What’s the deal with chefs having the reputation of being fiery folk?

The emergence and popularity of TV programs based in restaurants has done little in the way to challenge these stereotypes.

The need for chefs to create in a busy environment under time restraints is challenging, but that don’t mean chefs have to be an angry ass all the time.

Working in stressful environments can take their toll at times and maintaining a balanced approach may seem “unthinkable” to some but it isn’t impossible either.

I worked with a guy in a newsroom who was the epitome of inner peace and harmony. He was a young guy but he had been with the organisation for over a decade since leaving university. I saw him work towards a News Editor role, but he got shafted. What’s that BS notion that “nice folk don’t get ahead”?

He may not have made it to the editor position but that guy was doing way more in that newsroom and for the “greater good” than anyone around him would care to notice. Talented he was at the job, but energetically his presence was a much-needed dose of tonic in what was somewhat of a cess pit for negative energies. His energy would circumvent all the negative energy coming from the stress-heads, TV screens, and broadcast equipment running all over the shop.

Nothing ever seemed to knock him out of his inner peace and harmony – neither breaking news nor even the most arrogant of folk there.

It is possible and sometimes we may find ourselves in positions where we are there to serve a much “higher purpose” and to serve the greater good in spite of what is going on around us or to us even. That’s what I believe the guy I worked with was there to do. Not to say that he was a door mat, but his purpose was much bigger than the presenting and producing work that he was doing.

I saw him presenting on the TV the other day, so he is still with the organisation. Whether he takes a leap of faith and moves on, who knows, but who’s to say that he’s not living out his destined path already.

All I can say is that he definitely had his Soul firmly at the forefront and when it’s time for his Soul to move on, there’ll be a massive shift in energy in that newsroom and one can only hope that whoever replaces him brings as much balance to that space as he does.

Rosalyn Medea is a journalist, spiritual life coach, intuitive reader and all-round creative warrior