Joy is a critically important emotion for our well-being. Like all the emotions described earlier (anger, sadness, fear), it is a key component of our mental health. Through emotions, we can communicate our state in a rich way, express our needs, and show the world what is present within us. Emotions, with their complexity and richness, not only make our lives deeply complex but also very colorful—and as a result, each of our lives becomes remarkably interesting.

If emotions add something to our lives, what role does joy play in all of this? Joy has many shades, but they share a common function. The function of joy is the feeling of satisfaction with what is and a sense of fulfillment. Joy marks the end of action; it means that what was meant to happen has come to pass, and now it is time to fully experience this state. Joy is an emotion of rewarding ourselves for what has been achieved. In its function, joy is rather an emotion of relaxation, a withdrawal of energetic mobilization. Joy, therefore, can be synonymous with calm. And how often we experience it depends on how high we set the bar for ourselves. And this is where the real problem lies.

Run

The world constantly pushes us to set the bar higher and higher, to tense up more, jump further, get back up when we fall, and keep running. This can, of course, be important for survival—but is this race really about survival? Some of us keep running and have long forgotten when and why we started. So if our lives are a constant race, constant action, it becomes difficult to find a moment when we feel fulfilled and begin to experience joy. Sometimes, when I meet such life runners, I ask them when they last did nothing, and this question often leaves them puzzled.