Sometimes, if you are busy working woman , it’s hard to find the time to cook, especially if you’re feeding a family. Cooking for other people can be beneficial and fun, but cooking meals can feel more like a chore. We are always looking for ways to make it easier to fit cooking into the busy schedules, and that’s why the popularity of easy recipes like sheet pan meals, one-pot dinners, and two-ingredient recipes has soared.



Yet cooking for others has been proven to provide psychological benefits beyond just bonding with loved ones. The act of preparing meals might seem selfless, but it’s also a way to build self-esteem, confidence, and forge connections. Feeling connected to others is a cornerstone of being human. This connection is no small thing, it can also lead to increased happiness, longer lives and better health,.

Cooking for others also feels good because it shows gratitude. And gratitude can go a long way in reshaping your perspective.



Easy recipes can help, but maybe what we’ve been missing all this time is some real inspiration. Because it turns out that cooking, especially when done for others, comes with some positive psychological benefits. And these positive effects could be enough to get us into the kitchen.

Cooking for other people is an altruistic act, but also so much more.

Performing an act for another human being, like cooking for them, is a form of altruism. And altruism can make people connected to others and feel happy.

There’s a tremendous amount of confidence-boosting and self-esteem boosting, performing an act like cooking for others, and that’s part of what lends itself to those psychological effects about being able to do something that you feel really good about.



But when it comes to cooking there’s this other element of actually feeding someone, which is necessary for survival, that comes into play. Cooking for others is nurturing, it is sustenance, it is helping keep them alive.

Here are several benefits that should encourage you to show an interest in cooking.



Cooking can create bonds.

If you’re cooking for someone, even if they’re not present during the act, it can absolutely bring a sense of closeness in that you’re expressing your love and your care for someone.

It’s a very intimate activity. And providing them with something that they potentially need, you’re really showing them that they have your support, your love, your backing, and that’s the kind of thing that really, really promotes well being, positive growth and closeness within relationships.



Creating relationships and sustaining them is a crucial part of leading a flourishing life. Just like with water and food, for humans making connections is one of our basic needs. And cooking for other people help us build and strengthen those connections.

Cooking for others creates and affirms a primary bond. It can therefore be a very fulfilling and meaningful deed. It can provide a means for social acceptance and create a feeling of belonging to a community.



Cooking can make you a happier person.

This goes beyond your stress issue. Cooking can really be a therapeutical activity. Even just baking cupcakes or something simple has shown to improve an individual’s mindset.

When you cook, you stimulate your senses. The feel of the new flour you bought at the market, the smell of those fresh strawberries, the sound of the whisk beating, all those things can stimulate your senses, which contributes to get more endorphins, those feel good hormones that put a smile on your face.

When you focus on the present moment, on your ingredients, you cannot ruminate over your problems; you have to leave them aside (even if for a few minutes). This really helps you be more emotionally stronger and as a result, happier in general.





Cooking can be so good for your emotional wellbeing that, Therapists are now recommending cooking classes as a way to treat depression and anxiety, as well as eating disorders, ADHD and addiction. Cooking can help build self-esteem soothe stress, and curb negative thinking by focusing the mind on following a recipe.



Cooking and baking are therapeutic because they fit a type of therapy known as "behavioral activation," These activities alleviate depression by increasing goal oriented behavior and curbing procrastination. Cooking can help people focus on a task, which can give them a sense of power and control that they might not naturally have on their own in their daily lives outside the kitchen.





When you're cooking, you must be constantly focused, prepping ingredients, stirring the roux, adjusting the seasoning, monitoring the cooking process, all of which can be helpful techniques in keeping your mind off of things it's better not to focus on. It's a bit like meditation, but with tastier output, and can be very useful in treating some forms of mental illness, It's the ultimate in self-care, calming, creative, mindful, keeping you from dwelling on things.



Cooking is a form of nurturing.

Giving to others fills us in so many ways, and even more so when it’s cooking because feeding fulfills a survival need, and so our feeling of fulfillment comes not only from the good of the act of giving, but also the fact that we have helped in some very primal way. We have given fuel.

You’re providing instrumental social support by providing them with food, with sustenance, with something they need to survive.





Cooking for others also helps bond us to our loved ones and fellow humans. Cooking gave us the meal and the meal gave us civilization. And feeling connected to others can have great effects, like increased happiness and living a longer live.



Cooking is a form of self-care.

There’s a self-care element in cooking, if you’re cooking good food for yourself or things that make you feel good, cooking can literally be nourishing to yourself and that’s important.

Think about it: not only does cooking for yourself help you eat more healthfully because you’re not eating out, but it also sends yourself a message that you are important.



Cooking can also help raise self-esteem and confidence.

When working with kids with social difficulties, cooking can help raise their self-esteem wonderfully, and confidence is an important part of self-care.



Cooking is a practice of mindfulness.

By now most of us have heard of the wonders of incorporating mindfulness into our lives. The benefits run the gamut from improving concentration to reducing stress to encouraging healthy lifestyles. There is tons of evidence that mindfulness is good for your mental health.

If you’re cooking mindfully, it can be extremely therapeutic. And cooking is one of those tasks where it can encourage you to really focus.



Cooking can do more than help us practice mindfulness, it can also help us make meaningful connections, not only with the people we’re cooking with or for, but people from our pasts as well.

Time spent in kitchen lends itself to being introspective. All the senses are tied to a cooking experience, and memory is connected to the sense of smell.



When you’re in a kitchen and your cooking something, it can bring up the memory of a dish you used to eat with your grandparents. People are easily drawn back to those memories as they cook, and there are a lot of those memories. That’s why cooking can be especially therapeutic.

Reconnecting with those memories, especially if happy, can be extremely positive. Some scientist suspect they could be powerful enough to be used as an effective treatment for depression.



Cooking can help with depression and mental issues

Benefits of cooking are so powerful that cooking is also used, in many mental health clinics, as part of the treatment for a bunch of mental conditions such as anxiety, depression and addiction.

When cooking, people can really focus their mind on something more positive. This whole process helps to curb negative thinking and boost their confidence.



