Happiness, Pleasure And Joy

Three Beautiful Much Sought After Experiences

Happiness, pleasure and joy, three similar yet not the same much sought after experiences. How similar are they? What is the difference or is there really a difference? Most important is what is the source to provide these beautiful aspects in life? How do we know if we have it? Is there a limit on the amount available and can we afford it?

Step by Step, Enter A State Of Being

What Is Happiness, Pleasure and Joy?

Pleasure is an immediate satisfaction, It is a delight to take it, give it, seek it, request it or afford/buy it. Pleasure is gratification or satisfaction. Pleasure can be a "source" of joy.
Happiness is a pleasurable satisfaction. Happiness is a state of well being and contentment brought about by good fortune, prosperity, luck or chance, it can just occur.
Joy is an experience of great "pleasure" or delight. Joy is the state of being happy.
Happiness, pleasure and joy are connected, it is like a staircase, one step leading to another. Each experience or event occurring one after another, without the first two steps the landing cannot be reached. Until the top level is achieved at which point we can "enter" into a state of being.

Differences and Similarities

. Pleasure occurs and can bring happiness and joy. Happiness occurs and can bring pleasure and joy. Joy cannot occur without levels of pleasure and happiness already in existence, because joy is an expansion of experience and state of being from pleasure and happiness.
Pleasure can go from a very short lived level of satisfaction to an intense and lasting experience of "great" joy. Happiness can go from a short lived experience of contentment and satisfaction to the intense and lasting state of "being" happy, which in short, is what joy is.

What is The Source Of Pleasure?

Pleasure is on the physical and material manifestation level. Pleasure can be touched, and seen. Pleasure can be bought, traded and sold.

Pleasure can be derived from physical encounters with others. Pleasure can be experienced from material possessions such as homes, cars, boats and the myriad of other possessions accumulated. These are pleasurable experiences that tend to be short lived, providing immediate satisfaction, yet always leaving an empty space in the immediate future to be filled with another immediate satisfaction experience. Never fulfilling or reaching a level of joy. These pleasures can however, bring happiness, a more short lived state of being that can go from moment to moment just like the source of immediate, yet not long lasting satisfaction.
Pleasure can also be derived from experiences, giving a gift, receiving a gift tangible or otherwise. Pleasure can be experienced from observing something outside of ourselves, a movie, a walk in a garden, children and family. Pleasure can be experienced from employment and jobs. More pleasure is obtained by giving, receiving, observing and doing versus the pleasure of having, the more durable it becomes. Each event and experience bringing about resultant happiness and eventually developing into full blown joy.

What Is The Source Of Happiness?

Happiness is found in between the tangible physical level and the energy of spiritual emotion. Happiness is a feeling or emotion that is expressed and explained by physical tangible events.
Happiness is the emotional experience from physical pleasure choices, it is as fleeting or as long lasting as the pleasure itself. Short bursts of happiness, always waiting to be filled with the next burst can become exhaustive and create an appearance that happiness is elusive. Happiness on this level of pleasurable experience is why it has been said we have to "pursue" it, as if it is running away from us, always one step ahead.

Happiness resulting from pleasurable choice experiences obtained by giving, receiving, observing and doing is durable, long lasting. With an accumulation of these pleasures in life, the resultant happiness becomes a continuum, no longer pursued but now possessed. This level of happiness is the source of the State of Being Happy which is by definition...Joy!

What Is The Source Of Joy?

Joy is a pure energy of spiritual emotion. Joy is a state of being that is elevated above all physical and tangible events.
The source of joy is pleasure and happiness, choices made on both of those steps that brings the experience of joy into our lives. Lasting investments made for pleasure, not based on things that erode, get lost and can be taken from us. Investing in pleasurable events that bring lasting happiness, resulting in JOY!
Joy is the resultant affect of the physical pleasures and happiness we choose along our journey of life.

En-Joy-ing The Experience and the Journey

Joy is en the Journey! By choosing our pleasures carefully and cultivating the happiness, joy is achieved and can be a constant "state of being".
To learn more about what the steps, choices and options look like to experience more of the joy in the journey, read the suggested titles below.

Working Desire: 5 Tips for Maximizing Pleasure in Your Creativity

I love my job.
Every day and all day, I get to write and do other creative work.
I love writing and being creative so much I use working as a reward for getting other mundane tasks done.
But what happens when you love your artistic craft, but have a hard time actually doing the work?

The Key to Cultivating Desire

I haven’t always written full-time. So I know from experience that many obstacles, both internal and external, can stand in the way of our efforts to write or create art: limited time, limited energy, artistic insecurities, lack of motivation and the list goes on.

The key to tempering or overcoming these obstacles is to focus on the pleasure and rewards derived from your creative work, which in turn creates an on-going desire to work on a consistent basis.

Given our busy schedules and the less-than-creative nature of typical, everyday life, it’s easy to lose touch with the inherent pleasure of creativity and our desire to engage it on a regular basis.
So, how do we cultivate this desire to work creatively? How do we maximize the pleasure that is inherent to creativity?

Tips for Maximizing Pleasure

Here are some strategies I use for cultivating the desire to work and maximizing my pleasure in doing it:

1. Focus on what you love. It’s easy to focus on what you feel you “should” do creatively, instead of focusing on making possible what you love and what stokes your passion. For instance, you might feel you “should” be focusing on publishing your poetry, when what really excites you is spoken word performance. Or maybe you write poetry, but what you really enjoy is writing prose. What if you write, but actually love some entirely different creative work, such as painting or music? Take a deep look at where your creative pleasure truly lies, let your core creative desires guide you, and focus your artistic efforts in those directions.
2. Identify and address obstacles. In my experience, dealing with internal or external obstacles comprises the main challenge for doing creative work. For instance, most artists struggle with finding enough time and energy to work on our artistic craft.  And identifying and addressing emotional obstacles to being creative is fundamental to finding the courage and self-confidence required to create brilliant art. So, look closely at what’s keeping you from doing what you love to do creatively and determine the best methods for overcoming or tempering those obstacles.
3. Take creative risks. Finding ways to focus on our core creative desires and overcoming internal and external obstacles usually require that we take risks not simply in our creative endeavors but also within our daily lives. For instance, cutting back your hours at a day job in order to pursue your creative work can be such a frightening idea that many artists don’t even consider it as a possibility. Or making the effort to shift your family and household management in order to create more time for your creative work can seem so daunting as to be impossible.  Or putting down the writing pen and taking up a paintbrush can be truly scary. Regardless of your external or internal challenges, creativity requires risk in one’s work and in one’s life. However, if you’re not taking risks, then you won’t be able to gain the immense rewards and pleasure that come with creative success. So, open your mind to what’s creatively possible by determining the risks, large or small, that you can take in your creative work and career.
4. Be diligent. Some artists swear that rigorous discipline is necessary to working. And if you’re able to produce creatively by being disciplined, then that’s fantastic. However, if the notion of discipline, or regimented routine, seems too stifling or inorganic to your creativity, then try reframing your work as a matter of diligence, or as simply making an honest and simple effort to do your creative work on a regular basis. By shifting your point of view from discipline to simply making a consistent effort, you might be surprised by how much more easily you can produce creative work and thereby enhance your pleasure in the process.
5. Let it be good enough. Finding satisfaction and pleasure in your creative work requires that you let your best efforts be “good enough” until you’re able to stretch creatively and make more brilliant art. In other words, it’s important to practice and work towards strengthening one’s creative skills, but it’s equally important to sit back and bask in a job well done.  If you’re constantly dissatisfied by your creative work, then there’s a serious problem.  It’s pleasure in creative success that will take you back to your artistic craft over and over again, not dissatisfaction or the perfectionism that tends to underlie it. So, let your creative work be good enough and take in the pleasure that comes with making a solid creative effort.

Have Some Creative Fun

Creative work is fun and easy if you nurture the inherent pleasure of creativity.

And that type of pleasure is addictive. The more you feel pleasure in your creative work, then the more you’ll actually want to work. And in this case, you’re much more likely to practice on a regular basis, to stretch your creative wings, strengthen your creative skills, and grow as an artist. Once you’re actually enjoying your creative work, then it’ll become playful and fun, and it won’t seem like “work” at all.
So, focus on and maximize pleasure in your art and see if you begin to feel an intrinsic desire to work. But most of all, simply let yourself have some fun.