Savouring

The psychologists who built the idea, Fred Bryant and Joseph Veroff, define savouring as the capacity to notice, appreciate and make more of the good things in your life. Evidence: decent It runs three ways: looking forward to something, staying with it while it happens, and going back to it afterwards. Evidence: decent What separates it from plain enjoyment is the noticing: you're aware that you're enjoying it. Evidence: decent

It has an opposite, called dampening. In a survey of 282 staff and students, people who usually stayed present in a good moment reported more good feeling, and people who usually got distracted reported less. In the 82 who also rated their life, picking at what's wrong with a good thing went with lower satisfaction. Evidence: worth trying In a month of diaries, 101 young adults got a bigger lift from the good events they savoured. Evidence: decent Both are links, not trials. Evidence: decent

Where it gets oversold: it isn't positive thinking or a proven fix for happiness. Much of the evidence is surveys and short studies, and Bryant himself wrote in 2021 that very little is known about how people savour in daily life. Evidence: decent Going back can backfire, too. In three experiments, good times from the past raised people's ratings of their life only when recalled vividly; mentioned briefly, they made the present look worse. Evidence: decent