Savor experiences before they happen through anticipation
Spend time looking forward to a positive event in vivid detail — the anticipation itself is a source of well-being.
Why it works
Positive anticipation activates reward-circuit activity similar to (and sometimes exceeding) the experience itself, because the brain treats vivid future images as partially real. Anticipatory savoring extends the hedonic window of a positive event backward in time — a meal looked forward to for a week produces more total positive affect than the same meal encountered unexpectedly.
How to do it
- When you have a genuinely positive event coming up, schedule five minutes to vividly imagine it.
- Be specific: picture the setting, who you’ll be with, what you’ll do, how you’ll feel.
- Resist the urge to plan logistically during this time — this is imagining, not preparing.
- Revisit the anticipatory image two or three times in the days before the event.
Evidence
Anticipatory savoring is recognized in Bryant’s framework and supported by research showing that positive anticipation independently predicts well-being, and that waiting for a pleasant event can be as enjoyable as the event itself in some contexts. Nawijn and colleagues found vacationers reported elevated pre-trip happiness, locating much of a holiday’s well-being benefit in the anticipation phase rather than the trip itself. (mechanistic)
The relationship between anticipation and subsequent enjoyment is complex: very high anticipation can set expectations that the experience fails to meet, producing disappointment.
Sources
- Loewenstein (1987), "Anticipation and the valuation of delayed consumption," Economic Journal — waiting and positive affect
- Nawijn, J., Marchand, M. A., Veenhoven, R., & Vingerhoets, A. J. (2010). Vacationers happier, but most not happier after a holiday. Applied Research in Quality of Life, 5(1), 35-47.
Common mistake
Escalating anticipatory savoring into excessive expectation management — "this will be perfect" — which sets the real event up to disappoint.
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More practices for Savoring the Moment, Made Practical
- Absorb the present — slow down and attend fully
Pause whatever you’re doing and engage all your senses with the experience that is happening right now.
- Sharpen your senses to deepen the experience
Deliberately tune into one sensory channel at a time to get more from a pleasurable experience.
- Share positive experiences with others to amplify them
Tell someone about a good experience while it is still fresh — social sharing multiplies the positive emotion.
- Revisit positive memories to relive them deliberately
Spend time replaying a genuinely good memory in detail — retrospective savoring extends the well-being benefit long after the event.
- Identify and reduce your personal savoring killers
Notice the mental habits that most reliably interrupt your positive experiences and address them specifically.
- Use the photo paradox: photograph selectively or not at all
Decide before an experience whether you’re there to photograph it or live it — trying to do both usually produces neither well.
Related concepts
- Positive Psychology, Made Practical
PERMA and the well-being exercises, graded honestly on the evidence
- Gratitude Journaling, Done Well
The mechanism, the honest evidence, and how to keep it from going stale
- Broaden-and-Build, Made Practical
Using positive emotions not just as rewards but as resources that build lasting psychological strength