Why Joy Matters

I’ve been thinking a lot about Joy since the 2024 US presidential election.

This might seem like a counter-intuitive response, since I personally was not happy with the outcome. But happiness and Joy are not the same thing…

Joy does not ignore, dismiss, or minimize our pain. Unlike happiness, Joy can paradoxically exist alongside suffering, and can be found even in the harshest of conditions.

A few weeks before the election, Martha Beck released a podcast episode titled Joy is the Only Strategy, sharing how and why Joy has been a guiding light throughout her life. This conversation inspired my own reflection and led to a sort of ‘self-study’ on Joy - what it is, what it isn’t, and most importantly - why it matters.

I listened to this episode of J.Nichole Smith’s new podcast Joy First, where she offers a cogent exploration of Joy as “a willful act of defiance towards hopelessness or oppressive forces.”

I went back through The Book of Joy, which I first read during the height of the 2020 Covid pandemic. Written by His Holiness the Dalai Lama & Archbishop Desmond Tutu, this book outlines eight key pillars of Joy.

I joined Elizabeth Gilbert’s Letters From Love community and asked the spirit of unconditional love (SOUL) what it would have me know about Joy.

And finally, I turned to the science - teachings I’ve learned from Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor and others about where Joy lives and how it functions neurologically.

—

From this research, I compiled four reasons why I believe Joy matters now more than ever:

1) Joy is our essential nature.

2) Joy is wholistic.

3) Joy is revolutionary.

4) Joy leaves clues.

—

Over the next four weeks, I’d like to elaborate on these four conclusions. Maybe, by doing so, you’ll feel compelled to invite a little more Joy into your life as well.