Good writers know that to give the reader a full sensory experience, you must stimulate each of their senses.
Describing how something looks is great, but describing how it smells or feels will pull them even deeper in. Rounding the picture out with some taste and auditory input is even better.
So when is the last time you’ve allowed yourself to have a full sensory experience?
I have to be honest, I don’t know that I ever had one on purpose before this last year. In that time, though, I realized that if I wanted to really have a moment, to lock a place and time into my memory, stopping and taking stock of all my senses was the best way to do it.
Not only does this lock a moment into your memory, but it also allows you to get a lot more out of the experience.
Being able to pull every detail out of a wine is something that sommeliers do every day, and to do so they must take stock of the color, texture, taste, and smell of a wine. They do everything except sit and listen to their precious beverages, and I imagine if they could, they would do that, too.
And you know what? They get so much more from every sip than the rest of us get by downing an entire bottle (well, except the drunkenness; that’s something we have over them and their sip).
Treat life like a fine wine and drink in every moment.
You just might find that it’s delicious.
Update: December 11, 2016
Word.
Random side-note: I don’t drink much at all these days. It’s kind of nice.