Baking more than a sweet tooth cure
Whether it’s a plate of biscuits or a basket of muffins, countless Kiwis enjoy gobbling fresh baking.
But experts are saying there is more to baking than just satisfying a sweet tooth.
According to clinical psychologist Marilize Slabber baking could also be used to relax the mind and body.
Slabber works with trauma patients, but said she has seen how tactile and sensory objects can be to distract and calm people.
Many psychologists have a distress tolerance kit, filled with items such as kinetic sand, weighted objects, spiky balls, and nice smelly items, she said.
Giving a client a tactile object they can physically hold, manipulate and concentrate on, offers a distraction and can calm them, she said.
A similar link could be made to baking, and how it offers a distraction for people and time out from their busy lives, she said.
Counsellor Michael Nolan said people moved at such a fast pace they often forgot to take time out.
Whether it was gardening, scrapbooking, exercising, baking, or simply sitting in the sun for half-anhour with a coffee in hand, Nolan said taking time out was an important part of self care.
But the hobby needed to be relaxing. Not a mandatory task which earned money and which people were assessed on, he said.
For Palmerston North woman Seini Pifeleti, baking was a way to de-stress after a long day at work.
When she is not working her two jobs, Pifeleti can be found in the kitchen about three times a week, baking up a storm and listening to YouTube clips.
She picked up hobby baking at the end of her masters degree in 2010.
For her, it was a way to chill out and wind down in between working two jobs.
‘‘When I’m baking it’s a therapeutic thing - it’s a way for me to chill.’’
Pifeleti gives her baking to other people - not for money, but simply to make that person’s day a bit brighter.
She has baked for people who were in situations such as having a sore ankle, being in an argument, stressing over money and even job loss.
‘‘The ability to make something from scratch yourself, get something out of that experience, and then pass that experience forward is a huge thing.’’
Celebrity baker Chelsea Winter compared baking to therapy.
Before her cookbooks, Winter said she would come home from a manic day at the office and start cooking to feel ‘connected’ again.
‘‘To be present in the moment when you’re measuring, mixing and whisking is almost meditative. It allows you a moment of calm in the crazy storm of life.’’