ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on savouring sensory pleasures and experiencing flow in skilled activities to enhance well-being. Savouring involves deliberately paying attention to, appreciating, enhancing and prolonging positive experiences and the positive emotions that accompany them. Savouring exercises are described including taking a daily vacation, relishing ordinary activities, reminiscence, making a savouring reminiscence album and optimistically anticipating future positive events. Flow is total experiential absorption in an activity requiring a high level of control and concentration, and temporary loss of awareness of other aspects of the self and one’s life situation. In tasks which lead to flow experiences, skills are used almost to their limits to achieve clearly defined goals for which there is immediate feedback. The frequency and intensity of flow experiences may be increased by doing activities in which we experience flow more frequently, and finding ways to experience flow in tedious or overwhelming activities that do not normally lead to flow experiences.
