Ineffable Joy
Joy. I one day hope to not have a favorite emotion, and instead see value in them all, but for now, I find joy to be my favorite.
I recently reread Brene Brown’s description of joy and remembered how much I enjoyed reading her book Atlas of the Heart. Brene reminded me just how hard joy can be to describe because it’s beyond words, and that the very nature of joy pushes the boundaries of our ability to communicate about lived experience via spoken language. While it can be frustrating sometimes to not be able to communicate something, I find that joy being beyond words makes me love it even more.
She also calls joy a good mood of the soul and I find this deeply resonates with me. Joy goes deeper than other emotions that I feel. I have other emotions that feel all-consuming, but none go as deep as the soul like joy does.
Joy also calms my mind. As an internal processor, I have a constant stream of dialogue going within my head. But, when joy consumes me, all is quiet. Which is quite the gift in and of itself.
It’s taken some time to instill in me that as good as it feels to feel joy, it is meant to be fleeting, just like all emotions. But I know that when the current joy I’m feeling ebbs back down and I move on to the next emotion, I look forward to the next time I get to sit with it.
While I may not be able to write a description of joy that can help you understand it, I can give you some experiences lately that have given me joy. While much of mine revolves around my son, who I spend most of my time with, I hope some of these will help you gain a better understanding of the emotion of joy.
Here are experiences lately that have given me joy:
Walking outside in the morning and feeling cool air after a week of triple-digit weather
Seeing my son smile as we sing him happy birthday
Hearing my son say “wow wow wow wow” as we look around at zoo animals
Seeing my husband’s business and my business allows us both to do what we enjoy, get the time we want with our family, and provide for our family
Seeing my son enjoy the birthday decorations and cake I made him
Going to the library with my son and seeing him enjoy the toys still but now also gaining excitement about the books (I’m a big reader myself and hope to share this love with my kids)
Sitting in my backyard with friends and family and being able to enjoy the space my husband and I worked hard to create
I encourage you to reflect and think about the last time you experienced joy. Brene reminds us that a great precursor to joy is gratitude. So, if in your reflection you realize it has been quite some time since you’ve experienced joy, then I encourage you to lean into gratitude practices more often. Or, if you’re like me, and enjoy the experience of joy, then gratitude may be your inlet to experience it more often.
