Code to Joy

Studies suggest that, on average, we have 3 times more positive experiences each day than negative ones. Because of our evolutionary tendency to give more weight to the negative and because of the hedonic treadmill (pleasant experiences lose their mood enhancing power once habituated), this may not seem like the case.

But there is more to it. We have learned that sympathy and empathy are mostly relevant for feeling with others during suffering.

However, in certain Eastern spiritual traditions, there is a practice known as "mudita" or sympathetic joy. It means to rejoice during the virtue, success and well-being of others.

Think of how helpful this could be in an era when social media highlight reels often have the opposite effect for friends - somehow leaving the onlooker feeling diminished, which then can disincline those people from sharing their joy.

New psychological research identifies this as a primary reason why our joy does not grow. Discussing positive experiences with supportive friends has a much greater impact on life satisfaction and well-being than simply thinking about it.

A flock of geese rotates positions in the "V" and they fly farther together because of the boost from the lift of those in front. Similarly, imagine communities knitted together with threads of sympathetic joy, ready to rejoice and then share so as to keep elevating the whole.

This episode explores sympathetic joy to the world! ...and the difference between that and happiness and pleasure as well as other clues from the search for joy in the brain.

(Music by Ethereal Ephemera “Somewhere in the Light” and episode artwork by Dove Dahlia)