What is savoring? One good moment in three time perspectives

Savoring in psychology – how does Bryant’s model help us appreciate good moments?

Savoring means deliberately noticing and appreciating a positive experience through attention, thought or action. Bryant’s model includes anticipation, present enjoyment and reminiscence. Choose one moment and explore a perspective. Imagine a pleasant detail, notice it during the event or return to it later through memory.

Fred B. Bryant (2003) developed the Savoring Beliefs Inventory, examining beliefs about enjoying anticipation, the present and memories. These perspectives describe different ways of relating to positive experience. A self-report measure and a home practice are different things: the questions below are our own observation exercise, rather than a psychological test.

In a diary study, Jose, Lim and Bryant (2012) collected self-reports from 101 people over 30 days. Positive events, savoring and pleasant mood were related within days. This describes associations rather than a guaranteed effect of an exercise. You can approach your own experience with curiosity, allowing it its natural scale.

Planning a visit concerns when guests will arrive and what you will serve. Savoring anticipation can happen alongside it: briefly imagining the first greeting or a favourite tea flavour. It is a particular direction for attention. Similarly, taking a photograph records the table, while noticing the light on a cup lets you stay with the scene itself.

The pleasure of anticipation, presence during an event and the warmth of remembering

Before a gathering, name one detail you look forward to. During it, notice what feels pleasant, allowing the occasion its own course. Afterwards, recall an image or sentence. Each perspective offers a connection with experience; choose one or explore all three around the same event.

Before the visit, write if you wish: I am looking forward to talking beside the open window. This gives imagination a place while staying open to the actual gathering. On Saturday, the weather might invite you into another room. Notice what really arrives: a new story, someone’s laughter, the first sip. An imagined scene can make way for discovery.

During the event, choose one accessible detail and name it silently: light on the table, warmth in a voice, the taste of mint. You might also tell someone: I enjoy our Saturday conversations. If you want a photograph, choose a suitable moment and then return to the gathering. How you experience it remains your choice.

Afterwards, return to one image and ask: what stays with me now? The memory may concern a different detail from the one you anticipated the day before. Setting the three versions alongside each other reveals the path of one experience: from imagination, through contact with the event, to personal meaning. Give each its own words.

How does savoring differ from gratitude, and how can you choose your own practice?

Savoring focuses attention on an experience and how you appreciate it. Gratitude turns towards valuing something received, a person or a gesture. They can meet at one table: enjoying tea and thanking someone for coming. Choose a question that suits the moment and feels personal.

Over Saturday tea, a savoring question is: what feels pleasant to me in this moment? A gratitude question might be: what do I appreciate about this gathering, and whom would I like to tell? The first answer could concern the scent of the drink, the second the time your friend has offered. Each question has its own starting point, even within the same scene.

Choose the one that invites curiosity today. To explore life’s pleasures through your senses, begin with a detail to notice. To appreciate someone’s gesture, name it and perhaps thank them. You can leave an answer unwritten. At YĀNAMI, these practices invite you to meet your own experience and celebrate a moment in its present form.