Cooking with Love & Intention

By Yecenia Currie

This recipe calls for 1⁄2 tsp of cinnamon and a heaping tablespoon of Love & Intention.

It’s not enough to just cook well.

Here’s what I wholeheartedly believe: When you cook, your energy or state of being transfers into your meal, and that energy can either enhance or inhibit the healing and nutritive qualities of the meal.

So, what are you imparting? Because, good or bad, whoever’s eating that meal is literally taking it all in.

This concept might seem a little “cheesy” to some, but the simple act of paying attention to the

mood or state of mind you’re in before making a meal for yourself or a loved one is pretty powerful. And whether you realize it or not, it can have a significant impact on your well-being.

You might also consider applying this concept to other activities or acts of service you participate in.

We can say or do a thing performatively to model an outward display of kindness, but if our heart isn’t in it and our intentions are impure—that is what’s felt. That is what really shows through.

I’m not suggesting that you cook your meals with a “Stepford Wife” smile plastered across your

face. It’s also not a slight to minimize the fact that we all have bad days or moments of not feeling our best, so I’m not asking that you move from a place of inauthenticity.

I’m talking about the simple act of noticing:

How am I breathing right now?
How do I feel?
Am I moving from a place of frustration?

Just that awareness, on its own, makes such a difference in how you carry out the task. Because then you’ll be present enough to observe and adjust your behaviors in real-time. Like—oh dang, I’m in here slamming cabinets and over-salting the food… maybe I need a minute.

My husband has called me out about this on several occasions. For example, if I’m annoyed, upset, or in a very “outwardly visible” funk. He might say something like, “Are you alright?” to which I’d respond with a short and mildly annoyed, “I’m fine, why?”

And then he’d respond in a very “jokingly-serious” manner, “I’m just not feeling the LOVE…Listen, I don’t want whatever’s on you right now to end up in my food, so [waves around exaggerated hands in my direction] … do whatever you need to do to fix that before you start cooking, please.”

Then, after we have a good laugh about him using my words against me, I give myself a moment to allow those negative feelings to dissipate before I start preparing our meal. That doesn’t mean I was being dismissive of how I felt moments before. It just means I made a conscious decision, in that moment, to change my energy, my current state of being, to ensure we got the most out of the meal. Because it’s important to us, and we feel better for it.

Cooking, like many other daily tasks, can also trigger your inner autopilot settings, and you can easily be “there” physically cooking, but your mind is out on a lunch break. We all do it. It’s normal human behavior. But you can quickly bring yourself back to the present moment and task at hand. Something as simple as feeling gratitude for the nourishment you get to prepare for the people you love. Or letting yourself get lost in the fragrant aromas of the deliciousness you’re creating can serve as gentle reminders to be right where you are.

For me, much like my yoga practice, cooking is a moving meditation. So, instead of it being a mundane chore or task where I daze off into boringness, I try to add some present-mindedness and flow through it from a place of creativity and contentedness—with intention.

So be the energy that you want to receive. Be what you’d like others to receive. Let your time in the kitchen be an offering, a prayer, an act of love.

I hope this concept of Cooking with Love & Intention encourages you to examine and elevate the energy you bring to your cooking space and introduces a new or fresh perspective on pouring love into everything you do.

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Yecenia Currie has followed a plant-based diet for over 13 years. Her heart for healthy living is modeled by her commitment to honoring her temple and treating it with the utmost care and reverence in order to live a full, vibrant, “Sweet & Savory Life”! Yecenia successfully completed a holistic nutrition and culinary training to further her knowledge and incorporate the healing benefits of conscious cooking. In 2014, she became a certified yoga instructor to deepen her daily practice and help support others on their mind-body wellness journey. She and her husband, Roger, have traveled to over 45 countries to date, and those travels have inspired many of her creations in the kitchen. Yecenia is from Upstate New York and currently resides in Los Angeles. “Sweet & Savory Life” is her first cookbook. For more info, visit her website.