{"id":10198,"date":"2019-12-16T18:20:08","date_gmt":"2019-12-17T01:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/btsadv.wpengine.com\/?p=10198"},"modified":"2019-12-16T18:20:13","modified_gmt":"2019-12-17T01:20:13","slug":"the-difference-between-happiness-and-joy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/breakthesilencedv.org\/?p=10198","title":{"rendered":"The Difference Between Happiness and Joy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"\"<\/a>By Jenn Rockefeller<\/span><\/p>\n

When you think of the words happiness and joy, you most often think they are interchangeable and mean the same thing. While they do fall under the same umbrella in terms of emotions, they actually mean two different things, especially when it comes to domestic violence survivors.<\/span><\/p>\n

Definitions<\/b><\/p>\n

According to Merriam-Webster, <\/span>happiness <\/span><\/a>is defined as \u201ca state of well-being and contentment.\u201d The website defines <\/span>joy <\/span><\/a>as \u201cthe emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune or by the prospect of possessing what one desires.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

By these definitions alone, you can conclude that happiness is an externally triggered emotion, while joy is internal. While both are emotions, happiness is typically affixed to something we experience and joy is an internal spark that is lit when we have a genuinely good feeling about our lives and are content with who we are and where we are in life.<\/span><\/p>\n

Domestic violence aftermath<\/b><\/p>\n

After experiencing domestic violence, survivors often find themselves in a state of emotional distress and tend to lose their joy. We may think we lose our happiness, but it is actually joy that we have lost.<\/span><\/p>\n

The trauma that we endured stole our innocence and zest for life. The French call it \u201cjoie de vivre,\u201d or joy of life. The internal joy that we felt was destroyed when the abusers chose to abuse us. We don\u2019t really feel compelled to achieve what goals we had set out to accomplish because the abusers stole our enthusiasm and drive.<\/span><\/p>\n

Why it\u2019s harder to get your joy back<\/b><\/p>\n

Because joy is an internal emotion, it is certainly more difficult to get it back after it is lost. But why is it more difficult? Why do we find it that much harder to get our \u201cjoie de vivre\u201d back when we are domestic violence survivors?<\/span><\/p>\n

The answer in that question lies within this one simple truth \u2013 prior to our domestic violence experiences, we have a child-like innocence about us. We have a certain naivet\u00e9 about us that is pure and without corruption. We go through life thinking that everyone is kind, helpful and loving. We know is evil out there, but we don\u2019t think that it could touch us.<\/span><\/p>\n

But then, the evil does infiltrate our lives. The evil destroys the sweet innocence we once held. That innocence no longer seems obtainable. It\u2019s like it\u2019s lost forever.<\/span><\/p>\n

That feeling that it\u2019s lost forever is the reason why it\u2019s much harder to get our joy back following a domestic violence situation. Feeling joy is internal and we may truly feel like the abusers obliterated our inner selves.<\/span><\/p>\n

Getting your joy back\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

We might first think, \u201cHow do we get back that which was stolen from us?\u201d We might think it\u2019s an impossible task. But, there are ways to get your joy back. It\u2019ll take time and effort, but it can be done.<\/span><\/p>\n

In an article published on <\/span>Tiny Buddha<\/span><\/a>, joy is described as flowing \u201cfrom the same source as love and peace; it flows from your heart\u201d and it is \u201cthe light within.\u201d It is described as the healing force that has the power to propel your journey in life forward.<\/span><\/p>\n

So it stands to reason that we\u2019d want to rekindle that inner light. Prior to our experience, we had a certain child-like innocence about us. That innocence was filled with inner joy! Children naturally possess a joy-filled life. They see the beauty, peace, and love everywhere around them. Just look for the joy within a child \u2013 it’s in the way they laugh, in the way they smile and the way they talk.<\/span><\/p>\n

Below are some other ways to get your joy back:<\/span><\/p>\n