Savoring Our Way to Better Mental Health
Noticing and attending to that which brings us joy
When I walk my dogs each morning, my senses are overwhelmed by the beautiful countryside surrounding me. I bask in the stunning landscapes and the earthy smell of the woods near our house — a sensation that borders on bliss — and my days are instantly better.
We face frequent reminders of the problems in our lives and the world around us, especially amid a pandemic, political divisiveness, and economic uncertainty. Still, it is dangerous to let these things consume us. We must not take for granted the many things going well in our lives. When we don’t notice and feel gratitude for the numerous things going in our favor, we miss our chances of feeling happiness and other positive emotions that can offer us many health benefits.
What is savoring?
Fred B. Bryant and Joseph Veroff, authors of Savoring: A New Model of Positive Experience, suggest that “people have capacities to attend to, appreciate, and enhance the positive experiences in their lives.” By noticing moments worthy of our attention, we can linger in them in a manner that enriches, heightens, and extends them. That is what savoring is all about.
Interestingly, savoring works when we focus on something internal or external, so reflecting on a positive memory (internal) or engaging in an enjoyable conversation with friends (external) offers us different ways to expand our positive emotions. Moreover, our minds have the ability to savor past, present, and potential future events, which provides us with even more material from which to build our capacities for enjoyment and appreciation.
Savoring throughout the day creates a habit whereby our brains look for things to appreciate. When we notice and linger in the positive emotions we feel, even for just a dozen seconds, we build neural pathways to happiness, resilience, optimism, and better moods while decreasing negative emotions and depressive symptoms. With practice, these experiences can be the norm rather than the exception.
My experiences with savoring
I find that savoring makes me feel elated, grateful, and content. It also reduces stress, inspires creativity, and makes me more attuned to good things around me — many of which I didn’t notice before learning to savor. Pleasantly, it even makes me more productive because I am learning to enjoy the process. I’m savoring the gifts along the way rather than postponing enjoyment until I complete a task. Rather than just coping, I feel like I’m thriving.
Initially, I was reluctant to savor. It seemed so indulgent. I’m a responsible, hard-working person; I don’t have time for such frolicking. Then I realized that savoring isn’t about taking time away from what I was doing, but rather it was something I could incorporate into whatever I do. Now I notice and appreciate the sun shining in my window, the smile a stranger offers me in passing, the look of joy on my dog’s face as we’re walking, and the warming satisfaction of my morning coffee.
Now, when I notice small moments of beauty, connection, and pleasure, I stay with those thoughts a bit longer. When other people are around, I offer my thoughts of appreciation in hopes that they will feel joy. Sharing in this capacity allows us to enrich those moments and feel positive connections with other people.
What thwarts us from savoring?
We may busily go from one thought to another, one activity to the next, distracted without much intention. We think we are too busy, but we often waste our time on meaningless and unproductive activities. While savoring can be difficult during hectic times because our attention is monopolized, there are numerous points of our day that allow for savoring — during meals, in a conversation with a loved one, on the drive to work, and when settling in for sleep, among others.
If we don’t allow ourselves to savor, if we are always postponing happiness until the right time or ideal conditions, we miss opportunities to feel good. When we fail to enjoy the process, we miss our chances to experience life-enriching positive emotions along the way. When we think that happiness happens in only grand moments, like upon completion of a goal, we limit our joy. Learning to savor allows us to enjoy more moments in our lives, and by doing so, we understand that we have more moments to appreciate than we expected.
An urge to savor more
Harnessing the power of savoring teaches us that we have control over the way we feel because we control our attention. Beauty surrounds us, but it is lost on those who do not notice it. When we consistently pay attention to and grow those things that make us feel good, we learn that we can feel good more often.
Most of us could use more joy in our lives, making us healthier to endure the challenges we face personally and collectively. As we move through our days, let us notice more of what we’d like. Heighten and linger in those positive emotions for a while to maximize the benefits.
As for me, I will be roaming in the woods with my dogs and husband, absorbed in the glory of fall — my favorite season. I remember that the simple pleasures in life can bring the greatest enjoyment, and I am flooded with appreciation.
