From psychology and personal experience, what do we mean by joy?
Joy is one of those feelings that we can idealize and banish, that we can live as something separate from pain and discouragement, or that we can live as something easy and fund that we must acquire or mend for living. Throughout the years joy has been presented as something fleeting, ephemeral or that was not too much in agreement with a serious, respectful or even evangelical life. Fortunately, this is not the case anymore. Today we have gone to the other end and many people think that we must be happy, that in the face of difficulties we have to look good, not be afraid and forget about the sad and complicated moments ... as if joy and difficulties did not They could go together or as if joy was something to flee, associated with laughter and dismay. From deep psychology we know that we will hardly find in life pure states or feelings that are not contradictory. I would say that nowadays it is increasingly clear that one can love and hate a certain person in some way, that we may want something and do something else. In other words, in our unconscious world there is a mixture of feelings, of certainties and doubts, of joy and discouragement. What is important, however, is to be able to collect and welcome what is happening to us, put it in their name and see if it is appropriate and in accordance with our way of being, in our lives, to our expectations, more or less deep and conscious.
The dictionaries consulted agree when it comes to saying what joy is: a feeling or emotion that is generally born of a lively satisfaction of the soul, which has to do with something favorable and desired, related to present experiences, pleasures and which manifests itself in external signs of satisfaction: face, words, body movements, way of dealing with and interacting with others ...
And when we look for what we can understand for satisfaction, we read that it is to achieve something desired, although it has not been as often as we expected. And here is one of the keys to joy: being able to live in the midst of dissatisfaction, frustration or discouragement. But not as an antidote to our evils but as an experience of acceptance of reality and of feeling well within our own skin, within the world that has touched us to live. As we said in the first paragraph, this means that you can grasp positive elements, have desires and enjoy things beyond whether everything goes as we want or not, beyond pain, sadness or embarrassment.
When we talk about happiness we are talking about lifestyle, so that we can focus on the problems and what values we prioritize. At the moment that we prioritize joy as a solution to our difficulties, when we make an absolute that we must achieve at the price, we will be looking for simple moments, situations without consistency that make us believe that everything is going well, that No need to worry or worry about anything. But we can suddenly realize that we do not grow up, that we are not free, that we are stuck in futile and that everything is a deception. Maybe then it will be time to realize that there have been many chips that have made us believe, or we wanted to believe that everything was easy, predictable and consistent with our desires. When joy is only exterior, superficial can happen to us like Englishmen who are angry with men or women of the time because this is not predictable, because they can not safely organize their parties or their leisure time!
Joy arises when we can elaborate, "digest", the pain, the frustrations that lead us to life and make us realize reality, leave our own love and be every day a little more free, a little more flexible and joyfully responsible.
It gives us joy to find people who live happy, who are full of strength and wanting to live. It is not that happiness is infected without more, since then we would be talking about superficial joy, but the full and lived happiness of the other encourages us to continue looking for what gives us peace, sense and makes us Feel good with us and with Life. And when we feel good about us all our being feasts, the body with its biorhythms and balanced functioning, our psyche facing the novelty of each day in a proper manner, and our spirit or I deeper in finding meaning and letting flourish in us those sparks of life that need a humus appropriate to take body.
The Greek classics and as medical exponent of these Hippocrates said that there are not so many illnesses as sick and that when we have a disease it is not only the body that is not well but that it is the whole person that is affected. When there is a loss of harmony in the person, when there is an imbalance, it occurs in consciousness, it is shown in the body, and the external signs are the manifestation or realization of the processes and changes of consciousness, of the inner world. Illness means loss of harmony or disorder of a balanced order until now, and if one of the functions of the body is disturbed, the harmony of the whole is broken and the whole person resides ... and we could say that The joy is harmed and in certain moments it can be distorted.
Harmony is given by the adaptation to reality, in my reality, to live the best, to enjoy the beautiful moments that are offered to me. The harmony that brings joy has a lot to do with the relationship with others, to enjoy the company and love that surrounds us, as we can read in the writings that are offered in this magazine. We can read that people of the Third World or people with certain deficiencies can live
With more joy and joy than many of us who have many things and we still have more.
The relationship with others, feeling loved or living in an environment of appreciation, recognition and acceptance can lead us to live with more joy than not having things, or doing things to get others if they do not go accompanied by comprehension, courage and esteem. However joy does not mean that you are always together with others or say beautiful words without anymore; it can also be given in moments of loneliness or personal work, as happens at this time to whoever subscribes to this article. You can now enjoy expressing in writing what has been studying, catching and discovering for days.
Para terminar queremos remarcar que la alegría como la felicidad no son nunca cumplidas y que en momentos de dolor o enfermedad podemos vivir oasis de alegría en compartir penas o momentos bonitos aunque debemos reconocer que en ciertas situaciones puede ser muy difícil. También queremos subrayar que la alegría es fruto de una experiencia interna, de una lucha, de una plenitud, ya sea musical, social, laboral o de sentido de vida. Nos atreveríamos a decir que es una experiencia espiritual en el sentido más amplio. Una experiencia que no depende tanto del valor de las cosas o de la relevancia social que le damos, como de la capacidad de alcanzar deseos de acuerdo con la realidad y de renovar el dinamismo y la fuerza interior de la persona.
Eduard Fuentes, psicólogo.