Savouring Activities
Savour Scavenger Hunt
Activity: Go for a savour walk around your favourite neighbourhood or town/city. This might be your own neighbourhood or somewhere you enjoy spending time.
Goal: To find things that entice your sense and then spend time savouring the sound, sight, smell, taste and feel. The goal is to be looking for what is right and beautiful in your world. Enjoy and savour every beautiful moment.
Procedure:
Feast for your eyes. Find something beautiful that maybe you have never noticed before.
Find an amazing smell, spend some time savouring and letting the scent soak all the way into your being.
Find a sound that you find exquisite. Listen fully and let that sound move you.
Treat yourself to something amazing to eat. Take your time to enjoy it and be mindful of all the flavours.
Explore interesting/different textures and find your favourite.
Complete one act of kindness for someone or something. Notice how it makes you feel afterwards.
Find a retreat place where you can spend 5 minutes practicing mindful counting. You can be seated or do some mindful walking as you count.
As you end this exercise, notice how you feel, check in with yourself. Did you have any insights or discoveries about yourself or your neighbourhood?
Extra Challenges:
1) Find a historical fact about the neighbourhood that you didn’t know before.
2) Try to meet someone new in the neighbourhood. Some examples could include people working in retail stores, restaurants, or even people that are out and about walking as you are.
3) Try to discover a new place in the neighbourhood. This could range from trying a new store or cafe, to finding little pathways or parks you haven’t explored before.
savour board
As you go for your savour walk, take photos of all the items that you find or accomplish from your list.
Compile all your pictures to make an interesting (digital) display and reminder of your savouring experience.
Pictures can be printed and then used in a cut/paste collage style or a digital board could be created by pasting your pictures into a collage app/website of your choice. Microsoft Word or Google Docs will also allow you to paste pictures onto a page.
Post your finished savour board on social media using #looncallretreat #savourboard and email it us to post to our website to share your experience!
savour board exemplar
Here’s an example of a finished savour board. This one was created using PicCollage.
You could also use:
Instagram Layout, Pic Jointer, PicStitch, PhotoGrid, befunky or any of the other many apps available to download to your smart device.
Four Pathways to Savour
There are 4 pathways to savour, Try one or more of these savouring pathways. in this activity see if you can tap into each one of these separate savouring pathways. After completing this savoring activity see if you can tap into each of these different pathways throughout the retreat and beyond.
The first pathway is marveling which summons the feeling of awe. An example is marveling at a beautiful Sunset. Take a look around you right now- what is something that you can focus your attention on right now the sun, the sky, a painting focus until you evoke the feeling of awe. After completing this activity you may write a reflection in your journal.
The second pathway is Thanksgiving which builds and develops our gratitude skills. An example is being thankful for the Sun and it’s life sustaining qualities. Choose an object or a person. Think of all the reasons why you are thankful for this object or person continue until you are brimming with gratitude. Again you can make jot notes in your journal.
The third pathway is basking which generates pride, an example is climbing to the top of the mountain and basking in the sunshine and your accomplishment. There are many different activities during this retreat in which you can bask in your accomplishment and feel the sense of pride for committing to self-care. Choose one activity and really focus on basking in your accomplishment until you can feel pride bubbling up.
The fourth pathway is Luxuriating, to luxuriate is to treat and indulge yourself. An example is spending time on a beach soaking up the sun’s rays and feeling it’s warmth and rejuvenating properties throughout your whole body. Take time throughout the retreat luxuriating while sipping on the tea or drinking the coffee.
Extra Challenge:
1) Pick up or focus on a random object
2) See if you can use one of the pathways (or all 4!) to savour this object (marvel, thanksgiving, bask and luxuriate).
