All people want to be happy, joyful, enjoy every moment, see and feel the colors of life. Joy and positivity make our life bright, it is devoid of negativity and dullness.
But what is joy? You can read the definition briefly below. And you will also know where it comes from, and why it is so difficult for many to control their emotional state while remaining joyful. Why do some people look for it where there can be no talk of joy and do not notice its sources next to them?
Joy: meaning and synonym
What definition can be given to this concept? Joy is a source of strength, inspiration, muse, kind and bright energy that helps the heart live in kindness, warmth and peace with itself and others. This is the path to a competent and simple attitude towards life and all the things that happen in it, which are not always easy.
Synonyms for the word “joy” are “fun”, “rejoicing”, “delight”. This indicates that joy helps us to be more optimistic, happier, which means that it is a source of strong energy.
Joy is a feeling of inner bliss and pleasure.
Manifestations and properties of the emotion Joy
Joy is a manifestation of the state of Happiness or a Happy Moment. An emotional outburst of human pleasure.
Happiness is a long-lasting emotion - a state of movement towards a goal along the right path, where Life becomes a holiday.
The realization of any Goal only increases the emotion of Joy. The path to the goal itself causes a surge of strength and gives us inner satisfaction and true pleasure. An emotion, often called a feeling of joy, harmonizes a person’s state, saturating him with satisfaction with the world around him.
This emotion, for objective reasons, is relatively short-lived and is susceptible to being replaced by other emotional states.
The expression of Joy is visual, accompanied by a smile, a mimic narrowing of the eyes with the formation of radiant wrinkles.
Joy can arise during daydreaming or other forms of imagination or cognition.
Joy can arise at various stages of achieving a goal or event, from satisfaction with the achieved result, from physical exercise, from satisfying the needs of any feelings, or as a result of processes that reduce or level out negative personal states. It is the result of perception, thinking or action.
Why do people need joy?
Joy is one of the main positive human emotions. A person needs it for the following reasons:
- Joy is a good indicator of the right choice. When a truly competent, evaluated decision is made, a person cannot be sad, because he does not go against his conscience, against his moral principles and values. You immediately feel a surge of strength. If something goes wrong, incorrectly, then all the joy immediately disappears.
- Joyful people are always liked more by others. Try to evaluate for yourself a gloomy person who always complains about life and a person who shines with a smile and radiates positivity. Which of them would you most like to be in company with? The answer is obvious.
People who are able to be joyful even in difficult situations are truly strong and intelligent individuals! This is always immediately felt and visible almost to the naked eye. So your, if not constant, then frequent joy is an indicator of moral strength and intelligence.
How to determine joy by facial expression?
Of course, determining a person’s happy mood by laughter is not difficult. When joy is experienced silently, it is also quite easily determined by facial expressions, but the exception is combinations of this emotion with others.
A person’s joyful mood is primarily indicated by the characteristic eyelids and lower area of the face. The eyebrow-forehead area is not always involved in the facial ensemble of the emotion of joy.
The lips are characterized by a position with drawn out and slightly raised corners. When smiling, a person can either keep his lips closed or open his mouth slightly, exposing his teeth. The display of teeth in a smile may be limited to the upper incisors, or may include the lower and upper teeth along with the gums.
The more intense the smile, the more pronounced the nasolabial wrinkles become, running from the wings of the nose to the lower area of the face. Also characteristic is the raising of the cheeks, which makes the smile wider and facial folds more distinct. A pronounced smile significantly narrows the shape of the eyes.
The lower eyelids are also actively involved in the emotion of joy. The skin underneath is tightened in such a way that so-called “eye spots” are formed in the outer corners of the eyes. “Crow’s feet” are characteristic “fun” wrinkles that look like rays. With age, the “paws” become more pronounced, while in children they may not be present at all.
What is the source of joy?
Every person has their own source of joy. So, for some, buying an expensive foreign car, vacationing at an expensive resort, a chic blonde or a blonde nearby, an expensive phone, jewelry is the reason for happiness. Another may be overwhelmed by unexpected joy, but so sincere and strong for completely different reasons - the sun emerging for the first time during the gloomy winter days, the smell of flowers, the smile of a child, hugs, warm memories, laughter with friends. Everett Sjostrom said a wise thing: “It is important to enjoy the process of life, not the achievement of its goals.” And little things are this process of life, so it is invaluable to learn to enjoy insignificant things and notice them.
Different sources of joy are explained by the fact that all people have different values in life, but the most important detail in this is the ability to value. If you cannot appreciate what you have now, you will never understand what the real joy of life is! If a person has learned to love every day of his life, people, communication with them, he will know joy and happiness in their full depth. If some things are not valuable to you, then they will be closed as sources of joy until you reconsider your views.
But it is necessary to set priorities correctly. It is important to value everything equally because if you deprive yourself of one part of your life, you will not be able to succeed in another or fully enjoy other things. Learn not to lose the value of things, and you will never be able to remove joy, happiness from your days.
The amount of Joy or Happy moments in a person's life
To our Happiness, there are many sources of joy, the most effective of them is the road to your favorite goal or, as they say, the path to the Goal.
Working to achieve the Goal becomes a vital necessity and brings joy. In addition to achieving a goal, a loved one can become a source of joy.
Getting used to good things, not being able to live here and now, and appreciating the moments of your present, is the main mistake of a person’s life.
Create as many interests in life as possible. The more interests a person has, the more sources of joy there are. How much joy you can experience from a selfless act or some highly moral idea, your self-development, communication with friends, raising children and caring for parents.
You can’t place the common bet on happiness and joy on children. Children grow up and become adults. Calmly and without the slightest gratitude, the children will leave your life and you will be left with a vacuum. You will feel stressed, sad or depressed.
What types of joy are there?
At this stage of time, the following types of joy are distinguished:
- Dark joy. That is, the moment when a person takes pleasure in doing bad things to others, no matter whether they are close or strangers. In other words, extracting joy from someone else’s grief and difficulties. If you experience positive emotions when you see someone else’s misfortune, then you can safely draw conclusions about problems with self-esteem.
- Nasty, dishonest joy. The feeling that a person experiences when he does something vile, for example, he spread false dirty gossip, and everyone believed in it - joy, and if at the same time it caused a wide response from society - he is simply in seventh heaven. He stole an item and went unpunished, deceived, betrayed a loved one who did not know about it. If all this causes joyful emotions, then this also has to do with the internal problems of the individual. Such joy has a very close connection with darkness.
- Instant but intense joy. This happens at every step, which is very good: a long-awaited purchase, a birthday, victory in competitions, a new achievement, a wedding and many other events to which you attach great importance. These are all excellent and quite important things in the life of every person, but, as a rule, they are short-lived.
- Lasting joy. It is usually deep, spiritual. For example, sincere love for a person, parents, friend, world, true friendship, gratitude. And also, which is important, you need to be able to not only receive good from everything around, but also give this good. Everything that you give into the Universe comes back to you in threefold form.
In order for that same sincere, unexpected joy to visit you more often, you need to stop accumulating negative emotions, experiences, resentments, anger, you need to be able to radiate positive energy. You need to train for more than one day, but if you succeed, then you will be able to accept the joy that the Universe sends every day.
Therefore, the quality and duration of joy directly depend on a person’s emotional state, as well as on the efforts he puts into it.
The meaning of the state of Joy for a person
Joy as an emotional uplift and a happy moment is of great importance in human life. Happy moments facilitate and strengthen social connections, thereby increasing adaptation and relieving negative or tense states.
When experienced by a person, this emotion makes everyday life easier, joy brings the ability to cope with difficulties, achieve goals, promotes confidence and, importantly, calms the person, reducing his tense states.
What is necessary for the continuous growth of joy?
In order to learn to rejoice more, you should consider the following factors.
We will rejoice when we learn to be grateful. Learn to appreciate what you have, and you will never be sad over little things again.
You should stop worrying about the fact that something might be wrong with you. It’s enough just to stop comparing yourself to others, stop worrying about other people’s opinions. It’s better to stop and analyze what will happen to you if suddenly some passer-by forms the wrong assessment about you. A joyful and happy person, satisfied with life, will not attach any importance to this. This is freedom - to be yourself and not be afraid that you will be judged, your views and point of view, values will be challenged. This is purely their business. Just move on.
It is very important to find the positives in everything that happens to you. How true optimists do it. Of course, everyone has periods when, it would seem, nothing good can be seen at all. But every situation has many sides, and having looked at several and understood them, you will definitely find something good that you can rejoice at. You should always carry a feeling of happiness in your soul, then in reality it will not keep you waiting. One can cite the words of Lucius Annaeus Seneca as proof of this: “He who knows what to rejoice at has reached the top.”
Communication with others helps a lot. Try talking for a couple of minutes about a completely ordinary topic with a complete stranger for no particular reason. Perhaps you will make new friends. In any case, meeting new people always brings positive emotions.
Do what makes you happy. Immerse yourself in this headlong, feel yourself in this state and keep this feeling within yourself. For everyone it can be completely different things. Perhaps you feel several times better when you dance, play sports, or, conversely, sit for several hours a day, putting together complex puzzles, solving logic problems, or playing chess. The main thing is to find this hobby and enjoy it. Joy will always be present when doing what you love.
In both sadness and joy, be simpler and approach everything with humor. Sometimes it's worth being a child. Taking things too seriously has never made anyone happier.
Such a different kind of joy. Introducing children to the emotion of joy in all its diversity of manifestations.
Tatiana Simonova
Such a different kind of joy. Introducing children to the emotion of joy in all its diversity of manifestations.
... Share your smile,
And she will return to you more than once again...
M. Plyatskovsky
Emotions are the first manifestation of the human psyche , the basis of his psychosomatic health, the foundation of motivation and creative activity. The ability to understand emotions is extremely important to the communication process. A misunderstood emotion leads to an inadequate reaction, which complicates communication and leads to external conflicts. Lack of awareness of one’s own feelings gives rise to internal conflicts, increases the level of anxiety, and leads to non-normative use of psychological defenses. Adults, instead of developing in children the ability to understand their own and others’ emotions and teach them ways to adequately express feelings, often unconsciously, on the contrary, suppress children’s emotions . Daily deprivation emotions becomes the norm. emotions are prohibited :
“Stop crying now!”
- suppression
of the emotion of resentment ,
“You can’t be angry with mom!”
-
emotions of anger ,
“Eat what they give you!”
-
emotions of disgust ,
“Get rid of your questions!”
-
emotions of interest ,
“Don’t laugh so loud!”
-
emotions of joy .
This way the child is deprived of the right to express his emotions . Only a feeling of guilt is cultivated ( “Sit here and think. You should be ashamed!”
) The enormous energy of suppressed
emotions does not disappear anywhere , but finds a way out in psychosomatic diseases and neuroses. In kindergarten and family, they pay more attention to the intellectual development of children , forgetting about the close connection between emotions and reason , about their interdependence. In such an impoverished emotional environment, it is very difficult for a child to learn to understand the feelings of the people around him and his own.
But this is an indispensable and obvious condition for a person’s success in the sphere of interpersonal relationships. In this regard, the problem of the emotional development of children seems to me very relevant.
I would like to bring to your attention my project “ Such different joys ”
.
Joy is one of the most natural childhood emotions , but, as mentioned above, it can be suppressed just like all the others. Children's fears, anger (aggression, anxiety still come to the attention of child psychologists and teachers, they work with them. But children's joy remains unattended.
In kindergarten we often talk with children about the emotions . One day, during such a conversation, I was born idea of the project “ Such different joy ”
.
One Monday, the children shared their impressions of how they spent the weekend. One girl said that she went to visit her godmother, who has a small dog. When the girl entered the house, the dog joyfully rushed towards her and jumped into her arms. “I was so happy about the dog , but for some reason tears flowed from my eyes” (Lisa, 5 years old)
.
When asked why Lisa's tears flowed if she was happy , no one could answer.
There were versions that the dog bit the girl or got her dirty. But the reason was something else... And we began to look for the reason. The main goal of the project was to introduce children to the emotion of joy in all its diversity of manifestations . To do this, it was necessary to form in children the idea that joy comes in different forms and that this feeling is not always unambiguous. It was also important to develop the ability to distinguish manifestations of the emotion of joy by facial expressions , pantomime, and intonation. In addition, it was necessary to encourage children to realize their own joy and adequate ways to express it. And of course - to stimulate the experience of positive emotions and the desire to rejoice .
Parents were also supposed to be involved in the project, to increase their activity and interest in communicating with their own children on the topic of experienced emotions and feelings , reading and discussing literary works together, watching cartoons and children's television shows within the scope of the project.
To evaluate the effectiveness of the work, a preliminary diagnosis was carried out. Children were asked to identify emotions from photographs . According to the diagnostic results, the emotion of joy in its “classic”
manifestation is identified by almost all children. And identifying such an emotion as “schadenfreude”
causes significant difficulties.
50% of children read it as “anger”
, 38% as
“
joy ” , the rest either find it difficult or offer other options.
It has been established that the upper half of the face, especially the area of the eyes and eyebrows, has emotions In this case, the upper part of the face has facial expressions of anger . That's why half of the children called the boy from the photo “angry
.
The lower part of the face is less informative. “The boy
is happy , because he smiles,” answered 38%
of children . Children interpreted tears of happiness as grief. Thus, we can conclude that identifying the various shades and significant difficulties
in children The project was implemented in various types of children's activities.
The following were used in gaming activities:
• theatrical games (psycho-gymnastic sketches to express the emotion of joy according to M. I. Chistyakova - “Delicious candies”
,
“Golden Drops”
,
“Lullaby for a Little Bear”
,
“Affectionate Kitten”,
etc.)
• psychological games to develop empathy, a positive attitude towards yourself and others: “Give the light of your soul”
(author,
“A Drop of Kindness”
(author,
“Wizards”
,
“Big Good Creature”
,
“Star of Friendship”
, etc.
• body-oriented techniques for removing muscle tension (games “Cake”
,
“Friendly massage”
, etc.)
• relaxation (with fixation on breathing, without fixation on breathing, with the “5D effect”
)
• didactic games to consolidate knowledge about facial manifestations of the emotion of joy ( “Hypocrite”
,
"
Emotional Lotto " ,
"Mood Screen"
)
Children's communicative activities within the framework of the project included free communication on the topic “ Joy ”
, exchange of impressions, opinions, communicative games to stimulate positive
emotions , development of empathy, interaction skills - “Guides”
,
“Siamese Twins”
,
“Tiger Hunt”,
etc. The content of the drawings, execution technique, style were chosen by the child himself.
“
Joyful Vernissage ” was organized .
Musical and motor activity, like drawing, is an art therapeutic technique. Children listened to cheerful music, performed improvised dances, and organized a “Merry Children’s Club”
.
Parents were recommended to read a number of funny works of children's literature with their children. For example, poems by Yu. Moritz, poems by B. Zakhoder, K. Chukovsky “ Joy ”
,
“Confusion”
and other poems, V. Suteev
“Funny stories in pictures”
, fairy tales and stories for
children , V. Bondaenko “Three funny bunnies”
and others.
During the implementation of the project, children's .
Children looked at photographs on the theme “ Joy ”
, discussed them, exchanged opinions, argued.
We made pictograms of various manifestations of the emotion of joy . We discussed characters from children's books, cartoons, and children's television shows, which are characterized by certain manifestations of the emotion of joy .
The final product of the project was the collage “Wall of Joy ”
, created by children.
As you know, creating collages is an art therapeutic technique with which you can realize your feelings, reconsider your vision of a situation, find answers to your questions, and see a solution to a problem. We created the collage “Wall of
Joy ” in order to:
Express your joy (awareness of your feelings, adequate ways of expressing emotions )
Rejoice in others (empathy, ability to rejoice )
Share thoughts, talk about what you learned during the project (cognitive component)
"Charge"
good mood
(stimulation of positive emotions )
the Wall of Joy in a prominent place, where it could be clearly seen by children, parents, and all kindergarten employees entering this group. During the entire duration of the project, anyone could supplement the Wall of Joy with drawings , inscriptions, appliqué, etc., the main thing is that it corresponds to the theme “ Joy ”
.
The Wall of Joy has become interactive . Photos and drawings with cheerful faces of people of different ages involuntarily brought a smile to everyone who was part of the group.
Also during the project, children learned that joy comes in different forms , that it can be mixed with other emotions there are many reasons for and everyone has their own.
Children learned to distinguish the variety of manifestations of the emotion of joy through facial expressions and pantomimes. According to the diagnostic results, 80% of children correctly identified various manifestations of the emotion of joy .
New words and expressions entered the children's speech For example, all the children remembered the phrase “evil joy ”
, which we used in discussions, and some children remembered and began to use the word
“schadenfreude”
.
For many, the discovery was that fear can bring joy . And finally, we answered the question “Why did Lisa have tears flowing from her eyes when she was happy about the dog ?” During discussions of various situations, reflections, debates, observations, and looking at photographs, the children themselves came to the conclusion that “when joy is very, very, very strong, then a person can even cry. Cry with joy ."
Teacher-psychologist MBDOU "D/s No. 9"
Sosnovy Bor, Leningrad region.
Simonova Tatyana Ivanovna
How to respond to those who want evil rather than good?
In both sorrow and joy, do not pay attention to ill-wishers. Just go your own way, proving your point of view to everyone by striving for a goal, by actions, and not by retaliatory aggression. Enjoy every moment of life.
If you learn to understand the nature of people, their motives, views, body language, then it will be easier for you to find the key to them and, of course, you will know how to please them. As you already know, by bringing joy to people, you yourself become a little happier.
How to express your emotions correctly?
The question of how to learn to express your emotions is very important. Emotions are a type of energy that accumulates inside us. The accumulation of this energy leads to emotional tension and ultimately an emotional-bodily block. Over time, consequences such as problems with the nervous system and general health may occur.
For example, aggression and internal anger can reach such a peak that a person becomes dangerous. These are the situations in which you need to understand how to express negative emotions. If you manage to recognize such an emotional state in yourself, there are several ways to cope with it:
- Calm down and slowly count to 100. As a rule, after this half of what you want to do seems somehow unthinkable and unhealthy. This method will help you avoid unpleasant situations and learn to react more calmly to difficult situations, as well as show emotions more correctly;
- Share your emotions with other people. Tell them that you are sad or have problems. During the conversation, relief will definitely come;
- Allow yourself to cry, even in front of the mirror. Tears help relieve internal and emotional stress. They also show others that you are in pain;
- Dancing or singing is a great way to release pent-up emotions. You can sing and dance in a group or alone.
Have you ever felt irritated by what other people are experiencing?
Yes. I am often irritated by other people's emotions, especially by other people's attempts to express them.
0%
Yes, but this happens rarely. Mainly when it comes to uncontrolled display of bad or good mood.
100%
No, it doesn't bother me at all.
0%
No, I am calm about the expression of feelings by others, sometimes with approval.
0%
Voted: 3
How to learn to look at the world positively?
One technique can be the child's gaze. Look at everything through the eyes of little children. They truly know how to see the beauty in every thing. They know how to create unexpected joy almost out of nowhere and spread it to everyone around them.
Children are uncontrollably happy about the snow, because then their parents can ride them on a sled.
Kids enjoy the heat because then they can play, douse themselves with water, and ride a bike. These are the teachers we should really learn from.
List of positive human emotions
Positive ones, as a rule, include those that make a person feel good and pleasant at heart. These are emotions that you want to feel constantly, day after day. The list of positive ones includes:
- sympathy;
- pleasure;
- joy;
- delight;
- Delight;
- jubilation;
- tenderness;
- bliss.
If a person manages to regularly experience such emotions, he feels happy.
Joy: Quotes about Joy
There are many people in history who knew what joy was and tried to share it with others:
- “You must always be joyful. If joy ends, look for what you did wrong” (Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy).
- “If you have mastered the art of enjoying every moment, then you have learned a lot” (Azad).
- “There is pain and sadness in this world... But there is much more joy and love in it!” (Kubo: Legend of the Samurai).
Having understood what you need for joy, good health, what things and people evoke the most pleasant emotions and states, what hobbies make you feel on top of the world, in seventh heaven - strive for them, do everything in your power.
Still, joy and happiness are things that absolutely everyone can achieve. They make our lives much more pleasant, bright, filled with moments that we want to live again and again. Be strong individuals, share optimism and enjoy even your smallest joy!
Functions of emotions
Charles Darwin spoke about biological expediency. The most common psychological functions found in psychological literature are:
- evaluation function , which allows you to instantly evaluate a stimulus or situation and direct information in a certain direction. This is called the first impression. If a person makes a favorable impression from the very beginning, then the attitude towards him and communication develops in a positive way. It is very difficult to change your perception of yourself after the first unpleasant effect;
- function of compensating for information deficit . Sometimes a person does not have enough information to make a rational decision. And then emotions come to the rescue, making up for this deficiency and making it possible to predict the situation;
- The mobilization function forces the human body to focus on overcoming a stressful situation. This happens at the physiological level, when adrenaline during the emotion of fear makes a person run at an unusual speed. Moreover, this is by no means cowardice, but “narrowing of consciousness” - that’s what this phenomenon is called;
- trace formation function , in which an emotion appears after an irritating event has happened, and it is too late to act. It is then that a wary attitude towards similar situations arises, a person receives some kind of warning;
- communication function , when people seem to “try on” the emotions experienced by another person. This is explained by the fact that the mechanisms for realizing basic emotions are given to us from birth, so we empathize with a person with a grimace of pain on his face;
- disorganization function , when strong emotions work against us, they disrupt the individual's effectiveness and lead to a state of distress. Distress provokes behavior disorder and depresses human health.
Feelings that are formed under the influence of emotions
Psychologists advise familiarizing yourself not only with the list of positive emotions, but also feelings. These include:
- Gratitude;
- Love;
- pride;
- respect;
- confidence;
- safety;
- attachment.
The range of feelings is not limited to the list of positive and negative emotions of a person; we should not forget about negative feelings. Unfortunately, many people can also experience them for a long time and suffer quite a lot from it. The list of negative feelings includes:
- anxiety;
- melancholy;
- sadness;
- despair;
- offense;
- sorrow;
- discontent;
- a pity;
- hatred;
- gloat;
- regret;
- despondency;
- jealousy;
- anger;
- mistrust;
- contempt;
- disgust;
- envy;
- disappointment.
Of course, this is not a list of all human feelings and emotions, but only a small part of them, but surely everyone has had to experience one or another feeling at least once in their life.
Experts say that it is necessary to understand the difference between a list of positive emotions and a list of positive ones. It's not the same thing. If positive emotions can be regarded as pleasant always, regardless of the situation, then negative feelings or emotions caught in such a situation can also be positive.
