The Difference Between Joy and Happiness

The current state of our world today has me reflecting on emotions in general. How they inform us of what we’re feeling and the thoughts we hold in our mind that create our reality. More importantly how a simple switch in our thinking can change our entire outlook and experience of life. I want to look back on this time and notice that I chose to be happy instead of fearful, which I could easily do. I think, if asked most people would say they’d like to be happy. But what I’ve discovered about happiness is interesting in regards to how it comes about. Both joy and happiness are wonderful feelings, however they are significantly different.

Happiness is external; it’s based on what’s going on around you; for example situations, events, people, places, things, and thoughts. Happiness is connected to your hope for a relationship or some experience you look forward to having in the future. It’s outside of you and ultimately-Happiness happens to you.

Joy is what’s going on within you. It’s a conscious choice made on purpose; an attitude of the heart and spirit. It becomes a part of you woven into the very fiber of your being. Joy has the ability to share space with feelings like sadness and heartache, whereas happiness cannot. The healthier and more connected we are with ourselves and our world around us, the more we are able to identify and feel true moments of Joy.

I imagine joy being like a drop of sunlight. If you were to swallow the drop it would dissolve inside you and shoot warm, delightful, lemon-colored love throughout your cells. It would be IN you. That way, no matter what the circumstances are around you, JOY would be the stabilizing force that keeps you centered within.

“Joy seems to me a step beyond happiness- Happiness is a sort of atmosphere you can live in sometimes, when you’re lucky. Joy is a light that fills you with hope and faith and love.” ~ Adela Rogers St. Johns

-Heidi Neuss