Happiness Or Joy

For me Happiness is contextual, meaning that I experience it most often shared in the company of others. Conversely Joy is a more internal experience, sometimes spontaneously given to me without any discernable reason, it is almost spiritual, a rapture.

Happiness without others may or may not be fully achieved, whereas joy amongst others risks being diminished or diluted.

Merriam-webster.com offers more complex definitions.

Joy is "the emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune or by the prospect of possessing what one desires : DELIGHT : the expression or exhibition of such emotion : GAIETY : a state of happiness or felicity : BLISS : a source or cause of delight"

Happiness is "a state of well-being and contentment : JOY : a pleasurable or satisfying experience : FELICITY, APTNESS a striking happiness of expression, obsolete : good fortune : PROSPERITY"

The Difference Between Happiness And Joy

by Annmarie Throckmorton, copyright 2023