Chef D'Mind

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Chef D'Mind

Written by Ollie Coach Ruth Sparkes,

 

What we feed our mind with is as important as what we feed our bodies with.

As we all adjust to life at home, many of us have started to cook – either learning it as a new skill or finding time to do something we once enjoyed, baking for example. Baking a cake is an artform and requires the right:

  • ingredients
  • quantities
  • amount of time and effort

All of these elements are dependent on the recipe and have an impact on the result. For instance most baking requires flour, sugar, eggs and butter, but varying the quantities can give you anything from a Irish rock cake, to French patisserie. Follow the recipe correctly, and get it right, we have an amazing cake (that looks and tastes great) and will become fuel for our bodies, enabling us to do the things we want. Get it wrong & it is a flop or maybe it’s a bit wonky, or get it really wrong, by choosing salt instead of sugar by mistake for example and it is inedible and only worthy of the bin.

The ingredients, quantity, time and effort all have a role to play. So how does this relate to our minds?

We cannot see our minds or our thoughts, and as such, it is sometimes hard to understand how it works, and how to help it help us. So, by using something we can see and understand like baking a cake, it can help us to understand what we can’t see.

Our mindset is the cake – the final product.

The ingredients are our thoughts.

And just like the real cakes we bake, we have to be willing to spend time and effort perfecting the final product. The mindset cake, like the real cake, will in time, become fuel for our bodies, enabling us to do the things we want.

Like the cake ingredients our thoughts are vast and varied. We can observe and attempt to manage the thoughts, or we can leave them to come and go as they please. If the quality and quantity of our thoughts, and the time we give to them does not produce our desired mindset cake, we can just bake it again, that’s the beauty of a metaphorical cake (and it’s not as expensive!). But unlike a flopped cake which may end up in the bin (or the dog!) there is no failure with a mindset cake, only feedback or First attempt in learning (FAIL) so we can constantly adjust our mindset cake to our personal taste until we get the recipe ‘just so’.

There are hundreds of different cakes we can bake, and we can create lots of different mindsets too, dressing it up or down for the different situations we find ourselves in – home, work, sporting challenges the list is endless – your situations are unique and therefore your mindset cakes will be different and ever changing. You get to choose the type of cake you want; name the cake and decorate the cake however you please because it is all yours and completely unique to you.

So whilst we stay at home baking cakes, you also have the chance to bake, create and recreate your mindset cakes. Make them as real as you can, name your cake, choose colours and flavours. What ingredients (thoughts) do you want and need for it? Write the recipe down – list the ingredients, think about the process, and adjust as you go along, consider the event or challenges you may need to allow for. Most importantly, take time each day to reflect on your cake – did you have all the right ingredients (thoughts) in the right quantities? What was the quality (of your thoughts) like? Does the quality need improving? What adjustments do you need to make to make to gain a better mindset? Did you achieve the desired outcome?

It’s okay if the answer is no, like the best cake makers of the world, sometimes it all goes wrong, we make and adapt our recipes every day, to try and better ourselves, learning from our environment and the day’s challenges.

So, whilst you’re baking over the coming weeks, make your mind cakes too. Practice using and adjusting them, whilst in the safety of your own home, until you have your perfect mindset cake fuelling you through the times ahead.

Happy Baking!

Oh Yes you can - Indulgent triple Coffee and Chocolate sponge with nutty fudgy icing

Ingredients:

10 x You have done it before

1 x You Go girl

1 x You made this choice no one made you do it

2 x You know you can do it

1 x You won’t regret doing it

2 x do it and you get to have cake

50 x whoop whoop’s

100 x positive energy’s

100 x just do it’s

1 x your body and mind are strong

10 x my friends and family support me

Method:

  1. Mix all the ingredients (Give yourself a pep talk)
  2. Taste and test as you go along, you may need more of one ingredient than the other
  3. Cook on a slow and steady temperature – its ready when the outside is golden brown and starting to toughen up but the inside is still warm and squidgy.
  4. After cooling off (you’re hot in the kitchen), bring the layers together with the coffee and chocolate indulgence (have a few snacks).
  5. Decorate with loads of nuts and just as you set forward to start the challenge or your day light the sparkler and enjoy and enormous slice of happiness and self-love!

 

 

 Ruth Sparkes, Ollie Coach, 

Ruth is a qualified Ollie & Personal Development coach as well as a youth mindfulness teacher (SOMA). Her passion is to work with teenagers and young people using a blend of techniques to coach them through the many transitions of life enabling them to be the best versions of themselves in their personal and professional lives. Dare Dream Do.

To get in contact with Ruth email Ruth.sparkes@ollieandhissuperpowers.com