Savoring: How to Make a Good Moment Last a Little Longer
Savoring means slowing down to notice and stretch out good moments. Here is what researchers have learned about it and how to practice it in daily life.
Marcus wakes up before his alarm most mornings now. He shuffles to the kitchen, makes a cup of coffee, and carries it out to his small balcony. It is not a fancy view. There is a parking lot, a row of rooftops, and one tall tree. But at sunrise, the sky over those rooftops turns pink and then gold. Marcus wraps both hands around the warm mug, rubs his short beard, and just watches. He used to drink his coffee while scrolling his phone. Now he leaves the phone inside. Those ten quiet minutes have become his favorite part of the day.
What Marcus is doing has a name. Psychologists call it savoring.
What is savoring?
Savoring is the skill of noticing a good moment and paying close attention to it, so you get more out of it. Fred Bryant and Joseph Veroff, two psychologists who studied this for many years, wrote a book on the topic in 2007. They describe savoring as more than just having a nice experience. It is the act of being aware that you are enjoying something, and choosing to stay with that feeling.
Bryant and Veroff point out that savoring can face three directions in time:
- The past. Remembering a good moment, like looking at old photos or retelling a funny story.
- The present. Paying attention to something good while it is happening, like Marcus with his sunrise.
- The future. Looking forward to something good, like counting down to a trip.
Gratitude and savoring are close cousins. Gratitude often points to someone or something that gave you a good thing. Savoring is about soaking up the good thing itself.
What does the research show?
In a 2012 study, Paul Jose, Bee Lim, and Fred Bryant asked people to keep a daily diary for about a month. Each day, participants wrote about the good things that happened, how much they savored those things, and how happy they felt.
The researchers found two things worth knowing. First, savoring helped explain why good events lifted people’s mood. A good event on its own helped, but part of the boost seemed to come from how much people savored it. Second, on days when people savored more, the link between good events and happy mood was stronger. In other words, the same good thing seemed to count for more when people really took it in.
Another study, by Jordi Quoidbach and colleagues in 2010, looked at different ways people respond to good events. Some ways, like sharing good news with others, being fully present in the moment, and thinking back on happy memories, were linked with greater happiness. Other habits, like finding faults in a good moment or getting distracted from it, were linked with less. This study looked at patterns at one point in time, so it cannot prove cause and effect, but it fits with the diary findings.
Why might this work?
Good moments are often quiet. A warm drink, a kind word, or a nice breeze does not demand our attention the way a problem does. So these moments can slip by before we register them.
Savoring is a way of saying “wait, this is good” before the moment is gone. It does not create new good things. It helps you actually receive the ones already in front of you.
What this can and cannot do
The effects found in savoring studies are real but modest. Savoring will not fix a hard season of life, and it is not about pretending everything is fine. Some days there may not be much to savor, and that is okay.
Most of this research also comes from fairly small groups of people, many of them students. It points in a hopeful direction, but it is not the final word. And if you are dealing with ongoing low mood or anxiety, savoring is not a substitute for support from a doctor, counselor, or therapist. It can sit alongside that care, not replace it.
Try it this week
- Pick one daily moment. Choose something you already do, like your morning drink, a walk, or a shower. Make that your savoring moment.
- Put the phone away. For just a few minutes, give the moment your full attention. Notice what you see, hear, smell, and feel.
- Say it to yourself. Quietly name what is good about it. “This coffee is warm. The sky looks amazing.”
- Share it. Tell a friend about something good that happened. Sharing seems to be one of the helpful ways people savor.
- Write it down later. At the end of the day, write a few words about the moment. This lets you savor it a second time, looking back.
Back on the balcony
Marcus still has busy days and stressful weeks. The sunrise does not change that. But each morning, he gets a few minutes that feel like his own, and he has stopped letting them slip by. Some evenings he writes one line about it, just so he can remember. If you want a quiet place to do the same, NOTETYPE lets you write a thought and press “Make it real” to see doodles bloom around your words, all kept private on your device.
Sources
- Bryant, F. B., & Veroff, J. (2007). Savoring: A new model of positive experience. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
- Jose, P. E., Lim, B. T., & Bryant, F. B. (2012). Does savoring increase happiness? A daily diary study. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 7(3), 176–187.
- Quoidbach, J., Berry, E. V., Hansenne, M., & Mikolajczak, M. (2010). Positive emotion regulation and well-being: Comparing the impact of eight savoring and dampening strategies. Personality and Individual Differences, 49(5), 368–373.
