Hey there, it's Susan Peirce Thompson, and welcome to the Weekly Vlog.
So I forget why, but a month or so ago, I had the occasion to Google "What is the difference between joy and happiness?" And I was surprised that I came up with a lot, actually. Now, I had been under the assumption that joy and happiness were pretty much the same thing, that they were both positive emotions, and that maybe joy was a little further up the scale from happiness, like just a brighter, sharper, more exuberant, more intense happiness. But basically qualitatively the same, just maybe a matter of degree where joy was a little more. And I stumbled on not just one or two, but a whole slew of blog articles mostly, talking about the huge difference between joy and happiness and how they're different, that they're qualitatively different, and they're different in these 11 ways or whatever, in these blogs.
And I was like, "Really? They're that different?" And then, as I was reading through these blog articles, I read through a bunch of them, what struck me was the way they were describing joy, not happiness, but joy was pretty much exactly what the feeling it for me of living Bright. The gift of Bright living is what they're describing as joy, and so I wanted to share it with you in this Vlog. So they talked about how happiness is an emotion, and it's fleeting, it's tied to circumstances. It's about pleasure, it's about pleasure in the moment, it's about self-gratification, and it's about feeling good, and about how joy is deeper, and it's lasting and it's steady. And it's, if anything, tied to experiences of the divine or experiences of serving others or being at peace or content in the moment. It's not a selfish, self-reflective kind of thing. It's not about pleasure.
It's a broad, steady, deep contentment that comes from knowing who you are. It's more tied to meaning. It's more tied to purpose, it's more chosen, and it can coexist with hardships and difficulties. And this is an interesting thing. I find that the joy in living Bright is there with me even when I'm struggling. Even when I'm most decidedly not happy, I'm going through a hard time, I still deep down feel my joy. I still feel that peaceful, contented, grounded, clear feeling that it's about knowing who I am, knowing the life I choose, knowing that fundamentally all is well. Yeah, and the joy is really there for me.
There's an old adage that I love, that I like to update for the sake of Bright Line Eating language that goes something like this. It's that, now that I'm Bright what I realized is, my worst moments Bright, worst moments Bright, are better than my best moments when I'm not Bright. And I think the difference is joy, that when I'm Bright, I always have this deep down feeling of joy that is there underlying as a constant in my being. And when I'm not Bright, I feel deeply unrooted, and I'm grasping for happiness. I'm looking for moments of happiness, and I can go get it from a Kwik-E-Mart in something to eat in a moment of pleasure, but it doesn't even come close to the joy that I feel when I'm Bright.
So I offer you that distinction. I thought it was apropos. That's the Weekly Vlog. I'll see you next week.
