Self-Management of Depression

Psychologists define savoring as the ability to tune in to, appreciate, and enhance the enjoyment associated with a positive experience (Bryant & Veroff, 2007). Though you can savor the past (positive reminiscing) or the future (anticipatory savoring), in its most widely used clinical application, savoring refers to intensifying and prolonging the enjoyment of positive events as and when they happen. A savoring experience consists of your sensations, perceptions, thoughts, behaviors, and feelings when you mindfully attend to and appreciate something positive (Bryant et al., 2011). Common examples of savoring include eating a gourmet meal, listening to a musical performance, soaking in a warm bath, receiving a compliment, spending time with a good friend, enjoying the outdoors, or winning an honor or reward. Besides positive things happening around you, you can also savor internal thoughts or feelings (e.g., that you are blessed with good health). However, just because you experien...

When was the last time you savored an experience in its true sense, or stopped to smell the roses if you prefer the more poetic expression for savoring? With our lives wrapped around multitasking at work, caring for our loved ones, and keeping up with social media chatter, savoring has undoubtedly taken a back seat. While savoring can be construed as an art, a lot of evidence-based science extols this phenomenon's benefits. Psychologists define savoring as the ability to tune into, appreciate, and enhance enjoyment associated with a positive experience (Bryant & Veroff, 2007). There is a strong consensus amongst researchers that those inclined to savor report more optimism, life satisfaction, value fulfillment, self-esteem, and intensity and frequency of happiness. At the same time, these individuals also report fewer feelings of guilt, loss of pleasure, hopelessness, depression, and unhappy or neutral emotions (Bryant, 2003). If you plan to rediscover how to savor, below...