Baking a Difference in Your Every Day -The Ingredients for a Joy Filled Life

Uncover the sweetness of infusing your mornings with positive affirmations and gratitude, akin to the sugar and vanilla essential to any confection. Sit back and savor the wisdom as I fold in personal anecdotes and sprinkle in actionable advice, teaching you to craft a daily life as delightful as a well-risen loaf.

This episode isn't just a chat; it's a culinary map to a rich, purposeful existence. Imagine seasoning your days with the 'salt' of long-term aspirations and the 'baking soda' fizz of taking steps towards them—each ingredient chosen to sustain your zest and motivation. So tune in, and let's whisk together the components of self-care and weekly goal-setting, ensuring your life is as layered and flavorsome as the most intricate patisserie. Get ready to garnish your days with joy and transform the ordinary into a life extraordinary.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hello, hello and welcome back to the Farm to Heart podcast. I am really excited about today's episode. I think it's going to just really inspire you and also leave you very hungry and possibly wanting to go bake, but also to just really create a joy filled recipe for your own life. So let's get to baking. Welcome to the Farm to Heart podcast, a podcast for heart centered entrepreneurs and dreamers alike seeking to plant their seeds and grow a life of alignment, purpose and their own version of joy filled success. I'm Sarah Rutter, a former award winning bakery owner, turned mama, animal rescuer and multi passionate entrepreneur with a desire to help others ignite their dreams and create a life they love without the burnout. So whether you're seeking guidance on personal growth, launching or growing your current business, or simply looking for inspiration to ignite your entrepreneurial spirit, this podcast will be your loyal companion. So join me as we plant the seeds of your dreams, nurture their growth and a cultivated life of purpose, abundance and fulfillment. So saddle up and let's go. So I just want to start off by saying welcome If you are new here. My name is Sarah and you can go back to episode three if you haven't listened to it already, but I'll just give a quick, quick rundown of why we are doing a recipe of joy today and why baking is such a huge part of my life. So I founded gold mine cupcakes in 2013 and I was the owner for eight or nine years before I decided to sell the business after a really bad burnout, and I sold the business, my husband and I moved to a farm here in Black Hawk, colorado, and we had our son, brett, who is now two and a half years old. So it was because of that burnout that I learned and realized that I was not creating enough space for joy in my life and for the things that really fill my cup and just light me up and make me happy. And so that is why we are doing this exercise today and I hope that it brings you joy and I hope that you have fun with it. And so let's just get this thing going. So each section of this recipe is going to consist of two ingredients, and I will just kind of go into more detail about what each of those ingredients means in your life and how give a few examples of how you can be inserting those into your daily or weekly routine. So the first part is going to be your daily reflection, and I like to think of this as your sugar and your vanilla. So we'll start with the sugar.

Speaker 1: 2:58

To me, well, obviously, sugar is absolutely important when you are baking cupcakes, and not only I mean it's super necessary, it's not just important, it's very necessary. And so to me, positive affirmations are kind of the sugar in my life. It is the thing that just gives me permission to be sweet to myself and to just put a little sweetness into my mindset. And I like to try to do a couple positive affirmations towards myself first thing in the morning. Whether I'm speaking them out loud or writing them down, it really just kind of gets my brain in like a boosted mindset and kind of just I don't know whispering sweet little nothings to myself to get me pumped up for the day. So to me, that is sugar. Sugar would be the positive affirmations to myself. And then the vanilla to me is just moments of gratitude, and I also like to start my day with just listing three moments of gratitude that I'm grateful for, either from the day before or from things that I know that are happening that current day. And when you add vanilla to anything, it really just creates like this sweet essence and this good smell and it just like I don't know. Vanilla just makes me happy when I smell it, and so that is kind of like gratitude. If I'm starting my day with gratitude, it's hard to not be in a state of joy after starting my day with both gratitude and positive affirmations. So that is why sugar and vanilla are my gratitude and my positive affirmations in my recipe, and when you mix sugar and vanilla, it smells even more amazing, and the two should always go together, because I literally want to rub it all over my body and that it's спасибо. That is a good example of gratitude and positive affirmations. As well as that, it is something that we should just really be surrounding our whole mindset with, because it'll just make us feel a little bit more sweeter the whole day.

Speaker 1: 5:14

And then the next part of our recipe I like to call it the weekly goals part of the recipe and that is going to be our flour and our butter. So in this part of the recipe, the flour is going to be your personal goals, and to me it's. I think flour is so important as your personal goals because it is the foundation of your whole recipe. It is like the must have ingredient to kind of hold everything together but also create structure, and so that is why I chose flour as the personal goals. So for personal goals, I highly recommend said setting like two mall achievable goals related to your dream or your passion each week, and that is just. I think it's important not to set your goals like two crazy, crazy big each week, because the bigger goals are going to be what happens as you complete the smaller goals. It's kind of like you don't want to add too much flour to a recipe because it's going to make it way too dense and it's just not as delightful to eat and not as enjoyable. But if you don't add enough flour, they're not going to bake properly and it's just going to kind of sink in the middle and fall apart. So yeah, so that's why I think personal goals to me are kind of the flour in our recipe and they're they're what really starts, the foundation for everything else. They are the small wins that you can achieve each week to really start making progress towards your long term goals and your bigger visions.

Speaker 1: 7:01

And then, ironically, the butter in this portion of the recipe I relate a lot to as our self care goals, which sounds counterproductive, because usually when you think of self care, you think of things that are not related to butter. But I mean, I don't know, sometimes I like to just eat things that have a lot of butter in them as self care, but not all the time. But butter is super important when you're baking because it really adds a richness and a balance to the recipe, and it also creates these air pockets when it's mixed with all of the other ingredients. And those pockets are kind of how I relate, like our self care goals are what really help us to make pockets of other space to fill with our dreams and our purpose and our passions, and so that is why I chose butter for your self care goals. And so, for self care, I just recommend writing next to it like two to three things that you can do each week that you consider a self care goal, and that can be something super small, like waking up 30 minutes before your kids wake up so that you can just sit in peace, or that can be Having the coffee preset so that you have a hot cup of coffee when you wake up every morning, like whatever that self-care looks like for you. Try to set a few goals for yourself, of things that you can look forward to and count on each week. Because another reason that I Put self-care as the butter in our recipe is that Oftentimes like, although we may not feel like we need self-care or we want self-care, it is pretty crucial in a recipe, just like butter. Like you may not want butter in a recipe because you're trying To be healthier, but if you try to make that recipe without the butter, it's just not gonna taste as good and it's not gonna be as airy and as fluffy, and You're gonna regret not putting the butter in it, just like you will regret not making time to take care of yourself and to do the self-care things in your life that really light you up. All right.

Speaker 1: 9:16

So the next section with the next two ingredients. I call this section the, the passion pursuit, or the passion snapshot, and these two ingredients are going to be the cocoa and the eggs, and this section is really just to remind yourself of your hobbies and the activities that Make you excited and that you enjoy doing or that you used to do all the time and maybe you haven't done in a while. So that is what this, this part, is about. And so, for the passion snapshot. Just take a few minutes and think about a few things that you enjoy doing or you used to do or you currently do, but you don't do them as often as you would like to like. What are some hobbies that you have that you wish that you were Doing more of or that you want to make more time for? So that would be the passion snapshot, and that is the part that I would relate to the cocoa in our life, because Cocoa really just adds like a richness and a depth in flavor, and so do our, our hobbies and our activities that we like to take part in, our passions, like those are the things that really bring spice to our life, they bring excitement and joy and just make us smile, and so that would be, those would be our passions, and that is what I like to call the cocoa, because it's kind of just one of those ingredients that you Get to it and you're like, oh, do I want to make chocolate cupcakes or do I just want to stick with vanilla? And then you add the cocoa and you're like, yeah, I'm really glad I made chocolate cupcakes, and that's the same with your passions, like it's when you go Play soccer or you go to an art class or you dance or you ride your horse or whatever your passion is. Every time you add a little bit of that into your life, you're always glad that you did.

Speaker 1: 11:09

And then the eggs for this part of the recipe to me are the action steps that we take to To live out those passions that make us come alive. So, like an egg in a recipe is going to be a binding agent, it's going to be taking action to bring together the ingredients to make them work. And that is what action steps are like. We have to figure out ways To make our life work, to bring in more of those passions and bring more of that joy into our life, because those are the things. Those passions are what hold us together and keep us creative and keep us joyful and keep us healthy and just really in a good mindset for the rest of our dreaming and our, our other life Activities. Alright, so how are we feeling? How is our cupcake recipe looking? Hopefully it is sounding delicious and looking like it's going to turn out great.

Speaker 1: 12:07

So the next section I call the joyful activities section, and this is where you will find the buttermilk and the chocolate chips. And who doesn't love a little buttermilk and chocolate chips? So for the buttermilk, this is where I Kind of relate it to the daily joyful moments and just really acknowledging Like little moments that happen during the day that make us laugh or make us smile or just make our heart flutter or whatever it is. And if you think about it, if you can Write those down and kind of see like you'll start to notice that the more you notice the joy, the more joy you will find. And to me this is like buttermilk, because buttermilk brings just a soft richness to a cupcake and Kind of a unique flavor like it adds, it brings out the rest of the flavors in the cupcakes, but it also just makes it like that much better, like I don't know how to describe it without using the word moist too much, because I do not like that word, but buttermilk just makes everything better, as does joy. And so when we can start practicing really pointing out those little moments of joy and like Acknowledging them and seeing what they are and trying to make more of those happen, that is going to be the buttermilk to your recipe and it's just going to make the overall recipe even better.

Speaker 1: 13:40

So, with your daily joy moments are the buttermilk. Your weekly and monthly joy activities and moments are going to be your chocolate chips, because, although they are not absolutely necessary for a recipe, they truly just add like another fun experience that makes it even that much better. And they are just kind of like scattered throughout your month or your week and they surprise you with just delightful joy and add sweetness and enjoyment and just all this stuff. And so I mean they aren't bad to have at all, and I think you can definitely have too many, because then it kind of takes over the rest of the ingredients. But even just a few, like if you ever bite into a chocolate chip cookie and you get like even just one chocolate chip, it's a good bite. Well, at least in my opinion. I'm not a. I don't like biting into like a ton of chocolate chips at one time, but I digress. So anyways, like even for me, if I just bite into one chocolate chip, that's the same as like if I just have one bigger activity per month or per week, that is like extra special. That is really gonna be a super addition to my recipe of joy.

Speaker 1: 15:06

All right, so now we are getting to the dream catcher phase of our joy recipe, and the dream catcher phase is going to be the salt and the baking soda. And so, in this scenario, I like to think of the longterm dreams, or our longterm dreams, as our salt and then the next steps that we take as the baking soda. So, for our longterm dreams, I want you to either, if you're not driving, ride them down, but if you are driving and listening, then just kind of sit back and reflect. But, like, what are some goals and dreams and aspirations that you've had for a while that are still on your heart? Because, like I've said in other episodes, if the dream is in you, it is for you. I truly, truly believe that, and so I don't think it's an accident that you have that dream in your heart. So just think about that, like what are some of the dreams that you've had on your heart for a while? And or some of the goals that you've had in your heart for a while? So let's dive in a little bit deeper to our longterm goals right now. And that is our salt. And why is salt so important? Why are our longterm goals so important? To have Salt is such an interesting ingredient?

Speaker 1: 16:24

Because you don't like think that it's fully necessary in baking, but it absolutely is. And here's just some examples of why salt is essential for baking, but also why and how that relates to why having longterm goals and big dreams for ourselves is also essential, just in our own lives. So, as a baking ingredient, salt is known for really just enhancing and balancing flavors and just really bringing out like more of the richness in the flavors, in the sweetness that is already there. When it comes to having longterm goals in our life, I think that, just like salt, like those goals really enhance our life and they enhance the richness of our life and really just help us to bring out, like the true person, who we are meant to be and who we are being called to be. Like those longterm goals are gonna be what take you on a journey and what teach you so many things and really just what contribute to enhancing your existence and what just guides you to bringing out who you were meant to be. And then, as far as baking goes with salt, salt is also partially a natural preserver, so it just helps the baked goods stay fresh longer and, just like with our longterm goals, they really just help keep our vision and kind of sustain our motivation through life and keep us going towards those goals as somewhat of a natural preservation inside of our hearts as well.

Speaker 1: 18:09

And then the last example of salt and how it relates to our longterm goals is that it enhances growth. If you combine it with baking soda, it helps baking soda do its job even better. It helps it make the baked good rise even better. And so, similarly, when you combine your longterm goals with the next steps and what to do with those next steps of the towards the longterm goal, they just really work together and they start fostering this relationship to help each other grow and to make each other stronger. So that brings us to our next ingredient, which is baking soda, and that is going to be under the next steps for our big goal.

Speaker 1: 18:53

And so baking soda is absolutely crucial for baking cupcakes because without it, your cupcake will not rise, it'll be flat, it'll taste different, it will not be able to activate the ingredients in the cupcake if you don't have baking soda in the batter, in the bowl. So it's super important, but just like the next steps on our goals are super important If we're never taking those steps, just like in last week's episode about taking baby steps, like if we aren't taking steps forward, we're not gonna be moving anywhere and we're not gonna be growing. So those, just like baking soda, those next steps are absolutely crucial to getting towards our long-term goals and our big dreams, because without them we're not going to be growing at all. So baking soda is kind of cool because it's like this little hero of an ingredient that you really don't know is there. But if, unless you bake the cupcake and you don't have baking soda, and then you realize it's not there and you see how clearly you didn't take that step, just like when you don't take the steps towards your dreams, you're going to very clearly see in the long run that you didn't take those steps because there will not be any progress forward, there will not be any growth, there won't be any just movement towards those big goals and those big dreams. So be the baking soda and take that next step and throw yourself in the batter, because I know you can, alright. So those are all of the main ingredients for your cupcake batter and while your cupcake is baking, let's just stick it in the oven, which is our, our head and our heart, and let it just sit there and bake for a little bit. And let's just recap really quick what those ingredients were.

Speaker 1: 20:46

So we had a daily reflection, with positive affirmations being our sugar, and then gratitude moments, or small moments of gratitude, being our vanilla. And then we have our weekly goals with flour and butter, and the self-care goals is going to be the butter and the personal goals is going to be the flour. And then the next section is the passion section, and that is going to have your passion snapshot, or the things that you're passionate about, your hobbies, and that is going to be cocoa, and then the action steps to get to do those hobbies and those passion things you're passionate about. That is going to be the eggs, which then brings us to our joyful activities section, which is buttermilk and chocolate chips, and the joyful daily joyful moments is going to be the buttermilk, and then our favorite activities is going to be the chocolate chips, and that is more of the like weekly and monthly activities for the chocolate chips, which brings us to the last part of the cupcake batter, which is the dreamcatcher section, and this section has the salt and the baking soda and in this part, the long-term dreams and goals is going to be the salt, and then the next steps to take is going to be the baking soda. Alright, so your cupcake's been baking, it looks delicious, it came out of the oven and is cooled, and so now it is time to go to reflection and adjustments, which is going to be our frosting and our sprinkles.

Speaker 1: 22:30

So for this section, to me, the frosting is just kind of doing a weekly review. That's what I call. The frosting is a weekly review and like frosting on a cupcake. With goldmine cupcakes, when we were creating our frosting recipe, it was super important that it wasn't too sweet and it wasn't too thick and it wasn't too greasy, like there was. Just we really worked hard to create a really good creamy, like not super sweet frosting.

Speaker 1: 23:04

And so when I think of frosting, from building the recipe, of creating joy, I think it's important to kind of look at all the aspects of our recipe and how they worked together throughout the week and did it? Did it feel balanced? Did it feel in alignment? Because if you've ever made frosting and it's not in alignment, then it'll look like cottage cheese or it'll be clumpy, or it's going to be runny and it's just going to fall right off the top of the cupcake. So it's really important to have that alignment and of all the ingredients and just making sure that everything is working together properly and is balanced and that it also compliments the cake, which is, in our terms, is our dreams and our goals and our hobbies and finding joy, and so is the. Is your recipe working like? Is there anything that you need to adjust? Or can you just top it with frosting and it's perfect and it seems great? So that is kind of how I relate.

Speaker 1: 24:08

Frosting to our recipe of joy is just kind of topping it off with that extra sweetness and reviewing if everything seems in alignment and balanced and how they're all working together. But then no cupcake is complete without adding some sort of topping to it. So the last part for the sprinkles or the toppings is just the adjustments section of our recipe. So what areas do we want to add more of, what areas do we need to take away from because they were too much or anything like that? So that's that's the beauty of a recipe.

Speaker 1: 24:48

But also the tricky part is that you are kind of always. You are kind of always. You're gonna be constantly adjusting based on I mean, in baking terms, we're literally adjusting based off the weather. So hopefully you're not having to do that too much with your actual life, but I mean you might be, because some of your things that you wanna do would require you to be outside and you can't do that, so you have to adjust, and so that's just kind of where the toppings and the sprinkles comes in is being able to make adjustments and just kind of decorate it how you see fit and what makes it feel good and look good and just feel beautiful to you, and so. But it's also just kind of literally the cherry on top of like.

Speaker 1: 25:35

I made this, I created this, this is my recipe of joy, and now you get to take a big bite out of it and sit back and just enjoy it, because I mean, literally, the definition of enjoy is to be filled with joy or to be in joy. And so why not create a recipe for your life that you enjoy, which is something that we should all be doing all the time? And that recipe is going to change and it's going to be altered and adjusted, but as long as it's working for where you are in that season of your life, then it is perfectly delicious for you and it is exactly what it should be. So I hope you had fun with that. I hope it was inspiring for you to go create your recipe of joy and maybe to even go bake some cupcakes. But I will link in the show notes this entire exercise and the whole worksheet that I made to go along with it so you can sit down and really just think through it and spend time with it and whatever you wanna do. But yeah, I will link that in the show notes and I hope that you enjoyed it and I will talk to you next week.

Speaker 1: 26:51

Thank you so much for listening today. If you enjoyed the show, please like and subscribe to the podcast on your favorite listening platform. You can also leave a review anytime or send me a DM on Instagram at farm to heart. Sarah, I would love to hear from you and hear more about your story. You can also help the podcast even more by financially supporting the tech and time costs of each episode, starting at just $3 per month. Click the support the show link in show notes to learn more. Today's show plus more farm fun can be found on the blog at sweetfreedomfarmcocom. I can't wait to talk to you again next week. Have a beautiful day everyone.