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Joy is a Change Agent

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Terry Cullen

Jan 24, 2024

Global

Categories:

Joy, Hope, Change, Change Agent, Reform, Oppression, Unity

This article written a few years ago by Ingrid Fetell Lee for The Aesthetics of Joy (aestheticsofjoy.com) describes six ways joy can help us create change.


First, what is joy? Joy has been described as a core human experience by Dr. Pamela King in an interview with Psychology Today. She suggests that joy is complex, much more than a feeling or an emotion, and goes beyond happiness. And yes, it can be practiced, cultivated, or made a habit with intention.


As King puts it, “that joy is most fully understood as a virtue that involves our thoughts, feelings, and actions in response to what matters most in our lives. Thus, joy is an enduring, deep delight in what holds the most significance.” An example of this is the joy many people experience with the birth of a child.


According to Dr. King, three factors inform the joy within us. One is the ability to grow in our authenticity and live more to our strengths. Another is about growing in depth with our relationships and contributing to others. The third is the ability to live aligned with our ethical and spiritual ideals.


So, how is joy a force for change? Ingrid Fetell Lee describes the unique abilities of joy.


Joy is a propulsive force. Many political regimes have banned cultural expressions of joy, such as music, song, art, and literature, as a means to oppress. For example, Mao Zedong made listening to Beethoven a crime. Nazi Germany banned Jewish music, and the Soviet Union censored many songs. The British once prohibited drumming in Trinidad. Cultural expressions create shared emotional responses of joy, an energy that can build momentum.


Joy creates unity. Shared expressions of joy, for example with singing, such as a choir, connect people on a physical level. Heart rates synchronize, and even the brain waves of the musicians begin to align with the music. This physical experience of community is unconscious and can have profound results. People experiencing this common unity tend to be more altruistic and willing to look beyond their individual needs for the common good. And this holds true for some animals too, such as chimpanzees.


Joy lets us reclaim our humanity. Collective, shared joy can reaffirm our humanity, especially when people are repressed and dehumanized. In World War I, soldiers in the trenches on both sides of the conflict cultivated gardens growing flowers in the middle of death and destruction that seemed never to end.


Joy disrupts expectations by disarming potential oppressors and detractors by making something less threatening to them. The rainbow pride flag is a good example. Once disarmed, it opens a pathway to sharing the joy and the possibility of sharing dialog and gaining common understanding.


Joy promotes resilience. Humans can only take so much negativity, pain, and suffering, which takes a tremendous toll on the body. Joy allows us to release stress, and the physiological result is positive.


Joy gives rise to hope by providing hope that tomorrow could be better. For the moment we experience joy, we share a present state that is hopeful and uplifting. We ask why we cannot have more of this experience. Is it possible to change?


Are you working to change something in your community and experiencing resistance? Rather than doubling down on your approach, take a lesson from this article, incorporate joy into your experiences, and find a way to share it with the people who resist you. There may be an opportunity to overcome obstacles and make some breakthroughs.


And enjoy who you are and what you do; that is, put joy into it.


Photo by Ben White on Unsplash.

This article was originally published on im4u.world on January 3, 2023.

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