If you’re looking for a way to get more pleasure out of holiday activities, try savoring them — being conscious of good feelings and allowing them to expand within you.

Savoring requires slowing down enough to recognize what’s happening inside of you during a pleasant experience, labeling it and appreciating it, explains researcher Fred Bryant of Loyola University Chicago in a recent article by UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center.

Unlike mindfulness, which also involves being in the moment, savoring is about augmenting the positive rather than accepting what is.

“The data show that when a good thing happens, the more people actively savor it, the more joy they get from it in the moment,” Bryant says.

Start savoring your holidays with the Greater Good Science Center