How A Tiny Kitchen Helped Me Become Happier
What's your style of cooking?
Mine (Tay) is usually like this:
Usually, three activities are happening concurrently when I am in the kitchen. Put the rice to cook. While the rice is cooking, sauté the mushrooms. While the rice is cooking and the mushroom are sautéing, wash and chop the vegetables... You get the picture.
But ever since we moved into an apartment with a tiny kitchen (the whole kitchen is inside a 4' x 2' cupboard), I no longer have the space to wash, chop, marinate, and cook—all at the same time.
So, this happened:
Mise en place.
A fancy way of saying: Prepare all your ingredients and kitchen equipment beforehand. Everything in place.
(Sidebar: The trick to cooking the best stir-fry dish is to cook each ingredient separately, and then combine them at the end).
It's obviously not the easiest adjustment to make since I like to have everything going all at once to be efficient.
I set aside the whole morning, thinking that cooking this one stir-fry dish was going to take forever.
BUT.
I felt in control of time.
Each ingredient was cooked to perfection.
The kitchen was clean and tidy throughout the whole process.
I was delightfully surprised with a sense of calm.
The outcome?
No one talked during lunch because we were all busy devouring the dish.
That was not all.
For the rest of the afternoon, I got work done. Then I went swimming in the evening. After that, I headed out for supper with friends.
That night, I fell asleep with a smile on my face. #pillowsmile
Did I feel challenged doing it? Absolutely.
AND.
I also felt very productive and in-control of my inner calm all day.
What caused me to feel this way? Was it the act of mise en place?
More importantly, how can I feel this way more often?
Harvard researcher Matt Killingsworth conducted a study on 15,000 people across 80 countries to find out "What makes us happy?" He discoverd:
What made people happy had far less to do with what they were doing and significantly more to do with whether their attention was fully present in the moment
Even the people who kept thinking about pleasant things were not as happy as people who kept their minds in the present moment
What was even more surprising to me was this:Even if the activity at hand was deemed unpleasant, people were still happier when they engaged their attention fully in the now
So, it turns out that I couldn't give the act of mise en place all the credit for my increase in productivity and sense of serenity.
It was because I was able to be fully present with the mushrooms, the prawns, the asparagus, the sauce, the whole cooking-in-a-tiny-kitchen experience.
I gave each step all of my attention. And a sense of flow happened.
Which activities have helped you focus all of your attention and allowed you to be in the present moment?
Folks have told us that they experienced this sense of flow when... they're climbing a mountain; making candles; taking a walk and enjoying all the beauty around them; solving a puzzle; learning something new, etc..
This May, kick off Mental Health Awareness month by planning one activity like that into your week. Support yourself in shifting into the #presentmoment zone and increase your happiness index.
Was this helpful? Forward and share this with a friend who might benefit from reading this.
Want more? Read our most popular article here.
p.s. If you ever need a warm hello, a 😊emoji, or some kind words to uplift your spirits this season, pop over here and say hi. We're here for you.