Joy Exercise 2: Joy v Happiness

My goal is to come up with 365 simple practical exercises anybody can do to increase the level of joy in their life.

Exercise 2: Joy v Happiness
Before reading the rest of this blog take a minute to write down your definition of 'Joy' and your definition of 'Happiness'.

Someone has defined the difference between the two as this:

• Happiness comes outside of us, that is we feel good because of the circumstances around us make us feel good.
• Joy comes from inside of us, that is we feel good because we have an internal sense of well being irrespective of what is happening outside and around us.

Now take some time to think about or write down a time when you felt joyful, calm and peaceful despite the fact that things were going badly around you.

Try and identify what you were thinking, believing, feeling, experiencing that enabled you to feel joy when the circumstances were seeking to make you unhappy.

Ask yourself these questions: Am I seeking joy or happiness? Is what I am doing with my life focused around getting externals (eg happiness factors) or the internals (joy factors) in place?