Savoring meditation for emotional disorders: Targeting positive emotion regulation deficits.
Journal of anxiety disorders July 22, 2025 Tomoko Kishimoto, Ximing Hao, Jianwei Qian
A savoring meditation intervention reduced depression and positive emotion contrast-seeking (PEC-seeking), a maladaptive strategy of sustaining negative affect to enhance later positive emotions, in Chinese college students with elevated anxiety and depression. In a randomized trial, 59 participants were assigned to two weeks of group savoring meditation or a waitlist. Depression declined significantly at mid-test, post-test, and one-month follow-up, with large effect sizes. Savoring beliefs increased, and PEC-seeking decreased, with reductions in PEC-seeking mediating depression improvement. Negative affect also decreased during sessions. Anxiety symptoms declined within the intervention group but did not differ significantly from the waitlist group. The findings suggest that targeting PEC-seeking through savoring meditation may reduce emotional disorder symptoms.