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When you hear the word savoring, you might only think of food but on this week’s show, we’re talking about the ways in which we can savor way more than just that. Katie and I discuss how we can add in savoring to our everyday experience to increase our positive emotion each day. Savoring is the process of mindfully engaging in thoughts or behaviors that heighten the effect of positive events on positive feelings. And, it does involve our body and our mind. The word itself comes from the latin “sapere” which means “to have good taste” or “to be wise.” This process is really all about making the most of the “small” parts of life. Since we are not really so great at knowing what will really make us happy, we tend to think that it is always the “big” things in life only to discover later that this may not be the case. Savoring supports us to make the ordinary events, extraordinary. But what can savoring do for us and how do we do it?

Well, we first need to know that savoring increases our positive emotions especially those such as gratitude and appreciation. If we look to Dr. Barbara Fredrickson and her broaden and build theory of positive emotion, we understand more deeply the benefit that bringing positive emotion into our life can have on our well-being. Savoring allows us to increase the positive emotion that we may experience when we see a beautiful sunset or when our favorite team wins the big game. Researchers have discovered that there are 4 specific types of savoring. One type is known as basking which is being receptive to praise and congratulations. Another type of savoring is thanksgiving; experiencing and expressing gratitude. Marveling is a third type and this means losing ourselves in the wonder of the experience. Lastly, we can also engage our senses fully by Luxuriating (my personal favorite). Listen to the show this week as we dive more fully into these approaches to savoring and let us know your favorite way to savor in the comments too.