Gratitude: The Art of Savoring.

I was stressed this past past few weeks I finally figured in a sports injury which was supposed to be a way to de-stress my body. The many roles I acquired during the pandemic finally took its toll after almost all required physical presence and face to face activities.

Face to face tasks demand full attention and physical presence. You cannot attend two conferences at the same time anymore or listen to two lectures on two different gadgets. It seems that, the technology enabled “always present, always available” does not hold true anymore post pandemic. It came to a frustrating point that I decided to give up one of the “roles” I took on during the pandemic. The reason? I couldn’t handle that many roles anymore, not in this post pandemic, physical presence demanding work environment. I just want to go back see and treat patients, nothing else.

One mentor I consulted said “instead of lingering on the many difficulties this pandemic brought us, try savoring on the ones you survived- the small wins. You may have downplayed many of these wins because of the negative experience we had in this pandemic!” “You journal right? I’m sure there is a lot you can write on the gratitude corner”. He was absolutely right!

Gratitude! I can certainly count many but why is it easier to linger on a negative experience? Medical professionals are often taught to spot uncomfortable experiences like pain, decrease range of motion or difficulty breathing. When was the last time you asked a patient “Did you have a good night sleep?” Somehow we relegated that gratitude to that small corner of our planner. We lost that art of savoring the small wins.

“Savoring” said Daniela Ramirez Duran, is “intentionally placing our attention on positive events and prolonging the positive feelings that arise”. Duran further enumerated the many benefits of increasing savoring ability. I first encountered the word “savoring” in Christopher Peterson’s Pursuing the Good Life: 100 Reflections on Positive Psychology. Savoring: A New Model of Positive Experience by Fred B. Bryant and Joseph Veroff dug deeper into this “art” and gave practical tips applying it on our daily life. Dr. Hayley Lewis enumerated some of these tips in a sketch note below.

I’m asking my fellow healthcare providers about the art of savoring in their daily life and how they practice gratitude in spite of the challenging grinds of the medical life. This will be the topic of our #HealthXPh chat this Saturday July 1, 2023 9PM Manila time. Here are the guide questions:

See you all this Saturday 9PM for the #HealthXPh Tweetchat!

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