Savoring a sunset

This poem is born from a prompt about savoring.

Do you remember the last time you were walking through an awe-inspiring natural landscape and stopped to take it in, to attentively soak up every last drop of its magnificence? You felt blessed in your ability to walk, see, and be present as unpaying guest to the mind-blowing spectacle of nature’s creation. In that instance, you were practicing savoring, the act of increasing the intensity and duration of positive experiences and emotions by stepping outside of them to review and appreciate them.

Simply put, savoring is the process of realizing you are having an enjoyable experience while it is taking place. It is becoming mindful of the joy that a certain event or emotion provides as it is occurring. Like that time you were eating a delicious healthy meal and took a moment or two to express how good it tasted, how nicely presented the food was, and how pampered the cozy atmosphere of the restaurant made you feel.

Savoring counteracts mind biases by forcing our mind away from wandering towards future worries or past regrets and into the present moment. By shifting our attention into an appreciative gear and creating a focus on the positive aspects of a situation, we can begin to thwart hedonic adaptation.