Reena Shimoga
I recently attended a wellness course from Yale University called “the science of well-being”. One of the learnings of this course was to inculcate and form new habits by trying out new things. This creates a certain sense of happiness in yourself, which in turn works towards your overall well being.
Habits: Our minds form habits. It tricks us into doing only those things we normally do. Therefore, any small change we make will involve a certain effort on our parts. And if you practice doing these small changes on a regular basis, this new change then becomes a new habit. All of us go out for grocery shopping and often times, pick the same groceries and produce in a store. This is because we have trained our minds to behave like that.
You reach out to buy only certain things as this has become a routine exercise for you. But if you look around, given time, there are endless possibilities and recipes to explore. Try out one small change in your routine and notice the difference.
Creativity: When one first explores cooking, the maxim is to follow the recipes to the ’T’. But really if you start exploring, you can come up with various ways to try out new recipes. Most home chefs start out as novices but then with experience become master chefs 🙂
Recently my daughter and I had a conversation about an upcoming cocktail challenge at her workplace. We decided on the spur of the moment that she try out something new. The commonly available fruits during summertime are berries and water melon. We decided on making a water melon based drink.
Then we searched up a a few water melon drinks on the web. We decided to incorporate some rose syrup to our drink as we thought that would be something new! Rooh Afza is a commonly available rose syrup at most Indian stores in North America. We also had some limes at home. So, we put these 3 – water melon juice, rose syrup and lime juice together in a large glass. See the detailed recipe https://relishdelish.ca/recipes/watermelon-lime-rose-mocktail/ or on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7nP25QU7g8). And viola when we tested the recipe with family, everyone loved it!
Mental health studies have proven that creativity improves overall mental health of individuals. It reduces stress, depressions and promotes positive well being. Why not start your creativity by starting out a new recipe at home? Let me know in your comment your thoughts and the recipes you have tried recently. The moot point is that when you try out something new, you will get new ideas and increase your mental prowess. Think out of the box and try something new today! Good luck!
