Happiness is not Joy
The Why question is all important to everything we do. When we go off track, it’s often because we confuse the aim, and thus never get clear on why. The difference between Joy and Happiness is a case in point. How are they different?
1) Happiness is not transient. Joy emanates from a one-off event which can be as transient as a lottery win. Joy is common and available to all people from the smallest to the grandest scale. Happiness can go through troughs, but it feels the same every time it is present. Happiness is enduring.
2) Happiness is not relative. A person on vacation may be experiencing more joy than someone in a dead-end job. However, one person’s happiness cannot be compared to another.
3) Happiness cannot be obtained it is earned. Joy can be found almost anywhere. The more resources, the easier it is to obtain joy. A dying patient may find joy in seeing her grandchild, a broken marriage may experience joy by going to the theatre. Joy can be found anywhere. Unhappy people can experience joy. The opposite can also be true where you may be happy but not feeling joy. For example, a happy person can be feeling zero joy at a friends funeral.
4) Joy does not have currency. Pleasure and joy do not have endurance because they lose currency. The longer you experience a pleasurable or joyous experience, the less pleasure it provides. A child first entering an amusement park can experience the purest form of joy, but the joy quickly begins to wane. If the child were to return each day, the joy would disappear. You never tire of happiness as you can tire of a joyous event.
5) Joy is addictive. Joy gives that instant hit and the actions that cause joy can be repeated. Happiness however is not addictive because it cannot be actively chased, it must come. If the effects of happiness cannot be chased, then there is no use being addicted.
6) Happiness is internal. Joy requires an external stimulation such as a sunset or a ride in a fighter jet. The joy dissipates shortly after the external stimulus is extinguished. Happiness is internal and not reliant on external forces.
The Point…… Stop chasing what will not work. If you feel your life is lacking happiness, perhaps it is because you try to fill it with joy.
Hiya!
A broken marriage may experience joy by going to the theatre? h m m m m! (grin)
I think you’re confusing ‘joy’ with an adrenalin rush.
Joy is intense happiness and I don’t agree that it necessarily looses currency over time. The memory of that joyous moment can deliver extreme happiness each time the moment is remembered. I don’t agree that Joy is addictive either! Adrenalin rushes are however, as any chemically addicted person will tell you. Joy is
like happiness, you find it in the course of living your life. Neither happiness nor joy are goals to be achieved in life, they ‘happen’ during the journey.
Fran
March 10, 2008
I have always believed in the complete opposite to what you are saying. Joy is a deep, long lasting attitude and feeling you have about your life and happiness is just a momentary thing experienced with a fun or nice happening.
(eg, a happy holiday).
The dictionary does not clarify either of them in that way so it must be an individual interpretation.
Jillian
March 11, 2008
Jillian,
Interesting perspective. it may be semantics but I define Joy as you define happiness.
The short term burst you get from a one off event is not what we should chase. Rather it’s the long lasting feeling of contentment. The short burst (I call it joy) can be chased, but the deeper feeling cannot, it just comes.
Agree - dictionaries don’t help.
Perhaps we both agree on this quote
“If you observe a really happy man you will find him building a boat, writing a symphony, educating his son, growing double dahlias in his garden. He will not be searching for happiness as if it were a collar button that has rolled under the radiator.” W. Beran Wolfe
sdipietr
March 11, 2008
I agree with Jillian, in believing that you have the two mixed up although the essence is still correct one of them (happiness) passes with the event and the other (joy) comes from within and cannot be taken from you no matter the circumstances surrounding you.
Vivian
March 12, 2008