Happiness Tips: Savor The Flavors Of Life

Have you ever been to your favorite restaurant, ordered your favorite food and then thoroughly enjoyed eating it? We hope so! If you haven’t had such an experience, imagine what it might be like. Remember how the texture, taste and smell of this wonderful food delighted you as you chewed and swallowed it. You probably savored each and every bite of that fabulous food and felt quite satisfied during and after your meal.

What if every moment of your life was just like that delicious culinary experience? Wouldn’t it be wonderful to savor all of our life adventures—both mild and wild—in a similar way? How different might you feel about yourself and life if, instead of struggling through the ups and downs, you savored your way along?

Today’s world sometimes feels beyond high-speed. While we count down the days until a vacation, once the get-away arrives we find ourselves thinking about home and work. Even in our day-to-day lives, we’re often so busy thinking ahead to the next item on the “to do” list, we miss what’s going on right now. Sometimes what’s going on is uncomfortable and unhappy, but often it’s pleasant and even potentially joyful. How are we to know anyway, when we’re so often in a fast-forward mode?

Jody just isn’t happy and can’t figure out why. Her life really isn’t all that bad. She reminds herself how much she has when she feels dissatisfied. After all, she runs her own successful business, is an active presence in her daughter’s life, and has been with a great guy for 8 years now. She is always on the go volunteering with the PTA and in the community and knows she is respected by colleagues and peers. With all of this going for her, why does she feel depressed and out of sorts much of the time?

Return to the Right Now
Perhaps what is missing for Jody is also what is missing for you. Jody moves through many potentially satisfying, happy experiences each and every day but she misses them because she’s not really “there.” She appreciates her daughter’s athletic ability on the soccer field as she watches the game, but prominent in her mind are worries about a dissatisfied customer’s e-mail, a conversation she had with her partner and where she and her daughter will go eat after the game is over. In this way, Jody is not present for what is most important: the right now.

It doesn’t matter what it is, if you are not present for your right now you are pushing aside potential happiness. You could go on forever gauging whether your job, your mate, your kids, or your self are the priority, the one thing you should be focusing on. What matters most is that your attention is right here, right now. It is only in the right now where you will find the satisfaction and good feelings you want and that is the priority.

Notice the Savorable Moments
So what if your right now is not so happy? Even then, it is important that you stay present. Perhaps Jody and her daughter had an argument before the soccer match. While watching her daughter dribble the ball down the field, dodge defenders, shoot and score, Jody is filled with anger and fear about the argument. She replays the previous scene over and over in her mind wondering if she responded fairly and wishing her daughter would listen to her for once.

While resolving the conflict between herself and her daughter is certainly important, rehashing the argument at that moment is not going to change anything. Instead, Jody could put aside what she perceives happened and how she’d like to see the issue resolved. Jody can come back to the right now and savor the moment. She can allow herself to celebrate her daughter’s athletic ability and enjoy the other parents watching with her in the stands. There will be time later to return to the issue the argument was about. In fact, if Jody can sit down with her daughter to talk coming from a place of appreciation, the conflict will undoubtedly resolve much easier.

If you are accustomed to living in fast-forward mode, this may take some practice. Gently bring yourself back to what’s going on in your right now and notice what you can savor. The “taste” may be tart or even bitter at times, but this is part of the richness of life. You may find that the more you can appreciate this present moment, the sweeter the moments get. Bon Appetit!