This morning is picture perfect. I am sitting in my hammock swing on my screen porch, pausing every now and then to gaze out at the lake. I’ll be heading out to work soon, but for now I am taking time to savor this moment. The sun is warm, the air is sweet, the lake is smooth, the birds are singing their eternal song. While my life contains significant challenges, here and now, in this very moment, life is oh so good….
In their book, “Savoring, A New Model of Positive Experience,” authors Fred Bryant and Joseph Veroff urge us to commit time to fully appreciating even the smallest gifts that come our way – a flower, a beautiful song, the joyous laugh of a child, a gentle breeze on a hot day – to stop and savor the sweet moments of the day.
In the article Savoring: a Crucial Happiness Skill, Jerry Lopper discusses Bryant and Veroff’s book and offers examples of how we might learn to more readily take in the pleasures that surround us. You might want to follow the link above and read what Loper has to say.
Because the more we savor, the more we immerse ourselves in life enhancing positive emotions, emotions that Barbara Fredrickson, author of “Positivity: Groundbreaking Research Reveals How to Embrace the Hidden Strength of Positive Emotions, Overcome Negativity, and Thrive” reports ehances our physical and emotional well-being.
When I fully take in the gift of this moment, when I breathe it in and hold it closely; I become fully alive and present to the miracle that is my life. As much as I’d love to, I’ve never managed to be able to fully seize an entire day, but, I’m becoming highly adept at sezing and savoring moments, and this, my friend, has made an inmeasureable difference in my life. How about if you try it? Try it again and again and again and again.
I’m not particularly good at practicing, but this is a practice that contains its own reward each and every time…
Spirituality, Therapy, and the Good Life 
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