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I don't want to be stressed

Tag Archives: escape

Chocolate cake cure

18 Thursday May 2017

Posted by Andi in Advice, Anxiety, Chocolate yeah!, Depression, Food for the soul, Illness, Life Lessons, Recipes

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anxiety, chocolate cake, crazy cake, cupcakes, escape, exist, illness, life lesson, mission, relax

My 13 year old son has an autoimmune illness and he deals with frequent anxiety.
It is a constant battle for him to deal with his issues and he swears that chocolate cupcakes still warm out of the oven are a cure-all for a bad day.

This is what he writes:
How chocolate cake makes everything better

When you are feeling down or depressed and you need something to make you feel better – eat chocolate cake.  Cold, warm, hot, all of them are delicious.  Every bit of soft, spongy, rich chocolatey taste gives you the sensation where the taste is so good that you enter your own space.  It is like the world of stress doesn’t exist and all of your problems and worries are gone.  Afterwards you can focus on your work, your mission, your goal.
Life lesson: Eat Chocolate Cake!

I can’t argue with him even if I am not the world’s greatest chocolate cake lover.  But just spending a few minutes calmly enjoying something that you love is going to make a big difference.  Particularly if you are becoming overwhelmed by stress and anxiety.  You are seriously not going to get anything done while you are panicking.
Rather watch your manager’s expression while you sip your tea and eat your snack as they stare you down expecting your deadline to be met yesterday (don’t tell them I said this…)

So here is my son’s favourite chocolate cake recipe.  It sounds crazy but that is because it is called a crazy cake but trust me on this.  It is a fast and easy way to make cake.  You can make it into one large cake (enough to share with everyone in the office) or make 24 cupcakes – freeze them all and take one out each day to pop into your lunch box….

3 cups flour
2 cups white sugar (stop right here if you are diabetic or a health food fanatic)
1 teaspoon of salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
½  cup cocoa powder

Mix all of these ingredients into a large bowl and then make three wells and add:
¾ cup sunflower oil
2 tablespoons vinegar (really!)
2 teaspoons vanilla essence or extract (or be daring and use a different flavouring – I’m quite partial to caramel)
Put each one into a well (don’t worry if they overflow or the wells collapse.  It works anyway)
Top the whole mix with 2 cups of water and mix well until there are no lumps (I do this in a mixer but you can do it by hand)
Pour into a prepared cake tin (or in a foil roasting tin that you can just throw away when the cake has been eaten) or into 24 cupcake cases (put them in muffin tins because the mixture is really runny)

Bake at 180 C for about 40 minutes for a cake and 25 minutes for cupcakes

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Making a difference

17 Friday May 2013

Posted by Andi in Change, Freedom, Gratitude

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Tags

beach, billionaire, change, difference, escape, rat race, run away

This week I took two days off work because it was a Jewish holiday.
The first day was really great and I relaxed and ate a lot of cheesecake (recipe to follow) and ice cream with hot chocolate sauce (the ultimate in ice cream eating, in my opinion).
On the second day, I woke up feeling anxious because I had time to think too much – time to think about my life.
There is no doubt in my mind that I am blessed with many things and I have an amazing job that I really enjoy but….
BUT!
There always seems to be a but.
But life is boring – it is about work and family responsibilities and more work and more responsibilities.
And if I think too much about it, I have this need to run away from it all.
I fantasize about living in a hut on a beach with no responsibilities and no cares.  Nothing to do except catch a fish for my dinner and stare at the beautiful view.
Then reality hits and I realise that unless I get a billionaire to sponsor my lifestyle, this really isn’t going to happen.
And more importantly, knowing myself, I would probably manage for a few days (and possibly even a few hours) before I got bored and wished that I was back in the rat race.

What worries me is that whenever I tell anyone how I feel, the majority of people that I speak to feel the same way.
All living these lives of routine and responsibility and all wishing that we could get away from it all.
So here is the good news:
You can!
It may not be about living on a tropical island (where truthfully, your little hut may blow over in a tropical storm) but it is about bringing change and difference to your life.
It may be as simple as just doing something different each day – like eating your lunch in a different place (step away from that desk!).
Think about volunteering somewhere to do something that is going to make you feel like you are contributing with purpose.
Do something exciting in the evenings instead of just sitting in front of the TV.
Treat yourself to a massage.
Change your hair colour.
The options are endless.

My challenge to you this week is to find something different to do, and commit to it.
You deserve this!

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