Baking for Therapy!
Last year, I submitted a story to a cake magazine about "Baking for Therapy". It never made it into the magazine and I kept this story saved to my computer. But instead of it remaining buried on my hard drive, I thought I would share it here. To give you a better understanding of who I am. So here it goes....
I get tonnes of messages daily through social media..
"Mary, how do you manage everything?"... "How do you run a business and take care of your family?" They want to hear my story about how Emma's Sweets got started......
Let me tell you first hand -- it's been really hard- and is still hard!
I have two small children who constantly demand my attention (9 year old twins). A pile of laundry that never goes away! Housework that is neglected for weeks on end!! And the list goes on...
What started off as a hobby turned into something larger than I could have ever dreamed
With all of that being said, everything that I now have has come at a hefty cost. My physical and mental health has deteriorated, and that is a heavy price to pay.
I have suffered from debilitating anxiety all of my life. It only got worse as I got older. Nobody warned me that being in my mid 40's would be so challenging. Some days I struggle to take a deep breath. Catastrophic thoughts ruminate in my head on the best of days. It is a vicious cycle - and just when I think I have overcome it -- the little voice of anxiety taps on my shoulder and says "Uh no - I am not going anywhere!"
I worked in the financial industry for 15 years and that just added to my stress. That's when I began to bake on a more regular basis.
Eventually I discovered the world of "cookie decorating". And this is where my life began to change. Did it cure my anxiety disorder? Of course not. But did it provide me with relief? ABSOLUTELY!!
After leaving my banking job in 2017, I began to pursue baking and decorating on a full time basis. Decorating cookies
It is so important to take time for yourself on a daily basis, as in not doing so can prove to be damaging to your overall health. I am the worst at this and need to remind myself of how important this is. I encourage everyone to find a passion and pursue it! For me, baking and decorating cookies has proven to be an effective activity in a meditative sense. And if I can make others happy in the process, it makes it all more worthwhile!
I want to create a community, both here and on my social media..
Leave your comments below if you can relate.. I am going to send a small gift to 1 random individual who comments - giveaway will close on August 9th :) thanks for reading!
GIVEAWAY CLOSED
Mary
Hi Mary,
I think I added to your stress a number of years ago when I could NOT find the inserts for the advent calendars. I later emailed (a year?) to tell you I had just found them. My partner had packed them away, helpful man that he is *grrrrr.
Baking/decorating cookies is my outlet as well. I have been on anxiety meds for 19 years. Lost my husband to cancer (at 52), son diagnosed with two debilitating life-long mental health issues requiring in-patient treatment… all not quite 3 months after husband passed. I was in a high stress leadership job in education. Then my ageing Mom started taking up much of my time – first driving 2 hours each way to do things for her on a regular basis (which became more and more frequent) and then finally moving her to the same city as me – and she was NOT happy, believe me.
It’s so hard to make time for one’s self, but cookies allow me that time. I am terribly slow – I could never make a living at it lol, but it allows me “to live”. We’ve had four deaths in our family in the past 17 months, so I have really neglected my cookie time. I’m actually pulling butter out of the freezer later today to start tomorrow. I’ve now hooked my daughter and she is SOOO creative. She’s a nurse in an OR so finds the whole process a real outlet for her anxiety.
Thanks so much for posting your story. I’m sorry it didn’t make it into the magazine. I know many many people can and would relate. I’m so grateful you have your store. I wish I could shop in person, but you’re kind of a 23 hour drive away. I wish you ALL the best :)
Hi Mary,
I think I added to your stress a number of years ago when I could NOT find the inserts for the advent calendars. I later emailed (a year?) to tell you I had just found them. My partner had packed them away, helpful man that he is *grrrrr.
Baking/decorating cookies is my outlet as well. I have been on anxiety meds for 19 years. Lost my husband to cancer (at 52), son diagnosed with two debilitating life-long mental health issues requiring in-patient treatment… all not quite 3 months after husband passed. I was in a high stress leadership job in education. Then my ageing Mom started taking up much of my time – first driving 2 hours each way to do things for her on a regular basis (which became more and more frequent) and then finally moving her to the same city as me – and she was NOT happy, believe me.
It’s so hard to make time for one’s self, but cookies allow me that time. I am terribly slow – I could never make a living at it lol, but it allows me “to live”. We’ve had four deaths in our family in the past 17 months, so I have really neglected my cookie time. I’m actually pulling butter out of the freezer later today to start tomorrow. I’ve now hooked my daughter and she is SOOO creative. She’s a nurse in an OR so finds the whole process a real outlet for her anxiety.
Thanks so much for posting your story. I’m sorry it didn’t make it into the magazine. I know many many people can and would relate. I’m so grateful you have your store. I wish I could shop in person, but you’re kind of a 23 hour drive away. I wish you ALL the best :)
So great to hear your story. I find watching your cookie decorating very relaxing. You are very talented and I really appreciate you for being transparent about your mental health struggles.
I’ve had anxiety all my life and was a police officer for 8 years which further wrecked my mental state. But, as we flow through life everything we experience is for our own personal growth and strength.
Baking started out with me and my amazing son baking cookies every Tuesday for my mandatory Wednesday patrolling and ticketing speeders on I-20. So, they got a ticket and a sweet treat for stopping by our little town. Yes, they were left with their mouth open not knowing what to say but “thank you.”
After retiring my shield I started out molding and painting on chocolate and found it so therapeutic it seemed to just transport me into a serene and calm place. So, I love making bon bons and baking and cooking in general. The more difficult and fiddley the recipe or method the more I have a drive to accomplish it.
So, check my little page of love on FB. Yummy Bites Confectionary.
Really great to find you and I wish you all the best.
Staying true in the deep south. SS
I came across this story while shopping today and I am so glad to see others bake for the same reason I do. I started baking cakes 13 years ago after my oldest grandson’s first birthday party. It started out with cakes and cupcakes for family, then grew to friends and co-workers. I have been a nurse for over 24 years and I’ll just say it is a calling from God and certainly stressful to say the least. I felt strongly lead to become a hospice nurse several years ago and truly look at the opportunity to not only serve people in the final chapter of their life but to their surviving family members as well. Then COVID 19 hit and let me tell you something inside of me just simple broke. The little small town hospice agency I worked for was so unimaginably busy, not just with COVID patients but with other dying patients that did not want to die alone because the hospitals were on lock down and family could not enter to be by there side. Do not get me wrong I still feel like that time frame was part of God’s plan for my life, He put me there to help all of those people and it was a true blessing for me. But it took a toll on not only my body but my spirit and my family. I had to tell them no they could not be around me because I did not want to make them sick and let me tell you my very young grandchildren could not understand why they could not come see Nan and papa anymore. That my friend is when I found cookie decorating and what a blessing that was. It was so challenging that I had to concentrate my mind on what I was doing, I’m so glad it was not an easy skill for me to pick up because I needed that distraction from morphine titrations, medical equipment, patient needs, did I disinfect the shower knobs, did I shut the gait before I stripped my clothes off at the back door and if not was the neighbor home, or does my husband still think I’m pretty after ugly crying on his shoulder when I hung up face time with the grand babies (yes he still thinks I’m beautiful but a girl still wonders from time to time). As you can tell from my typing my mind still wonders a lot and cookie decorating helps with that so my random thoughts do not turn into what if’s or the would’ve, should’ve, could’ve anxieties. Thank you for that post it helps to see so many other women have anxieties and that they find comfort with baking as well. Maybe just maybe we are not all so different after all.