No Kitchen Skills? No Problem. Here's How To Fall In Love With Cooking

You don't need to be a pro to love cooking!

Once you are in the kitchen, try not to think about where else or how else you could be spending this time. The time you spend creating meals with your hands is an opportunity to practice being present. We feel that everyone is always ahead of us, doing more than us, enjoying life more than us. Sink in to the sensations that come with cooking—smell each piece of product, let your breaths become longer, listen to the sounds of foods transforming. It is so empowering to know that the energy you put into these foods is energy that will be coming right back in to you.

The world will not end if what you create does not look like the picturesque meal you saw on Pinterest. If you are able to tune into your senses and let flow take over you will be surprised what you can make without a recipe. I have found the more I branch off of recipes, the more enjoyable cooking becomes. Recipes are an amazing form of inspiration and can expose you to new foods and cooking methods you would have never touched before. Allowing them to serve only as a guide and adding your own flair is where the magic really happens.

If the act of cooking doesn't thrill you, accessorize it to build an enjoyable ritual. Do this the same way you would for other activities you don't enjoy. You hate running so you put on workout clothes that make you feel like you could run a marathon. You don't enjoy cleaning the house, so you put on nice music, pour yourself a glass of wine. The same can be done with cooking. Creating a ritual around any activity makes it easier to keep coming back—even when you would rather do anything else.

I find that cooking the same foods week to week greatly decreases my motivation to cook. Think of creating in the kitchen as a game. Buy one food that is new to you each week and find a way to incorporate it into your meals. Whether it's a new vegetable you don't even know the name of, a bean or legume you never use, or a spice with a name so fancy that you feel more sophisticated just by using it. Play around with different methods or tools for cooking. Ferment, blend, grate, roast, grill, slow-cook, grate, mandoline (no, not the instrument). Find any way to incorporate play and newness, and I promise enjoyment will follow. Adding variety into your diet also increases the array of different nutrients that you are eating, leaving you less likely to develop nutritional deficiencies. It's a win-win. So go pick yourself up some kohlrabi, beluga lentils, or smoked paprika and start playing.

You don't have to become a food blogger, or the next DaVinci, but thinking about the aesthetics of your food can be an opportunity for creativity. Consider the colors of your ingredients, the way you lay it on the plate—make it look too good to eat. Creating a meal is no different from creating art, whether it be music, a painting or a sculpture. Either way, you begin with raw materials and what you end with is a completely unique expression of your creativity. I never thought of myself as a creative person until I began to cook. For me, cooking has sparked a desire for cultivating creativity in other mediums as well. I have found if you expand your horizons in one area of your life, you send the message that you are open to expansion in all areas. Allow cooking and nourishment to be a catalyst for change in your life.