Savoring to Improve Well-being
Sometimes we all get stuck. Stuck in negative thoughts and patterns. Stuck in feelings that feel too hard and too overwhelming. Stuck and unable to make changes in our lives. Stuck in a world that feels too big and too out of control. There are so many reasons that you might feel this way, and for many of them, therapy can help. At the same time, there are small things that you can do every day to help you feel a little bit better. Coming from the field of positive psychology, one way you can improve your well-being, increase feelings of happiness and contentedness, and enrich your life is by practicing savoring.
What does it mean to savor? To savor means to experience something slowly in order to enjoy it fully. In positive psychology, savoring means to pay attention to, appreciate, and enhance positive experiences in your life. Savoring means noticing and taking delight in the positive emotions that come from an experience that might revolve around the past present and future. Just thinking about it sounds pleasant and like something that feels better than stressing about all that is going wrong in life or in the world. To better understand how you can add some savoring into your life, I’ll explain three ways that you can savor the past, the present, and the future.
Savoring the past: Think of this as the counter to dwelling on past mistakes, conflicts, and traumas. This is what you are doing when your reminisce. You think about a past experience and the positive emotions that it brings up. To really savor to the max, thing about past memories that awaken your senses. Think about what you saw, heard, smelled, tasted, and touched, and that can really bring the memory to life.
Savoring the present: This is the one that you are probably most familiar with, as it involves paying attention to the sensory experience and positive emotions of the present moment. An example might be going on a hike and pausing at the top to take in the wind in your hair, the hazy mountains in the distance, the smell of fallen leaves, and the taste of a trail mix snack.
Savoring the future: We engage in this form of savoring when we lean into anticipation. Take a moment to visualize a future experience that you are looking forward to. Just like in the other forms of savoring, think about your senses and what each of them might experience. For example, maybe you look forward to Trick or Treating with your children every year, so you visualize walking down the street with your mini dinosaur, feeling the chill in the air, hearing the crunch of the leaves under your feet, and tasting a Reese’s you snagged at the last house.
When we take the time to really savor our positive experiences, it reminds us that there are GOOD THINGS in our lives, that we can experience happiness, joy, and contentedness, even when life often feels heavy and dark. Try to find a moment to practice savoring today, and see how you feel! At the same time, sometimes we just can’t get there without help. Perhaps you don’t even know how to get started, and that’s okay. Give me a call today, and I can help you figure out how to find YOUR joy and move through your struggles.
Bryant, F. B., & Veroff, J. (2007). Savoring: A new model of positive experience. Erlbaum Associates.