In this article I'm going to discuss some of the ways in which people develop and suffer from a fear of cooking. Because it is the heart of the home the kitchen is a very emotional place for many people and failure in the kitchen can be emotionally devastating. From years of experience cooking I've heard many stories as I've encouraged people to overcome their fear.
Smell and memory have an important link - if you think now about a particular smell, perhaps of cookies baking or a delicious roast being prepares then you will probably have memories you associate with those smells. Try to think of non-food smells, such as the chlorine smell at the swimming pool.
This link to memory can often be a negative association. A friend of mine I spent many years helping to learn to cook used to get anxious when we were making things that they had to turn out right every time. I explained that error and learning from mistakes is all a part of cooking and after a while she eventually confided in me that the smells of food reminded her of her mother yelling at her to get out of the kitchen. As a child she was never allowed in the kitchen when cooking was going on. Hardly suprising she had a nervous problem when it comes to cooking!
Let's look a little more deeply into the 10 ways that the fear of cooking may affect your life:
Here are a number of possible ways in which a fear of cooking may manifest itself and adversly affect your life:
1. Anxiousness, a fear of failure, of not getting things right and becoming tense and nervous. This will always make something harder.
2. Repeptitive cooking, making the same things over and over because you have no confidence to try something new can result in a depressive cycle, blunting the desire to learn to cook new foods.
3. Consuming fast foods, ready meals and stacking up on calories with little nutritional value can result in a lethargic feeling and a lack of energy.
4. An element of social isolation and embarassment can be caused by not being able to contribute to social gathering that are based around food.
5. Families that don't eat a home cooked meal and instead rely on convenience food will have a weaker regular mealtime routine, leading to isolation within the family unit. Your own relatives can become strangers!
6. Guilt can build up by never reciprocating dinner invites - because you feel you can't cook for people who visit you! Your friends may understand, but you wil still feel like a deadbeat.
7. A lack of cooking ability can lead to a lack of healthy options for your family. This can lead to a sense of guilt, a justifiable one, from not feeding your children healthy foods.
8. It can hurt your relationship with your spouse, by creating a dependency on them to always cook and provide meals for the family. You end up feeling like you're always taking and not giving anything back.
9. Having all those kitchen gadgets people buy for you sitting around the house unused can really make you feel like an irresponsible spend thrift. A hugely expensive cooker with multiple feature you never use can really intensify the fear of cooking.
10. And further to this, what about the cost of all the expensive takeout food you buy in to replace the cooking you don't do? Double that spend thrift feeling because this guilt is justified as well. Adding to already stretched household finances can really fuel your guilt.
But you don't have to feel this way. Start taking steps today to overcome your fear. Learning whih ingredients go together without a recipe will help ovecome your fear and will give the ability to cook anytime anywhere with confidence. You'll save money, experience less stress and take your rightful place at the heart of your family home!
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