Feel Good Friday – Baking Bread

Every Friday we team up with the Canadian Mental Health Association – Lambton-Kent to share ways for you to FEEL GOOD!

This week’s Feel Good Friday is focusing on bread baking!

Remember at the beginning of this pandemic, when you couldn’t find flour or yeast anywhere?  Because people were baking!  Because baking makes people feel good!

When this pandemic hit, and we were told to stay home, people went back to basics.  We played board games and worked on jigsaw puzzles.  And we baked.  All kinds of things.

Baking become a major trend as we got through the COVID-19 pandemic and it can be doing us a lot of good when it comes to soothing our anxieties, especially during these uncertain times.

I love the smell of fresh baked bread.  I love the feeling of making it myself.  Research shows that aside from the nutritional value, baking your own bread is good for your mental health.

Mixing the ingredients, kneading the bread and watching the dough rise can be soothing.

In fact, in 2017, five people who were mental health residents at the Bethlem Royal Hospital in London, spent six two-hour sessions baking bread, and all of them reported feeling happier, creative, and having a sense of achievement.  They also reported that making bread made them feel more relaxed, less anxious and that they had a sense of purpose.

I can understand why. When you’re baking, you’re focusing on what you’re doing.   You’re thinking about how good it will taste.  You’re thinking about how you are taking care of others.

I used to have a bread maker. LOVED IT!  Loved the smell of the bread cooking.  Especially on those cold, rainy days.  I admit, I tried to get on the bread making early on in the pandemic.

As explained in the videos below, the secret is in the kneading.  And make sure your yeast isn’t too old.

A for effort.  I’ll try again this weekend.  Maybe even bake a batch extra for someone else.  I’ll try the butter trick on top.  And knead it just a bit longer.

Have you tried baking bread?

Be sure to check out CMHA Lambton Kent’s Facebook and Instagram page every Friday for more tips to help you feel good!

Happy bread-making!

Categorised in: Afternoons, Afternoons Fridays

This post was written by Carrie Buchanan