Take a moment for anticipation
Pushing pleasure forward makes it last longer
Sometimes, on a winter afternoon, I like to make myself a cup of tea. I’ve been trying different brands, and I recently bought one that came with more elaborate instructions than the usual heating and steeping routine. This one noted that while the water was heating I should “take a moment for anticipation” — I guess of the great tea experience that was about to come!
It’s a little silly, but on the other hand, not a bad idea. These days you can get a lot of what you want really quickly. I’m old enough to remember having to wait for special movies like The Wizard of Oz to be played on TV, or driving around hoping to hear a new song on the radio (see: Alanis Morissette, summer of 1996). These days you just download or stream whatever you want.
A special kind of waiting
No one particularly likes waiting, but anticipation is a special kind of waiting. The connotation is much more positive than standing in line at the DMV. Anticipation is waiting eagerly for something good you know is coming. This is the sensation a lot of kids are experiencing now, waiting for Christmas morning. When we anticipate something, we feel some of the same pleasure we will during the event itself — only the pleasure can last much longer.
Taking a moment to anticipate the tea means we’re enjoying the tea for a minute longer than we would. We slow down and notice. Some treats deliberately build the waiting into the process of consumption. For a while, I was really into these dark chocolate covered frozen banana slices. You had to take them out of the freezer and then let them sit for a minute or two to thaw if you didn’t want to break your teeth. That extra minute kept me from gobbling the chocolates down without savoring them. I don’t know if Babybel cheeses have to be wrapped in those waxes or not, but the process of unwrapping the cheeses makes the snack more of a ritual than it otherwise would be.
How to stretch out the enjoyment
We can build a moment for anticipation into all sorts of things. If you see an email from a friend, take a minute to think about your friend and how much you enjoy spending time together before you open the note. If you subscribe to a magazine, take a minute to look at the cover headlines, and peruse the table of contents and think about what you’d like to read first before you dive in. Maybe don’t start the new season of a series as soon as it’s available. Take a day or two and designate a time to start watching. You’ll stretch out your enjoyment.
After all, eventually the good thing will be over. Eventually the Christmas presents will be unwrapped, the lights will come down, the chocolate will all be consumed. Building in a moment for anticipation allows us to push that eventuality forward. We stretch the time before the good thing is over into a higher proportion of our moments.