In this video, I'll be explaining the science behind why good people fail at stuff, and how you can use this science to maintain your mental health and happiness.
What keeps me glued to Bake off is watching how these bakers, all of whom are capable of delivering the most spectacularly inventive culinary creations handle the increasing pressure of the challenges set by the judges. And the moments that are replayed on TV or go viral on social media aren't those eye popping creations? It's the moments where a cake falls on the floor. Or someone presents a pie that looks like it's been in a road traffic accident.
So why do master bakers occasionally or in some cases regularly deliver car crash bakes?
Why do we see star bakers one we get booted off the next week, when it comes down to one thing, and that thing is pressure.
Now it's this pressure that bakers suffer from during Great British Bake Off. Why? Well because they are in an alien environment. When they practice their showstoppers, most of them won't have put themselves under that time pressure. Most of them are used to their own kitchens or their own equipment which they are comfortable with and are also probably have optimised for their own cooking style. And of course, the TV producers deliberately put them under time pressure, because they know that it will produce the most drama. You don't want to break the contestants. But you do want them to get emotional to drop stuff, forget stuff and of course occasionally produce something wonderful, because we love to see it someone triumphed over adversity.
And of course this is true for the rest of us too. When you are under more pressure than you can handle. How does it show up in your behaviour? If you find yourself easily distracted forgetting things or annoyed by the smallest things not going to plan, then you are probably sitting in this third stage. Now research also shows that if you are hyper vigilant for long periods of time, then the stress hormones will impair your immune response, making you more likely to catch colds, the flu and maybe other viruses that I'm not going to mention here, because today we are talking about CAKE!
For the rest of us, please watch out for this in yourselves, your friends, your families, because one of the troubles with lockdown is that it brings new and often unrecognisable pressures to people. homeschooling spending all day on zoom or not being able to work stress out in a swimming pool or sauna all mean that we are under possibly invisible stresses that can leave us dropping metaphorical cakes all over the place. So it's more important than ever to look after your mental health. And it's good to know that no matter where you are on the chart, you can get back to high performance and good well being. So how can we do that in the style of a star Baker? Well, here are a few tips. Number one, streamline your life. Cut out all unnecessary work and habits that don't get the job done or bring you joy really minimise the tasks that you have to do to give you the best chance of doing them really well. Number two, prioritise downtime. This doesn't mean watch a lot of Telly. Catch up with friends on zoom, play board games with your family, read a book that makes you laugh, practice Heartmath, or yoga or meditation, and spend as much time as you can doing things that really make you come alive. The more alive you feel, the better you will perform in life. And if you're thinking of giving Heartmath a try, then check out my Heartmath playlist.
• Heartmath
And finally, number three, keep learning. Try a new hobby, maybe learn to bake and get so good at it that you can go on the Great British Bake Off next year and tell Paul Hollywood that you're inspired to bake by this video! Follow these steps and you'll come out of the oven that is lockdown perfectly baked and maybe even get a handshake or two. Thanks for watching. For more content on maintaining good mental health, please hit subscribe and I'll see you in the next video.
#gbbo #bakeoff #yerkesanddodson