Joy, a Land of Happiness

About… emotions

What do our emotions tell us? How can we make them allies, whether they appear at first glance as positive or negative? After anger, Florent Pennuen, Coach and Executive Search Consultant at Grant Alexander, invites us on a journey to the land of joy.

“Joy always announces that life has succeeded, that it has gained ground.” — Henri Bergson

Joy!!! What is this emotion that transcends the simple notion of pleasure—pleasure being fleeting, light, often short-lived, barely anchored? Pleasure is a primary sensation, pleasant yet volatile, which can sometimes intoxicate us to the point of steering us away from our goal. It is that moment when we gaze at ourselves with satisfaction, even though we are still on the path.

Joy and pleasure, while not strictly opposed, do not speak of nor lead us to the same inner truth. Joy is an anchor, a deep truth, which, unlike pleasure, cares little for external circumstances.

Joy speaks of us, of our relationship to others and to the world.

Like anger, joy tells us about ourselves and our relationship to others and to the world. About our ability to accept being traversed by an emotion, whatever its nature—happy or unhappy, positive or negative, fleeting or deeply rooted. Anger, joy, fear, sadness: often, our lack of understanding of emotions, compounded by the diktat of wanting to control them, distances us from them—especially when they may feel “scratchy.” This widespread urge to push emotions away often leads to avoidance, followed by a series of behavioral dysfunctions.

Accepting our emotions—letting them flow through us, welcoming them, understanding them, then allowing them to fade or transform—can make us intrinsically stronger. It saves us from protective, deviant, or weakening behaviors: the pursuit of power, comparison or dependence on others, false pretenses… The cascade of masks and social postures that follow is endless (appearance, the race to do more, the image of the hurried man/woman, social status…), all survival strategies or displays of fake strength, rarely conducive to real fulfillment.

And what about joy in all this?

Joy speaks to being. To depth. To intrinsic factors. To our ability to embrace every facet of life. To weave together all elements, to transcend them—in the sense that life itself is inner joy.

Unlike happiness, of which it may be the bedrock—happiness being interdependent on events, context, and trials—joy has the peculiar ability to coexist with dramatic elements, with life’s suffering. Allowing this emotion to emerge under any circumstance creates the soil for a joyful stance toward the world.

Might it be the emotion that carries all the others?

It reminds me of a lighthouse shining in the open sea. A landmark. Standing still. Indifferent to the elements and their nature. Present. Serene. Joy allows us to appreciate our relationship to the world, to be present even when faced with a storm, calm, or even nothingness. Simply being—there. Feeling its strength.

Joy brings us back to our ability to cultivate what nourishes it, to the coherence of our actions, to our aptitude for moving toward what resonates within us, in all those small everyday moments whose sum creates the meaning of a life. In a way, the “salt of life,” so dear to Françoise Héritier.

It is generally because we accept to be traversed by it that we gain access to joy.

See also: Anger, an Emotion to Tame

Florent Pennuen – April 2019
florent.pennuen@grantalexander.com