Need to Improve your Mental Health? Try Baking

With the demands of today’s world, many people suffer from mental health issues and have trouble finding ways to cope. Of course, medicine and therapy can help with severe trauma, but sometimes all you need is something to keep you busy. Baking is a great way to relieve stress, connect with people, and eat great food!

When taking a look at, “5 Reasons Baking is Good for Mental Health” on the website Good Net, they write how baking is meditative, stimulates the senses, it feels good, it’s creative and it makes others happy. Although some may argue the fact that cooking or baking may be stressful and anxiety filled, Healthline suggests, “The key is to not get anxious about the process itself.” Have fun with it and bake for the adventure that comes along. In a recent study on Healthline, researchers found that culinary therapy helped with people in hospice during their grieving. Another study stated that, “adolescents with the most cooking skills reported a greater sense of mental well-being, as well as less symptoms of depression.” CAT, or culinary art therapy, can be beneficial in more ways than one. Whether you perfect a recipe or epically fail one, the experience definitely brought happiness and good memories. Why not try your hand at baking? It always ends with the best treats.

To see how baking would really affect us, our friends helped us make an infamous dessert, “The Max and Ruby” cake. From our experience, we had the best time. Despite a few mess ups with measurements, the time spent with friends was what really made it memorable. We felt so accomplished to be able to mimic the original cake (although the taste was definitely questionable).  Michelle Casey says, “After school I will whip out some flour and sugar so they (her kids) can bake something instead of falling asleep after school. Baking is a great pastime and gives young kids, especially, something to do to stay out of trouble. Ciera Schulcz, employee at a bakery in Hatboro, explains how, “even though I am at work, it is my place to escape reality.” Something about putting in your own work and having a tasty outcome makes baking so much better than just going to the store and buying a cake. The next time you feel stressed or overwhelmed, try to bake something, you may just find a new hobby.