I wrote an article a couple of days ago about how to not care what other people think and I mentioned I had a wobble with that when I thought of starting a YouTube channel. I’m so over it now though, LOL. Today I made a “practice” video to try out the new skills I have been learning. The result is a strange mix (a bit like me and this new YouTube adventure) of bread making, video making, and mindfulness. What is the recipe for bread and mindfulness is the upshot.
At first glance it may seem odd but I found that making bread is an excellent way to practice mindfulness.
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Table of Contents
What Is the Recipe For Bread
Following a recipe and it being my first time making bread I was definitely in the moment. I won’t lie to you though, it got messy. Plus of course, I was recording the whole experience at the same time!
Finding a bread recipe was straight forward as there are a lot out there. I wanted one that had just a handful of ingredients and had “easy” in the title. The Prairie Homestead came to the rescue and went one step further with The EASIEST Bread You’ll Ever Make (Beginner Bread Recipe)
Hats Off To Foodie YouTubers!
Trying to cook and record it at the same time is no easy feat. I’m sure the pros have someone filming them. However, if you’re doing it solo it’s a bit like trying to tap your head and rub your belly at the same time.
For me, it was also the combination of doing two new things at once and that pure concentration and focus kept me mindful.
Baking Bread And Practicing Mindfulness
You can practice mindfulness doing most things. Washing the dishes is a favorite of mine. There’s something about bread making though, I think it’s the kneading. It’s relaxing and you can keep your attention on the feel of the dough and the rhythm of the kneading. I’m not the only one that thinks that. Even the lady from The Prairie Homestead likes to knead even though she’s got a machine to do it.
The process took longer than I thought it would. No surprise there, I usually underestimate how long things will take. The exception to that would be the time leading up to catching a flight, I usually allow for bags of time. I’m waffling now. Ha, ha, ha, waffles.
Erm, moving on…
Mindfully Messy
At one point there was a flour to water ratio issue, as you will see when you watch my video.
In hindsight, I know that I added too much water and the mixture was super runny. My fix was to keep adding flour to get it into a state where I could start kneading it. I kept adding more and more and lost count of how many cups I added.
However, perseverance prevailed and the kneading eventually commenced!
Extra Ingredients
No extra ingredients for the bread. But, I did add some extras to the video, namely an intro, zoom and music.
I made my intro for buildup self-esteem.com on Canva – tell me what you think of it in the comments. I’m grateful to Louise Henry for that:
I’m not completely new to video making as I did create an online course last year. Nevertheless, I did have to review how to edit again as the course was a one-off last November. After revising the editing process I learned how to do the zoom, which I used to zoom into the ingredients. That will come in very handy for when I become a YouTuber.
Cheers VideoZeus, that’s the Greek God of YouTube. LOL.
The music could have been tricky but again it has been made easier by YouTube channel Audio Library – music for content creators. They provide safe to use music, meaning, as long as you give credit to the music producer then no copyright issues. Phew.
Dance With Me seemed to hit the spot as I like to dance plus I will be dancing (virtually and metaphorically speaking) with you and YouTube soonish. Here’s the music credit:
Dance With Me by Ehrling https://soundcloud.com/ehrling
Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/_dance-with-me
Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/VaXY6s3AZWA
Collaboration Is Big On YouTube
That was something I learned from a few YouTubers when I was picking-up YouTube strategies and tips – collaboration is important. The beauty is you can collaborate with people from around the world and not have to physically meet. I’ve been mentioning all the YouTubers that I have learned from so far, to give credit where it is due as I appreciate all their work. I might not be collaborating yet, but this is the least I can do.
Sharing knowledge to assist each other to move forward is a great philosophy.
Voila!
I learned more than just bread making, the whole experience reminded me of some great life lessons:
- Be patient (and kind) with yourself when learning something new.
- Let go of the outcome and enjoy the process.
- Making mistakes is beneficial, it’s part of the learning process.
- Keep going and don’t give up when it doesn’t go exactly as you thought it would
- Taking imperfect action is better than taking no action. If you want to do something, everything doesn’t have to perfect before you take the step forward. Stop postponing.
- Enjoy the moment.
Here it is! You can only see my hands (lucky you 
).
The Recipe For Bread With Mindfulness
The bread wasn’t delicious but it was okay. I ate it and I thought it was a good first effort. I will make it again but for now, I need to concentrate on video creation and the learning involved in that. After all, we all only ever have 24 little hours, which I’m stretching out to make 24 long little hours.
Flour, yeast, sugar, salt, water, and with a big dollop of staying present is the recipe for bread with mindfulness. Give it go if you want to get more mindful – in fact, choose anything and keep your mind in the moment you are in.
All in all, it was a recipe for fun, learning and mindfulness, that I can definitely recommend.
The name of The Game is Experience so let us experience Connecting and Sharing.
Remember to leave a comment on what you think of the intro I made for Build Up Self-Esteem with Louise and the music I used.