Savoring as a Resilience Practice
On Saturday mornings, I meet my friends Jess and Sandra for our weekly run along the banks of the Mississippi River. This is a weekly ritual that we are lucky enough to enjoy when we are all in town and when family and kids’ schedules align. We meet here in the warm summer days and throughout the cold of our Minnesota winters.
On this particular Saturday in the spring, the three of us are gathered by a scenic overlook on the banks of the river, readying our bodies to run the five miles we have planned for the day. As we synchronize our watches, we agree to include a stop at Minnehaha Falls—a beautiful waterfall in a Minneapolis park—as a part of our run. Heading off for our run, we begin to share the highs and lows of our weeks and update each other on the happenings in our lives.
Not long into our run, Jess looks at the trees above us and shares “Look at the beauty of the light shining through the trees.” We all stop and look up, and I see the way the light almost sparkles and shimmers through the still-thin leaf covering at the top of the trees. I am struck by the realization that I have run this route hundreds of times and never paused to appreciate the beauty of the leaves in the sunshine. It takes me back to my childhood when I would spend hours relaxing in the hammock at my grandparents’ house, beneath the shimmering, glossy leaves of the years-old cottonwood trees to which the hammock was tethered.
This is savoring—the act of enjoying and reveling in what is already there—of highlighting the positive experiences and tuning into the sensory experience of it all. Often when we talk about individual resilience practices to stave off burnout, we focus on activities or practices that we might add to our days. In my life now, I can become so focused on my to-do list and the next thing that I have to do, that I often miss what is right there, ready to be savored and enjoyed. A recent study published in the journal Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being (Tao et al., 2024) found that savoring plays a role in enhancing overall psychological resilience. Savoring—tuning into what we enjoy in our lives—can help us to build our resilience over time.
When I was in Austria for a work trip, the head of the company for whom I was working, Franz, introduced me to “coffee culture” which immediately intrigued me. He shared that Austrians don’t grab a coffee to go like Americans often do; rather, they enjoy coffee while sitting down, chatting with those around them in cafes and with a side of water. Inspired by this practice, I’ve made savoring the simple pleasure of my morning coffee a part of my routine, trying not to rush off as I do so. I might not do it every day, but an invitation to stop and enjoy what is already there—already right in front of me—is available each time I make my coffee.
We don’t have to step outside our routines to experience the benefits of savoring. We are invited to build into our lives a practice of noticing what is in front of us—what we might savor. I invite you to reflect on these questions as you welcome in a practice of savoring into your life:
Think of a typical day in your life, can you make a list of the opportunities you have to savor?
What is something you often rush through and miss all or part of the experience that you might—even just once—stop to savor?
Lying in bed in the morning, can you think of one thing you are looking forward to and then when it comes, really tune into the experience with all your senses?
Perhaps there are opportunities for all of us to savor what is already there, already in front of us, instead of adding more to our to-do lists. By doing so, we strengthen our resilience. I’ll leave you with the words of my 9-year-old son’s friend, who often says about the food he is eating slowly—“I am savoring!” I hope you find even just one moment today to savor what is already there.
Reference:
Tao, T. J., Yung, Y. Y. Y., Lau, A. Y. T., Liu, H., Liang, L., Bryant, F. B., & Hou, W. K. (2024).
Savoring mediates the mental health benefits of positive coping processes: A prospective population-based analysis. Applied psychology. Health and well-being, 16(1), 158–178. https://doi.org/10.1111/aphw.12476
Michelle Trotter-Mathison is a member of the LeaderWise assessment team and
co-author of The Resilient Practitioner: Burnout and Compassion Fatigue Prevention and Self-Care Strategies for the Helping Professions.
