I’ve always cringed when someone asked me, ‘Are you happy?’ I would most likely reply with a smile ‘Yes! I’m happy!’… in-part trying to believe it myself, but also to portray the ‘image’ of someone who ‘had it going on’.
I often wondered why I cringed. Was it because I felt the expectation on me that I should be happy? Yes – definitely. But there was more. There was something about this ‘happy’ that didn’t sit well with me. It was as though I, and many others, placed so much emphasis on attaining happiness that it became our sole purpose in life… so we went about looking for it outside of ourselves in whatever way we thought we could get it.
Happiness felt elusive, unattainable – something just out of arm’s reach.
I felt that I was failing at life if I wasn’t ‘happy’. I chased it – and sometimes I felt it – but I could never hang onto it. It would be there for a moment, sometimes for consecutive moments, sometimes for intermittent moments that spread out over a week or two. But it was neither solid nor constant and when it was time to be on my own, I felt flat, bored, empty – anything but happy.
So how and where could I get this ‘happy’ that everyone was talking about? How could I make it permanent?
I had many ideas of where to find this happiness: a career, lots of friends, frequenting the latest bars, cafes and restaurants, being fit, healthy and active, having the latest clothes, being immaculately put together, having the perfect partner, being the perfect daughter, sister, friend, mother, owning a beautiful home… the list goes on. Yet even when I had all of that going on, happiness was not a constant in my life.
In truth, underneath it all, I felt desperately empty. I often wondered what was wrong with me and what I needed to do to fix myself.
About 4 or 5 years ago, a friend of mine I was seeing for support with women’s health mentioned she had started offering Esoteric Healing sessions. She asked if I would be open to having a session with her. I had heard of Esoteric Healing before and had previously had a couple of sessions with another practitioner. I knew immediately that it felt right for me. What I felt in my first session with her was exactly the same as what I had experienced with the other practitioner some years earlier. There were no bells or whistles, just a gentle loveliness… something full and real. My body rested deeply, it was like I had fallen asleep, but I was still very much there.
I liked what was being presented to me so I continued to have sessions. Each session offered me an opportunity to look at how I was living and how I was supporting myself. I was able to feel more of myself and also able to feel the ideals and beliefs I had taken on that weren’t really true to me – i.e. what success looked like (you can bet happiness was part of that picture!), what it was to be a good mother (think the self-sacrificial type that puts her child’s needs above her own), what it was to be a woman… again the list goes on.
With the support of the esoteric modalities over the years I’ve made gradual changes to the way I live and, most importantly, to how I am with myself. I treat myself with respect and care. I listen to my body and its signals. I take time to connect with myself each day. I’m open to what I feel (the good, the bad, the ugly). I love being with me.
I walk down the street feeling the gorgeousness of myself and I live knowing who I am and I aim to stay connected to that at all times. I feel full. I rarely feel that empty feeling that used to plague me – and, if I do, I know that it is because I have disconnected and all I need to do is be honest about where I’m at and reconnect.
So, there I was, feeling pretty awesome and someone asked me ‘Are you happy?’ Lo & behold – I cringed!
The immediate response was, ‘No’… and then, I reacted inside myself.
‘What? Am I still not happy? Of course I am. I feel amazing! How can I not be happy after all of this time! All of these changes! I don’t feel empty… surely I must be happy?!!’ .
And then it occurred to me.
Is happiness really it? Is it possible that we are asking the wrong question?
I knew that the solidness I felt in me was real. I knew that I didn’t feel like I was lacking anything or needing to fill myself. I knew that what I felt in me was something far grander than anything I had tried to attain outside of myself.
What I was able to then feel was that ‘happiness’ is as I had always felt it to be – it is but a fleeting moment. It comes and goes; it is something that we can’t hang on to. Like any other emotion, it is not solid. It is often attached to an event or a hype of some kind.
It feels good in the moment and then it subsides after the fact.
But JOY on the other hand – this I feel.
Joy needs nothing to evoke it. It lives inside of me.
It is there when I am sleeping and it is there when I wake. It is solid and it is constant. It feels confirming of who I am – and I don’t need to do anything except connect to me and be with me to feel it. It is so much more robust than happiness. It fills my body with warmth and when I am connected to it I feel play-full – like I want to express all of me to the world.
Yes indeed, joy feels to me to be where it’s at!
So then – am I happy? No – not always.
But am I joyful? Very much so.
With deep appreciation to Sara Harris, Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine for presenting a way of life that is so simple – yet so grand.
By Brooke Taylor, RTO Academy General Manager, Elwood, Australia
Further Reading:
The Difference Between Happiness and Joy
Sacred Esoteric Healing As A Way Of Life
Hello, is it me I’m looking for…?
796 Comments
I’m feeling the joy whilst writing this comment. You have really nailed the happiness thing Taylor. Looking back on my life I can see that all the moments of happiness came and went , had fun then didn’t, but you are so right, joy comes from a totally different place and it is a keeper if we choose it.
Beautiful Brooke, what a great sharing , understanding and reality you bring to happiness and joy that are streaks apart. Joy comes from ones solid connection within innately there, soulful and beautiful as you describe and is a constant. Happiness on the other hand is something to be attained and searched for from outside and is intermittent and not sustainable constantly and is often settled for as everything, whereas there is so much more. It feels so amazing to know a consistency inside that just is and is always there inside to connect to instead of the roller coaster of emotions that come from the search to fill oneself and is up and down. I never realised before meeting Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine, the absolute joy and beautiful feeling that is inside myself and all of us waiting to be tapped into and lived in every moment.
I agree Brooke. Happiness is the emotion that comes and goes , but can still leave us feeling empty. Where as ” Joy needs nothing to evoke it. It lives inside me.” There is no emptiness when we feel joyfull.
Thank you for exposing the illusion of happiness Brooke – something I have kidded myself I was often over the years to avoid feeling the pain of my lack of connection. To choose to re-connect to the depth of joy within is amazing and leaves no need to chase the illusion of happiness.
I can also say that this has been my experience of happy, fleeting and attached to an action or event outside of me. And it doesn’t feel like happiness is ‘it’. I have lived most my life miserable and in reaction to chasing something I knew deep down was not what I truly want but did it anyway because everyone else was doing the same. Joy to me feels as you described it Brooke, solid and steady whereas happiness can feel flighty and can change into other emotions like the wind. What reading this blog has got me wondering about is are our conversations in life truly in the direction we feel deep down to go? By focusing on how to be happy we don’t get to what we really want – joy. It’s like the car GPS telling us where to go, ‘turn left’ and we turn right then get upset when we get lost/not where we want to be.
If I had read this at the beginning of the year I would have not really understood what you were sharing but now after doing a women’s health programme where I simply check in with my body and specific parts of my body I can absolutely say I know the steady warmth and expansion that now fills me, which I understand always was there to fill me but I hadn’t connected to it so was unaware and lost, empty. The more I connect to that feeling in my body the less I need anything, nothing holds a shine to the feeling inside.
It seems a little crazy when you put it like this Brooke that we spend so much time trying to hang on to or re-create or chase those elusive happy moments in life when happiness is not it anyway! As you say happiness is outside and joy is a constant state within which can be connected to any moment.
Wow Brooke, this is so gorgeous to read, I feel deeply inspired by your story, ‘I walk down the street feeling the gorgeousness of myself and I live knowing who I am and I aim to stay connected to that at all times.’
I love this Brooke. I can feel your joy spilling off the page.
When someone asks me about, if I am happy- it always feels superficial in a sense, if every box is ticked, that is causing happiness in a sense. Joy doesn´t come from the outside it is within me- living me is true joy and noone else needs to bring me joy. How liberating it is to live like this.
A true discovery, Brooke. The difference between happiness and joy also became clear to me a few years ago while learning with Universal Medicine. One time I experienced a situation where I was definitely not happy – lots of illness and challenges going on – but all through it I had an unassailable inner joy in being me, that no amount of ’emotional weather’ could take away.
Thanks Brooke, for the revelation on the difference between happiness and joy. I’ve never really considered the question ‘are you happy?’ in that way before and after reading this, I can say I get a similar feeling about answering, a sort of ‘No, but I should be and then everything will be alright.’
I have re-connected to a much more solid, playful, simple way of being in life and with myself since the support of Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine, I feel confident, at ease, with less expectations, judgement and pressure on myself. This allows for a more constant feeling of joy, which is a world apart from fleeting happiness.
I love this Brooke. Joy is just as you describe in my experience and needs ‘nothing to evoke it’. How awesome is that! We strive for this ephemeral thing called happiness, when all the time we are innately joy-full beings. In fact, I feel it is the striving to be happy that masks our joy in the first place! No more chasing happiness – swapped for being joy-full.
I agree Richard and I love how you said “No more chasing happiness – swapped for being joy-full” – that encapsulates it really well to me!
By chasing happiness we run away from the very thing that we seek – the joy that naturally resides in the heart and Soul of every human being. Thankyou Brooke for beginning to unravel this seeming conundrum by asking the question; “Is happiness really it? Is it possible that we are asking the wrong question?” For more light on the subject of happiness versus Joy, check out: http://www.unimedliving.com/unimedpedia/word-index/unimedpedia-joy.html
Good point Liane.
‘Happiness’ does include the package of ‘unhappiness’, so there is always an ‘up and down’ momentum happening, like the devastating turn of the Wheel of Fortune, and so there can be no consistency of love and joy. Who would want to be caught in this spider web, once having experienced true joy? Happiness is but a faint echo, an imitation, a cheap reproduction of joy.
“True Joy is never found in anything outside of oneself. It is a livingness which springs from a true body of Love that, when meeting the divine Essence of another, expresses outwardly in all its glory and light. It is the expression of the Love, Stillness, Truth and Harmony residing in the inner-heart of every human being, a never-ending confirmation of who we truly are.” Thank you for this link Liane, it confirms what Brooke has written, that there is a big difference between happiness and joy. Thank you for writing about your understanding of the words and their true energetic meaning Brooke.
True Liane. And I find that searching to be happy is very tiring. Whereas when I am just me I am naturally joyful and enjoy simple things in life.
We are sold ‘happiness’ at the expense of true joy, unaware that included in the package is also ‘unhappiness’. This happiness is provided as a relief for the unhappiness we feel when we disconnect from our truth, a truth that when lived brings us immense joy -a joy that cannot be paralleled by living less than the absoluteness of this.
Who reads the fine print when happiness looks so shiny and lustful?! Like you’ve said, we are sold the highs without understanding the steeping lows included in the emotional package of disconnection. A Universal expansion on our desire for happiness and where this has come from – thank you Liane.
Happiness always felt fake – like a shopsoiled good. You pay almost full price for it but it isn’t really what you want but since you think you only have enough money for the shopsoiled good, you buy it anyway.
When the truth is that we have an enormous amount of joy in us.
In former times I thought when I am happy , I am full of joy. But this did not last It is like a mood that comes and goes, often depending on what happened outside in my surrounding and my life. Joy is a different feeling. It is much more deep and still. It is like a still river flowing through my body.
Beautiful Kerstin, I agree that happiness is indeed like a mood and comes and goes due to outside circumstances, I love that ” Joy is a different feeling. It is much more deep and still. It is like a still river flowing through my body.” This feels like a deep connection to my essence within.
Well said Kerstin, that we misunderstand the difference between how joy and happiness feels in our body is making me wonder what and when else we misinterpret in what we are feeling.
You have definately nailed ‘happy’ Brooke. I too would cringe when I was asked if I was happy and you are so right when you say that ‘happy’ is fleeting. I had not felt to put it in the ’emotional bucket’ but your blog feels to be truth. Joy feels totally different: it has constancy and the consistency of love that is far from fleeting.
thanks Brooke. I too have cringed when asked if I was happy. There was something about the way it was asked that didn’t feel right. It felt as though the person was not asking “are you happy” they were actually saying “you are unhappy”. In my later years at high school I thought that happiness was where it was at and tried to lift everyone up. But the truth is this was really exhausting on me and me, the one trying to make everyone happy did not feel happy AT ALL! But like you since i have made changes in my life most notably realising I’m not responsible for everyones happiness I have begun to feel a natural joy and sparkle. I think thats why we use the word happiness so much, because naturally and as children we are all joy-full and sparkly. But somewhere along the way we leave that and become serious, and believe things have to be a certain way. Well they don’t have to be that way. We can be sparkly for our whole life! it will be there if we chose it. I know this is certainly a truth for me.
Happiness is definitely second prize. When you experience joy, happiness palls. When you experience love, happiness is the simulation of love.
A fabulous blog and sharing Brooke. I completely get it what. You say how being asked if you were happy made you cringe. It does feel false and empty. I too many years ago had a huge reaction and cringing feeling when I watched a movie called the Pursuit of Happiness. At the time I didn’t know why but I knew it disagreed with me. I felt it to be wrong that this dad was forever chased and idea, a dream, a it has to be this way then I’ll be happy. The person who I saw it with could not understand why I didn’t like it because for them, what happened in the movie was exactly what they were trying to do in life. For me it felt very untrue and wrong and I now know that this is because life is about Joy. Truth and love and us simply living who we naturally are.
I’ve been asked many times if I was ‘happy’ but always found the person asking me that question was not actually ‘happy’ themselves. Not happy with the choices they were making in their lives. Happy feels so much like its a shown expression on the outside of the body like, smile if your happy. Now ask me if I’m joyful the answer will come from a much deeper connected place within. Joy can be seen and felt through the eyes and the body – the vibration of joy is awesome. Thank you Brooke I really enjoyed your sharing – until now I’d never sat and felt into what happy means to me.
Beautifully said Brooke. I know that search for the elusive ‘happy’ that doesn’t last. Singing, or having sung to me Happy Birthday always made me cringe and I wondered why. Happy was always a doing or a having but soon lost its sparkle and I was searching for the next thing. Serge Benhayon at Universal Medicine presentations introduced me to the true meaning of joy and an inner connection to the love within me, a connection to me, to God and to the love in every other person on the planet and I knew I had come home to know true joy, a permanent feeling within me that is there whatever I do, wherever I go as long as I choose to say connected to the love that I am and feel equally in others.
Love this blog Brooke. I can totally relate happiness feels like an outer quest and is a very poor substitute for joy. Happiness to me now feels kind of hollow and transitory and has so much expectation around it and does not deliver, whereas joy is just present when I am truly with me and share this with another, I can feel it in every cell of my body as it reflects back, confirming it is a very natural way to be. Since developing a deeper connection and relationship with my body I have developed truer relationships with others.
I feel this joy equally in a quite moment or in full activity of my day. Magic.
This is beautiful Victoria. Joy is not dependant on the outer and can be there in a quiet moment or a full day of hustle and bustle 🙂
I can relate to what you say Victoria Picone, since I developed a deeper relationship with myself, I also find a deepening in my relationship with others. And that to me feels really joyful. Happiness to me feels like just scratching the surface, but joy feels deeper and all encompassing
Even just expressing it as a ‘quest’ in your first line is super exposing of how we endlessly search for something that doesn’t actually bring us any joy or rich fulfillness, Victoria. When I think of mine and others ‘search for happiness’, I image a cat chasing and trying to catch a red light someone is shining on the wall and moving around all the time. Our ‘red light’ (being happiness) just seems like a distraction from joy – something that comes from within, that we don’t need the outside world to give us.
Thank you for this blog Brooke, I so relate and love that you have written about this. I could actually never relate to the word happiness, people would ask me but I would never feel ‘happy’ and then I would be confused like there was something wrong with me as I felt good but not happy.
That joy is what I felt makes so much more sense. Joy is for me a constant feeling of deep contentment, a feeling of confirmation of that yes I am Amazing! It does not mean I am singing all day or am smiling all the time, or being excited, joy can be felt in a moment of being with myself having made a loving choice or drinking a cup of tea. It just is and it is very lovely to feel.
This is a good point Lieke. Often we assume that people are not ok if they are not smiling and laughing, and therefore we can put ourselves under pressure to look ‘happy’ for the sake of other people. Joy can be found in the simplest of things as you say, and this is a feeling inside that we can enjoy, and does not need to be an outward display simply to prove ourselves.
There might be also the factor that people feel uncomfortable with someone not being happy = miserable as that would mean they have to deal with that. Knowing someone to be happy basically means I don´t have to bother with something uneasy, so we can be comfortable.
Great point Lieke – we do not have to be constantly smiling ecstatically or laughing in order to be happy or joyful… We can feel joy in any moment, of every day – it does not depend on emotions, what we’re doing or who we’re with.
I always felt the same too Brooke … I felt there was some sort of pressure like “Well, if you tell me your happy then everything is ok … right?”. Joy on the other hand is a constant and it feels amazing! Happiness just doesn’t rate when you are filled with Joy. Happiness is momentary and seems to rely on the outside world to fulfil it … Joy is constantly there for you to connect to whenever you choose. There is no comparison!
Great one Brooke. I like what you’ve said about emotions, that they’re fleeting and aren’t solid. Where as a joyous way of living can be constant (without any perfection of course). Good job.
I completely agree. I prefer the steadiness and balance of true feelings not the up and down of emotions.
Yes me too – everything becomes so much simpler, clearer and joy-full then doesn’t it?
Joy is so much more than being happy as you so beautiful have described Brooke Taylor. As you say happiness is a fleeting moment you can feel but are not able to sustain. For me it feels that it comes from an excitement that needs to be maintained, compared to the joy, that resides in the stillness and that truly is there to be felt all the time continuously so, since the stillness is the true nature of our being and where no excitement resides.
Good point, happiness has motion in it and excitement, whereas joy is based on stillness and repose.
I agree Nico – it takes work to sustain being happy and still leaves me feeling somewhat empty, whereas Joy just flows naturally and effortless from the fiery embers within. I remember growing up hearing that to feel emotion was good. It meant you were alive and ‘in touch’, however after feeling Joy, there is no comparison. Joy is a living fiery Light that gently burns within us, that is contagious, warm and inspires all those around us.
Very true Nico, happiness is just a excitement not truly felt deep in our bodies, where on the other hand Joy resides in the body where it always is, a very steady and beautiful feeling.
Brooke, the way you have described joyful ness and happiness is so spot on. Happiness is not something we can hold on to, it comes and goes. But on the other hand joy fullness lives deep within. This is something I have rediscovered in the recent years with Serge Benhayon at Universal Medicine.
Being happy feels like a state where we always need to get more, or intensify to have the same fulfilment, like a drug addiction, but we are never truly fulfilled. Being joyful feels innate, natural, permanent, full, and the more we express it the more we can access it, and it just can’t be contained.
Adele when I read your comment about the fact that joy can’t be contained it struck me that none of the qualities of our inner most can. Love, stillness, harmony and joy are all border-less states of being whereas happiness feels like a metallic fence.
So true Adele, “Being happy feels like a state where we always need to get more, or intensify to have the same fulfilment, like a drug addiction, but we are never truly fulfilled.” In fact, consistent happiness is elusive and can keep us on a merry-go-round in search of it… until we discover the joy that naturally and effortlessly lives within. Living joyfully is not elusive, it is possible. In fact, VERY possible, and it never goes away. It just hangs out until we come back to it. Ever steady and ever so delightful.
I have observed this too – it really exposes that happiness is sought outside of us and that joy is eternally within us as Brooke so eloquently expressed.
Well said Adele. We have to ask, is ‘happiness’ ever truly fulfilled? In my experience, most definitely not – it is transient, and determined by factors outside of ourselves – which we may well demand to be a certain way, and even be ‘successful’ in attaining what we want… Yet underneath, the lack of fulfilment that exists when we do not truly reconnect to who we are, ever sits there as a vast cavern of emptiness – a place we desperately hope we don’t lose ourselves to…
Joy however, is innate as you say – when we have refound ourselves, it is as natural as breathing in and breathing out…
True Adele. Once Joy is let out it cannot be contained – it’s for all. We are all one and the same.
Yes Adele, I also feel happiness well likened to a drug addiction where it is like we are looking for that hit or stimulation. To me chasing happiness and living truly with Joy feel like two ways of being that are at either end of the scale.
When we say we are happy when we are not, it is harming because our expression is in conflict with how we feel. When we say we are happy when we are, we are led by an excited elation, the honesty we have to give ourselves credit for, yet the word is still taking us away from the connection with ourselves which feels still without ups and downs. The word happy also feels laced with attachment, it is not free, it is dependent always on something outside of us—and hence we are not free when we use this word. No wonder we cringe at hearing the word happy, and this is a great reminder to take deeper responsibility in what words to use when expressing.
Wow, Adele, I really agree with your comment “The word happy also feels laced with attachment, it is not free, it is dependent always on something outside of us—and hence we are not free when we use this word.” I seem to remember some time in the distant past, I had a boyfriend that often used to ask me if I was happy. I actually found it intrusive, and although I would often say ‘yes’, I never really felt comfortable about using that word. Now I know why, we are not free when we use this word. Deep within, I knew that word was not TRUE.
The imposition that comes with the word ‘happy’ can be clearly felt in your comment, it comes very close if not equals a demand of some kind, a supposed ‘right’ way to be that doesn’t leave much scope for a deeply felt and personal expression.
Very wise Adele your command is gold – we are not really aware of all the laced attachments we have with words – not only with the word happiness.
Brooke, I find anyone breathing joy in their simple daily expressions to be an absolute breath of fresh air, absolutely a gift and we all have that gift in connection with ourselves, the simplicity and the equal grandness of it is Amazing. Thank you.
It was a jolt to read your realisation that the pursuit of happiness never provides lasting satisfaction. Rather the gentle building of connection and joy within yourself providing a more consistent solidness within.
Thank you Brooke- I was also feeling a cringing feeling when you were talking about ‘happiness’- but the moment you mentioned joy- that I felt embodied and went “yes”. Thank you for expressing something that we have all been faced with and to offer some clarity into how we respond and feel.
Me too. I had this exact same feel when I read about happiness and then Joy.
True Arianne,
There is such investment, need, expectation and effort connected to this word ‘happiness’- i hear a false, see a false – the ‘happy’ person who we can feel is deeply angry or sad yet playing a role otherwise. Happy is the pressure to conform or be something, short-lived moments of escape or rewards and happy is as fleeting as happy is false.
Yes Deborah, for me there is a hollowness in the word happiness. It feels like there is a void in happiness that no amount of anything is going to fill it, a bottomless pit that will never fill. On the other hand Joy feels like an expansion, it is an emanation of Love when I connect to my essence. The Joy is there to not hold back, but to share with all of humanity.
Thanks for this inspiring blog Brooke. It situates what happiness is very well – a fleeting superficial thing that comes and goes. But this joy and love belongs to all of us always and does nor require anything outside of us to evoke it. It is a dimensional shift in the way we live, to be connected to this love, no matter what we are experiencing in the outside world, apparently good or apparently bad.
Lyndy it’s really mad when you consider that so much of the world is chasing happiness which you so aptly describe is fleeting and superficial. That’s just one crazy aspect of our futile search but when you stop and consider that joy in abundance is within us all whilst we scrabble around for happy moments then the whole thing seems utterly ridiculous !
Happiness keeps us in individuality, something that we strive for ourselves, joy offers us the opportunity to be in brotherhood, to share with everyone equally.
You are spot on Donna. When I feel into happiness, it is only making it about me, but joy on the other hand, feels totally all encompassing of everyone.
This is a great point Donna. Happiness is all about how we want to feel with out considering others, but to be joyful is something we can truly share with everyone. When we are joyful others can feel it. And the beautiful thing is we can be joyful in everything we do if we choose to, and we don’t have to make an effort to be it. It is then just how we are. How gorgeous!
Thanks for that Reminder Donna, this is a revelation for me and how in the pursuit of happiness it is just about self, and the choice to live joyfully is the way of brotherhood. Thankyou
So true Alexis. I still fall for the happiness hook from time to time. I can spot it when I find myself looking forward to something or checking out as if the present moment doesn’t matter. The dogged pursuit of happiness actually leads me to live in an irresponsible way. Joy on the other hand calls me to be absolutely responsible and honouring of myself and others.
Thank you Leonne for your honesty. Recently, when asked if I was excited about an upcoming trip, I felt into it and answered truthfully ‘No I’m not’. I was aware the trip was imminent, but was still with me in the present and content with that. There was no moving forward within me, just an acceptance of where I was.
Utterly ridiculous indeed, well said Alexis!
It is ridiculous, that we make happiness the ideal we seek and yet joy is often ignored . Often we hear the phrase from others…”I just want to be happy” I know I used it myself as a mantra for eons. To contemplate that joy is something we innately have, and is a constant, would have been unfathomable to me a few years ago. How is it possible that we can loose something that is so innate and not recognise it as part of ourselves?
Lyndy I agree, love and joy are part of us and even though we may be experiencing what are considered ‘bad’ things as in the death of a close one or loss of a job, or ‘good’ things such as a birthday celebration it does not mean we automatically feel sad or happy. I have often reflected on these ideals. In fact any emotion will leave us either up or down, whereas with love and joy there is harmony and ease.
Yes with joy there is harmony and ease, agree Victoria, and feel this ease is related to acceptance – of how things are and of ourselves too, to leave us at ease with ourselves – joy, harmony, is then a benefit arising through acceptance. When we are happy we always search for ‘more happy’ because there isn’t a real acceptance of how things are, but instead an underlying dissatisfaction and therefore pursuit of wanting to make it/life better, through happiness. Happiness takes us out; Joy pulls us in.
Love these words Lyndy – “But this joy and love belongs to all of us always”. I never feel this with happiness, it only brings comparison, it’s momentary and hiding what I’m really feeling. It’s quite a sinister emotion in fact.
Brooke, what a beautiful expose of the word ‘happy’. I agree that word and it’s connotations is fleeting, it is a bit like chasing something that is not going to be caught – a butterfly, a bird or a rainbow. But with joy it is all encompassing as it is an emanation of love and not an emotion as happy is – an ideal and not real.
As I read your comment Susan I realised that being ‘happy’ is about us and what we experience with it. It is very self-centred. But joy is for everyone. When we feel joy this is naturally shared for all to feel and be part of. It holds everyone equally as joy is not about just one person and their experience, it is about so much more than that. To me the difference between the two are light years apart.
Agree Robin. When I am Joyfull, I can feel the whole world with me!
Beautifully said Robyn, happiness is about us… and Joy is for everyone. Thank you for taking my awareness of Joy to a new level… happiness and joy are indeed light years apart!
This is true Robyn ‘joy is for everyone. When we feel joy this is naturally shared for all to feel and be part of. It’s also something felt, there’s no trying. With happiness, it often it feels like a striving to be happy, a place we have to get to or aspire to be. With joy there is no movement, it just is.
Thanks Brooke, I have also found that there is a significant difference between happiness and joy. Happiness is something I continually chase, through things and actions, as you have named Joy is something that comes from within me, based on how loving I have been with myself.
Exactly Joel and beautifully summarised – happiness is on the outside whereas joy comes from within. I previously was like Brooke where I was in a never ending chase for happiness, capturing it at times but never able to sustain it for other than short periods and always looking for the next fix. Joy on the other hand is not to be found on the outside, and is always there, simply waiting for us when we connect to ourselves within…
‘… and always looking for the next fix…’ – it’s very much like a drug isn’t it Angela?!
Joy is who we are and happiness is something we seek outside of ourselves when we are not connected to the joy that we are.
Thank you Marcia. Powerfully, simply and succinctly expressed.
Thanks Marcia, you nailed it in one succinct sentence! beautifully expressed
Marcia, that’s perfectly summed up in a beautifully wise way.
Yes, it is like ‘falling in love’ and ‘to truly love’. Falling in love is like happiness an attraction which is time-dependent and bound to a certain occasion. Whereas joy is like love, it is an ever deepening feeling, very solid and constant.
Boom – straight to the point Marcia. Joy is who we are.
Beautifully said Marcia.
Spot on Marcia and thank you Brooke for bringing our awareness to what many term ‘happiness’ and seek; the elusiveness of this goal ‘happy’ and the power of Joy – such warmth, permanence, steadiness and simplicity of Joy – no striving, no looking out, just being us and expressing the love we are. Joy!
Marcia that is so short and sweet and so true!
Absolutely Marcia, beautifully summed up, ‘Joy is who we are and happiness is something we seek outside of ourselves when we are not connected to the joy that we are.’
There is also a great sense of connection with life and all that lives in Joy whereas with happiness there remains a sense of isolation, disconnection and emptiness.
Very beautifully said Marcia.
Simplicity itself! Thankyou Marcia for summing the difference up so succinctly.
Beauty-fully written marcia owen- lots of Joy!
You have summed up joy and happiness beautifully, Joel. Joy is about self responsibility and is reflected in our innermost and happiness is superficial and is usually reliant on external things. I know which one feels like “me”.
Me too Anne joy feels so natural and “me” like 🙂
I agree Joel and Brooke, happiness is something I continually chased, through things and actions. Joy has nothing to do with elevation or a heightened state of being. It is there very strong when I witness another grow and evolve.
Brooke wow was a great piece. It has really opened my eyes up on the lie of being happy. I too feel an everyday solidness and contentment with me that has been supported also my the Esoteric Modalites which is a joy to behold that does not need any striving for anything outside of me to be happy!
I feel the same Sharon, particularly with regard to the Esoteric modalities. Before I discovered these I was living a film-flam, rollercoaster life with instances of happiness but mostly emotions, drama and sometimes a kind of flatness. Learning how to reconnect to myself through these modalities was key to unlocking something far more substantial. Every moment I do this – reconnect – I strengthen the possibility of joy.
Without the Esoteric Modalities I could not have re-developed the ability to feel energy so clearly again. To choose to not be fooled anymore. To be open to knowing Truth, Love, Stillness, Harmony and Joy once again. Serge Benhayon presented one day that if there is Joy then there is also present the other 4 elements – how cool is that.
Awesome Sharon – your comment reminds me how instrumental Universal Medicine Therapies have been in allowing me to connect with the true joy described here.
Spot on Sharon… no striving required for Joy!
Yes, true joy can never be found in seeking or anywhere outside ourselves, its in our hearts and who we are.
Me too Sharon! I was caught up in the illusion that something outside of me would bring fulfillment. I was on a quest to find the ever elusive happiness and the next thing that I thought would make my life ok, only to get there and find I still felt the same and was then looking for the ‘next thing’ or happy event to fix my life. I’ve now been able to ‘feel that looking for anything outside of myself – including happiness – will never make my life complete, and that by looking within, is where true joy is found.
I agree Angela. As kids we see the role models around us going through the chasing and we learn to join in. Universal Medicine has been miraculous in supporting so many people to reconnect to their inner joy.
This is a great comment Sharon. I can remember a time when I’d reached a point in my life when I thought that if I was happy, it would always be counter balanced by being unhappy, because of something outside of me would happen to ‘make me’ unhappy. This became a very real pattern in my life, so I started to get anxiuos about being ‘happy’! However now I know that it is my choice whether or not to allow outside influences affect how I feel, and as you say Sharon, there is an everyday solidness and contentment within me that has been supported also by the Esoteric Modalites’ and there are few times when I am not connected to the constant joy that I now know I have inside me.
I love how simply you have put that Sharon – being happy is a lie.
Brooke I love your blog about, ‘happiness’. I can relate to everything you share. I also used to feel ‘that I was failing at life if I wasn’t ‘happy’. I also chased it – and ‘sometimes I felt it – but I could never hang onto it.’ All I wanted to do was be happy and I mistakenly thought it would come in the guise of the perfect job, the perfect partner, friends, having my own home and great holidays abroad. I looked to get everything outside of me to obtain it, but was deeply unhappy most of the time on the inside. Like you I also found the support I needed through Esoteric Healing only to find something much grander than happiness that was more solid and long lasting and that was to feel the exquisite loveliness inside that is me. It’s permanent and is not going anywhere and if I am having an off day, it’s right there for me to come home to.
Beautifully said, Rachel. All you have shared here has also been my experience too. Thank you for your expression, it was powerful to read.
Yep, my loveliness is permanent. Happiness is exhausting!
Love your words here Rachel – “It’s permanent and is not going anywhere and if I am having an off day, it’s right there for me to come home to.”
Living up to the expectation that we should be happy is exhausting Elizabeth, as is the expectation that we should make other people happy too. And it is so fleeting, here one moment,and destroyed through an unkind word or action the next. The loveliness Rachel speaks of cannot be destroyed in this way, it lives within us,deep and unchanging.
Finding the love of our lives inside of us is a joy in itself Rachel and I love how you have expressed it here. Wherever we are there it is too!
‘Finding the love of our lives inside ourselves is a joy in itself’ beautifully expressed Bernadette and says it all.
I love this Bern…we can be the love of our lives.
‘Finding the love of our lives inside ourselves is a joy in itself’ I love this also Bernadette. There is such a joy with this line. It hits a deep chord of joy that makes heart wants to sing!
Thank you Rachel for helping me feel the difference between joy and happiness. What is expressed here “It’s permanent and is not going anywhere and if I am having an off day, it’s right there for me to come home to.” is when I could feel in body how yes happiness comes and goes but Joy – joy is always there it has simply been my choice to not live in a way that feels and confirms this all the time :). Awesome blog in explaining the difference, thank you Brooke.
Yes it is awesome Julie to know the difference. This blog is power-full and has confirmed to me when I make it about people it is instant Joy. It’s a choice and a constant choice – it will reveal itself. Once it does reveal itself no more searching.. You just need the Will, or move your body with love, or express from the Heavens and JOY will be there!
The incessant chase for happiness. It’s like the carrot dangling ever so slightly, just out of our reach.
It’s a magnificent revelation when one realises that there is a distinct difference between happiness and joy. The former is shiney, seductive, enticing yet illusive and empty.
The latter feels full, an ever present, warming hum, rocking the body deeply yet imperceptibly. We emanate it through every pore and the glow is unmistakable.
May we continue to grow ever more joy-full, inspiring others as we go, building a true family, as one with humanity. Joy-filled.
I love what you say here Rachel, if we are having an off day – Joy IS right there for us to connect to. When I stop all the thoughts of ‘I need to do x, y, z’ and all of the pressures and expectations I place on myself, there is such a feeling of ease and Grace within me and I feel so beautiful, that it reminds me that all the other stuff is just not me.
Thanks Shevon, as you say “Joy IS right there for us to connect to.” It just is and so easily available especially if I stay connected with myself through my day. How I have so easily taken on all that other stuff that is not me.
So true Rachel, you and Brooke sum it up extremely well. We run around chasing all the things that we think will make us happy only to find that what they deliver is flimsy and fleeting. It feels like happiness is very conditional, dependent upon lots of different ingredients and many different recipes, but is always something attained externally. And then there is esoteric healing, a modality, a way of life that brings us home to all the delicious joy inside us, that like you say, even if we are having a bit of an off day, our joy is waiting patiently inside for us to return to it again. After many years of choosing esoteric healing and universal medicine, I too can now firmly claim that joy is a quality within me, solid, unerring, full and rich that requires nothing more than my loving attention to nourish it.
Gorgeous Rachel, I love what you have written here “only to find something much grander than happiness that was more solid and long lasting and that was to feel the exquisite loveliness inside that is me”
beautifully described Rachel, ‘I also found the support I needed through Esoteric Healing only to find something much grander than happiness that was more solid and long lasting and that was to feel the exquisite loveliness inside that is me. It’s permanent and is not going anywhere’, joy and happiness are very different qualities, I love the steadiness and permanence of joy, that it is there always if we choose it and it is not dependant on another, whereas we have no control over happiness it is something outside of us and is usually reliant on others.
Lovely Rachel! I agree. Now I have re-connected to the gorgeous exquisiteness that is me I know for sure it is not going anywhere. I used to think that all the beliefs I had taken on or the roles that I played were me and I could not feel the gem of what was inside. I didn’t know it was there all along but all I had to do was choose to connect to it. Whenever I have an off day all I have to do is to get still and give myself permission to feel it – and there it is – strong, expansive, lovely, beholding and all embracing.
That´s how it feels to me as well, the loveliness of being connected with my very being, centered and knowing who I am, being at ease with myself, open to life, willing to learn and so much more. It seems to be a package of feelings once I am connected, accept and allow myself to just be; it actually is a vibrant state of being. Forget happy.
So True, Happy is but a speck of self that can be pinpointed, fleeting and measured against anything really that is less than happy to feel a state of elation, escape or relief; whereas Joy is abundant,, endless, sustainable, expansive and connected to all.
So true Alex, joy is the real deal and happiness is an illusive emotion that is very conditional to external events
I agree Alex. The beauty of feeling he love that I am that is shared with others is true joy. The transitory emotional highs of happiness are followed by the downs of the mundane – forget happy.
Yes so beautifully said Rachel, feeling happy is a pressure that we all measure our lives against, then compare whether we are as happy as our next door neighbour, your friends, work colleagues. Because we are rarely looking inside of ourselves for that joy, not just happiness that comes and goes.
Absolutely Rachel – the happiness is part of the facade, it never really gets under the surface, whereas the joy is lived from within out.
Brooke I really loved what you explored here as happiness is so often what people try to attain, yet I too have found it to be fleeting, unlike joy which you so beautifully described as confirming of you, solid, playful, warm and something which is lasting. This has been my experience too. I know when I don’t feel this way I am not with myself and am able to feel that I am looking outside of me, or not truly with me in the moment. Through Universal medicine and the esoteric practitioners I have seen I too am learning to live more from my essence and with that comes the joy of living me. Thank you for sharing your beautiful awareness about what it is to find the joy within.
“Joy needs nothing to evoke it. It lives inside of me.
It is there when I am sleeping and it is there when I wake. It is solid and it is constant. It feels confirming of who I am.”
This is beautiful Brooke and I can really relate, Joy is consistent and has no swingometer of up moments and drops as does happiness. It does not sit on a spectrum of two extremes, trying to stay at one end of the spectrum (the hapiness end), but inevitably swinging between the two. Joy is steady, confirming and not an elevation.
Beautiful blog, thank you.
I agree Kate, I didn’t know what true joy was until I reconnected to it within me. Sometimes it feels like my joy is too much for some people, so now it is learning how to be in joy and accept myself, and that its ok to be all the joy that I am.
I love the part you have highlighted Kate… “Joy needs nothing to evoke it. It lives inside of me.
It is there when I am sleeping and it is there when I wake. It is solid and it is constant. It feels confirming of who I am.” …because for me this says there is nothing we need to DO to attain joy, it is only about connecting to it as it is always there. This is so gorgeous and is absolutely my experience. Whereas with happiness it is a constant effort to attain and more effort to then keep it. To me this speaks volumes.
Well said Robyn. The only thing I have to do is keep on connecting to my inner heart and the joy wil surface as it was always there. Good to remember, as I haven’t connected to that joy on a permanent basis yet and have to work on that connection.
I love your honesty here Willem. It is similar for me. I feel that for me it is about no longer doing things to actively stop me feeling the joy that is naturally there inside me, and around me and which is accessible to me always.
Great point Catherine about not stopping our natural joy. One of life’s absolutely available innate precious gifts lives inside us 24/7 and all we need to do is remember and connect to our joy. It is dependent on no one or anything but us.
Exactly Robyn, There is noting we can do to achieve joy it is a state of being
Robyn happiness requires a constant effort to attain for sure, it also comes at a cost, not only financial as people will go to extraordinary lengths to entertain themselves and others for a ‘splash of happiness’. Then there is the unseen cost of having had happiness, you then forever chasing it which can be exhausting and it becomes a way of life planning for the next happy event. Whereas joy is ever present and requires nothing but a connection to the abundance within.
Yes Kate, to me Joy feels like a state of being and happiness a state of attaining. One you have to work for, the other just is.
Wise words Elizabeth – it brings me Joy !!
Gorgeous Kate I couldn’t agree more. Joy is a constant and happiness is fleeting.
Achieving happiness can require a lot of effort, whereas you have said Elizabeth ‘Joy just is ‘.
Good to emphasis this Kate. Joy and happiness are indeed two different things. While the world is looking for happiness, which is basicly a stimulation coming from things outside of us, Universal Medicine is presenting a different way, which is about joy being a constant that was always there inside of us. The quest for happiness is so big, that entire industries float on it, as happiness doesn’t last and has to fed with new experiences.
This is so true Willem, that the entire world is wanting more and more stimulation and excitement, and bigger and better everything just to achieve a transient state of happiness that does not last, when all along the natural state of joy is living inside of us. Universal Medicine is the only organization that I know of that presents the only true way to re-connect to our innate state of being that is not only joy, but love, stillness and harmony.
It feels that in pursuing happiness we are like pop artists striving for the number one position in the charts, thinking that will fulfill us. After the high of each number 1 there is the disappointment, because again it didn’t last and we go for next number 1.
Yes Willem I agree happiness is a short experience, where as joy is something felt deep within. Some days I am full of a lot of joy and other days it is not as visible, but it is always within me, ready to shine.
That’s right Willem, everyone wants to be a winner or ‘on top of the game’, always seeking more ways of finding ‘happiness’ and recognition. When Joy is connected to then there is no need for ‘doing’ anything because just ‘being’ is enough.
Yes very true Willem. The constant drive to get to that height of happiness is never-ending, but joy is a beautiful constant vehicle to travel through life with. I much prefer to drive that kind of transport rather than take the bus to happiness its a lot longer journey with many winding roads that don’t end.
Well said Willem, you have describe happiness perfectly
“as happiness doesn’t last and has to fed with new experiences.”
Yes a really big smile came across me when Brooke started talking about Joy. As I have been having esoteric healing sessions over the past 4 years I have learnt to let go of the relentless need for ‘happiness’ and have been settling into the solidness of me and discovering the true meaning of joy. It is something quite heavenly and very real and very within reach as it is within all of us. Each and every one. A bubbling fountain of joy.
Yes Sarah, and there is an exquisite feeling of well-being that comes with joy, so unlike the hyped up high of happiness which is really about one’s personal profile rather than a universally shared way of being.
Love this Lyndy, your comment about happiness being part of one’s personal profile, brought a smile from my exquisite and innately joyful well-being.
Me too. A great point Lyndy.
Sharing a ‘universal way of being’ speaks absolute truth Lyndy. When I read those words a resounding ‘YES’ echoed through my body. Universal understanding instead of individual pursuit is the way and joy just IS when I feel this truth. Thank you; this is the kernel to take into my day today!
I had never thought about joy being a “universal way of being” but in some ways it is almost like our birthright that we lost along the way.
Joy being the ‘kernel’ to take into my day Bernadette, I love that as it can grow and blossom!
Love this Sara, the true joy that I have been finding comes from a very astute knowing of who I am and feeling completely confident within that
So true Sarah that Joy is dependent on my connection to my true self or my living essence inside me. Happiness on the other hand is soooo.. dependent on outer variables and effects.
I agree, it is like happiness is treated like it is the be all or end all. Through this we do create a need for happiness, but when we achieve happiness we realize that we are more than happiness and that happiness isn’t true; so then we go into the opposite, sadness and looking for something else. Looking for true joy.
Sarah who would have thought the relentless striving for happiness was a journey away from the joy we have as a constant within, all that time we didn’t appreciate the exquisite connection we have naturally.
I love that Sarah. We are all bubbling fountains of joy and its untapped always there constantly.
I’m still getting used to this idea that joy is not an elevation … I am so used to the swingometer. When I connect to joy I feel amazing compared to the times I don’t connect to it. I can feel this isn’t really an elevation but a connection to a true way of being that shows how false it is to live without joy.
Yes I felt this too Leonne and I took a while to just feel how amazing that is. Joy is something that feels so steady and complete and just oozing deliciousness yet it is not elevating at all.
Indeed joy is a steady feeling, something complete where nobody, nothing is required from the outside. It just is. For me this shift from the need to be happy to experiencing this pure joy from within was big and yet so simple. Joy is there, always. Just need to not dis-connect from it 🙂
I love what you share here Leonne. The simplicity of feeling joy, not ‘an elevation but a connection to a true way of being”
Yes Leonne, I also feel that joy is not an elevation, but something so natural. When I am connected with real joy I also feel the blessing of just being me.
What you shared Leonne reminds me of how seeking happiness and wanting it to last is in fact an elevated feeling that is only ever temporary.
Leonne the swingometer… It was such a gauge of a good time, and if you didn’t hit the heights on the swingometer you were deemed dull or boring. It actually went with me to all my interactions as I needed to react a certain level to be socially acceptable., that’s scary but it was true. Now it doesn’t come on my radar, I have connected to the joy within and it’s a constant without the highs and lows.
Beautifully said Kate – Joy is steady, confirming and not an elevation.
Absolutely agree, Kate “Joy is steady, confirming and not an elevation”, that is exactly what I now feel more and more, day to day. It seems a long time now since I sought to be ‘happy’, I think I knew intrinsically that it was so ephemeral, it is there one moment, and then gone the next. That brings about the exhausting experience of being up one moment, and down the next, just like a see-saw. I love the lasting joy that one can experience the more one stays connected to oneself. It is still somewhat a work in progress for me to hold this, but so, so worthwhile.
Connecting to myself and feeling the joy is work in progress for me too. At times I have felt so much joy that I have felt ‘bigger’ than myself and there is nothing I cannot do, I have more confidence and am more open to people, I naturally connect and love everyone more. This feeling is so awesome I wonder to myself where has it ‘gone’ when I feel disconnected, the reality is it has not ‘gone’ anywhere, it is just me who is resisting feeling my own magnificence. Acceptance, appreciation and honesty with myself goes a long way to re-connecting to the joy within.
Beverley, I felt your words in your comment above “I love the lasting joy that one can experience the more one stays connected to oneself.” so remind-full and true, and that is the key it seems to ‘stay connected to oneself’.
I totally agree Kate and Brooke has done an amazing job here in presenting the truth about happiness and JOY, considering the world does not know that we can live in JOY the majority of the time if we are willing to reconnect and stay connected to ourselves. It is no wonder that our conversations are about happiness and not about JOY, however the more people that reflect that JOY does exist the more people will naturally start asking the question about being JOYFUL.
So true Amina. The world is so busy chasing happiness outside of them that they don’t even know that joy exists. We sure can present them a amazing reflection on what joy is.
Amina Tumi can I share some JOY WITH YOU! Love how you expressed about JOY. To me it is an irresistible feeling just waiting to ignite. It is always there when we connect and appreciate something that reflects the magic of God. JOY needs another being to be truly expressed. When we doubt our love or truth we squash our JOY. L-O-V-E this blog !! JOY-full !
How beautiful, yes indeed. Thank you for this blog.
I can relate too Kate. Joy is steady and still and WARM and glorious. It has not peaks and no troths.
It sits deep inside and emanates out of every pour and it is simply glorious. 🙂
It is a beautiful blog Kate, and one that makes me reflect on lots. It is quite a different way of looking at this given that the world talks only about happiness and how to be happy. JOY really is something entirely different and something that I feel is an allowing rather then an effort, looking back to when I was young this was not something I can say I allowed much of as I was always focusing on how others were, so reconnecting back to this is and has been a process, however a process well worth focusing on.
I too now know the difference between joy and happiness whereas previously I used to think they were one in the same thing. Happiness is as many have already said, so fleeting. We have moments of happiness, some short some long, but it doesn’t last, and then there is the come down once it has passed. But joy is always there inside us, it is a constant and doens’t have highs and lows. We just have to learn to connect with it more often so that is becomes a part of who we are, and then it oozes from our body for all to see and feel, with no trying! And that is truly gorgeous.
The difference between happiness and joy is a wide, wide road. The opening to a consistent experience of inner joy is a rewarding path that cannot be denied, and I for one very much appreciate.
More than a wide, wide road…the difference is like a chasm. On one side is the steadiness and consistency of joy, an inner state of being that is very much alive…and on the other side, happiness is fleeting and floating, an outer response that is momentary, being used to fill an empty space.
Happiness is much like riding a rollercoaster. It’s fun for a while (like about a minute!), then I want some stability under my feet, something concrete, something still. It’s great I have joy waiting for me when I get back onto dry land, so to speak!
I agree Suzanne with the roller coaster analogy of happiness and the roller coaster. In the past for me I could always justify the lows of the downs by the excitement of the highs. It is crazy how we can compartmentalise life when it suits us to!
Well said James. Yes it is crazy how we choose to and accept that life can be compartmentalised. It is far truer to feel me all of the time with a beautiful balanced feeling.
But isn’t crazy how we actually choose which events are going to bring us happiness (we hope) – a holiday, the weekend, a certain event, food. That must mean we actually know life is not good for all the time in between. That’s what I love about Joy it comes from within – you do not need to travel anywhere or do anything.
So true Rik, I love what you said, Joy comes from within there is no need to travel anywhere or to do anything to get a certain outcome. True joy is inside and is there as a constant marker if we choose it.
Yes Rik happiness is something we seek and yet joy is steady and found in the simplest moments and comes from within.
Great point, Rik! True joy comes from within, it is steady, deep and solid and can carry us through our day. Many people wait the whole day for the evening, wait the whole week for the weekend or even wait weeks and months for holidays to come to finally be happy and do not even feel irritated by this way of living. Or should I better say this way of not living? When we choose love and make our life about evolution and true purpose, we can feel complete and full of joy in each and every moment, even if we have a very hard 10-hours-work-day with an angry boss…
That is crazy Rik! We are just choosing to be on a rollercoaster which we do not like falling for an illusion that there is some way of being that can be ‘happy’ all of the time when we know deep inside that is simply not true.
That’s a really awesome observation Rik. I hadn’t thought of it like that. It’s like we live knowing our life is not so great all day and ‘save up’ for some time that is ‘happy’, all the time knowing we are going back to that unhappiness we live everyday.
I used to think that life was a roller coast, that life was all about ups and down, that this was normal. And that the way to get to happiness was to be really sad at times, or inevitably after all happiness comes some sadness and what’s worse that I was the sum total of all my high and lows, happinesses and sadnesses – what a lie I was sold. And I swallowed it hook line and sinker.. until I met Serge Benhayon and he dispelled that all in one session – he supported me to see and feel that I was not the roller coaster but the love and joy that resided in my inner-heart.
Well said Terri-Anne. It is a lie we are sold and we eat it hook like and sinker indeed. Thanks for the reminder that we are indeed love and joy and the to enjoy the solidness that exists within those. I still purchase tickets every now and then for the roller-coaster but realise it is not a good ride at all. And return to the solidness and gorgeousness that I am.
The roller coaster part I know very well as well Terri-Anne. In the past I had so many emotional ups and downs – or when I’m honest, more downs than ups. I was so far away from real joy. And thanks to Serge and Unimed I found my way back to me and to joy.
I know this very well Alexander. Only I had managed my life that way there were only ‘ups’, the down I managed away. But the ‘ups’ didn’t bring any deep satisfaction and didn’t last. But if you don’t know another way, you will forever be running on that hamster wheel, thinking that is the way. The ups become an addiction, for which there seem to be no alternative. Then came Universal Medicine.
So many ride on the ups and down of emotion, all of which leave the body exhausted, depleted and lacking joy. The workshops as presented by Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine provide a shinning example of how to live in a way that does not use emotional fuel to exist but to develop ones relationship with themselves to be able to observe whats going on rather than getting emotional and reactive.
Man I used to ‘love’ that ride you are talking about Terri-Anne.
In fact I used to think that it was the downs in life that let me know that I was human – and live life attracted to those downs.
Until I realised that life is not meant to be hard. It is possible to live and love open and freely and consistently with joy.
Yes Suzanne, that is exactly what it is like!
Great anaology between happiness and a rollercoaster Suzanne…. Not only are there ups and downs, but overall it’s a short term thrill that generally only lasts for as long as the ride (or talking about it afterwards!), before having to line up in the queue in order to experience another thrill (aka another splash of happiness). Joy however is devoid of thrills, is always complete and always present, relies on no stimulation, no anticipation and no expectation.
I agree Angela, and I love your reference to “…another splash of happiness..” that is it isn’t it – the difference between joy and happiness – happiness is just there in that instant, that moment, but joy as you say is ‘always present’.
Joy is innate and requires nothing to be.
Perfect Angela but also in relation to the roller coaster example there is often a come down feel from both a roller coaster and from happiness, I know when I have “happy moments” in my life then I always feel the sadness and emptiness that the rest of my life is usually at.
I agree Oliver, there is a come down after the thrill of happiness, then the reality of normal life and the lack of ‘happiness’, seems to me that there is a comparison between the two. ” I was feeling good before, now I don’t, what’s going on? ” Then looking outside to get that feeling again and so it goes, the roller coaster of emotions. As Brook so beautifully explains – the fullness of joy, always there coming from inside, no bells and whistles, just the exquisite contentment of who I am.
Yes, and how long are those queue’s!? Especially when we can simply be joy-full anyway. It seems funny to think that the joy-full person will have more true fun in the queue than on the roller-coaster itself!
It wasn’t until I found out that it is possible to get off the rollercoaster that we get sold as a lie is what life is all about – that I realised that the feelings I used to think were what I enjoyed – were actually just an upset stomach!
I like that Simon,to finally realise that the roller coaster is just a ride and not reality. It so positively joyful to have your feet firmly on the ground without the need of the highs, lows and thrills of the ride and that it is just there as a distraction from what is really going on.
Awesome comment Suzanne, so much truth in what you share about the transitory feeling of happiness. It has no foundation and as you say feels rather like that roller coaster thrill and then its gone. But the joy within is always there just waiting our connection. Beautiful.
Joy to me feels like the very elusive feeling of contentment, which is something that seems very amiss in this world. And it is like you say Beverley, the innate joy within us is just bubbling underneath all of those layers of protection that we have built around ourselves waiting to be let out!
Happiness is like a roller coaster experience, it is there one minute and gone the next, leaving you feeling empty. Joy within is always there just waiting for our connection. Joy never leaves.
Yes, happiness comes and goes and is like a roller coaster, one that has many high points and lows. Joy on the other hand is created from within and is not dependant on the many variable outside ourselves.
I recently have been checking in with my body on a daily basis and what I have discovered is the same quality of expansion, warmth inside me that never wavers or differs, this is something I am starting to enjoy and want to take care of and nurture more than anything else, but even in that knowing I sabotage so I eat food that will dull me and that connection to the warmth is less. Crazy. But I know what lies beneath with a solidness and confidence than no happiness could ever touch the sides of.
I’ve found the same Vanessa. What lays beneath is untouchable and unwavering…it is simply my choices that allow me to either feel the ceaseless warmth and expansion…or not.
I love the analogy of a rollercoaster Suzanne. The thing with a rollercoaster is that it will continue to gain momentum, but eventually it has to stop, like happiness it is never going to last, unlike Joy which is constant and once chosen Joy can be lived every day whatever happens around us, as it comes from deep within and is part of our true nature.
That is probably I never liked roller coasters, as I also don’t like the ups and downs in life.