15/05/2024
How to savour a good life.
Savouring is a way to relish or enjoy something. We can savour a lovely meal or a refreshing drink or a sneaky treat but we can also savour time with loved ones, doing a hobby we enjoy, a favourite song. In fact, the act of savouring is a way to connect or reconnect with the positivises in your life, to get the maximum joy and reward out of them. A way to really record and fully experience the good going on.
The classic image of savouring is clasping the mug of coffee with both hands on a chilly morning, inhaling the wakeful aroma, blowing on the surface, anticipating the sip and cherishing each delicious mouthful. Savouring is making something, even as mundane as a morning coffee, into an aaahhhh moment. It is not just experiencing a moment of pleasure; it is paying conscious attention to that pleasurable moment unfolding and drinking in all its goodness. It is fully going there. Don’t just use it on the latte or the long lunch break or the post co**al glow, let it flow through and fill other aspects of your life.
The idea of savouring positive moments has a strong emphasis in modern Positive Psychology, in a model developed by Fred Bryant and Joseph Veroff, they define it as ‘the positive counterpart to coping’. So while savouring is an experience of enriched contentment, it can be more, it can be a peak experience. It should be a regular repeat experience, it could be a way to follow your bliss, it is a way to counter-act experiences of pain and sorrow.
Savouring tops up your joy and increases the capacity to experience a sense of well-being. You have savoured in the past, it is a human response, you know how to do it and you know it is not just a cognitive experience but a bodily sensation too; it is all of you, allowing the aaahhhh to resonate. It may be a surrender to the moment, an immersion in the beautiful now of it but it is both you sinking into it and the good sinking into you.
It is not only a good experience; it is the experience and incorporation of the good. So no matter your mood, Go savour something now; it will lift if you are flat or down, it will resonate and consolidate if you are positive or up. Let it be something simple or something you know you will thoroughly enjoy. A mug of coffee, a cup of tea, a ripe piece of fruit, a gelato, the aroma or colour of a garden flower, the expanse of the sky, a beautiful piece of music, a favourite film, a cosy sweater, a foot bath, a bubble bath, a bird singing in the distance, the kiss of a loved one, the smile of a friend, a serenity meditation, the satisfaction of having mowed the lawn, a walk, a jog, a workout, a laze on the couch, what ever sparks you.
Relish life a little more this week. Savour all the good in it. Be refreshed and replenished by it.
- For more brain hacks and positive affirmations check out my latest book; 52 Proverbs to Fight Depression & Trauma. Mercier press. €14.99. All good bookstores now.
Or come hear me talk Bord Bia Bloom
