Savoring comes from the English term “savoring“, which was described in the model created by psychology professors Fred Bryant and Joseph Veroff, and refers to doing only one thing you like at a time, slowing down, paying attention to what you are doing in the present moment, to enjoy and appreciate the positive aspects of life and bring you well-being.
There are some keys to savoring the positive experiences you live and enhance the emotions they generate as well as your happiness. I share some very interesting exposed by Professor Laurie Santos of Yale University in her course the Science of Well-being:
First key:
Get ready for the experience.
One way to maximize experiences is to prepare them with enthusiasm and anticipation.
Have you ever planned an event or trip? A little over a year ago, I planned a trip to Washington with my sister and two friends. We meet to organize it and choose the best day and time to travel there and back. The time we would be there, what places we would visit, what kind of clothes we would wear, etc.
The experience was wonderful, we enjoyed very nice moments together, unexpected things happened to us, and we brought back beautiful memories, photos, and videos. Planning that experience in advance allowed us to savor it to the fullest even before living it.
Second key:
Focus and enjoy the experience at the moment you are living it.
Savoring life implies living the experience in the present moment, focus on it, on the details, enjoy it. Do not get distracted by the cell phone, with a call, chat, social networks or with sabotaging thoughts such as: “this experience could have been better if…”, or “this is all wonderful, but it will soon be over”, or “I don't deserve such a good thing.”
Instead, stay in the present. Feel how lucky you are to be living that event. That will allow you to enjoy much more, feel grateful, and have much more to remember and more positive emotions to associate with that experience when it ends.
Third key:
Regularly, remember your beautiful experience and relive the positive emotions that it produces in you.
People have the tendency to think over and over again about our negative experiences and relive the emotions that they generate in us and feel over and over again the toxic emotions that they generate in us. I propose something much more useful when you live a negative experience instead of feeling guilty or torturing yourself by thinking “I should have done or not done this or that", ask yourself why it happened and what you should learn from it. Then release her and let her go.
On the contrary, when you live a beautiful experience, enjoy it and think about it regularly, through your memories, memory or using photos, videos, souvenirs, or anything you associate with the experience so that you relive the positive emotions that you generate. This is a simple and effective way to fully savor that experience and give yourself health and fullness whenever you want.
Fourth key:
Share the positive emotions generated by the experience.
Just as preparing for the experience and enjoying yourself while you live it generates well-being, scientific studies show that happiness will be enhanced if you share it with other people. So, I suggest you share with those positive people around you who inspire you, who drive you forward, who rejoice with your happiness at all the good things you experience and how wonderful it makes you feel.
Savoring the good moments of life, in the terms set forth, is a practice within everyone's reach, which makes you feel lucky and grateful and brings fulfillment before, during, and after each positive experience or whenever you want.
So, I take this wonderful opportunity to invite you to make these extraordinary keys to well-being a habit.
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