Enjoyment is a trainable skill - and it only takes two minutes

The practice of savoring awakes us to the dawns of our days. Over time, it reshapes our mind and body to experience life more richly and deeply. And it only takes a two minutes at a time.

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At Walden pond Thoreau penned “Only that day dawns to which we are awake.” The practice of savoring awakes us to the dawns of our days. Over time, it reshapes our mind and body to experience life more richly and deeply. And it only takes a two minutes at a time.

If Thoreau’s passage sounds like a truism, then I understand. It’s so simple, so accessible, and so obvious that it is easy to brush it off altogether. Did we really need a whole arena of positive psychological research to tell us that enjoying the good things makes us happy?

As it turns out, yes we did. Because contrary to what is often assumed, enjoying the good things is a distinct skill. A skill that many of us are surprisingly bad at.

As Thoreau suggests, we miss the good in our lives when we fail to notice it. In a developed world rife with anxiety, depression, and loneliness, that’s nothing sort of tragic. So if we truly want to be happy, doesn’t it make sense to invest ourselves in the skill of enjoyment?

Fortunately, enjoyment is a trainable skill. By the end of this article you’ll understand how savoring works, how to do it, and I hope be inspired to sincerely adopt this practice for yourself.

Savoring reshapes your mind and body for enjoyment

Savoring is the practice of attending to, acknowledging, and purposefully amplifying the positive experiences in one’s life. Think of it as training your enjoyment muscle.

Training isn’t to imply exertion, but rather deliberate, focused attention and repetition. It’s the effort that it takes to get on the mat and practice. And just like our yoga practice, not only do we reap benefits in the moment, but over time it reshapes our whole mind and body. Savoring, like yoga, can evolve from something we do to who we are.

Every single time you savor, it is a state that lasts seconds to minutes. Through neuroplasticity this strengthens the circuits for enjoyment and gratitude in the brain, priming you to experience more of that in the future.

Further, every time you experience gratitude and enjoyment, they are physiologically represented in your body as emotions. An emotion is a cascade of hormones and neurotransmitters that circulate throughout your body and affect every single cell down to the genetic level. Altered DNA expression will code for different proteins to be manufactured. Proteins are the construction material for your body. Now, instead of building a body based on stress (which most of us live in most of the time) you are literally rebuilding yourself from gratitude.

This is how enjoyment is a trainable skill that becomes a stable trait. Every time that you savor something good you reshape your mind and body to prime yourself to enjoy more frequently and more deeply in the future.

How to savor: it’s as simple as AAA

We savor when we become aware, acknowledge and amplify positive emotions as they naturally arise during the day.

Aware - be curious about the flow of emotion during your day. Glimmers of enjoyment don’t follow rules or expectations; they can occur anywhere, anytime, and during any activity, no matter how mundane.

Acknowledge - when you become aware of a positive emotion, acknowledge it and begin to feel it. Where do you feel it in your body? It may be helpful to name it, or place a hand on that area.

Amplify - enjoy yourself! Wow, gratitude! Wow, inspiration! Wow, love! Whatever we put our attention on grows, so as you attend to this positive emotion notice how it grows, spreads, and then eventually fades.

It literally only asks two minutes of your conscious awareness at a time. Experientially, it will feel much longer. Don’t feel frustrated if at first it feels awkward or if you get distracted. All new skills are awkward at first. With practice, it will happen more easily, deeply, and automatically.

A personal challenge

I’m writing this article encouraging you to really take this on because it works. You can really reshape your mind and body through savoring. You can start today without changing anything else in your life. One experience at a time. One moment at a time. It only takes two minutes at a time. It’s your life, it’s up to you to enjoy it.

I agree with Thoreau when he writes, “I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor”. My clinical and personal experience confirm the research that savoring is such an endeavor; an accessible way to cultivate greater levels of enjoyment in life. That’s what I want for myself, for you, and for the whole world.

Happiness is already here. We just need to savor it.