I came across this word to day as I was reading an article illuminating ways of ensuring that we flourish as lock down lifts.
Savouring is a wonderful word for mindfulness. Savouring sounds satisfying and delightful … and ensures that there is a moment of pause …
Given the work that I do, meeting with young people who are feeling so anxious about life beyond university is a part of the course. What I notice is just how many of my clients wake up feeling anxious and then their day starts spiralling out of control. This too becomes habitual.
Savouring the moment opens your heart to seeing all that is good around you. Savouring is about relishing, NOTICING, PAUSING and APPRECIATING.
So, this morning this student woke up panicked. The ‘I am not good enough’ tape became so amplified that he just became heavy and burdened before his day really got going. He was so focused on the notion that he had not learnt enough for his exams, that he was incapable of recalling the work that he needed to, that he was in chaos … that his ‘able to make a plan to move forward’ part of his mind just clamped down.
So, my advice was to plan for the NEXT TIME this happens:
- Trust yourself to notice the chaotic spiral and chat to yourself with gentle and encouraging chit chat.
- Breath down into your lungs, filling them with fresh air. This air is circulating around your body providing strength and peace. Feel that breath moving out through your nose. Keep going …
- You are so well able to manage the next step … you a really are!
- SAVOUR 3 things that delight you. It might be a view from the window, it might be the smell of coffee that is brewing, it might be remembering a fun conversation that you had the day before, it might be recalling a lovely walk that you recently had.
- SHAKE your body to release the tension. Make this a fun thing to do!
- Visualise yourself RESETTING … and TAKE CHARGE of what you are thinking.
- And take one tiny action, then another and then another …
You’ve got this! Your really have.