We’ve all savored a meal. You can picture in your mind. Anticipating that good bite, getting the dopamine hit when it hits your stomach. But savoring life can be just as delicious.

But what is savoring exactly? To put it simply, it’s the practice of fully feeling, enjoying and extending the positive moments and memories in our lives.

You can savor the past (reminiscing), the future (anticipating) or the present (absorbing a good moment). Savoring is a cousin to its very (understandably) hyped cousin gratitude, which asks you to add the feeling of thankfulness to the experience.

The skill of savoring means you need to practice it before you’re a natural at it. But the good news? It’s short and simple. And yet, this little-skill-that-could:
*increases creativity,
*boosts happiness,
*fends off stress,
*and increases connection in relationships.

With that list, why wouldn’t you practice it?

Bonus! For those of us who’ve been told “you worry too much” (Sarah raises hand), savoring might be especially helpful. People prone to anxiety often feel anxious even when they feel good. In session we might hear this as, “Things are going too well. I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop.”

We talk to a recent college graduate Felicia Rosen who studied savoring for her senior thesis. She’s a big time research assistant at the Child Mind Institute in Manhattan now, but Skidmore College is where her love of psychology research began. Felicia shares what they found when they asked students with clinical levels of anxiety to build a savoring practice. (Spoiler, it helps.) She’ll also chat about how she used savoring to help create more balance and joy in her own college experience.

Stay tuned until the end and you’ll hear Sarah and Liz share practical ways to begin savoring the past, the present and the future. We’ll also create some savoring tools on social media so make sure to follow @collegeisfinepodcast on TikTok and Instagram if you’d like some help strengthening your savoring skills!

Resources:
https://positivepsychology.com/savoring/

For more about Felicia Rosen and Skidmore’s psychology research:
https://childmind.org/bio/felicia-rosen/
https://www.skidmore.edu/psychology/resources/index.php

Want to share your story, give us feedback or offer up an episode idea? Reach out! We'd love to hear from you.

Insta: @collegeisfinepodcast
Tik Tok: @collegeisfinepodcast
Email: collegeisfinepodcast@gmail.com

Music is Deadbeats by Rex Banner

A recent study showed that over 70% of college students are getting consistently less than 7 hours of sleep a night. That’s not a great number, especially when you consider that healthy sleep habits are linked to higher college GPAs. So if sleep is so important to doing well in college, why is it often at the bottom of the priority list?

Sleeping is underrated in college and is usually saved for the weekends after a long week of studying and a weekend of celebrating your academic efforts. To make matters worse, college students are often managing a lot of responsibilities, between school, friends, family, work, and sleep seems like the only thing they can sacrifice to get it all done. In this two part series, we talk to a college student who realized the consequences of poor sleep and got things back on track, and we talk to two sleep experts who provide all the sleep facts and tips to help make your sleep better.

In this week’s episode we sit down with Dr. Shelby Harris, a nationally renowned sleep expert who sets us straight on why we shouldn’t skimp on sleep. Make sure to follow her @sleepdocshelby for easy tips and helpful reminders.

Books:

https://www.amazon.com/Quiet-Your-Mind-Get-Sleep/dp/1572246278/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3T3M9YBJUEMWC&keywords=colleen+carney&qid=1675820535&s=books&sprefix=colleen+carney%2Cstripbooks%2C94&sr=1-1

Good Night Mind for Teens

https://www.amazon.com/Goodnight-Mind-Teens-Thoughts-Solutions/dp/1684034388/ref=sr_1_4?crid=35MC7ZNEHVK6Q&keywords=teens+sleep+book&qid=1675820648&s=books&sprefix=teens+sleep+book%2Cstripbooks%2C94&sr=1-4

Podcasts:

Sleep Unplugged with Dr. Chris Winter

https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1631914841

Articles:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/melodywilding/2023/01/31/how-to-turn-your-brain-off-at-night-according-to-a-sleep-psychologist/?sh=52ee1aff3077

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/13/well/an-underappreciated-key-to-college-success-sleep.html

American Academy of Sleep Medicine:

https://aasm.org/college-students-getting-enough-sleep-is-vital-to-academic-success/

Want to share your story, give us feedback or offer up an episode idea? Reach out! We'd love to hear from you.

Insta: @collegeisfinepodcast
Tik Tok: @collegeisfinepodcast
Email: collegeisfinepodcast@gmail.com

Music is Deadbeats by Rex Banner

Now that you know the worry myths to look out for, the next step is to figure out whether your worry is actual or hypothetical. This is easier said than done. But knowing the difference is key. Why? Because knowing the difference leads you to the most effective way to manage it. We promise this will make sense once you listen. You will leave this episode with a worry decision tree to help you categorize what type of worry you are struggling with and then what action steps are most beneficial.

Resources:
Worry Fact Sheet
https://www.abct.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Worry.pdf

Self-help/CBT Treatment Books on Worry:
https://www.amazon.com/Treating-Generalized-Anxiety-Disorder-Evidence-Based/dp/1593850395

https://www.amazon.com/Worry-Cure-Seven-Steps-Stopping/dp/1400097665/ref=asc_df_1400097665/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312031138203&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=3074624005797408493&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9003430&hvtargid=pla-433828146928&psc=1

Want to share your story, give us feedback or offer up an episode idea? Reach out! We'd love to hear from you.

Insta: @collegeisfinepodcast
Tik Tok: @collegeisfinepodcast
Email: collegeisfinepodcast@gmail.com

Music is Deadbeats by Rex Banner