16 Jul Savour Life: Savour it or Lose it

Savour Life

If you’ve ever watched wine connoisseurs try wine, they don’t just swallow.

They let the wine swoosh around in their mouth (I do not think this is a technical term) they take in a bit of air to sense if that changes things as well. They might even pair it with dark chocolate, something salty or cheese and see how that changes things up. They’re savouring their wine to get the whole experience of it.

We need the same expertise to savour life experiences.

Last week my book, Finding Your Joy Spot, came out, and I thought I would be overjoyed. A book, the immense joy spot. Right?! Not really. I was happy-ish, but truthfully, I was more worried that someone would think I was a poor writer, maybe a loser, or worse, find a spelling error in the first few pages (It was read a half a million times by many before publication, but I still lost sleep over that).

I spent time thinking about my next book and some courses I plan to launch in the fall about finding joy and creating that and very little time enjoying the book.

Like many other things in life, complete the task and then Check! Done! Move on.

How often do we do that? Accomplish something and then carry on. Next. Next. Next.

If we want to experience more positive emotions, we need to savour life –  the positive experience. Not run a marathon, finish, and start moving.

Our joy is increased when we learn the art of savouring. How do we savour the good?

Well, conveniently, there has been some excellent research done on just this phenomenon.

And because frameworks are my jam, I will lay it out.

Watch here if you’d rather listen to Love at Lunch this week:

1. 1. 1. 1. Share your good feelings-turns out. Joy shared is joy squared-people who share their positive emotions are happier than those that don’t-even thinking about it or writing it down has the same impact
         2. Take a mental photograph-take in what you want to remember later
         3. Congratulate yourself-celebrate yourself. Go out to dinner, throw a party, do something to acknowledge what you have done.
         4. Sharpen your sensory perceptions-really pay attention to the senses as you savour the moment-like smelling a baby’s head that’s good stuff and gets all the senses involved
         5. Shout it from the roof tops-people who outwardly express their joy feel better and are happier for longer-dance, shout and sing, jump up and down.
         6. Get grateful-list all the things you’re thankful about this event or situation
         7. Avoid being your own joy killer-don’t minimize your own joy!   (Bryant, Savoring, A New Model of Positive Experience)

What is something that you would like to savour? Hit reply and share your joy with me. We will savour it together! And take a couple of ingredients of the savouring recipe and start relishing in the goodness of this experience!

Savour life today, and all that is here for you. Start there. Look at you. You’re a joy connoisseur! Relish, savour, enjoy the delicious flavours of your life!

Lots of love and joy to you all,

Leona xoxo

P.S. If you haven’t got your copy of my book, Finding Your Joy Spot: helping you discover joy in unexpected places, then grab your kindle or softcover copy here. https://amzn.to/3vVYSjL

I am donating a pair of Joy Socks with every purchase of a softcover book to the adolescent mental health unit in a local hospital www.joysocks.ca

P.P.S. Would you please leave a review on Amazon? Please consider leaving a sentence or two about the book: Finding Your Joy Spot: Helping You Discover Joy in Unexpected Places. Your review helps all things Amazon not to bury the book and keeps it front and centre. You will see a button on the left side, under the Customer reviews and ratings of the book so far, that says, review this product.

Consider your review as your way of spreading some joy and send love to the Amazon algorithm.