered the benefits of strength-based parenting, including, improved well-being and better parent-child connection. The field of research on the intersection between mindfulness and values also continues to develop, with new and exciting ways to merge these practices. Dr. Ryan Niemiec, author, Mindfulness and character strengths: A practical guide to flourishing, explains ‘mindfulness and character strengths deepen one another…to practice using strengths with mindfulness is to be intentional and conscious about noting and deploying your best qualities.’ In this way, mindfulness is integral to understanding our values and changing our behaviour, because the first step is awareness.
In the midst of the current pandemic, there hasn’t been a more pressing time to support children and build their ‘values literacy.’ To mark World Values Day 2020, I have teamed up with values-based coach, Melanie Weeks and nutritionist, Ati Farmani to host two events on introducing values to children during the pandemic. Part 1 is a conversation with Melanie Weeks on identifying your child’s values, while Part 2 is a cooking demonstration with Ati Farmani, where we make a fanouropita – a traditional Greek cake – and explain how parents can turn baking into an opportunity to explore values with their children.
We hope that by blending our approach to mindful cooking with values inquiry, participants will have a new perspective on how to help uncover their children’s values and provide them with the tools they need to make sense of their world and recognise their own strength.
Because it’s not enough to have values, we need to use them.
First published: World Values Day
This is my comfort food in winter. There is nothing better than sprinkling sea salt on crispy roast potatoes, straight out of the oven.
‘In the kitchen with…’ celebrates female founders and creators. This week M+K talks to Elaine Beckett, Faber Poet.
One of the first exercises you do as part of formal mindfulness training is the raisin exercise. This is where you bring all five senses to the experience of eating a raisin, noticing the effect it has on your body. This is commonly described as ‘mindful eating,’ but this is just one aspect of ‘mindful cooking,’ explains Adamantia Velonis, Founder, Marmalade + Kindness.
Mindfulness is an approach that you can apply to many daily activities to cultivate an awareness of the here and now. Cooking is a deeply immersive experience, as you recruit all your senses during the process. Think about the sound of bacon frying or the texture of prickly cucumbers. When you pay attention to what you are doing, and the recipe you’re following, you can get into a ‘flow’ state, very quickly.
Mindful cooking takes the daily routine of preparing meals, and uses it as an opportunity to extend the benefits of formal mindfulness (or meditation) to your everyday life. The concept is wholistic in that mindful cooking is not just about mindful eating, but also includes being mindful about the produce you buy, how you are preparing it, sharing it and ultimately the impact on your body and the planet. Mindful cooking takes into account the seasons, how your body feels, who else you are cooking for, their needs, what you already have, and the intention you bring to preparing a meal.
Often we think of cooking as a chore, rather than as an activity to alleviate stress. But when we treat cooking like an informal mindfulness practice, it allows us to experience a number of benefits. As eating is something we all do, cooking is an immediately accessible way to bring your whole self to a task, focusing on being in the moment. By distracting you from unproductive thoughts and providing feelings of control or mastery, cooking can support stress management. ‘Cooking now feels like an extension of my normal meditation routine. I can lose myself in the process. Standing still at the stove, preparing food, grounds me. I become rooted in the moment, and stop worrying,’ says Rachel Kelly, author of The Happy Kitchen.
Mindful cooking can also be useful to manage strong emotions, as the senses (like smell), are deeply connected to our involuntary memory (sometimes called the ‘Proustian effect’). This is why making a meal that you associate with love or safety, can help you access those emotions in your present environment.
Cooking also allows us to experience creativity in our everyday lives, from experimenting with flavour combinations, being resourceful with available ingredients, to paying attention to the presentation of food. We can build confidence through the attainment of new skills, the willingness to experiment with new projects, and create connection through sharing what we have made with others.
Here are 3 quick ways to help you incorporate mindful cooking into your daily routine:
These easy actions can help manage our energy through the day, and focus us on the present moment. As Jon Kabat-Zinn says in his mindfulness classic, Full Catastrophe Living, ‘the important point to keep in mind is that each moment that you are alive is a moment that you can live fully, a moment not to be missed. Why not live life as if it really mattered?’ Mindful cooking helps us make every moment count.
First published: Woman Ready
