Focusing on the sights, sounds, and sensations that bring you warmth can help you keep the joy within. Enjoy Teen Breathe's chasing joy plalist on spotify.
What do rainbows, sunsets, and snowflakes have in common? Well, apart from appearing in the sky, they have the power to bring about a feeling of joy, through their colour, shape, and symmetry.
— Jump to chasing joy playlist!
Joy is an amazing thing. It can materialise seemingly unexpectedly and often presents itself in a spontaneous smile or a gradual feeling of warmth from within. It can even create a sense of belonging. But wait – doesn’t this just sound like ‘happiness’?
Well, maybe a bit. But joy is something more profound. It’s a deeper, less fleeting kind of happiness and doesn’t depend on other people. Ingrid Fetell Lee, an American designer and author who has researched the subject for her book, Joyful, describes it as ‘a uniquely exuberant emotion, a high-energy form of happiness’. It can also have surprising benefits for health and wellbeing. The emotions experienced when you feel joy create positive chemical changes in the body, which release a mixture of the feel-good hormones oxytocin and serotonin. In turn, these can encourage a greater sense of belonging and lessen feelings of stress.
But what does joy look like? In her book, Ingrid identifies 10 forms: energy, abundance, freedom, harmony, play, surprise, transcendence, magic, celebration, and renewal. She says that symmetry, circles, and colour are especially pleasing to the eye and can lift the spirits.
Ordinary objects like paper confetti, balloons or lanterns, food such as ice cream with sprinkles on top, or experiences like watching snowflakes fall or dancing with friends can create deep and lasting feelings of joy.
Sometimes, however, this emotion can be hard to find, especially when there’s uncertainty in the world. During these times, it can be helpful to seek out and enjoy some of the simple pleasures in life.
Being aware of what joy looks like in your surroundings – the shapes, colours and sensations that make you smile – is a great place to start. This can help the brain to begin to focus on positive sights and sounds.
A DIFFERENT VIEW
Focusing on the sights, sounds, and sensations that bring you warmth can help you keep the joy within.
- BE OBSERVANT. Look around and notice things that give you feelings of joy. You might choose to create an image board to act as a reminder of what to look for. You could set yourself a challenge to photograph one thing that makes you smile each day for a week and add these to your board or share your pictures with friends and family.
- MAKE A FUN LIST. Write down any experiences, objects, places, people, or quotes that create a feeling of warmth in your bones. Store them on your phone or jot them down in a notebook or in the space opposite to read on days when you need a pick-me-up to boost your spirits.
- KNOW YOUR KILLJOYS. Ingrid suggests thinking about the ways that joy can be drained from you. Being aware of places, experiences, shapes, or colours that bring you down might help you understand when you need to use your fun list to ease negative moments.
- CELEBRATE THE SMALL THINGS. Each time you feel that inner sense of lightness, try to observe it and be fully aware of the emotion. Taking time to remember positive feelings can help to make them easier to recall in the future.
- JUMP FOR JOY. Physical movement can increase energy and focus and make you feel good. Find ways to move your body each day (explore our tips in issue 23!), whether this is making circles with your hands, stretching your legs, dancing, or jumping up and down. You could even ask friends to join you for a walk, run or bike ride and share the positive vibes.
- HEAD OUTDOORS. Nature can bring a sense of freedom. Catch the rays of a gentle sun, be aware of the wind in your hair, feel your cheeks redden in the cold. This can help you tap into something bigger than the self and increase a sense of awe, wonder, and joy.
- GO FOR MORE. Colour and pattern can lift the senses. Think about adding bright accessories to an outfit, a string of lights or pompoms to a bedroom, or include a collection of wildly coloured pens in a stationery set.
- TURN UP THE VOLUME. Some noises can energise the body. You could create a playlist* of your favourite upbeat music or, when out and about, listen for sounds of laughter, birdsong, or people chatting.
- SPREAD CHEER. Sharing joyful moments with loved ones can increase positive emotions and help to build stronger relationships and connections with others. As the American writer Mark Twain once said: ‘The best way to cheer yourself is to try to cheer somebody else up.’
Click below to enjoy our Chasing Joy playlist on spotify
