As I write this experiment, I’m on a train returning from Washington, DC to New York City.  It’s a sunny late afternoon, and the rhythm of the train creates a soothing, gentle reentry into my everyday life.  I’ve spent the last four days teaching a training with a group of some 35 people, in total.  As I wend my way home, I’m most aware of how filled up I am after spending four days in a community context.

What strikes me is how delicious it is simply to savor the feeling of having shared so many hours and experiences with other people – and how I want to give myself the gift of allowing the lingering pleasure of this time spent to move through me slowly.  Rather than going on to other things and switching gears quickly, I find myself wanting to just be with my experience.  Even writing about it for this experiment allows me to continue to feel its presence in me.

This gets me to thinking about the value of savoring experience of whatever kind:  savoring a beautifully prepared meal, savoring an embrace, savoring a moment of “aha!” – savoring whatever moments find us and fill us up.  We can’t hold onto delicious moments – they move through us in the same way everything else does.  What we can do is pay attention to the afterglow while it lasts, inviting ourselves to sense the experience in our body as well as our psychological being.  Instead of jumping into the next moment or activity, we can slow everything down and notice transitions from one experience to another rather than racing through what life brings our way.

For this week’s experiment, I invite you to explore your relationship with savoring your experience.  Take some time to notice how you move through what comes your way, or those moments in which you choose to immerse yourself, and then how you transition from one experience to another.  Does your lifestyle offer you an opportunity to really soak in delicious moments and spend some time with them the way you would listen to the lingering tone of a bell just rung?

There’s really nothing that you have to do in order to play with this experiment.  Rather, there’s an opportunity simply to notice – to take the time to notice – how you feel after you’ve have an experience that was positive for you in some way.  Remember that this isn’t an invitation to try to hand onto an experience you liked a lot.  What’s positive and good keeps movingthrough as surely as what’s awful.  The invitation here is to allow yourself to enjoy what’s moving through as it goes on its way.

If you find that you are uncomfortable sitting with your experience, and that you have a tendency to jump from one thing to another, allow yourself to experiment with staying with what fills you up for just a few seconds longer than you would normally.  Also, as you savor what feels good to you, be sure to include an awareness of your physical sensations.