{"id":12113,"date":"2020-11-30T14:17:31","date_gmt":"2020-11-30T19:17:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/briwebapp.net\/cfgxfm\/?p=12113"},"modified":"2020-11-30T14:31:02","modified_gmt":"2020-11-30T19:31:02","slug":"the-view-from-here-find-what-works","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/briwebapp.net\/cfgxfm\/blogs\/afternoons\/2020\/11\/the-view-from-here-find-what-works\/","title":{"rendered":"The View From Here – Baked With Love And A Side Of Frustration"},"content":{"rendered":"

Guess what I did this weekend?\u00a0 I baked my own bread.\u00a0 From “scratch”.\u00a0 With love – as my mom used to say.\u00a0 Because as we learned on Friday, baking bread makes you feel good.<\/p>\n

On Fridays we team up with the Canadian Mental Health Association Lambton-Kent for Feel Good Fridays, and this past Friday the idea was shared to BAKE BREAD<\/a> to feel good.<\/p>\n

Research shows, baking your own bread is good for your mental health.\u00a0 Mixing the ingredients, kneading the dough, watching the dough rise – can all be very soothing.<\/p>\n

One study showed after people spent six two-hour sessions baking bread, all of them reported feeling happier, more creative, and having a sense of<\/p>\n

achievement.\u00a0\"\"<\/p>\n

They also reported that making bread made them feel more relaxed, less anxious and that they felt they had a sense of purpose.<\/p>\n

I tried to make my own bread early in this pandemic.\u00a0 I found some yeast in the cupboard, which I’m sure, looking back, was not new.<\/p>\n

This was the result.\u00a0 I know.\u00a0\u00a0Not pretty.\u00a0 (smile)<\/p>\n

It was a little tough.\u00a0 Chewy comes to mind.\u00a0 \u00a0But I tried.<\/p>\n

So on Friday, when we learned about the value of baking bread and I did some research, I realized what I had done wrong.\u00a0 Probably had old yeast.\u00a0 Probably didn’t knead the dough long enough.\u00a0 And I used all-purpose flour instead of bread flour.\u00a0 Which isn’t terrible.\u00a0 But bread flour is lighter.\u00a0 I also learned the secret to a soft crust?\u00a0 Butter on the warm bread when it comes out of the oven.<\/p>\n

Sunday afternoon, armed with newly purchased bread flour and yeast, recipe in hand, I was determined to bake myself some bread.\u00a0 Looking for that relaxed, less anxious feeling.<\/p>\n

Let me tell you, I don’t think it relaxed me.<\/p>\n

It started out pretty easy.\u00a0 But then as I started kneading it, and had piles of flour all around, it led to a pretty big mess pretty fast.\u00a0 The dough was sticking to my hands.\u00a0 I had to stop and rewind the YouTube video for instruction.\u00a0 Looking at my dough, comparing to the one in the video.\u00a0 Not even close. (smile).\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\"\"<\/p>\n

I was determined to keep going though.\u00a0 Even if my frustration level was growing by the minute trying to make this work.<\/p>\n

But as I kept going, and saw it coming together – rising like it should, smoothing out after kneading it, I was feeling pretty good.\u00a0 I was bragging to my husband and kids.\u00a0 “Look what I’ve done!”<\/p>\n

The bread actually rose OVER the edges of the loaf pan which made me laugh out loud.<\/p>\n

But the end result made me smile.\u00a0 And slicing it for dinner did give me that sense of accomplishment.<\/p>\n

After a rough couple of weeks, trying to get back to feeling like myself, this little project really did make a difference.\u00a0 And everyone absolutely loved it!\u00a0 Just a loaf of bread, right?\u00a0 Just some flour and yeast, an egg and some sugar.\u00a0 A little bit of time and patience.\u00a0 So worth it in the end.\u00a0 The house smelled amazing most of the day.\u00a0 The cleanup wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be and it does give you an amazing sense of accomplishment.<\/p>\n

Yes, you can go to the store and easily buy a loaf of bread.\u00a0 But it isn’t even close to the same.<\/p>\n

It’s easy to get caught up in the world around us.\u00a0 The numbers, the cases, the fear, the what-if’s.\u00a0 Lord knows I do.<\/p>\n

Find something that will help ground you, center you and take your mind off it.\u00a0 Like baking bread. Is there anything you’ve learned how to do in this pandemic?\u00a0 I’m still wanting to re-learn how to knit.\u00a0 Maybe knit some oven mitts to take my fresh baked bread out of the oven.\u00a0 (smile).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Guess what I did this weekend?\u00a0 I baked my own bread.\u00a0 From “scratch”.\u00a0 With love – as my mom used to say.\u00a0 Because as we learned on Friday, baking bread makes you feel good. On Fridays we team up with the Canadian Mental Health Association Lambton-Kent for Feel Good Fridays, and this past Friday the","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":12115,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"featured_img_display":"Yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[4638,613,4259,1116],"class_list":["post-12113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-afternoons","tag-baking","tag-break","tag-feel-good-friday","tag-mental-health"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-19 16:08:54","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"react_link":"https:\/\/foxfm.com\/blogs\/afternoons\/2020\/11\/the-view-from-here-find-what-works\/","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/briwebapp.net\/cfgxfm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/briwebapp.net\/cfgxfm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/briwebapp.net\/cfgxfm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briwebapp.net\/cfgxfm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briwebapp.net\/cfgxfm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12113"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/briwebapp.net\/cfgxfm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12113\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12120,"href":"https:\/\/briwebapp.net\/cfgxfm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12113\/revisions\/12120"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briwebapp.net\/cfgxfm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/briwebapp.net\/cfgxfm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briwebapp.net\/cfgxfm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briwebapp.net\/cfgxfm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}