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Savoring Exercises

emotional · easy · 5-10 minutes daily

What is Savoring Exercises?

Fred Bryant and Joseph Veroff's set of deliberate cognitive and behavioral strategies for amplifying the intensity and duration of positive experiences across three time dimensions — anticipating future pleasures, attending to present ones, and reminiscing about past ones.

Is there evidence for it?

EVIDENCEmoderate

How do you do Savoring Exercises?

  1. 1.Practice 'moment savoring': During a positive experience, deliberately slow down, engage all senses, and narrate internally what makes this moment good. Avoid multitasking during pleasant activities
  2. 2.Use 'anticipatory savoring': Before an upcoming positive event, spend 5 minutes vividly imagining the details — what you'll see, hear, taste, feel. This extends the pleasure before it even happens
  3. 3.Practice 'reminiscent savoring': At the end of each day, replay one positive moment in full sensory detail. Share it with someone (telling others amplifies the savoring effect)
  4. 4.Try 'savoring photography': Take a photo of one thing you're savoring each day. The act of composing the photo forces present-moment attention to positive details
  5. 5.Avoid 'savoring killers': dampening (telling yourself you don't deserve it), distraction (checking your phone during a good moment), fault-finding (looking for flaws in a positive experience)

How long does it take?

5-10 minutes daily.

Is it hard to start?

easy.

Source: Bryant & Veroff (2007) 'Savoring: A New Model of Positive Experience'; 2024 systematic review of savoring interventions in clinical populations (9 studies, 900+ participants); Frontiers in Psychology (2022) showing savoring increases positive emotions after social-evaluative stress
savoring · positive-emotions · mindfulness · gratitude · pleasure · wellbeing
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