Joy is the soul of happiness. Like pleasure, it can express itself through the body, but it is not of the body. Like satisfaction, it can be felt emotionally and appreciated mentally, but it is so much more than just an emotion or a state of mind.
Other words used to describe this type of happiness include “bliss” and “felicity,” and also “ecstasy,” which, translated from the ancient Greek ek-stasis, means “to stand outside oneself.” Joy is bigger than your ego.
It exists before the thought of “I.”
Joy is impossible to define, but it can be described. The most inspirational people to have walked this earth have tried to express what joy means to them. For example, Helen Keller described joy as “the holy fire that keeps our purpose warm and our intelligence aglow.” Mother Teresa wrote, “Joy is prayer. Joy is strength. Joy is love. Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls.” And C. S. Lewis referred to joy as “the serious business of Heaven.“
Describing joy is very difficult and very worthwhile. The more you tune in to joy and let yourself feel it, the more you learn about what true happiness is. I encourage my students to describe joy by meditating on joy, by painting joy, by singing joy, by dancing joy, by crafting a poem on joy, or by finding a symbol, in nature, for instance, that represents joy. What emerge are commonly felt qualities of joy, five of which I will share with you now.
1. Joy is Constant
When people tune in to the feeling of joy, what often emerges is an awareness that this joy is somehow always with us. Joy is quietly, invisibly ever-present. It is not “out there,” and it is not “in here”; rather, it is simply everywhere we are. Joy feels somehow beyond space and time. Joy does not come and go; what comes and goes is our awareness of joy. Ironically, we often feel the presence of joy the most when we stop chasing pleasure and we stop trying to satisfy our ego.
2. Joy InspiresCreativity
Upon discovering this joy, many people experience a greater sense of creativity that rushes through them. Your ego may get the byline, but really joy is the author. Joy is the doer. Joy is the thinker. Joy is the creative principle. In one of my favorite Upanishads, classic sacred texts of Indian literature, it is written: “From joy springs all creation, / By joy it is sustained. / Towards joy it proceeds, / and to joy it returns. No wonder so many artists take the course.
3. Joy is Often Unreasonable
I like to describe joy as “unreasonable happiness” because it doesn’t seem to need a reason. It is a happiness that is based on nothing. In other words, it doesn’t need a cause or an effect in order to exist. Certainly good things, favorable circ*mstances, and a happy state of mind can make you more receptive to joy; but joy still exists even when you are not receptive to it. Joy needs no reason. And this is why we can be surprised by joy even in the most ordinary moments.
4. Joy is Untroubled
Unlike pleasure and satisfaction, joy does not have an opposite. It does not swing up and down, as our moods do. And it does not wrestle with positives and negatives, as our mind does. Joy does, however, have a twin. If pleasure’s twin is pain, and satisfaction’s twin is dissatisfaction, then joy’s twin is love. When people describe joy to me they always mention love—even the lawyers, the politicians, and the psychologists.
Like love, joy is fearless and untroubled by the world. It is as if nothing in the world can tarnish or diminish the essence of joy. As such, it is free.
5. Joy is Enough
Many people describe a sense of emptiness and a “fall from grace” that follows an encounter with great pleasure and satisfaction. This is not the case with joy, however. One of the most beautiful qualities of joy is the abiding sense of “enoughness.” Unlike the ephemeral states of pleasure and satisfaction, joy does not induce a craving for more, because joy is enough. If ever we feel joy is missing, it is because we are absent-minded-caught up, probably, in some grief over a passing pleasure or preoccupied with a new object of desire.
Someone who's joyful is very happy. A joyful child will laugh with delight. When you experience the feeling of joy, you're joyful. For many people, their wedding day, the birth of their children, or simply a beautiful summer afternoon can all be joyful occasions.
Optimism: If you want to be in a state of joy, you must look for opportunities and positively believe and feel that you can achieve what you want out of life. Few people would call a pessimistic person happy. Savoring Life: Joyful people live in the moment.
We feel joy in our bodies because of the release of dopamine and serotonin, two types of neurotransmitters in the brain. Both of these chemicals are heavily associated with happiness (in fact, people with clinical depression often have lower levels of serotonin).
A couple key factors in happiness is your levels of endorphin and serotonin in your body. Endorphin is released during exercise, while serotonin is a neurotransmitter that does various things for your body including: Regulates Mood. Aids In Muscle Contractions.
Giving birth to a child is both painful and joyful. A wedding is a joyful celebration of love. We're a very joyful people; we're very musical people and we love music.
Based on numerous research studies and surveys, Finland is considered the "happiest country in the world." A recent study from the University of Helsinkifound a big reason why young Finnish people are so content: they make a point of spending time enjoying the great outdoors.
The three broad labels for classifying different types of happiness as pleasure, joy, or bliss are related to the origin of the experience—whether it is physical, mental-emotional, or spiritual.
Change up your routine. If you always get your coffee from the same cafe, make it a point to try someplace new—maybe you'll discover a new favorite drink or pastry. ...
So the four E's of joy are embrace, enjoy, engage, and ease. And in this episode, I'm going to go through each step and we're going to talk about some tools and practices that you can use to cultivate joy.
And they outline eight pillars of joy, divided by mind (perspective, humility, humor, acceptance) and heart (forgiveness, gratitude, compassion, generosity). The question may be timeless, but their answer has urgent significance.
Joy is elicited by the appraisals that an event aligns with who we truly are, with what we value, what we strive for, what we live for. Joy is the emotion that makes life worth living in the moment because it resonates with our core identity. It is associated with feelings of ease, appreciation, and meaning.
It is quite hard to actually define a joyful life as different people associate happiness or joy with different things. In simpler words, when you are living in a happier space being grateful for everything there is in your life from relationships to materials — that's how a joyful life looks like to me.
The fourth level of happiness is known as ultimate good. This is a fundamental desire we have as human beings for perfect truth, goodness, beauty and love. Many people find this form of happiness through their religious beliefs.
“Happiness is a skill that can be learned like speaking Spanish or playing guitar. It is a skill of the mind; a capacity to shape the way that we see, process and interpret our reality and the things around us. It can be developed like any other competence.”
Psychologists conceive of happiness in two different ways: hedonic happiness, or pleasure and enjoyment, and eudaimonic happiness, or meaning and purpose. Some psychologists champion either a hedonic or an eudaimonic idea of happiness. Most agree, however, that people require both hedonia and eudaimonia to flourish.
Choosing to be grateful, choosing to be kind, to make time for what you love, to stay positive, to slow down, to exercise, and seek growth — all these are habits within your control.
Joyful women are content with who they are—flaws and all. They don't compare themselves to others or strive to be someone they're not. They accept themselves for who they are, and they know that they are worthy of love and happiness. This self-acceptance is a key ingredient in a joyful life.
“A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.” The Good News: A happy heart can help you heal. “Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”
Through that joy, they unlock a sense of purpose and hope which ultimately releases them from poverty. For God's children, the power of joy is never-ending. Although not one fruit of the spirit is more important than another, joy enables us to experience the others in the way that Jesus did.
The six paths to joy are: The joy of our senses: the taste of food, the sound of music, the feeling of touch, the sight of beauty. The joy of growth: focusing hard to learn something, listening hard to give, or putting a good day's work in, the feeling of overcoming challenges and of pride in achievements.
Joy is a choice. Rick Warren gave us this definition of joy: “Joy is the settled assurance that God is in control of all the details of my life, the quiet confidence that ultimately everything is going to be alright and the determined choice to praise God in every situation.”
Paul understood that joy doesn't depend on what's happening, or what we have, or who's in our life or not in our lives. Joy is an attitude of the heart determined by confidence in God. Real, genuine joy is a byproduct of having a strong and intimate relationship with Christ. To truly know Christ is to truly have joy.
However, believers found their ultimate source of joy and satisfaction in Yahweh (Psalm 32:11). They rejoiced in Him because of His salvation (Psalm 40:16; 64:10; 63:11; 51:12), His justice (Proverb 21:15), His protection (Psalm 63:7), His word (Psalm 119:111, Jeremiah 15:16), etc.
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Joy is the soul of happiness. Like pleasure, it can express itself through the body, but it is not of the body. Like satisfaction, it can be felt emotionally and appreciated mentally, but it is so much more than just an emotion or a state of mind.