Cultivating A Joy Bias
What is joy, and how do we know when we experience it? I would describe it as a fleeting, albeit intense, feeling of whimsical and playful happiness.
You most likely recognize the feeling of joy at a celebration amongst your most beloved, when you decide to wear your bright yellow shirt that's been hiding in the back of your closet, when you recognize a significant accomplishment or help someone else achieve a goal, or you participate in a new lively activity. Joy transforms a neutral expression on your face into a Duchenne smile, infectious, to say the least; it inspires others to join in and participate.
Oftentimes, joy can be absent from our lives and can feel difficult to find. This article is about finding joy instead of seeking it and increasing your proclivity toward more joyful experiences.
Ingrid Fetel Lee, the author of 'Joyful' (2018), identifies ten aesthetics of joy: energy, abundance, freedom, harmony, play, surprise, transcendence, magic, celebration, and renewal. Several of these aesthetics are, more or less, self-explanatory.
For example, energy has primarily to do with vibrant color and light (think spending time in the sun or wearing bright-colored clothing that suits you), abundance has to do with vibrancy and multiplicity (going for that wallpaper with the fanciful pattern, taking a stroll through a candy store, collecting (not hoarding) unique objects that are meaningful to you), freedom is about nature and open space (choosing a home with high ceilings, going for a hike or skiing, riding a motorcycle (helmets please!), and celebration (parties with family and friends, tying a balloon to your wrist and going out in public just for the hell of it, congratulating others when presented with the opportunity). Some of the less apparent aesthetics need further explanation.
Harmony is about balance, symmetry, and flow. This plays out in ways like having an organized home, observing symmetry (watching a Wes Anderson film or studying the veins of a leaf), or finding and maintaining flow in your work.
The aesthetic of play isn't just about participating in games and physical activity; it also has a lot to do with the shapes you observe in your day-to-day living. Playful shapes are generally round. Decorating your home with a round coffee table instead of a rectangular one may not only may you feel more joyful, but it will also help your shins from bumping into those rigid corner edges (ouch!).
Surprise has a lot to do with being open to the unexpected, more jarring elements in your environment. It happens when you're walking down the street and notice that your favorite store is having a two-for-one sale or finding a four-leaf clover in your yard or nearby park. Surprise has everything to do with finding contrast in the everyday. Be on the lookout for what's novel and unexpected.
Lastly, we have transcendence, magic, and renewal as our final joy aesthetics. Transcendence is about elevation and buoyancy. This could look like increasing the occurrence of peak experiences in your life, where you participate in self-actualizing events that allow you to feel like "new horizons and possibilities" are opening up for you. In addition, it could be as simple as seeking out an incredible view from a tall building or hiking trail.
Magic is about seeking illusory effects that inspire awe and wonder. Whether it be as simple as witnessing someone perform a sleight of hand or hanging a windchime from your porch or balcony, it should be an activity or decoration that provokes curiosity.
Finally, renewal is a joyful aesthetic that reminds us of seasons and tradition. Having plants in your home and watching them bloom, going for a Spring or Fall (might I recommend Guanella Pass to see the Aspens) nature walk, or decorating for a favorite holiday.
Now that you understand some of the basics behind the joy aesthetics, it is time to discuss how you can shift your mindset to stumbling upon joy more frequently. More specifically, I want to discuss how bias can help you in enhancing your propensity for joy.
Confirmation bias is generally one of the heuristics (mental shortcuts) of the human mind that get a bad wrap, primarily because of its association with isms (sex-, race-, age-, etc.). I'll explain why: confirmation bias is when we have a preexisting schema (theory or conception) that is reinforced every time we see it play out in the world. Stereotypes are a prime example of how confirmation bias can be dangerous. When you see something you already believe about a person or group of people, it is reinforced and generalized.
However, let me propose that we can utilize confirmation bias to increase our experience of joy. If you begin to form a bias along the line of "joy can be found anywhere in my environment" and believe it to be accurate, you will start to observe a transformation in your perspective.
You likely utilize confirmation bias in many different ways, both good and bad; why not continue to find ways that you can use it for good. Allow yourself to live in a world where not every experience or environment is painted with a black or white stroke; instead, paint with as many colors as possible.
Increasing your joy bias will be infectious. Like all beautiful pursuits, living a more joyful life inspires others to participate as well.
It may also encourage you to be more creative as you will soon recognize which spaces of your home, office, or community could use a joyous boost. The world does not change unless you become the change in which you seek.
Embodying a more joyful self does not mean that you are impervious to challenge or difficulty; however, it will allow you to pivot from adversity and transform what's negative or neutral into something positive.
References
Fetell Lee, I. (2018). Joyful: The Surprising Power of Ordinary Things to Create Extraordinary Happiness. New York, NY: Little, Brown Spark.
Kahneman, D. (2011). A machine for jumping to conclusions. In Thinking, Fast and Slow (pp. 79-88). New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Barry Kaufman, S. (2020). Transcend: The New Science of Self-Actualization. New York, NY: TarcherPerigee.