Savoring and Well-being

Why Does Savoring Matter?

An often overlooked key element of well-being is that the journey toward greater happiness and savoring is not a chase. It's interesting to think about the phrase from the United States Declaration of Independence: "the pursuit of Happiness." Do you ever find yourself pursuing happiness, as if it's elusively dodging your efforts to grasp it, always just out of reach? Achieving happiness is better approached as a mental and physical slowing down that helps a person find him/herself in a state of deep appreciative reflection. It does little good to walk mindlessly past a garden of roses. Savoring requires a kind of mindful awareness (mentally or physically) of the experience while it is occurring to purposely take notice of the beauty that surrounds the event (Bryant & Veroff, 2007). Slowing down helps to focus our attention on small details that would have otherwise gone unnoticed, such as the way the sun hits the rose petals or the slight, intricate placement of the buds. Perhaps the most important aspect of cultivating savoring is developing the ability to slowly and more meaningfully experience the value inherent in everything around us. 

Carl Honore, journalist and author, emphasizes the value of of slowing down (see his TED Talk entitled “In Praise of Slowness” in the Resources section; Honore, 2005). Our society values and emphasizes speed and efficiency, but along the way, we have forgotten that the most important things in life take time. Hurrying through life to “get the most done” takes away from the true beauty that is found in watching a sunrise, spending time with loved ones, or listening to the sound of rainfall. The good things in life are to be enjoyed, not merely lived through, which requires slowing down. This race through life not only takes away from appreciating the joy of daily life, it also damages “our health, our diet, our work, our relationships, the environment and our community” (Honore, 2005). When we fail to slow down, we become reckless and oblivious to the good around us. Thus, in an effort to quickly achieve happiness, we are actually doing a disservice to ourselves by speeding through many life events that have the potential to bring happiness.

We want to stress the point that savoring is beyond recognizing the characteristics of objects that produce the feelings of appreciation. Savoring is not merely about the source of our appreciation. It’s about cultivating the characteristic of savoring within ourselves to increase the ability to see the beauty around. Beyond the personal happiness that comes from this appreciation, such individuals are more likely to be altruistic, seek self-improvement, and serve as devoted community members among other prosocial benefits (Haidt & Keltner, 2001). Consequently, cultivating the skill of savoring also adds to the good in the world around us. 
 

A Closer Look at Savoring

Savoring has three main functions: prolonging, intensifying, and shifting gears (Bryant & Veroff, 2007). Savoring works by regulating our positive experiences to intensify and prolong the associated positive feelings (Quoidbach et al., 2010). It is also the ability to savor in the absence of such feelings (Bryant & Veroff, 2007). Savoring puts the individual in charge of his or her own happiness. Savoring empowers the individual by bringing out positive feelings even in the absence of positive events.  
 
Savoring shares similarities with mindfulness and flow. The three have overlapping components, but we can make a few important distinctions. Mindfulness includes awareness of experience without preference to certain feelings over others (Conn, 2011). Mindfulness includes awareness of enjoyable events, but savoring emphasizes an appreciative awareness of positive experiences with the explicit purpose of prolonging and amplifying them (Bryant & Veroff, 2007). Mindfulness allows for both negative and positive experiences to bring up emotion and it focuses on the acceptance of the feelings associated with the experiences, with little control from the individual in terms of which stimuli are experienced (Germer, 2009). Savoring focuses on the positive events or aspects of an event. 

Flow, traditionally defined, typically involves a loss of self in the experience (Lyubomirsky, 2008). You might lose track of time and space during a flow experience (Bryant & Veroff, 2007). Flow is mainly differentiated from savoring by the level of immersion. For example, flow could be being lost in the experience of enjoying nature. There is little awareness because you have become absorbed in the experience. In a sense, flow happens to you, while savoring happens because you allow for it happen to you. To have a flow experience, we must step fully into the experience as a wholly engaged participant. Savoring requires a conscious and deliberate awareness of the experience. Because savoring requires more awareness, we have to step away from the situation in order to recognize how all the details come together (Bryant & Veroff, 2007).

Savoring in the Midst of Tragedy

Savoring promotes meaning. Positive elements of even tragic events can be savored to find deeper meaning from the negative moments (Bryant & Smith, 2015). Savoring is all about appreciating the positive, but the idea is that even tragic events may have some good worthy of savoring. Small, positive moments embedded within negative events could be savored to bring reassurance in hard times. Having the ability to savor even when misfortune strikes is an important trait to develop. Pain is an inevitable part of life, but savoring helps to cultivate the skills needed to cope with life’s many difficulties. Savoring is not about noticing and appreciating only the overwhelmingly positive situations, but often it is about the ability to find joy in the small and mundane or even an unfortunate event. For example, an illness in the family can bring heartache and difficulty. However, a tragedy like an illness may also serve as an opportunity for the family members to work together and spend time helping each other. In the midst of a tragedy, the positive family moments will seem more tender and sweet through savoring. Savoring highlights the good to bring about enhanced positive experiences.

Psychological Health Benefits of Savoring
 
One of the greatest benefits of savoring is the associated psychological benefits. Positive emotions have been shown to be associated with greater resilience against stress (Ong et al., 2006). In one study, individuals who reported higher levels of resilience were less likely to report having depressed mood (Smith & Hollinger-Smith, 2015). However, those who reported a higher level of savoring were also less likely to be depressed. From these findings, we learn that savoring provides protection against depression, especially for those whose resilience level was lower from the start. But the benefits extend beyond protection against depression--savoring also led to greater life satisfaction regardless of the level of resilience because the individuals were better able to respond to stressful life events when they were savoring. Simply stated, savoring appears to help maximize the benefits of joyous events and buffer the effects of negative events.

Germer (2009) suggested that the three types of savoring offer unique benefits. Savoring the present protects against depression, stress, guilt, and shame. Future-based savoring helps individuals to be optimistic and feel emotions intensely, because a positive outlook on the future brings a new perspective. Lastly, savoring past events buffers against stress. The ability to savor past positive events can bring comfort in the present.

Jose et al. (2012) conducted a study looking at the relationship among positive life events, savoring, and happiness. At the start of the study, participants completed questionnaires on savoring, life events, and perceived happiness. Then they participated in a 30-day diary exercise in which they were asked to record their mood every day. At the end of 30 days, all participants were given the same set of questionnaires at the start of the study. The results indicated that momentary positive events produced momentary happiness. Momentary savoring was also linked to momentary happiness. These findings indicate that happiness, savoring, and positive events change together. Further analysis indicated that momentary savoring influences the relationship between momentary positive events and momentary happiness. What is even more noteworthy is that savoring had the greatest effect when the number of pleasant events was low. In other words, when positive life events were less common, greater savoring led to increased happiness. We are not always able to control whether we’ll have a good day or how many good things will happen in a day, but that does not mean that happiness is out of reach for those who do not experience as many momentary positive events.