The light was beautiful on the walk to the train this morning. A colleague said something kind about your presentation. The first sip of coffee was exactly right. And by lunchtime, you'd forgotten all three, because the inbox, the next meeting and tomorrow's deadline were already taking up all the room.
Good moments happen more often than we notice. Many of us just don't stay with them long enough to feel them.
What savoring is
Psychologist Fred Bryant of Loyola University Chicago has studied savoring: paying attention to good experiences in a way that lets you feel them more fully. It can look backward (reliving a good memory), forward (looking forward to something) or at the present moment.
In a daily diary study published in 2012, Paul Jose, Bee Teng Lim and Bryant found that on days with more positive events, people tended to feel happier, and that how much they savored those events helped explain that link. In other words, the good things mattered more when people actually paid attention to them.
The Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley describes a "savoring walk" based on Bryant's work: walking for about 20 minutes a day for a week and deliberately noticing as many positive things as you can. In one study, people who took savoring walks reported larger increases in happiness than people who went for ordinary walks.
Your week already holds more good moments than you remember. Savoring is how you keep them.
Why it belongs in a spiritual life
Many contemplative traditions ask the same thing savoring does: be present, notice what's here, receive it. For people who spend their days attending to everyone else's needs, savoring is a small act of turning attention back toward what nourishes you. It doesn't require a retreat or extra time. It asks for a few extra seconds with what's already happening.
Simple ways to savor
- Pause and name it. When something good happens, stop for a breath and say to yourself what it is. "This coffee is perfect."
- Use your senses. Notice the color, the sound, the texture, the smell.
- Share it. Tell someone about a good moment. Talking about it can help it last.
- Look back at night. Before sleep, recall one good moment from the day in detail.
- Look forward. Spend a few minutes enjoying the thought of something you're looking forward to this week.
Where an accountability partner helps
An accountability partner can make savoring part of your check-ins. Start each conversation by sharing one good moment from the week before you talk about goals and obstacles. It's a small ritual that makes progress feel less like a to-do list and more like a life you're enjoying.
This week
Take a 20-minute savoring walk on three days this week, on a different route each time if you can. Notice as many good things as possible. Afterward, write down the one you most want to remember.