What positive emotion do you feel most often?
The positive emotion I most experience is joy. I also experience happiness. But I’m currently not as happy as I could be because I don’t have close friends in person, and I am very social. For me to be as happy & fulfilled, & mentally healthy as I can be, I need close emotional connections and some degree of regular in person socialization. While many days I am happy & fulfilled, it’s still not as much as if I had close friends/a close person. And there are days I struggle to feel happy & fulfilled. There are days, even weeks or a month, where I’m depressed either directly because I have no close friends or just more susceptible to it because of not having close friends and something else will trigger the depression, even something trivial like my earphones breaking or getting lost. That’s not something that would trigger an onset of depression, it’s because I already have the condition, and that condition is more likely to flare up over trivial things when I’m not socializing or connecting enough with other humans. It’s hard as an adult to meet friends. I have struggled with loneliness & depression off & on because of having no friends for the last few years. Even with friends I can have depressive episodes or symptoms but not as frequently or deeply, and they’re easier to cope with when I have friends. To me, the social aspect of life is most important, more important than career or being financially secure. And to lack that affects my mental health.
But joy is something I experience no matter what mood I’m in or what kind of day I’m having. Even when I’m depressed I can experience joy sometimes. I experience it multiple occasions a day.
It’s a beautiful feeling and feels almost like being kid again. I experience joy over the most simple things like an iced latte or ice cream or acts of kindness, seeing my dogs, getting a new shirt or painting my nails, taking pictures of myself, photography, happy/joyful memories, a cool breeze, the changing of the seasons, walking, buildings, holidays, writing poetry, even dark poetry, finding a good sounding horror book or movie, Oldies songs, rediscovering a song I haven’t heard in years and love but forgot about, stilettos & lingerie, flowers, hugs….so many things to be joyful about! ❤️
To me, happiness is a more long-term, often calm feeling that involves a sense of fulfillment & well-being. Joy is more fleeting, can be more intense in a way than happiness, and I can experience it even when I don’t feel generally fulfilled.
I’m wishing happiness & joy to everyone else! 😁 Hopefully I get this account upgraded soon so I can add new pictures!
Xoxo Kim 💋
