How Well Do You Savour Good Moments?
Before, during and after - the three chances you get to enjoy anything
Two people can have the same good weekend and get very different amounts of joy from it. One looked forward to it for a week, noticed it while it was happening and still smiles about it a month later. The other barely registered it. Psychologists call the skill behind the difference savouring, and it splits into three separate abilities: anticipating, enjoying the moment and reminiscing. Most people are good at one or two and surprisingly weak at the third.
Before you start There are no right answers. Pick what is usually true for you, not what sounds best.
Think about good things in general - a trip, a meal, good news, a quiet evening - and answer about how you usually experience them.
What it measures
Your beliefs about your own capacity to enjoy positive experiences in three time frames: before (anticipating), during (savouring the moment) and after (reminiscing). Unlike mindfulness, it concerns good experiences only; unlike gratitude, it is about enjoying rather than giving thanks; and unlike time perspective, it measures a skill rather than which part of time you tend to live in.
Based on: Savoring Beliefs Inventory (Bryant, 2003)
Possible results
Anticipating
Getting pleasure from good things before they happen.
Savouring the moment
Noticing and stretching a good experience while it lasts.
Reminiscing
Bringing back the good feeling of past experiences.
Common questions
Is savouring the same as mindfulness?
They overlap but aim differently. Mindfulness means paying non-judgemental attention to whatever is there, pleasant or not, without trying to change it. Savouring deliberately focuses on the good and tries to deepen or stretch it. You can be mindful of a headache; you cannot really savour one.
Can you learn to savour better?
Yes, and this is one of the better-supported findings in positive psychology. Simple practices - sharing good news with someone, taking a mental snapshot, slowing down during a pleasant activity, or spending a few minutes each day recalling something good - have raised happiness in controlled studies, though effects are usually modest.
Is enjoying anticipation risky if things go wrong?
A little, but usually less than people fear. The pleasure you took in looking forward is not cancelled if the plan falls through - you still had it. People who refuse to anticipate in order to avoid disappointment tend to lose more enjoyment than they save in pain.
Sources
- Bryant, F. B. (2003). Savoring Beliefs Inventory (SBI): A scale for measuring beliefs about savouring. Journal of Mental Health. doi:10.1080/0963823031000103489
- Bryant, F. B., & Veroff, J. (2007). Savoring: A new model of positive experience. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
- Bryant, F. B. (2021). Current progress and future directions for theory and research on savoring. Frontiers in Psychology. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.771698
An honest note The items are Quinthea's own wording adapted from the Savoring Beliefs Inventory, so scores are not comparable to the published norms. The scale measures what you believe about your ability to enjoy, not how much you actually savour day to day, and most early studies used American students. Cultures also differ in how much people want to amplify good feelings. This is not a diagnosis: if nothing has felt enjoyable for weeks, talk to a doctor or psychologist.