Joy - Momentary

How do you define joy?

A few years ago, I asked my volunteer students to tell me what their answer would be. Their answers were all over the board, with most of them saying that they did not know. However, a number of them said that they knew exactly what joy was and they could give me a detailed description of this elusive emotion. The reason why they did not know was because they had not experienced it. This is a question that has been played around with by philosophers and poets for centuries and it is likely that these people will not be able to come up with the "right" answer. As William Blake said, "He who binds to himself a joy, Does the winged life destroy; But he who kisses the joy as it flies, Lives in eternity's sunrise." So maybe the best thing to do is just forget the question and focus on living.

Joy is sustained interest in the process of life. Joy requires awareness, and active participation in the practice of being aware. The awareness of being alive is the most important step toward living well.

A smile can brighten your day! A kind word can give you hope. The power of kindness is a gift that everyone can give. The only thing it costs is a little bit of your time and effort. And Joy knows: small acts of kindness create big payoffs. Joy was created to put the magic of Joy's philosophy into practice.  Joy believes that when you make a choice every day to do something nice for someone else, your own life will be better too.

I've been watching the world around me, and it made me wonder how easy it is to get caught up in our busy lives, to miss seeing all the opportunities we get to connect with those around us.  How many people do we encounter each day, yet never take the time to acknowledge we're sharing this planet together?  Be it being kind by smiling at a stranger on the subway or being generous with a friend who just lost her job — Joy wants us all to be more Joyful. That's why I'm on a mission to help make this world a happier place!  By spreading kindness on social media, I'm discovering so many random acts of kindness that inspire me every day.

Joy is one of those things in life we can't explain. It's this thing we feel that gives us energy, happiness and a sense of fulfillment. There are times when joy happens to us: our birthday, a wonderful event or day out with friends. Other times, we find ourselves at the core of it; we worked hard to make something possible and then we are rewarded by the results. Joy is everywhere, but it's also rare.When joy happens to us, it's easy to forget how much work it took to get there. And even if we have a sense that it wasn't easy, we don't always truly appreciate its full value.

Joy is a feeling that comes and goes, whereas happiness is a long-term feeling of contentment that results from our own behavior. Joy is the opposite of sadness, depression, anger or frustration. Joy comes from the world around us, not from within us. Just as we cannot manufacture joy, neither can we manufacture happiness. Happiness is not something other people or objects can give us; it comes through our relationships with others – true friendships and romantic relationships – and through our personal self-improvement. This makes sense because happiness is an emotional state that allows us to enjoy ourselves when faced with the known and unknown challenges in life.

Joy is an emotion that is short-lived and typically not as strong as an emotion like happiness. Joy can be experienced while doing pleasurable activities or can occur in response to positive events or happy tidings. Life is full of joyous moments, and when we are in a good place, we are in a good mood. We are ready to face the challenges that we may come across. But when life hits us with a series of unfortunate events, that is when we need to find ways to buoy our spirits.

Joy is a choice. It's a feeling that can be manufactured and sometimes must be manufactured for us to push ourselves forward during challenging times in our lives.

Joy is momentary and small-scale. Happiness is a command and an obligation. "Be happy!" "Be joyful!" "Have a good time!" These are all commands, they are obligations. If you feel joy, that is great. If you don't, you have failed in some way. As such, joy is seldom felt and happiness is elusive, because it is not a feeling in itself. It is the result of something successfully done or achieved. It makes me wonder what would happen if we changed our lives so that happiness was a thing of the past, and we focused our energy on the pursuit of joy.

If happiness is what I get when I achieve something or complete something, then it will always be out of reach. Happiness is not a feeling that I can conjure at will.

But joy? Joy is momentary and small-scale, it is mine and my alone to feel, to enjoy and to be powerful in its presence.