Miriam Akhtar is a Positive Psychologist and an expert in the science of happiness. She is the author of Positive Psychology for Overcoming Depression and What is Post-Traumatic Growth and is 1 of 100 global experts invited to contribute to the World Book of Happiness (www.positivepsychologytraining.co.uk).
MIriam Akhtar
Positive Psychology focuses on the science of what keeps us mentally healthy and happy and its techniques are cropping up more and more across healthcare, education, the workplace, therapy and sports.
You’ve probably heard the expression, ‘whatever you focus on grows’ and it’s never been truer than in the case of savouring, one of the major practices used in Positive Psychology. Savouring is about training the mind to focus in and get the full flavour from a positive experience so that you deepen the enjoyment and maximise the positive emotions.
You can savour almost anything from a delicious meal or a good film to a nice warm bath. The act of savouring strengthens your awareness of the positive in order to overcome the fact that our brains are wired so that we often notice what’s wrong more readily than what’s right (known as the negativity bias in psychology). Savouring acts as a natural defence from negative emotions and can help you bounce back from low moods.
Depression acts almost as a reverse form of savouring, where your focus goes to the negative, bleakness and greyness of life. So once you get the hang of the art of savouring, it can be an invaluable tool to open up chinks of light in the darkness of depression; it is one of the major techniques I teach in workshops after using it in my own gradual process of recovery from depression.
How to savour
Savouring is something that you do, a process rather than an end goal. It’s the journey rather than the destination. Savouring requires your full attention, although the more you practise it, the more it is likely to happen automatically. Below are four steps involved in the process.
- Slow down and stretch out the experience
- Engage your full attention
- Use all five of your senses
- Reflect on the source of the enjoyment
The first point is important. You need to take your time when you want to maximise the enjoyment of a positive experience. You can practise this at home. For example, when I run workshops, I often bring along a bowl of berries for all the participants to savour. Eating a strawberry at half the speed and with twice the attention makes for an infinitely more pleasurable experience. You squeeze more juice out of it.
Give your full attention to the strawberry. Use all your senses to notice its colours, its light fragrance, the texture as you hold it and then bite into it, the sound it makes as you sink your teeth in, and its sweet taste. You can savour absolutely anything. For example, slow sex where you slow down to intensify the pleasure of physical intimacy or slow travel where instead of ticking off sights you totally absorb yourself in the local culture.
Savouring is primarily an experience of the body but you can use your mind to deepen the pleasure by reflecting on the source of enjoyment. To aid reflection you could ask, ‘What’s good about this?’ Some people are more visual so will get a lot from feasting their eyes on something beautiful whereas others like touch and will relish the feeling of something, or physical contact such as a hug or a massage.
Try to fit a daily savouring practice into your life – once a day take the time to slow down and enjoy something you normally hurry through, whether it’s taking a shower, eating something or walking to the shops.
People often think that savouring is the same as mindfulness. They do share a lot in common but whereas mindfulness is about deliberate attention and awareness of what is happening in the present, the intention with savouring is to cultivate positive emotions.
You can savour the past – positive reminiscence or relish the anticipation of something exciting coming up. The more you are able to make the time to savour, the more you will nurture positive emotions and increase your capacity to notice and really appreciate the good as it happens in your everyday life.
