a recipe for change
I often think about how much cooking and Feng Shui have in common: both involve a blend of instinct and repetition; both reward curiosity; and both tend to work best when you’re willing to get your hands a little messy.
you can read all the recipes and you can watch someone else make it look effortless – hello, Ina! – but at some point, you have to step into the kitchen yourself.
so today, I’m sharing a few lessons I’ve learned in mine that mirror the way I teach Feng Shui and the way I believe real change actually happens.
NO. 1: EFFORT = EDUCATION
my husband grew up on his mom’s apron strings, which means the man knows how to bake, season, fix any dish in the kitchen. truly. I won the game of life marrying him because he can whip up anything.that said, if I ask him how to do something – thicken a sauce, dial up a quick dressing, etc. – it is guaranteed I won’t remember what he told me next time. if I look up a recipe or tinker with ingredients myself, however, my effort rewards me with recall.
Feng Shui is the same way: if you’re always asking instead of experimenting, you’re not building muscle memory.
NO. 2: YOU WON’T KNOW UNTIL YOU TRY
I LOVE reading recipes and I have a pretty good hunch at which ones will be crowd-pleasers, but the only way to know for sure is to try them. hoarding cookbooks doesn’t feed anyone; watching Ina make it seem so simple doesn’t satiate the belly either. you gotta actually grab a few ingredients, and see what happens.
Feng Shui is the same way: you won’t discover your go-to rituals without trying a few things. some will work. some won’t. that’s the lifestyle.
NO. 3: COMFORT ZONES ARE BLAND
sometimes you don’t know what you like until you give it a whirl. I recently made a white bean soup – something my 20-year-old self would’ve skipped – but one morning, scrolling Food52, it caught my eye. I tried it, we loved it, and now it’s a house favorite in the repertoire!
Feng Shui is the same way: you have to leave your comfort zone every now and again to spark something new in your life.
NO. 4: TRACK WHAT WORKS
when our girls were little, I’d write our weekly dinner menu on a 4×6 card. hundreds of cards later, I can pull one today and have a quick pre-planned menu for the week. even better? I know which recipes or dinners worked, what ones weren’t a hit, and how much time I need for each one.
Feng Shui is the same way: keep notes. when life gets life-y, your notes give you quick recall and revive a few ideas that once worked.
NO. 5: MESS IS PART OF THE MAGIC
when our girls were toddlers, I decided to make cinnamon buns from scratch. right from the get, I was on shaky ground – and added too much milk, tripled the recipe, and created the biggest kitchen disaster of my life. the silver lining? every neighbor got a pan (or two) that holiday season and devoured those cinnamon buns!
Feng Shui is the same way: sometimes you’ll get it wrong, make a mess, or realize a “small” detail mattered more than you thought. find a way to make it work, then let it go – there is still a little magic in the mix happening, trust me! xo
