Joy and happiness are roughly synonymous words, and both describe positive emotional states.

Joy is a very old word, with origins going back before Greek. That’s more than 3,500 years of the same word meaning the same thing. The feeling it describes is at the core of what it means to be a human. Most readers will be familiar with joy as a term in religion, dealing with the most profound experiences. We feel joy inside of ourselves where it grows to the point that we must express it outwardly as rejoicing. Knowing how powerful it is, in daily life we might be prone to say we enjoyed, much less likely to say we are rejoicing, don’t use the word joy much and the word joyful even less.

The experience of wonder offers opportunities for joy, rejoicing, and enjoyment, being joyful. When we learn to take in without thought the things that surround us and let wonder bloom, we find joy in some of the simplest things. Light streaming through trees in just that way, the swoop of a bird (or the swerve of a skater) perfectly executed, the smell of coffee, the song of raindrops on roof and windows and pavement, the smile of one we love,… For joy to flow from deep within, we need to have experiences to work with, for the experience to resonate. Joy is profound, almost something we feel we have to work for, not something that just comes to us.

Happy is a much newer word, only around for 700 years and describes a state of ‘pleasant contentment.’ Its origin lies with the word hap, meaning luck. Happiness is a feeling that arises in response to something from outside the self: ‘X makes me feel happy.’ There is a quality of chance with being happy, as its something we can’t count on and feel fortunate when we do. Because it doesn’t mean as much as joy, it is a common word.

Children make great use of the word happy. They understand it means ‘I feel good/pleased at this moment’ and they seek happiness: food they like, games they find fun, and friends whose company is nice. The way children experience happiness shows us that this good feeling doesn’t last long or penetrate deeply — happy one moment and not so the next.

The title of this post is “Joy and Happiness. The choice of conjunction is a clue to a core element of the Exuberant Life: Yes/and is superior to either/or. Happiness and joy are both ways of appreciating and making the most of what we encounter. We take and find joy, we feel happy.

Living an exuberant life is about experiencing joy, creating happiness in the lives of others that rebounds to make us happy as well. Happiness if contagious, we’ve all seen it: someone gets great personal news and is so joyful that those around feel elated to a lesser degree. As exuberantly joyful people we spread happiness wherever we are.

This is another yes/and idea. We give to ourselves and to others when we live exuberantly.