Savoring is Good for You
I’ve broadcasted enough the fact that I’ve taken up Yale’s Science of Well-being course because apart from wanting know what my friends think of my exploration to becoming a therapist in the future, I really learned a lot from it.
For instance, I learned there are several ways you can feel happy or increase your well-being. Among them is savoring.
I was going to say savoring is being able to stay in the moment — like you when you’re enjoying an ice cream or that first bite of pizza — but the course instructor Laurie Santos said savoring is actually the act of stepping outside of an experience to review and appreciate it (while its happening).
As in, being able to do as Kurt Vonnegut and say, if this isn’t nice, what is?
“Savoring intensifies and lengthens the positive emotions that come with doing something you love,” she continued.
It can be taking a photo at a concert, or while on a walk, slowing down to enjoy the moment. It can even be taking a pause from kissing, and noting how delicious the kiss is, how much you enjoy kissing, how good your kisser is.
Savoring can boost our moods in three ways:
1. by helping us remember the good things
2. by keeping us in the moment
3. it can increase gratitude
I’m yapping about savoring because I just had one of the best weekends and you got it! I would like to savor it. Food had a lot to do with it.
I made croissant egg sandwiches on Saturday morning and paired it with hot chocolate and it was such a treat!
I lined my sandwich with hummus, and mom’s with pesto and both were delicious.
The hot chocolate had me boiling milk, wtf, something I never do and it’s such a nice feeling to do something new? I tried to make ours similar to what we had in Eze and seeing how mom enjoyed it and hearing her comments, I’d like to think I succeeded.
At lunch, we had super tasty chicken sisig and for dinner, salmon from Angel’s Kitchen that we haven’t had in over a year which still hit the spot.
I spent a good amount of time on my mat that afternoon not doing anything really and after dinner, we stayed up late to watch Prince Philip’s funeral on TV. I cannot remember the last time I sat down to watch TV. It was nice.
I woke up early on Sunday and went out for a 40-minute bike ride for the first time in 40 days.
It’s been so long since I went out last that summer welcomed me with open arms in its full flora glory.
And then at mom’s behest, I redid Saturday’s breakfast. I made her another egg sandwich while I opted for a plain croissant. I made hot chocolate and again: it transported me back to Eze, where atop the mountain, we had the be— nay, some life-changing plain croissants and hot chocolate we’ve ever had.
As though that’s not enough, Paul sent Japanese food for lunch complete with sparkling white wine, which we didn’t drink because I didn’t know how to pop open the bottle haha. We had ginger ale instead.
For dinner, we had left-over crabs and paired it with rose, plus two (tiny) slices of cake each.
It really was a delicious weekend. I shouldn’t wonder why I moved up sizes since the lockdown began.
Enough of food, I’m here to share a few more things I learned from the Science of Well-being course because life’s been tough and we all can use a little help in happiness.
According to the course, there are six other things (other than savoring) that you can do for your well-being:
- meditate
- work out
- exercise kindness
- sleep
- make connections (with old friends or make new ones)
- gratitude
The idea is to try and do a few of these things in a day to help boost your mood and better your well-being.
In class, we were told to note it down, as like a gratitude journal, to see how we’re progressing in feeling good. I took the class in September and I’ve been juggling the seven and recording them in an app I downloaded for the class.
The app is a bit wonky so I can’t recommend, but I’ve made a habit of it, recording what I did every time I’ve done it and apart from lifting my mood, the sense of accomplishment is also helping.
I just checked my score and haha, of the seven, I’ve been the most delinquent in savoring. I guess this is me trying to make up to it big time.
Feel free to use a journal or even just your calendar to note things down. A caveat: noting things down may pressure you to do more and do all. Please don’t do that.
You don’t have to do all seven in a day. Mygod, that would be such a drag. Instead, it would help to practice a few in a day, even doing just one a day is OK. I’ve had days when all I did was meditate. I’ve had days when all I’ve accomplished was 8 hours of sleep.
I know these things seem simplistic but in these trying times, there is always room for small fixes. I hope they help you as much as they’ve been helping me.
At the very least, on a really bad day, being able to do and record at least one can give you some sense of accomplishment or progress, which is supposed to be good for our mental health. But the magic there is, having done one should also lift your spirits up a notch. So it’s a win-win.
