Linger in positive experiences (savoring)

Slow down and fully attend to positive experiences rather than passing through them — the emotional benefit depends on dwelling time.

Why it works

Positive emotional experiences have briefer natural duration than negative ones — part of the negativity bias. Savoring is the practice of deliberately extending attention to positive experiences to allow their full emotional value to register. Rick Hanson describes this as "taking the moment in" — converting a fleeting positive stimulus into a more durable positive emotional state. The mechanism involves allowing the experience to move from short-term to working memory before moving on.

How to do it

1. When something genuinely good happens — a moment of connection, an achievement, a sensory pleasure — pause and give it at least 20–30 seconds of full, absorbed attention.
2. Notice the sensory details: what you see, hear, or feel in your body in that moment.
3. Resist the pull to immediately report it, photograph it, or move to the next thing — sharing or documenting can sometimes interrupt the absorption that savoring requires.

Evidence

Savoring interventions have been tested in multiple studies with significant effects on positive affect and wellbeing. Bryant and Veroff’s savoring framework provides the theoretical basis. (observational)

Savoring is harder in contexts of depression or anxiety, where attentional deployment to positive experiences is resisted by the attentional bias toward threat. In severe cases, clinical support may be needed before the practice is accessible.

Sources

• Bryant & Veroff (2007), Savoring: A New Model of Positive Experience, Lawrence Erlbaum

Common mistake

Photographing or narrating the experience rather than attending to it — documentation shifts attention to producing a record, which removes the absorption that produces the savoring effect.