One year (and a half) into creating, planning, organizing, executing, hosting and ACTUALIZING the cooking social business---I’m dancing at the crossroads--reflecting on the past year’s successes and hiccups, lessons learned--each night never to forget. 

My goal was to set up a time and place for individuals to come relax, relate, cook, laugh and love the process of preparing real, whole food--all the while learning about the nutritional benefit of each dish. Centering conversation with the “mindfulness question of the night” has simmered the everyday chatter into subtlety as we share soulful dialogue--connecting one person’s heart to another--and as a community--we’ve grown. As a group of friends, we learn more from each other’s experiences and develop a deeper relationship than an acquaintance that I met at Jeannie’s cooking social party. 

Although my initial focus was just to get people together to embrace the magic that happens in the kitchen and dining table, I’ve learned that what I love most is how empowered my guests feel as they share their method to creating their art--which is about to be communally eaten. This is my chance to drop some nutrition knowledge as everyone savors each bite of the dish; my friend once told me “not only does it taste wonderful--Jeannie’s now telling me how the Vitamin A in red peppers aka “capsicum” is good for my eyes, skin and bones--SWEET!” 

So we cook, play, present, serve, eat, add something new to our nutrition library--and then the heart of cooking social is laid on the table--from various reflective questions, I choose one from the emotional energy and life messages that I’ve been feeling around the time. I can pose one now so you can get an idea: “As we step into the fall season, let’s think about new beginnings--a fresh, crisp start with the changing colors of the leaves, we also refresh our perspectives. One good way to know that we’re moving forward, is appreciating what we’ve learned in the past--remembering what’s important and forgetting the trivial things. Thus, I’m asking ya’ll to share what was the most/one really difficult situation you encountered in the summer? How did/what helped you deal with it? During our struggles, it may be hard to see the light--but our perspective in hindsight, sees this as a life lesson.” 

A moment to search within ourselves, vulnerability to share--and we do. We practice our active listening skills, we create a safe space for stories. We start to break the surface of “surface level conversation”--because there is so much beauty in the depth within each person. 

At the beginning, we may be strangers, but by the end, we’re hugging, sharing contact information and taking cheesy grouphies (i.e. group-selfie).

After a year, I’ve smoothed out some kinks, brought the quality of cooking and dining up a few notches, took charge of artfully presenting recipe-specific nutrition info, developed a natural flow for the night--but most important is that which each cooking social, I’ve created a judgement-free and welcoming space for genuine friendships to be made--true community to be built--even within the hustling and bustling, never-sleeping, largest city in the world, New York City. 

No matter where you are, it’s easy to get lost in the cracks, feel alone although you’re surrounded by people, unable to hear your voice among all the news and drama on social media. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, the energy that you carry directly affects the environment, just as the environment’s energy also affects that of yours. Thus, it’s crucial to be mindful of maintaining balance within ourselves. Give ourselves a break when we need, kick ourselves in the butt when we really need. Love ourselves and deal with our emotions in a healthy way; sometimes, this is when community can be supportive. We can’t live in a vacuum with our feelings bottled up--they’re meant to be markers in which we should pay attention. Your circle of support may provide an ear to listen and even some advice if you’re open to it. Let the free energy “qi” flow as it should. When our qi flows with nature’s qi, we are the most liberated, we are at optimal vitality and we are the best we can be to the world…! Until next time...#HarmonizeYourGLOWfromtheInsideOut #YinYangGLOW #Namaste #OneLOVE