The Extraordinary Power of Savoring Your Life

“Begin at once to live, and count each separate day as a separate life.” ~ Seneca

Every day you slave to create the life of your dreams.

You set ambitious goals, work long hours, and improve your skills.

Yet you feel more unhappy and unfulfilled than ever. Even after accomplishing goals and acquiring material and social status, you feel like something’s missing.

You ask yourself, “What’s it all for?” You have precious little time to enjoy the fruits of all your labors. And whatever little time you have, you’re too tired, preoccupied, or anxious to enjoy it.

It’s little wonder that we feel like we have no time. It’s little wonder that so many of us find no enjoyment in life and little to show for our efforts.

The missing ingredient in your life

So what’s missing?

The act of savoring.

Savoring is how you allow yourself to be fully immersed in an experience. Savoring is mindfulness in action.

When you savor, you focus the power of your attention to the present moment. When we’re fixated on goals, dreams, and outcomes, we miss out on the many opportunities to savor our lives. We waste these precious moments as we chase after things we expect to bring us happiness and fulfillment.

In our fast-pace culture, the art of savoring is something we’re barely aware of, if we’re aware of it at all. So before we go any further, let’s discuss what many of us do instead of savoring.

Savoring is not…

1. Craving

The act of savoring often conjures up images of someone enjoying a good meal. But for most of us, we barely make time to taste our food, much less enjoy it. Indeed, in our fast food culture, “wolfing down” food is the norm.

And sadly, much of what we eat is processed and engineered to promote craving. So in addition to the fact that we eat too fast to fully taste and enjoy our food, we’re left with the feeling of always wanting more.

Sadder still, we transfer this tendency to other areas of our lives. We’re always looking for the next thrill that will top the one we’re experiencing now. It quickly leads to a bottomless pit of despair.

2. Nostalgia

Nostalgia is all about a longing for things as they once were.

Often the memories of the “good old days” are better than they actually were. Savoring is not about yearning for the past, but fully enjoying the present.

Nostalgia is not bad in of itself, but if done to excess, it can prevent you from accessing the rich moments of your life right now.

3. Clinging

Savoring may on the surface appear to share much in common with clinging but this is not true. While savoring may allow you to linger in an enjoyable moment, clinging is a desperate attempt to freeze an experience in time.

With the former, there is no expectation of recreating the the moment, just enjoying it. In the latter, there’s a strong desire to produce the effects of the moment on demand.

How to begin savoring your life

These three modes of being can cause great suffering in our lives if we allow them to take over. Savoring prevents suffering by allowing us to enjoy our experiences without clinging to them.

Strip all the complicated goals and tireless anxious work and you’ll see that beneath all that is a deep desire to enjoy the experience of being alive.

The good news is that you can do this without all the complexity. Here’s how:

1. Slow down

Instead of trying to cram as many experiences into your life as possible, try eliminating some of them in order to focus on a few that really matter. Then slow down.

For instance, instead of allowing work to creep into family time, decide to protect that time. Resist the urge to multitask while spending time with those you love. Slow down the pace of your mind and heart by noticing your breathing. Be fully present with them.

2. Notice things

In The Noticer by Andy Andrews, the main character, Jones, has a unique talent for noticing things that most other people miss. In offering advice to a “young man,” Jones exhorts him to notice the small stuff in life:

“See, the ‘small stuff’ is what makes up the larger picture of our lives. Many people are like you, young man. But their perspective is distorted. They ignore ‘small stuff,’ claiming to have an eye on the bigger picture, never understanding that the bigger picture is composed of nothing more than-are you ready?- ‘small stuff’.”

When we fail to savor the small stuff, we fail to enjoy our lives. On your next commute to work, instead of obsessively worrying about what’s to come, try noticing as much as you can on your way there.

3. Try new things

Come to think of it, why not just try taking a different route to work.

Try new things. Talk to new people. Try different foods. Try laughing more. Try talking less.

When you try new things, you attentiveness is heightened, giving you more opportunities to savor your novel experiences.

The Extraordinary Power of Savoring Your Life

You don’t need to wait until you achieve some arbitrary goal to begin enjoying your life.

You can choose to do so today if you’re tired of waiting.

Life is meant to be lived and enjoyed. Each moment is too precious to waste.

Simply learn to enjoy life as it unfolds. And you’ll begin to experience the extraordinary power of savoring.