Oh man, it's been the complete opposite for me the older I get. Cooking has now become a pretty relaxing activity, but I think that's because I've gotten more confident and skilled with my knife, prep, cooking, and cleaning abilities that I can really just focus more on the joy and experience of making delicious things for both myself and the people I love.

It's probably one of the only true forms of self love that I engage in.

But for real, learning to clean as I cook was probably the most important skill I developed that has seriously reduced how painful cooking used to be for me. There's no giant mess at the end and really, once you get good at it, you'll find that there's hardly any big daunting cleanup (unless you're making a large family dinner or a finicky dish).