Two books in one! Or even three! This outstanding work is a profoundly compassionate guide to mindfulness and self-acceptance which is a call to action on a par with the top self-help books out there, written as it is with extraordinary intelligence, insight, and humility; it is a bread-baking guide, the recipes for which are the most thorough, careful, and kind I have ever encountered; it is a reference book of salient thinking from notable authorities on psychology, philosophy, and mindfulness.
This writer is a craftsperson, a teacher, a counsellor, a guru who seems equally knowledgeable in the sciences and the creative arts, and whose nurturing insistence cannot fail to move you to action. She manages the uncanny feat of inspiring us not only to open our hearts but to open our kitchen cupboards with zeal. She encourages us, with quiet persistence, to contemplate and lay out our insecurities alongside our bread dough. One imagines we must have here a most patient and perseverant being, her love of humanity and perhaps her experience of caring for people with special needs shining out from each page.
Choosing the word ‘kind’ when referencing the book’s recipes, I refer to a pervasive sense that a calm centred loving mentor with sticky floury hands is patting you on the back and gently nudging you forward, spurring you to get on with it, all the while assuring you that it is the trying which is important, that it doesn’t matter if it goes wrong, nay that it can actually be good for us if it goes wrong. Learning to accept perceived defects or weaknesses in ourselves and in our loaves, Beaumont advises, may reduce anxiety, self-doubt and lack of confidence and help us find our way to a more balanced life where transformation is possible and possibly easy! As the author states in her introduction, ‘Making bread can be a reminder to us all that we, too, are capable of transformation’.
Both the self-help and the baking themes of Bread Therapy are treated with a unique approach which is warmhearted, convincing, and inspiring. We are wholeheartedly urged to give it a go, both our self-analysing/self-nurturing (there are even written exercises laid out for our use in this respect) and our forays into baking loaves. Beaumont asserts that if, as children, we were praised and rewarded only for success and accomplishment, we should know that we deserved to have been praised and encouraged for giving things a go, for trying. ‘It is what it is’, she reminds us to recognize whenever we find ourselves engaging (indulging?) in extended bouts of worrying about what has happened, what hasn’t happened, what someone said, what someone hasn’t said, what we should have done, what we should be doing... We must become our own parent, the writer implores, loving our bread and ourselves despite the myriad of imperfections. And, of course, we must love each other. In the author’s words, ‘… what mattered to me more than anything else was helping people to know that they are loved.’
The way the writer speaks to the reader, you almost feel that the book was written for you! I reckon that is partly true as Pauline Beaumont makes no secret of her intention to pass on, with love, her knowledge, experience and advice. One could say that much out there, especially in the world of non-fiction, seems to be at least partly driven by the ego; this book is extraordinary in that it is utterly devoid of self-importance despite the nature of the work which is to impart what the writer has learnt and encourage change based on her own study and practice. That the writer had the impulse and made the effort to speak directly to the reader, touched me. Early on in the book, she describes the pleasure she feels when taking a loaf out of the oven. Then she takes the time to add, ‘I hope you feel this too,’ and at the end of the book, ‘I hope you can feel the love in this book and that you too can bake bread with love and pass it on.’
I am feeling it without a doubt! Thank you for that. And I haven’t even made my first loaf yet. I will go back through the text and make notes and a plan for my own life of wellbeing and baking. I will read this book many times I think, as there is a tendency to do with excellent self-help reference guides. And I hope I will produce many loaves too. It should be read by everyone. It should be part of the school curriculum. It should help many many people, as the author intended. I’m sure it will. I cannot recommend Bread Therapy highly enough.
Do yourself a favour and grab a copy.
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![Bread Therapy: The Mindful Art of Baking Bread (English Edition) di [Pauline Beaumont]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41OvnPPdRKL._SY346_.jpg)
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Julia Johnston
Two books in one! Outstanding author and writing.
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Foxi Rosie
The Mindful Art of Bread Making - good for the gut, good for the soul
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Kristen Frederickson
demystifying the baking of bread, and helping you feel better about your life
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Susan writes stories
Bought for a Christmas pressie
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