Episode 17
Good morning, good afternoon, good evening - whatever it is for you. Welcome to the Beyond Nourished Podcast. I am your host, Rachelle Girardin, and on this podcast, I typically teach ways for you to improve your kitchen experience by becoming a more efficient cook or turning your attention to more healthy alternatives or healthy approaches when it comes to cooking.
However, today I'm going to be talking about a different approach to your cooking experience, and that is looking at time through a different lens. This podcast was inspired by a book that I read recently. It is called 4000 Weeks: Time Management For Mortals, and it was written by Oliver Burkeman.
It was a recommendation by my friend, Steve Par over the holiday season, and as a total side note - for those people who love sharing book recommendations - Steve posted this on his Instagram account and he not only said that this book was good and it was a great read, but he also shared why it was a great read. It was a very well thought out post on what you could possibly get from the book and some of the things that he got from the book, and I thought - from now on, every time I go to share a book recommendation, I want to be sure that I'm not just saying it was a good book, but I'm also saying why it was a good book so that the person that I'm suggesting it to or the person that might be reading it can really identify if it's something that they might be interested in reading right now.
So as soon as I saw the subtitle Time Management For Mortals, I was drawn in a little bit because I wondered, okay, what is that really alluding to? It turns out, this was by far one of the most impactful books that I've read this year, and the reason that I leaned into it so much and it piqued my curiosity is because I am constantly racing the clock in what seems to be every activity in my life. I am constantly feeling like I am just doing something to get it done so I can move on to the next thing.
This might be because I am a very easily bored entrepreneur and I'm always moving into new fun and exciting things. I love creating more than anything. But really, I just wanted to look at time and my relationship to it.
So I gave this book a listen first off, and then I actually gave it a second read. I'm very excited to talk to you today about some of the key takeaways and why it's so related to this podcast, in particular.
It was the type of book that definitely had me thinking along the way like, Wow, I've never thought about it like that, or... Wow, do I really do that? And is that how my life is going? And an example of that, and some of the key takeaways from it is so many of the things that we do, any activity that we might perform or just how we perform our day-to-day life is often based on some type of future outcome or some type of future gain.
He draws an example of going to the gym and how we're usually going to the gym with the intent of some type of future gain - whether that be getting bigger or stronger or losing weight - and we attach a feeling to getting that future gain and until we get them, we kind of sit in the space in-between of feeling like we're not quite there yet.
And a red flag went up for me as I devoured this book and realized that so much of this podcast, my teaching, who I am as a leader in my business is about the pursuit of the future gain - of being efficient in the kitchen and getting quicker in the kitchen.
A large part of this book is him reminding us about how precious time is. This is what he's alluding to in the 4000 Week subtitle, which is how many weeks the average person has to live. He is talking about how not to forget the journey of enjoying what is.
And I don't know why, but this hit me so hard because he's talking about how our obsession in this day and age has become about conquering time. Ever since time has basically been able to be told, it's become one of the richest things in our lives. And I thought you know what, this is actually where I need to do some of my improvement. It's not necessarily about conquering it or getting better or quicker, it's about more of the enjoyment of it.
And so I thought, oh my goodness, I hope that I'm not interrupting people's joy of being in the kitchen by always focusing on ways to become more efficient or improve the health factor of being in the kitchen.
I'm using this podcast episode to really remind you and remind myself as well of how important it is that as we are looking for these opportunities to move through our kitchen experience with improvement and getting the job done, we remember to stay present. That we breathe. That we enjoy the moments for what they are without the future gain of the success that it might bring, whether that be money or getting dinner on the table or something really tasty - but to slow down enough to just experience the little things throughout the cooking process so that your life can just become so much more satisfying. It's not just about getting things done, it's not about crossing things off the list, it's not about being faster, it's just a gentle reminder that it's not always about becoming better. And maybe we are always becoming better, but we can let go of the attachment that we have to get better and stop feeling less than if we are not getting better.
This relates to cooking, and it relates to so many other aspects of our lives. So that's truly the essence of today's bite-sized cooking tip - not really a cooking tip - but one that will hopefully bring a lot of richness and in some way, an improvement. It's a bit of an ironic way to look at it, but it's not always about getting faster and better, and if it is, can we simply enjoy the process of getting there along the way - without the attachment around whether it's going to happen or not.
I brought up the gym example earlier, and this was one I think that most people can relate to. It's like if you're going and getting up to go to the gym every day and you could somehow let go of that you may lose the 10 pounds or you may not, or you might get stronger, you might get bigger or better. Can you still just enjoy going to the gym for what it is at that moment, on that day, without anything that might happen in the future? Positive or negative, and I just thought, wow, how can we do this? Just more and more in our lives, through all the little things, whether that be driving our cars or looking after our children or teaching people new skills, whatever it is!
It really hit close to home for me. And so I hope that this podcast today is a gentle reminder of just taking the time to sit in all of the experiences that we have in life without having to worry about if we're getting better or not.
That being said, this podcast will continue to be about things that we can do to get better, obviously, and to grow, but always going back to realize that's not the only outcome.
I would love to hear about your guys' experience and being in the kitchen and how it relates to time. I was reminded once when I was teaching at the Institute of Holistic Nutrition, and I was trying to persuade one of my students. I was about to show her a quicker way of chopping things, she just looked at me and she reminded me that for her being in the kitchen was also a very meditative experience and something that she actually had no interest in rushing or getting quicker at. There are times in the kitchen where we need to get in and we need to get out, and there are also times where perhaps we can just slow down and enjoy it for the activity and the pleasure that it brings to our lives.
I hope everybody has a wonderful day, I hope that you tune into next week's podcast. We've actually got a guest coming on next week's podcast, which I'm very excited to be sharing with you. She is somebody who has become very close to me in the last two years, she has so many great things to share with all of you, whether or not you are an amateur cook or an experienced cooked. I'm going to hold out to tell you who she is, but it will be a very special guest. Stay tuned!