Frank McAndrew

When it comes to happiness, we’ve got to try every angle possible. Some people are born with serotonin-soaked synapses, while others aren’t so lucky. The good news is that, according to Harvard University social scientist and author Arthur C. Brooks, there are techniques that can, in a sense, help our minds quickly move in the right direction.

In a recent clip posted to Facebook, Brooks explains the “four savoring techniques” for elevating one’s mood. As with many of his thoughts on psychological matters—many of which have been covered by Upworthy staffers—he gets straight to the point. As he writes on his website, “Happiness isn’t a destination — it’s a direction.”

1. Behavioral display

“Number one is what they call behavioral display, which means expressing positive emotion with nonverbal behaviors,” Brooks said. “Smile, even if you don’t feel it. You’ll fool your brain. You’ll be happier because of this behavioral display. Smile more. Pretend you’re happier. Go act happier.”

2. Be present

“Second, be present, which is mindfully focusing on the pleasant experience,” Brooks said. “And what that means is saying to yourself, ‘I am doing this thing. I am sitting on the train looking out at a beautiful seascape.’ Being present actually means saying the thing to yourself because you want to bring it from your subconscious into your prefrontal cortex— into your consciousness, where you’re really thinking about something. And the way to do that is by saying it. And it’s really unbelievably effective.”

3. Capitalize the positive

“Number three is capitalizing, which means talking about and celebrating positive experiences with others,” Brooks said. “Don’t just say it to yourself. Say it to other people. Talk about the experience that you’re actually having. Notice things to other people, which makes this even more conscious, even more concrete, even more permanent.”

4. Mental time travel

“And last but not least is what they call ‘positive mental time travel,’ which is vivid reminiscence or anticipation of positive events,” Brooks said. “To savor the past on purpose, by paying attention to the positive parts.”

Savoring is a subject Brooks talks about often. In a clip on Instagram, he shares not only the techniques people can try, but also why they’re worth trying. In the post, he writes:

“Savoring is rebelling against yourself. We’re wired to notice what’s wrong before we notice what’s good. That helped our ancestors survive, but it also means we move through life without fully experiencing the moments worth savoring. Savoring doesn’t come naturally. It’s a conscious act of pushing back against the brain’s constant pull toward worry, vigilance, and the next thing. And in a culture that rewards speed and distraction, slowing down long enough to truly enjoy something requires conscious effort.”

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“We’re not evolved for savoring”

In the clip, Brooks discusses how our brains are wired from an evolutionary standpoint to protect our survival:

“We’re not evolved for savoring. We’re evolved to rush through everything and pay attention to the negative. We have brains that were designed, more or less, in their current form something like 250,000 years ago in the late Pleistocene Era. And that was a dangerous time to be Homo sapiens. You had to pay attention a lot or you were gonna be a wild animal’s lunch.

So we have more brain space dedicated to negative emotions than positive emotions. That’s what gives us what we call the negativity bias in our lives. Negativity bias means that life isn’t that great all the time, but we’re more likely to get to tomorrow or more likely to survive the night. That makes perfect evolutionary sense that your suspicious inner troglodyte is trying to survive and pass on your genes. You’re not a saber-toothed tiger’s lunch.”

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Prefrontal cortex to the rescue

“But that negativity bias is now maladaptive,” Brooks added. “It’s basically an error that we would do that. That we would not savor, but rather that we’d be suspicious and vigilant and trying to get into the future as quickly as possible. But that’s why we have a prefrontal cortex so that we have decisions. We can make conscious decisions, and even though I have a negativity bias, I can override it with my consciousness.”

Upworthy spoke with licensed therapist Matt Grammer, who agrees that the four savoring techniques are helpful reminders that it’s possible to sometimes short-circuit negativity.

“Savoring gives people the opportunity to slow down to register positive experiences, instead of continuing on in stress response mode,” Grammer said. “It helps people attain equilibrium and improve emotional resilience and stress recovery and satisfaction in relationships.”

“Coding” the positive

Grammer also notes that life can feel tedious when we don’t stop to reframe our thoughts.

“Though people may experience objective positive reality, life seems emotionless and flat, because we are so quick to get to the next step without enjoying or ‘coding’ positive experiences in long-term emotional memory,” he said.

Dr. Ashley Smith, a licensed psychologist and co-founder of Peak Mind: The Center for Psychological Health, specifically discussed the “built-in negativity bias” with Upworthy.

“We more readily notice, hone in, and remember bad stuff over good,” Smith said. “In fact, negative things get encoded in our memory almost instantaneously, while positive things take 10 times longer—10 to 12 seconds. That’s where savoring comes in. If you don’t intentionally amplify and savor a positive experience—intentionally focusing on it and how it makes you feel for a full 10 seconds—it’s like it never happened neurologically!”

“Memory capture”

As for how to put this information to good use, Amberley Meredith, psychologist and author of The Adaptable Sustainable Psychology Collection, shares with Upworthy how to reverse rumination:

“It’s called a ‘memory capture.’ We often ruminate and go over the difficult moments repeatedly. This is about doing the reverse. We take in every sound, every smell. We linger our gaze on each aspect of the moment that we can see. We pay attention to any words being spoken, replaying them gently in our minds. We take time with tastes and sensations, noticing how our body feels in the moment.

Savouring is an art, but with practice it can become a more accessible and spontaneous response over time. And the memories you ‘bank’ can be re-experienced and enjoyed with greater clarity, perhaps as a buffer or reminder of better times during those difficult moments.”