Cultivating personal joy

While sharing a conversation with a trusted soul, the topic of cultivating personal joy came up for discussion. An emotion I too, have been contemplating in my own life and today’s ever-changing world. As such, I found myself asking, “what exactly is joy,” as I needed to better understand this emotion and how to better cultivate it.

What is Joy?

Joy is a powerful emotion and harnessing it can be a remedy for stress-related burnout. Contentment and joy can positively improve physical and mental health and overall well-being.

The Joy Molecule: Dopamine and Serotonin:

When we experience joy, our brain releases neurotransmitters like dopamine and serotonin. These chemicals create a sense of happiness and contentment, fostering relaxation and reducing stress. They serve as our brain’s natural reward system, encouraging us to seek out more joyous experiences.

Joy versus Happiness:

It is easy to confuse the emotions of joy and happiness because they often are experienced at the same time. Yet, some nuances should be distinguished. Often, happiness is the emotional reaction to what is happening around you. Whereas joy is not reactionary and often is driven by internal motivations like working toward a goal or finding a purpose in life.

“Happiness is an emotion, whereas joy is more a state of being,” says Rebekkah Frunzac, M.D., general surgeon and chief wellness officer at Mayo Clinic Health System in Austin and Minnesota. “When you are joyful, it doesn’t mean you are always giddy or happy. But it means you can appreciate moments of happiness within the bigger context of life.”

How to build and increase joy:

During challenging times, it becomes twice as important to modify your routine, allowing yourself to experience joy. To focus your efforts on what brings meaning to your life.

Here are some ideas to explore in finding what may work best for you:

Perform regular physical activity. Think of physical activity as releasing a bubble bath of neurotransmitters – and their effects linger long after the exercise is over.

n Dedicate yourself to others. Activities such as volunteering produce greater joy than focusing on oneself.

n Connect with your spiritual side. When we join with something larger than ourselves, we develop feelings of gratitude, compassion, and peace. Meditation is a powerful way to modify brain pathways to increase joy.

Discover something new. As humans, we are hard-wired to experience joy when experiencing novelty. Developing a new pursuit can help us refocus our energy.

Vacation Anticipation. The simple act of imagining a positive, future event can induce a sense of joy and well-being.

Surprising benefits of joy:

Regardless of the changes you make to your mindset or your daily routine, increasing your ability to find joy may provide long-lasting health benefits. Your immune system can be strengthened by your mental state of mind. Interventions to increase joy may also decrease stress hormones, improve pain, and help to ease depression.

In summary: Joy looks different to each person and can be found in everyday situations. Joy enhances creativity, knowledge, resilience, and social capacity. It lessens the time spent in negative moods and helps us recover from them more rapidly. In other words, joy is good for your mental health!

On a personal note: Ultimately, I learned that joy is a state of mind and heart. Being emotionally open to “reaching within,” as well as “reaching out.” To allow ourselves to be touched by life! To say, “Yes, to Joy!”

Donna Pisacano-Brown is a Point Lookout resident who has been a columnist featured in local newspapers since 1996. She is a passionate advocate for drunken driving awareness, and shining a light on mental health topics.