Savoring our Lives

/ June 4, 2015

Are you savoring life?

There are a thousand ways to kneel and kiss the earth. ~ Rumi

savoring life, happiness

My niece Bella savoring life!

Savoring our lives is a great way to build our sense of happiness and well-being. Both brain scientists and spiritual teachers talk about the need to anchor our positive states. Savoring life enriches our feeling of well-being, bringing us back to our senses and the present moment. Savoring is also deeply connected to gratitude. I’ve written many times about the power of gratitude.

Rick Hanson’s book Hardwiring Happiness gives both the science of happiness and practical tips for anchoring positive states. HEAL is his method to use positive emotions to create structure and help rewire our brains for happiness. Essentially, the process is to have a positive experience, then enjoy and savor the experience and feeling.

Modern life often leads to chronic stress, excess stimulation, multi-tasking, busyness and social isolation. We need to retrain ourselves to slow down and savor the good to lock in the good feelings and retrain our brains. By doing so, we are actually rewiring our neural pathways to flow with good feelings. Pretty cool stuff!

Rikka Zimmerman offers another way to feel good. She suggests we practice returning to love, which is our core natural state of being. The more often we rest in the warmth of our inner being, the more we lock in feelings of love, peace and joy.

I like to sit and appreciate my garden or the beauty in wilderness areas. Soaking up the beauty of nature usually returns me to a state of peace and joy.

What practices do you have to savor life and return to love? I’d love to hear what works for you. 

May your hearts be full, savoring the many gifts of life.

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28 thoughts on “Savoring our Lives”

  2. Brad, your little niece looks to be savouring every moment.. So cute is she.. 🙂 And yes I am savouring Life at the moment Brad.. 🙂 Big Time.. 🙂 I will call back later this evening to click the links.. I am going to have to savour making some dinner right now.. 🙂 Great post and will be back very soon.. 🙂
    Sue

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  4. Beautiful, Brad…and so needed. I think we could learn to make happiness a habit 😉

    On a sad note, I just heard that Rikka was diagnosed with a form of metastatic melanoma. There is a prayer vigil…every day. It was for 21 days…but that was a few days ago I heard about it. I believe in the power of prayer!! ♡♡

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  6. Love this post Brad! Lot of information – good information, that you are sharing with us. Gratitude is a big practice for me…I am grateful for many things. Grateful for the basics – breathing, having a bed to sleep in, a car to drive, beauty, love. Thank you Brad! 🙂

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  8. You make it sound so simple, Brad 🙂 And to be honest, it really is when you strip away all the extraneous distractions and interference that is interjected by the world around us. Sometimes, we need to lose ourselves in whatever that “thing” is which makes us overflow with positive emotion.

    For me, I think there are three things that continually create that positive emotion – music, writing, and the ocean 😉 Thanks for sharing Brad, and best wishes for an inspired (and savory) day 🙂

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    • Simple but not easy? I know it’s easy to give advice, which is why I mostly don’t. I’m needing to live these great ideas. I’m with you on music and the ocean. Interestingly, writing is often more effort for me. Photography was an easy passion that created flow.

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  9. It’s food for me because of what I went through when I was ill. In the moment every tasty bite is such a miracle to savour and makes me grateful that I’m a alive and well again. Blessings, Lisa

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  12. Glad I didnt miss many as I catch up with this post again.. You can say YES I have been savouring my Life ALL this week Brad.. 🙂 and thoroughly enjoying every moment as is your lovely niece as I revisit this post

    I hope you are too xxx

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