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
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.
I came across this story as I was doing some shopping on your site and it hit me hard. I have also been an anxious and depressed person for most of my life. It got worse the older I got and sometimes it’s unbearable. I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2017 and had to give up my dream job as an elementary school teacher. The job was beginning to be too much for me and caused more and more stress. Fast forward to today, my children are 9 and 11 and participate in lots of activities that require me to have to get out of the house and see people. That is hard for me, very hard! I am a home body and would happily stay home indefinitely. However, staying home alone every day can also be hard on your mental health. I needed a hobby, something that I could do to keep me occupied and make me happy at home. I’ve always been quite creative and loved watching cookie and cake decorating videos and tutorials but I did not have enough confident to give it a try until recently, I absolutely love it and look forward to it every single day. It’s calming and relaxing for me. But now, there’s a new problem, I feel selfish for always wanting to be home decorating cookies. My husband is great at bringing the kids to their activities but I feel like I’m missing out on a lot. I would love to know how people do it all, housework, cookies, kids, husband? I don’t want to give up on something I love so much but I also don’t want to miss out on life with my family.
Hi Mary,
Your story is very inspiring and super kudos to you for your accomplishments.
I began my cookie journey after my brain surgery 6 yrs ago. I couldn’t return to my high stress sales job and eventually found myself getting bored. There were some really cute baby themed sugar cookies at my daughter in laws baby shower , so I thought to myself, hey I can do that. Easier said than done lol. I plugged away at it, lots of failures, lots of tears and many times I wanted to give up but I persevered. I dont want a large business, I just want enough to keep me from getting bored, as I still have a difficult time with time-management and so on. But I went from a non baker to a cookier and I absolutely love it. You’re so right when you said it de stresses. I’m calm while I’m decorating and feel contentment when I see my finished cookies.
Today I recieved my new airgun, I cannot wait to use it. Thanks again 👍😊👍
Hello! I’m just beginning my cookie decorating journey and to be honest I feel I haven’t really started. I also have twins and I also have an Emma! :) They will be 9 months soon and I have a toddler who just turned 3 last month. :P It’s safe to say, my life is pretty exhausting and I don’t have any time to pick up a hobby unless I give up any little sleep I do get. But I want to decorate cookies so badly! I keep watching videos and keep buying cookie cutters and then I’m in my kitchen at 11pm wanting to start my journey but I just can’t because I know I should be sleeping. I’m a stay at home mom Monday-Friday and work as a NICU RN on the weekends. My babies are little for such a short time so I’ll get in cookie practice where I can and enjoy my babies first. :D Thank you for your videos!