The Subtle Art of Finding Joy
An underresearched but vital emotion: joy is something we need to pay attention to.
For every person who says joy and happiness are the same things, another says they are vastly different. I believe there is a difference between the two, but what exactly that difference is and how we definitively define it, well, that’s a wide-open field of thought.
One thing that many people, psychologists included, do agree on is that happiness is an experience that has many measurable factors. There is a wide range of psychologically proven activities, behaviours, and characteristics that feed directly into our ability to acknowledge, experience, and label happiness.
Joy, on the other hand? Much less researched and far more ambiguous to say for sure the factors that create or detract from it.
The Psychology of Joy
Joy is often referenced as an emotion that sits on the spectrum of happiness. Psychologists cite joy as being at the top end of the scale regarding how we experience positive emotions.
Research has found experiencing joy promotes several positive health benefits, including a healthier brain, increased immune system, and a healthier heart.
