Skip to content

Calming anxiety through the therapeutic act of baking

on December 15, 2016

Lia Freitas is an Oakland resident who has had a passion for baking since childhood. Now, she’s a professional baker who works out of a collective kitchen in downtown Oakland. She’s also one of the 2.2 million Americans with obsessive-compulsive disorder and in the past, she’s suffered from generalized anxiety disorder and an eating disorder. Her mental health–its emotional and physical toll–sometimes feels like it’s taking over her life.

Baking for Freitas is more than just a hobby and a profession; it’s a form a therapy. When she bakes, she can channel her extra mental energy into the work she does with her hands and her mind settles down. Partially because of baking, she’s been able to see her disorder as something that can be harnessed in a positive way.

The music in the video above is “Friday Morning” by Kevin MacLeod.

2 Comments

  1. Amin Delagah on January 16, 2017 at 11:56 pm

    I really enjoyed The Baker video. I grew up working at my parents bakery and really enjoyed the feeling of working hard with a calm mind. Now days, I have mostly a desk job as a researcher and rarely approach the same level of peacefulness. I like to get back into it by baking at home, thanks for inspiring me!



  2. Edna Ramirez on December 12, 2017 at 4:27 am

    Amazing Post. Completely agree, anxiety is the biggest problem today. Any time you are depressed, improving yourself helps greatly. When you feel depressed, don’t sit and watch TV and then sleep-in late. Get out and do something that will make you feel like you’ve accomplished something. You can also take guidance from http://www.martine-voyance.com if you are dealing with some past related issues, physic reading can help you deal with anything that’s going wrong in your life.



Oakland North welcomes comments from our readers, but we ask users to keep all discussion civil and on-topic. Comments post automatically without review from our staff, but we reserve the right to delete material that is libelous, a personal attack, or spam. We request that commenters consistently use the same login name. Comments from the same user posted under multiple aliases may be deleted. Oakland North assumes no liability for comments posted to the site and no endorsement is implied; commenters are solely responsible for their own content.

Photo by Basil D Soufi
logo
Oakland North

Oakland North is an online news service produced by students at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism and covering Oakland, California. Our goals are to improve local coverage, innovate with digital media, and listen to you–about the issues that concern you and the reporting you’d like to see in your community. Please send news tips to: oaklandnorthstaff@gmail.com.

Latest Posts

Scroll To Top