Savor the Moment

Finding fault is easy. It’s finding features that’s challenging. I will provide a pair of examples to illustrate my point of view, in addition to the alliterative, which is as easy as Penny’s pecan pie. 

Example One. In an op-ed from the outstanding work done at Outside magazine, the guest author asks us up-front if ‘Savoring’ is the new mindfulness. She goes on to make her case citing from sources ranging from her own experiences to that of a psychology professor from my hometown Jesuit college in Los Angeles. In reading the article I was snared into the trap of bringing my understanding, my bias and my personal experience to the public court of opinion. I carried in with me a back-pack of preconceptions and a cavalier attitude of arrogance. Savoring is the new mindfulness? Get outta town, 97.6% of the worlds population are still struggling with the practice of occupying the present moment and now you want them to appreciate it more? That is some super-duty dukkha. Well OK, but I think it a touch backwards. If you master the moment, are truly mindful and aware, woke as the modern vernacular puts it, appreciation, respect, joy, peace, gratitude and love are already included in the practice. If you want to savor that, be my guest, and I unabashedly recommend you do. BUT WITHOUT MINDFULNESS, SAVORING IS A CHEAP VERSION OF HEDONISTIC CONSUMERISM. As in - I think I will go out and savor a 0-60 in 3 seconds stomp in new Tesla pickup. I am not saying to go stoic and join a monastery, please enjoy the truth and beauty that surrounds us, but I think to be mindful and aware provides the foundation necessary for the judgmental critique of rating an object by savoring it. The take being, finding the feature, that for some, this question might make the decision to embark on the path of mindfulness easier. How can something be new if we haven't fully mastered the old? I have no issues whatsoever with savoring. Maybe I just dislike the click-bait header. 

Example Two: In the locker room after our rocking spin class this morning, I polled one of the members on the theme of the ride. It was centered around the premise of training intensity distribution, TID, that I read  about yesterday. Naturally we proceeded to turbo-charge a high-intensity set of intervals to demonstrate first-hand the value and benefit of this demanding protocol. The polling segued to an interesting book he just finished on Kindle called Atomic Habits by James Clear. It is the story of an injured athlete who as part of his recovery and convalescence develops a system for dramatic improvement, at the rate of one percent per day. He is now on the circuit telling of his experience, results and the program. Here are his four main points that govern the exercise one must understand and commit to:

One must: 

1) Notice

2) Want

3) Do

4) Like

All good, to initiate change in any endeavor one must first isolate the specific area of intended change. One must desire improvement to bring motivation into play. One obviously must do the thing necessary to bring about the change and lastly one must somewhere along that path of adaptation and improvement, learn to enjoy the ride. All good. Except I have a problem. I can say this without even reading the book, just by watching the intro YouTube video? I can. What happens when we really desire something and don’t get it? Take a closer look at the second criteria on the list. Want is desire. And should we fail, become distracted or quit for whatever reason, our delicate egos take a tremendous fall. Yes, want it, want it bad, but make sure that your awareness and mindfulness will overrule any false ego narrative about your worthiness, talent, beauty, skill, wisdom, kindness, compassion and the very truth of your place in the universe of the eternal now. 

And be sure to savor that moment.