Feelings are for feeling, even the tough ones…….

February, my Birthday Month. As I gaze out of the window to the detritus of the leaf littered world outside, I reminisce over the New Year So far.

Hunkered down, doors closed and fire lit, it’s difficult to imagine the cacophony of emotions I have felt since January discreetly slid into our lives, replacing the joy and festivity of the Holiday Season. You see, likely like yourself, I had decided that the dawn of a New Year promised me destined for great things. A thriving business, a life that was structured & organised, replete with maximising my time with friends, family, and Peanut.

But my rapacious pursuit for a life so perfect has left me downtrodden and disillusioned. Let down in the most catastrophic and hurtful way by friends, overwhelmed by technology and its inherent aversion to me and anything I touch, and becoming a slave to the ‘Brand Pitch Email’

I am telling you this, not for sympathy, I am learning every day that it’s not your situation but how you choose to react to it that governs your innate happiness, but because I want you to know that I empathise. So many of us feel the same right now but sweep these feelings under the rug for fear of appearing weak or out of control.

Its true that thoughts are shadows of our feelings, simpler, deeper, and darker. But allowing yourself to acknowledge them is the first step to the realisation that we can choose how to react to them.

For me, this is where the power of food and its ingredients works its magic. Often so sensory, they can ignite a furnace of memory, nostalgia, and sense of well-being. And this is not an illusion. The necromantic effect of a waft of cinnamon transporting us back to our grandmother’s kitchen, is entirely scientific. Our olfactory bulbs are linked to the memory processing area of the brain, the Hippocampus. It is this involuntary response to food that makes it so comforting.

Comfort food seems to get a bad rap, often seen as junk or indulgent. That is where I beg to differ. It does not command a single food type or dish, moreover, comfort food means something deeply personal for each one of us. Some might find solace in a bowl of granola, others a steaming plate of pasta.

For me, Food has the power to nurture me with that hug from within when I need it most, even the process of cooking from scratch for those I love is the solace I crave from the crazy world I seem to inhabit right now.

So, from this I hope you can realise that in many cases there are others who feel the same as us. But food and the sharing of food can give us that sense of belonging whilst also confirming our identity. So, when it all gets too much. Take some time, cook for yourself, or loved ones and revel in the nostalgia of halcyon days gone by.

Hugs as always

Suze x