How to find joy in your life

by Susan Thomson
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Here is a post in a series, aimed to help you defrazzle. That is get rid of that frazzled feeling experienced by many of us in today’s hectic world. I’ve just watched a joyful Ted Talk I can highly recommend.

The talk is by Ingrid Fetell Lee.

She isn’t a psychologist, she is a designer.

However at her graduation end of year show, one of the professors said her work gave him joy.

This got her curious. What is joy and how is is different from happiness?

While the two words are often used interchangeably, happiness is a more long term state, while joy is a momentary burst of positive emotion.

Knowing what things give us joy, allows us to seek out more of these moments in her quest for happiness.

Ingrid asked everyone she met what gave them joy.

Common answers included: ice-creams with sprinkles, bubbles, hot air balloons, fireworks, cherry blossom, swimming pools, tree houses and googly eyes.

She tried to analyse what all these joyful things had in common.

They were often circular in shape, gave a feeling of lightness, had pops of colourful, or a satisfying symmetry.

She started calling these things ‘Aesthetics of Joy’ meaning the sensations of joy.

And once she had a label, of course she started spotting joy around every corner.

Instead of chasing after happiness, maybe we should embracing joy and finding ways to put ourselves in the path of it more often.

I invite you to watch the Ted Talk!