Cooking and Covid Are My Meditation

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I posted a video in this week’s newsletter, hoping to feed the content gods by showing a meal I make once a week. Ostensibly, I’ve been doing this for the family, but I realize now that there’s much more to it.

It took me reflecting on one of my coaching clients to realize one of the main benefits of my cooking.

This client is a successful professional who also suffers from crippling anxiety.

They were referred to me because someone thought I could help—maybe a workout program or some personal training could snap them out of this spiral they were in.

Very quickly, it became clear that there was no way this person was ready for something like that.

They were having trouble leaving the house, doing daily tasks, and interacting with people at all.

I’ve said it a million times. I’m no shrink, but I have worked my entire career on healing myself and others, not just physically, but emotionally, as well.

“The best healers are always working on healing themselves.” is a quote I embrace.

I have joked recently that, during the first three days of having Covid, my most pronounced symptom was complete brain fog.

Honestly, it was almost magical to experience zero thoughts.

No past, no present, no future.

No running narrative or story that you’ve been telling yourself for the last 5-50 years.

It was amazing.

I was just there, lying in the backyard staring at the grass.

On the fourth day, I woke up stressing about all the usual stuff. The gyms, college tuition, I hadn’t worked out in five days…

Well, I must be getting better, I thought; all of this stress is back.

In Yoga, the moves you perform during the practice are supposed to exhaust you to a point where you end with the Shavasana, and your mind is free of thought.

Boxers shadowbox in a mirror to remind themselves to have no tension in their face, to rid their mind of thought, and not project their intentions, en route to finding freedom and flow.

I suggested to my anxious client that along with daily walks, therapy with an actual therapist, breathing, and meditation, that they start cooking for themselves, which was something they weren’t doing.

Why? The cooking process requires little time for outside noise.

The multiple elements of prepping, heating, cooling, and cleaning can allow for an emptiness of thought, which can be very welcoming if we understand the intention.

I am terrible at intentional mind-clearing.

I have found that I am better when I let it come to me.

Walking the dogs without my phone, cooking, and having Covid have all worked well for me. Covid obviously came with great downsides.

Take stock this week, and ask yourself if this practice of freedom from thought is finding you, or if you are open to finding it and might want to develop strategies for doing so.

~TJ