Savoring involves mindfully engaging with positive experiences to enhance positive emotions. There are three temporal forms of savoring: anticipating future positive events, intensifying enjoyment of current positive experiences, and reminiscing about past positive experiences. Savoring can be done through four types - basking, gratitude, awe, and luxuriating. Research also identifies ten strategies for savoring, including sharing with others, building memories, self-congratulation, and avoiding "kill-joy" thinking. Savoring builds positive emotions and resilience.

1. Savoring

2. 2
Savoring: Enjoying and Sharing
What is Good

3. 3
Savoring
 Mindfully engaging in thoughts or behaviors that
heighten the effect of positive events on positive
feelings
 Savoring can increase positive emotions, deepen
gratitude, facilitate mindfulness, enhance
engagement and meaning
3From MAPP Class 20 April 2013 Judy Saltzberg PhD. Used with permission.

4. Savoring helps you move from Positive
Experience to Positive Emotion
4From MAPP Class 20 April 2013 Judy Saltzberg PhD. Used with permission.

5. 5Copyright © 2008 Karen Reivich, Ph.D. All rights reserved.
Savoring and Gratitude
Loosening by Pamela Haines
Rain
torrential, unremitting
washed away our porch sale hopes
our efforts all made vain.
The earth that was a fist
so tightly clenched
lies open new and loose.
The weeds I’ve wrestled with before
bring sweet surprise.
How freely now they yield their hold
responding to the gentlest tug
from wrestling to dance.
Our plans were ruined, but
that richly pliant earth
calls out a song of thanks,
delights my heart.
5

6. Savoring
To savor: from the
Latin word sapere,
meaning “to taste”
“to have good taste,”
or “to be wise.”
From MAPP Class 20 April 2013 Judy Saltzberg PhD. Used with permission.

7. Savoring Findings (Bryant, 1989,
2003)
4 factor model: perceptions of one’s ability to:
 Avoiding negative events (primary negative control)
 Coping with negative events (secondary negative
control)
 Obtaining positive events (primary positive control)
 Savoring positive outcomes (secondary positive control)
From MAPP Class 20 April 2013 Judy Saltzberg PhD. Used with permission.

8. Savoring requires:
 A sense of immediacy in
the here and now
 Freedom from social and
esteem needs and
motivations
 Focused mindful
attention to the positive
experience
8From Bryant and Veroff (2007), Savoring

9. Savoring: 3 Temporal Forms
Sample items from Savoring Beliefs Inventory (SBI)
Anticipating – looking forward to a positive event
I get pleasure from looking forward
Anticipating is a waste of time
It is hard for me to get excited beforehand
Savoring the moment – intensifying and prolonging enjoyment of
current experience
Know how to make the most of a good time
Feel fully able to appreciate good things
Find it hard to hang on to a good feeling
Reminiscing: looking back to rekindle positive feelings
Enjoy looking back on happy times
Feel disappointed when I reminisce
Easy to rekindle the joy of happy memories
From MAPP Class 20 April 2013 Judy Saltzberg PhD. Used with permission.

10. 10

11. Savoring: Four Types
Basking (pride): receptive to praise and
congratulations-Pride

12. Savoring: Four Types
Thanksgiving (gratitude) : experiencing

13. Savoring: Four Types
Marveling (Awe): Losing self in the wonder of
the experience

14. Savoring: Four Types
Luxuriating: engaging the senses fully

15. Savoring: 4 Types

16. Savoring: Ten Savoring Strategies
1. Sharing with others: seeking out others to share experience
and thinking about sharing the memory
2. Memory building: actively storing images for future recall,
“mental photographs,” form vivid images
3. Self-congratulation: cognitive basking, telling self how proud
or impressed others are, most common in response to
achievements and personal successes
4. Comparing: contrasting your own feelings with what others
are feeling, comparing to past experiences, upward
comparison
5. Sensory-Perceptual Sharpening: intensifying pleasure by
focusing on certain stimuli and screening out other,
concentration, positive vigilance—slowing down
From MAPP Class 20 April 2013 Judy Saltzberg PhD. Used with permission.

17. Savoring: Ten Savoring Strategies
6. Absorption: trying not to think, mindfulness without
cognitive reflection, intellectual association
7. Behavioral expression: laughing, jumping for joy, outward
physical manifestation – speeding up
8. Temporal awareness: reminding self how fleeting the
moment is, telling oneself that one must enjoy it now –
bittersweet moments
9. Counting blessings: acknowledging gratitude
10. Avoiding Kill-Joy thinking: reminding self of other things
you should be doing, upward comparisons, negative self-
talk, etc.
From MAPP Class 20 April 2013 Judy Saltzberg PhD. Used with permission.

18. 18
1. Sharing with others: seeking out others to
share experience and thinking about sharing the
memory

19. 19
2. Memory building: actively storing
images for future recall, “mental
photographs,” form vivid images

20. 20
3. Self-congratulation: cognitive
basking, telling self how proud or
impressed others are, most common in
response to achievements and personal
successes

21. 21Copyright © 2010 by Karen Reivich, Ph.D. All rights reserved.

22. 22
4. Comparing: contrasting your own
feelings with what others are feeling,
comparing to past experiences, upward
comparison

23. 23
5. Sensory-Perceptual Sharpening:
intensifying pleasure by focusing on
certain stimuli and screening out other,
concentration, positive vigilance—
slowing down

24. 24
6. Absorption: trying not to think,
mindfulness without cognitive
reflection, intellectual association

25. 25Copyright © 2010 by Karen Reivich, Ph.D. All rights reserved.

26. 26
7. Behavioral expression: laughing,
jumping for joy, outward physical
manifestation – speeding up

27. 27Copyright © 2010 by Karen Reivich, Ph.D. All rights reserved.

28. 28
8. Temporal awareness: reminding self
how fleeting the moment is, telling
oneself that one must enjoy it now –
bittersweet moments

29. 29
9. Counting blessings: acknowledging gratitude

30. 30
10. Avoiding Kill-Joy thinking: reminding self of
other things you should be doing, upward
comparisons, negative self-talk, etc.

31. Temporal Awareness Example
“Perhaps I can’t ever reproduce the satisfaction of
this moment….The most precious gifts often
dissolve off my fingertips within a moment of
their triumphs….We are touched by magic
wands.”
~Nichols (1987): A fragile beauty
31Copyright © 2010 by Karen Reivich, Ph.D. All rights reserved.

32. Most research on savoring has
been descriptive but…..
32Copyright © 2010 by Karen Reivich, Ph.D. All rights reserved.

33. Using the Past to Enhance the Present
(Bryant et al. 2005)
 Most prior work on reminiscing was with older
adults
 2 studies with college-aged students
 Study 1 (Cross-sectional): Frequency of positive
reminiscing predicted perceived ability to enjoy
life
 Students who reported reminiscing using cognitive
imagery reported greater ability to savor than those
using memorabilia
33Copyright © 2010 by Karen Reivich, Ph.D. All rights reserved.

34. Bryant Study 2: Design
 Students (n = 65 total) randomly assigned to one
of 3 groups:
 Reminisce about pleasant memories using cognitive
imagery
 Reminisce about pleasant memories using
memorabilia
 Think about current concerns
 Do your “thinking session” for 10 minutes twice
daily for a week
34Copyright © 2010 by Karen Reivich, Ph.D. All rights reserved.

35. Bryant Study 2: Results
 Both reminiscence groups reported greater
increases in the percent of time they felt happy
compared to the control group (compared to
their own self-report baseline)
 Happiness increased more in cognitive imagery
group than memorabilia group.
 This difference was mediated by perceived vividness
of memories
35Copyright © 2010 by Karen Reivich, Ph.D. All rights reserved.

36. Intervention possibility?
 Kurtz, J. L. & Lyubomirsky, S. (in press). Using
mindful photography to increase positive
emotion and appreciation. In J. J. Froh & A. C.
Parks (Eds.). Positive psychology in higher education: A
practical workbook for the classroom. Washington,
DC: American Psychological Association.
36From MAPP Class 20 April 2013 Judy Saltzberg PhD. Used with permission.

37. Savoring as a resilience strategy
 Savoring builds positive emotion
 Positive emotion builds resilience
 Positive emotion buffers against depression
(Barb Fredrickson’s research)
 How does savoring facilitate rejuvenation?
From MAPP Class 20 April 2013 Judy Saltzberg PhD. Used with permission.

38. Savoring and Beauty
When you have only two pennies left in the world,
buy a loaf of bread with one, and a lily with the
other. ~Chinese Proverb
The soul that sees beauty may sometimes walk
alone. ~Johann von Goethe
From MAPP Class 20 April 2013 Judy Saltzberg PhD. Used with permission.

39. Overcoming the Ugly Bias: Ugliness 24/7
 Take a Beauty Detour every day
 Be open to Awe – a powerful emotion (art, music,
dance)
 Create an Awe Wall
(Pinterest?)
A special plug for savoring beauty
From MAPP Class 20 April 2013 Judy Saltzberg PhD. Used with permission.