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How To Cook Anything Better

 One thing I’ve learned that crosses all religious boundaries, that translates all hobbies into a blur, and that breaks exclusive barriers across the board is…love.  This goes for cooking, knitting, pet care, raising children, scientific experiments, health, relationships, business, art, you name it.

My first mentor taught me metaphysics with some Buddhism thrown in for spice.  She was the first person who whispered into my ear that when I chop vegetables, I need to thank them for giving their lives first.  That information, because it seemed both bizarre and intriguing, stuck with me and I have diligently followed it to this day.  Fifteen years later when I met my white tantric teacher, she taught me to chant mantras over my food, to never cook when I’m in a bad mood, and to find vegetables at the supermarket by touching them and feeling into their sentience and life energy.  Then while cooking them, we would vibrate them even more with love and mantras, thereby improving the state of the planet through food.

I’ve found that these practices translate into all of life.  For instance, we were also taught in Tantra that whatever we are creating will take on the vibration of our state.  So if one is making a baby, be in a positive, spiritual state of mind.  If one is knitting a sweater, one can chant prayers or mantras, intend love, and sing with each stitch.  For business, when I’m writing a program, or sending out a newsletter, I pray, meditate for what to write, and fill myself with love and gratitude while I create.  I intend love for all recipients, and the highest good for all outcomes.

This works for road trips, shopping, learning a new skill, eating a meal, and composting a garden.  In fact, you can use this with kitchen witchery, which I do as well.  The old rule of thumb when stirring food on the stove is to stir to the left to rid food of negative energy, and stir to the right to infuse good, positive things into the food.  I’ve created many a meal in which people were uplifted before my eyes while ingesting what I ate.  Have you ever gone out to eat and wondered why you left the restaurant feeling miserable, angry, or upset?  It’s always good to consider that the chef may have been having a bad night.  This is why blessing our food is so important before eating it.

I’m a firm proponent of blessings.  Some might feel that they’re easy to come by, that they’re quite unnecessary, or that they don’t mean much.  In my life, blessings are one of my most powerful tools.  They impart grace, gratitude,  hope and most of all, love.  Blessing anything makes it so much better.

Magazine covers would have us believe that beauty is an outside job, and yet our spiritual leaders tell us it all comes from within.  I don’t know about you, but it leaves my head in a tizzy!  I’ve tried every hair color, every type of makeup, dressed myself in every fashion to hit the runways…and unlike the majority, I’ve also studied spirituality from Christianity to paganism and everything in between.

As they say in Maine, ya can’t get they-ya from hee-ya.  What I mean is that as women, we search constantly for a way to attract attention from that special one or many and end up either beautifying ourselves to exhaustion, or giving up completely and neglecting ourselves.  Does this sound familiar?

I dare say I have untangled the confusing information, which I am downright elated to clarify with you here.  It’s something so obvious and simple that I’m flushed that it hadn’t dawned on me earlier.  The truth is that it’s not just an outside job and it’s not just an inside job…it is BOTH

My personal background includes modeling and cosmetology which are outside jobs.  For twenty years I spent most of my time looking in mirrors, primping myself or someone else, expertly assessing my client’s features, taking clothes on and off, strutting down runways and posing for photographers.  I listened to a multitude of women commiserate about their hair, their looks, their boyfriends, husbands, their sex lives, their weight, and their careers.  They told me secrets reserved for therapists, and then some.  The amazing thing is that without exception, after an hour in my chair of being professionally coiffed and primped, they would leave feeling more beautiful.  They sat down, got inner and outer attention and acknowledgment, and left feeling wonderful and radiating more beauty.

The noticeable thing about a woman who feels beautiful is that she carries herself differently.  She smiles more, is conscious of her body and how she’s holding herself, and looks others in the eye with confidence.  A woman can take herself from invisible to queen in minutes just by carrying herself with poise.

Sometimes a woman would come in with her hair an absolute mess, and the transformational mix of hair color, cut and styling would be stunning.  Seeing her transformed physical appearance would shift her emotions about herself and then her self esteem would soar.  At other times a woman whose physicality was breathtakingly beautiful would sit down for me to work on her, and inside of ten minutes her negative attitude would literally change my perception of her and she would appear considerably less attractive bordering on ugly.

It’s up to us how we use the power we have in our hands as women.  We don’t have to wait for someone to tell us how gorgeous we are (although it never hurts!).  We can do it ourselves.  Also, we have the choice of whether to slip into something sexy, touch up our lipstick, and dab on some perfume or simply carry ourselves as if we own the room with the magnetic secret between our thighs.  Beauty is not an either/or proposition…it is an exciting blend of both that we have access to at any time.