Savoring A Happy Memory

This practice is based on the concepts of joy and savoring as described by psychologist Kristin Neff, Ph.D. In this meditation, we bring to mind a happy memory and take a moment to savor it as Dr. Neff describes - with "conscious enjoyment of that which gives us pleasure; that is, lingering over delightful experiences."

Transcript

Hi there, Let's go ahead and get started. We're going to do a slight variation on Dr. Kristin Neff's practice of savoring and She normally does this with Current experience such as eating, But we're going to do this with a memory So go ahead and sit back and give yourself permission to settle into your space Relax your face Your jaw Your shoulders and allow the eyes to close Now Bring to mind a memory that you find particularly happy It can be something recent something that took place a long time ago Really whatever memory? Reliably brings you joy Now try to visualize every detail of this memory Everything that occurred And try to savor it as much as possible Noticing all your senses just holding it in a mindful awareness Try to notice what does it look like? What colors do you see? Maybe it catches the light in a certain way Now how does it sound? What kinds of things can you hear? Now try this see what comes up for you, How what smells are there? What kind of aromas can you detect these can be pleasant maybe a little less pleasant? Depending on the memory it's okay. Whatever is there just notice what it is And now give this one a try to what does it feel like to be there? To be there Just take a moment to slow down with this memory And fully dive into every pleasurable sensation that you can detect savoring it just holding on to it And now bring all of this together and notice what it feels like to experience joy itself Do you feel it in your chest? A warm feeling? A tingling from head to toe? An excitement and energy? Just allow this to be there for a moment enjoying the sensation of joy for as long as you can And when it fades as it normally does it's okay let it go Sometimes we want these pleasurable experiences to just stick around as long as they can but that's not always what happens And there's nothing wrong with this rather than being distraught that it's gone Instead we can take a moment to give thanks and appreciation to one of these great gifts of life Being able to experience happiness and good times And even though this is just a memory that's okay this allows us to relive a joyous experience and appreciate it all over again That's what's wonderful about memories looking over photos again Giving thanks for those moments and for the ones to come because they will come So will the bad and the things that are less pleasant but that's okay That's what enriches life makes it fun and interesting So go ahead and give yourself some thanks for allowing yourself this fun moment to relive a past experience And begin to come back to your space the environment around you And open your eyes and this is a practice you can apply whenever you'd like You can even apply it to a present experience something that's going on right now Whenever you'd like to this is an interesting practice because just allows you to be with something that's going on So welcome back thank you for joining me today Enjoy the rest of your day