Many years ago I participated in a common social practice with a group of Japanese friends that I enjoyed so much. It was simply called a ‘Gyoza party’. If you are not familiar with ‘Gyoza’ it is often called ‘dumplings’ and contains ingredients such as ground pork, cabbage, egg, spring onions. The fun part of the ‘Gyoza party’ was wrapping the ingredients in the gyoza dough and cooking it.
There wasn’t so much skill in the actual dough wrapping, although I had a hard time getting the hang of it. It was really a basic fun cooking exercise. I thought the joy that came out of the experience was limitless. The conversations that took place during the parties came naturally as we all took part in creating our meals and shared our culinary labors. I always found it to be a great bonding experience.
You don’t have to be expert chefs to make a meal with your friends and cooking a meal with your friends is good too, but something like a ‘Gyoza’ party is great because everyone takes part in the process. You don’t have to stop at a simple Gyoza party, you can try other meals as well.
Apparently, cooking is a great way to practice mindfulness. You can cook and focus on creating something delicious by meticulously following a recipe or using your creative skills to invent your own meals. It is likely to give you a break from the stresses you are experiencing in your life and the self-esteem boost you get from the accomplishment of cooking a meal is also priceless.
Ideally, if you can gather a group of friends, you could make it a practice to cook meals together a couple of times a month. If you are not so busy, weekly meals could be arranged. You can learn how your friends cook and teach them how you cook.
Eating out is expensive no matter where you are living nowadays. It is also worthwhile cooking your own food because you can monitor what you are putting in it and, if you are watching what you eat, you can ensure it will be healthy.
I hope you give it a try, or if you are doing something like this already, I would like to hear about your experiences. Let me know on Facebook or in the comments.
storysolutionstherapy@gmail.com
https://www.facebook.com/CounsellorTrent
https://uk.style.yahoo.com/mental-health-benefits-cooking-eating-friends-family-142453352.html
