The Art of Savoring

I love the field of Positive Psychology because they’re always embarking on new research along the lines of “What’s more powerful, Hope or Gratitude?” I mean, just scanning their article titles gives me a spark.

I recently read an article on the art of savoring, which I feel compelled to share. The authors (Fred Bryant and Joseph Veroff, 2007) contend that it’s not good enough to stop and smell the roses. We need to learn to stop and “really savor the experience of the roses.”

I cannot agree more.

Allow me to share their findings with you. I read the article with the intent to make this a daily practice for myself.

To begin, they define savoring as,

“The experience of trying to extract every nuance and association that is contained in the complexity of a pleasurable experience”.

Got it. I can do that.

They went on to define four distinct types of savoring. (I’m envisioning hashing out the details of this study with a few deep-thinking friends, sipping red wine, sitting sea-side, during a sunset!)

So anyways, the first type of savoring is basking, which is the act of graciously receiving praise or accolades. This truly is a talent. Notice how many people deflect compliments with the skilled backhand of a tennis pro… I’m one of those people, though I’ve worked hard over the years to learn to shut up and say “thank you”.

The second type of savoring is marveling, or losing yourself in the power of the moment. This one I have no difficulty with. In fact, I have marveling down to a science. I marvel all over the place. I marvel in the grocery store! And one of these days I’ll likely marvel my way right off the highway into a dusty arroyo if I can’t start paying more attention to the road and less to the New Mexico sky.

The third would be luxuriating, or immersing yourself in a particular sensation. I can do that. I can luxuriate with the best of them.

And the fourth type of savoring is thanksgiving, or knowing how to express gratitude. I think I do this pretty well. I love thanking people–sometimes I do it too much, I think I make a person uneasy. But this is one of those things which takes serious self-evaluation, because we’re never as good at it as we think we are. There can never be too much gratitude in life. It powers us. I believe this to my core.

So now that we understand the four types of savoring, we can concentrate on the five ways to strengthen or enhance our ability to savor, which are…

1.) Absorption: or allowing oneself to be immersed in the experience.

2.) Sharpening the senses: or focusing only on one sensation while blocking out any others.

3.) Memory building: such as meditating on the memory of a pleasurable experience.

4.) Sharing with others: this, of course, always heightens the experience.

5.) Self-congratulation: this is, according to the authors, “To allow oneself to feel good about having had an experience of savoring, to relish in the experience and even allow oneself a bit of healthy pride.”

Sweet!