{"id":1456,"date":"2017-03-10T21:37:18","date_gmt":"2017-03-10T20:37:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/taoofstefan.com\/blog\/?p=1456"},"modified":"2017-03-24T10:41:23","modified_gmt":"2017-03-24T09:41:23","slug":"meditational-roots-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/taoofstefan.com\/blog\/zen\/meditational-roots-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The Art of Meditational Cooking – Meditational Roots"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is part 4\/6 Meditational Roots<\/strong>\u00a0of my The Art of Meditational Cooking<\/strong>\u00a0series. I will publish a new part every week of my personal discovery and creational journey of what\u00a0I first saw as a means to an end <\/em>(cooking)\u00a0but later evolved into my personal meditational practice.<\/em><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The Art of Meditational Cooking – Beginnings<\/em><\/a><\/li>\n
  2. The Art of Meditational Cooking – Food Family<\/em><\/a><\/li>\n
  3. The Art of Meditational Cooking – Art of Cooking<\/em><\/a><\/li>\n
  4. The Art of Meditational Cooking – Meditational Roots<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n
  5. The Art of Meditational Cooking – Food is Information<\/em><\/a><\/li>\n
  6. The Art of Meditational Cooking – Rediscovering Histor<\/a>y<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    \"The<\/a><\/p>\n

    Creating the Art of Meditational Cooking<\/h1>\n

    That being said, I realised over time what was holding be back in going that route. It wasn’t only the false idea that I had about the life of a chef. It wasn’t that I was afraid to fail. Cooking simply became more than just a passion. I think this happened\u00a0the moment I started to ditch recipes and create my own<\/strong>, but definitely, over the past 10 years the art of cooking evolved into something beyond a\u00a0hobby, beyond passion, beyond a job: I created a meditational practice!<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \"The<\/a><\/p>\n

    I cannot pinpoint a specific date, as it was more of a\u00a0slow process<\/strong> but this creation process took place and I am delighted that it did happen.<\/p>\n

    Like so many other people I\u2019ve got a busy job<\/strong>. My job forces me to mainly sit at a desk in front of a screen. It’s not even remotely physically challenging yet mentally very draining<\/strong>. Back then I tried to make up for this with practising martial arts or working out at the gym<\/strong>. At the end I used both body and mind, trying to negate negative stress with positive<\/strong>. But this never seemed enough for me. I wasn\u2019t able to relax my monkey mind<\/strong> and regroup myself, much less ground myself again on a daily basis.<\/p>\n

    Evolving the Art of Meditational Cooking<\/h1>\n

    Yoga, for many reasons, wasn\u2019t part of my life yet and wouldn\u2019t be for years to come. This meant I wasn\u2019t practising any stretching, breathing or meditational routines back then. I was without guidance, yet was craving it.<\/strong> This is where cooking came in handy and I transformed the art of making something to eat over the years to the art of making great dishes and let it evolve to a practice of active meditation. Or more simply put: meditational cooking<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

    \"Meditational<\/a><\/p>\n

    This is most likely also the reason why I prefer cooking without a set recipe and going with the flow<\/strong>. I have an idea for a recipe in my head. This recipe idea might completely be my own invention\u00a0or inspired by another recipe I saw or by circumstances (as in what ingredients do I have to work with).<\/p>\n

    A recipe is always restrictive and restraining you. I don\u2019t work well with such a mindset. Rules are okay but there needs to be room for free thought and creative behaviour, especially when you prepare a dish. To me cooking<\/strong> and making meals for me and other people is an incredibly intimate process<\/strong>. That\u2019s why I like to know the people I make food for. The more I know, the better I can get in tune<\/strong> with them. This \u201cbeing in tune\u201d is the key to meditational cooking<\/strong>, which is mainly something that I practice if I cook for myself or very small groups of people that I know.<\/p>\n

    Meditational Roots: Importance of Emotions<\/h1>\n

    Let\u2019s say I cook for myself after a busy day. What usually happens is that I have a few major cravings already<\/strong> (for the protein source, texture and taste). From those trigger points of information<\/strong> I adjust (what do I have, will I go buy groceries?) and establish which options I have to work with. From there on I tune into my body<\/strong>. How was my day? How do I feel? How do I want to feel? Those emotions are a crucial<\/strong> factor for the following steps.<\/p>\n

    \"Emotions<\/a><\/p>\n

    Next step is a translation process. I need to translate<\/strong> something like \u201cI feel drained\u201d or \u201cI feel down\u201d, \u201cI am amazing\u201d etc. into a recipe<\/strong>. This is a process that took me years<\/strong> to handle and I developed this knowledge unintentionally and unknowingly<\/strong>. It happened gradually and naturally.<\/p>\n

    Continue with part five of the story here:\u00a0<\/strong>The Art of Meditational Cooking – Food is Information<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    This is part 4\/6 Meditational Roots\u00a0of my The Art of Meditational Cooking\u00a0series. I will publish a new part every week of my personal discovery and creational journey of what\u00a0I first saw as a means to an end (cooking)\u00a0but later evolved into my personal meditational practice. The Art of Meditational Cooking – Beginnings The Art of Meditational Cooking – Food Family The Art of Meditational Cooking – Art of Cooking The Art of Meditational Cooking – Meditational Roots The Art Continue Reading…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1464,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"twitter_3580015876_3580015876":"","facebook_10222714690288203_1473941132908662":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"The Art of Meditational Cooking - Meditational Roots #root #mindful #practice","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[38,27,6,5],"tags":[473,40,474,10],"class_list":["post-1456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cooking","category-lifestyle","category-meditation","category-zen","tag-art","tag-cooking","tag-the-art-of-meditational-cooking","tag-zen"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/taoofstefan.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Meditational-Cooking-1.jpg?fit=1159%2C979&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6IZwn-nu","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1447,"url":"https:\/\/taoofstefan.com\/blog\/zen\/art-cooking\/","url_meta":{"origin":1456,"position":0},"title":"The Art of Meditational Cooking – Art of Cooking","author":"Stefan","date":"March 3, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The Art of Meditational Cooking This is part 3\/6 Art of Cooking\u00a0of my The Art of Meditational Cooking\" series. I will publish a new part every week of my personal discovery and creational journey of what\u00a0I first saw as a means to an end (cooking)\u00a0but later evolved into my personal\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cooking"","block_context":{"text":"Cooking","link":"https:\/\/taoofstefan.com\/blog\/category\/nutrition\/cooking\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Art of Meditational Cooking - Beginnings The Art of Meditational Cooking - Food Family The Art of Meditational Cooking - Art of Cooking The Art of Meditational Cooking - Meditational Roots The Art of Meditational Cooking - Food is Information The Art of Meditational Cooking - Rediscovering History","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/taoofstefan.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Meditational-Cooking-1.jpg?fit=1159%2C979&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/taoofstefan.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Meditational-Cooking-1.jpg?fit=1159%2C979&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/taoofstefan.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Meditational-Cooking-1.jpg?fit=1159%2C979&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/taoofstefan.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Meditational-Cooking-1.jpg?fit=1159%2C979&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/taoofstefan.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Meditational-Cooking-1.jpg?fit=1159%2C979&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1458,"url":"https:\/\/taoofstefan.com\/blog\/zen\/food-is-information\/","url_meta":{"origin":1456,"position":1},"title":"The Art of Meditational Cooking – Food is Information","author":"Stefan","date":"March 17, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"This is part 5\/6 \u00a0Food is Information\u00a0of my The Art of Meditational Cooking\u00a0series. 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