Hello again! This morning, I was outside, taking my puppy for her morning walk, and I was thinking about how wonderful my first cup of coffee was going to taste when she was done. I stopped myself right there, though, and reminded myself the value of savoring each moment. Research tells us our overall well-being is improved if we take the time to savor each moment when we can. So, instead of thinking about how good my coffee was going to taste, I looked at this view and enjoyed it for a few minutes.
This particular view has several things worth savoring, after all. The sound of the water in the river, the beautiful sunrise (the heat is going to roll in soon...), the sound of the birds, and the smell of all that vegetation. It is a pretty great way to spend a few minutes in the morning, and I recognize I am lucky to be standing right there each day, while many people are worrying about unemployment, food insecurity, and evictions.
Now, my coffee is a morning ritual that I really enjoy and is worth savoring, too. It isn't fancy, but I do take the time to heat up the almond milk and froth it so my made at home coffee looks like it came from some coffee shop franchise without the cost of one. So, I take the time to savor it, too.
Savoring is something we can all do, and it does help our mood in the moment, which can alter our attitude for the day ahead of us, the night, the week, and beyond. Making savoring a practice is just one more step toward a larger attitude adjustment that can contribute to our better health overall. I have mentioned the research several times in this blog: the research that connects our emotional health with our physical health, and mental health. Our mind and body are interconnected, and the research plays out here. So, taking time to savor has the research behind it.
Savoring is multi-faceted. We can savor an experience in the moment, like really enjoying that morning coffee. Drinking it slowly, to enjoy the complexity of the flavors, the smell, the way it feels on your tongue, the way it looks with the steam rising from it. We can savor the past, like remembering the cup of coffee from a special day in your life, revisiting all the sensory information in your memory. We can also savor future events, anticipating how they will be experienced. This is common when planning a trip or a big event, when we visualize what it will be like.
We can activate our senses in a savoring experience to make it even more vivid and impactful. And our savoring can be about all sorts of experiences: a hug from someone we love, a trip, food, savoring a relationship, or savoring the moment when you reach a goal.
As I am writing this, I feel a tinge of guilt, honestly. It is easy to talk about savoring when I have a job, food on the table, a safe place to live, and I don't fear for my life or safety because of the color of my skin. I can stay safely tucked inside my home, working remotely, getting my groceries curbside, all reducing my risk of catching COVID-19. I recognize my life is pretty good, and that is not the case for a lot of people. So, for those who are not able to say they are living safely and comfortably, how can I ask you to savor? That is tough. I cannot honestly say I know what it is like to live in someone else's shoes. In my younger adult years, I have had times when I worried about my safety, and I worried about paying the rent, and I worked hard to stretch the money I had to feed myself and my young child. So my life has not always been easy, and I will not forget what that struggle was like. I do know that in those moments of real struggle, I savored the future that would be different. It was hope. I savored my hopeful optimism in those real moments of struggle, and I savored that future life with fewer struggles.
Maybe hope is a luxury for some, too.
I recognize it can be hard to remain hopeful when life is hard for so long, and seems very much out of your control. I won't lightly suggest you hold onto hope as some simple idea. It can be very hard.
But I will still ask you to do it, to hold hope, to think optimistically about a future that is better than what it is right now. I will still ask you to savor what you can, as part of that hope.
Right now, I savor a time without civil unrest. I savor a time where Black Lives Matter just as much as other lives, and we see that demonstrated in our lives and our communities everywhere. I savor a time without COVID-19. I savor a time where healthcare is something everyone can access. I savor a time when I can return to doing what I love, being a professor in person. I savor a time when we have much less anger and hatred and divisiveness in our world. I savor a lot of things for our future. I hope you can, too.
Stay safe, be well. Take care.
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