Mindfulness and Savoring: A Commentary on Savoring Strategies and Their Implications for Addiction Treatment

ABSTRACT

Background: A central facet of the popular understanding of mindfulness practice is the non-judgmental observation of all thoughts and feelings. Savoring is a cognitive practice developed out of economics and positive psychology, which involves the conscious mental engagement with positively-valenced interoceptive and exteroceptive stimuli, which in turn amplifies the derived pleasure experience. Results: When incorporated into mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs), savoring holds promise in improving outcomes related to reward processing, such as positive affect and well-being. The growing body of mindfulness literature also suggests that the inclusion of savoring in MBIs may be key in treating disorders of reward dysregulation, such as addiction. If savoring does indeed reduce craving, this phenomenon offers a point of union for divergent neurobiological theories of addiction. Conclusion: In this commentary, we explore the existing literature on savoring and mindfulness practices as it relates to addictive disorders, posit underlying neurocognitive mechanisms, and present future areas of research.

Keywords:

• Savoring
• mindfulness
• addiction
• reward
• pleasure

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CE002996, 2018). Trial is registered on ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03833245.