If I were given the choice of which basic emotional state I would like to be in every moment of my life I would choose to be always joyful without hesitation. In fact, most of the day I am cheerful, although I have not yet mastered being cheerful when I am very hot or when I am very hungry... hahaha.
When I go to a meeting I make my friends laugh with my jocularity, so being always cheerful has helped me to socialize and have better receptivity and contact with my closest friends, undoubtedly being cheerful produces physical and mental well-being. Feeling cheerful is positive for health, improves the immune system, and alleviates or counteracts many diseases. That is why I prefer to be cheerful as long as possible, it generates pleasure, I always flee from negative emotions, and toxic people, who produce anxiety or sadness.
My joy is authentic, I always keep a positive attitude towards life, I always want to experience new things, especially those that give me a feeling of happiness. This feeling always appears naturally and makes my behavior increase my good mood.
I emphasize that my joy is authentic because I have observed in some people a feigned joy. I have observed that there are people who intentionally pretend to be happy, when they smile they do it in a forced way, having discordance in their body and facial posture, which justifies that state of joy. The person pretends to be cheerful for some purpose or interest. It happens a lot when they are in front of a person of authority, even if that person does not like them, they have to pretend to be cheerful because you run the risk of being fired, in case they are your boss at work. Another joy that is manifested similar to the feigned joy is the cynical joy, which is manifested as a defense mechanism to avoid showing another emotion, which is usually negative. It also happens very frequently in the workplace and is very similar to feigned joy.
I also remembered that I witnessed many cases of joy, called in these cases as moria joy (empty joy) during the time I worked in a special education institute for people with mental retardation. It was a type of emotional behavior referred to as an empty joy, with no apparent reason to be joyful. Some people with mental retardation manifest symptoms of joy, with eccentric behavior, and a lot of joviality without coherent sense with their environment. This type of cheerfulness predominates in people with brain injury, dementia, or cognitive impairment.
However, we could also talk about people with bipolar disorder or other psychotic disorders such as in some cases of schizophrenia, where joy manifests itself out of control, out of context, a joy that is not normal or natural, but pathological. Here the manifestation of the emotional picture that produces joy could even be dangerous, since the person can lose control of the situation.
When we do not present any pathological picture or disorder, that is, we are common people with the rest of our family or friends and we hear something funny or a joke, and at that moment, for a short time, our mood changes in a positive way, manifesting a hilarious joy. Although this type of joy is the most frequent, especially when we are told a good joke or when we see a funny situation in the environment, the feeling of joy is for a short time. Sometimes a person going through a bereavement, after the loss of a loved one, will show hilarious joy for a short time when faced with a comical or humorous situation that takes him/her out of his/her sadness for a moment.
Most people tend to think that the feeling of being joyful is something simple and unique, but as we have already seen there are different physical and mental circumstances that suggest or give us indications of various types of emotions about joy, some can be authentic, others feigned or cynical and some pathological. The manifestation of being joyful in some cases is not as natural as it seems... What do you think about it?
What always keeps me in constant and authentic joy is knowing that I count on my readers and sponsors in this virtual life of read.cash that pleases me so much and keeps me happy. Thank you all for all the joy you give me, especially the beloved bot. You are the best.
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I also have a constant good mood and when there is something that lowers my good mood I worry and try to get out of that which is making me feel bad, because life is difficult enough in many of our countries, so losing the joy represents losing part of our existence. Great post! Have my greetings from Venezuela.