How to Remember to Savor the Moment

If there's no moment like the present, why do we spend so much time rehashing the past and speculating about the future? Savoring the moment is easy. The difficult part is remembering to actually do it. Follow these tips so that the next time an amazing moment pervades your life, you won’t forget to savor every instant.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

1. Start now. If you wait for a great moment to arrive before you begin enjoying, you’ve waited too long. In order to be able to fully savor the spectacular events of life, you must enjoy the ordinary events first. This present moment is where your training in savoring begins.
2. Accept that this is it. Your life is not a goal you accomplish or a place you arrive. Life does not happen in the future, it is happening now. Don’t miss it by making plans or wishing for things to be different.
3. Savor small. What are the smallest things you can appreciate in this moment? At this moment I am savoring the warm summer air against my skin and the spirited bounce in my fingers as they tap across my keyboard.
4. Delight daily. Like learning to play the piano or perfecting your golf swing, savoring the moment is a skill that requires cultivating. Make it your most resolute habit.
5. Repeat a mantra. When you find your mind running ahead to the future or back into the past, draw it back to this moment by repeating, “I am enjoying this moment. I am paying attention. I am enjoying this moment. I am paying attention.” Then let go of those words and sink into the moment.
6. Be open to surprise. Big, expected moments such as first dates, the birth of a baby, long vacations and job promotions are not the only moments worth savoring. Sometimes the best moments of our lives are the ones that catch us off guard. Be prepared to be surprised and be ready to savor any grand moment that unexpectedly comes your way.
7. Take an extra breath. When a truly exciting moment arises from the blue, take a conscious grounding breath to prepare yourself for maximum savoring awareness.
8. Leave labels, cancel categorization, ditch decisions. Savoring the moment is about enjoyment only, so stop the analysis.
9. Let go of the wheel. If you are trying to steer a moment in a particular direction, you are not enjoying; you are controlling.
10. Be brave. One day I smiled at a handsome man sitting in the window of a restaurant as I walked down the street. He got up from his chair, chased me down the street, and to make a long story short, he and I ended up sharing a cocktail together later that night. I was smitten and totally enamored by him. But I was also scared and more nervous than I’d been about anything in a very long time. I spent our entire evening together feeling insecure and worried. As we said goodbye (he was flying out the next morning to return to his home in Canada), I realized that I had blown it. I hadn’t enjoyed the amazing rare moment, and then spent the following week on the edge of tears, pining and wishing I had relished his company thoroughly. Please, ladies and gents, be brave, be calm, be centered, enjoy and don’t let my terrible fate beget you.