Baking Therapy: My path to self-discovery

Have you ever been in a place that you are so bored with life that you no longer care about anything, and everything you think you wanted is no longer available to you?

That’s exactly where I was when I started baking cupcakes. I had just been diagnosed as clinically depressed and moved back in with my family because they couldn’t trust me being all alone in my apartment. That’s is not a great place to be, where the people that love you the most are scared for your well being.

I moved back to my family home and spent the days sleeping, eating and watching TV. After about 3 months of total sloth mode, I got bored of being bored. Yes, doing-nothing-all-day may sound appealing, but after not doing anything for that long I just grew tired of lounging all day aimlessly with nothing to do.

One day I just went in the kitchen and decided to bake cupcakes for that night’s dessert. They came out pretty tasty, however, not the prettiest things to look at. Regardless, I was very proud of the fact that everyone around the dinner table seemed to enjoy my baking concoction.

Humble beginnings

Chocolate Nutella cupcakes

Baking every night became a daily activity. Baking a different recipe of cupcakes and having my family enjoy it was a boost to my mood and self esteem. Soon, I started to put them in boxes and gifting it to friends. Everyone who tried my cupcakes would rave about them and told me “you should sell these”.

Slowly I came to realization that focusing my energy on making people happy was easing my depression and having to work with my hands all day was therapeutic for my overactive brain. All the white noise slowly chilled and things became a lot clearer inside.

Having a creative outlet to release my energy into the world in a positive way became the main focus and so I decided to make sweets a goal to pursue. 

Now that you know where my passion came from, tell me, what is your therapeutic outlet?