Sharing Joy Content

How to share joy content with your audience.

We’re all chasing happiness. But we never seem to catch it, do we? Most things that make us “happy” by worldly standards are just a fleeting feeling. But the Christian life offers us (all of us!) something more: joy.

But how do we find true joy in a world that invites us to seek instant gratification? This is what we want to help our target audience discover. When they start to understand the difference between joy and happiness and apply it to their lives, their hearts become open to a different pursuit.

Here are our top pieces of pre-evangelization content on the topic of joy.

EDITORIAL CONTENT

How to Seek Out Wonder and Delight in Everyday Life

Where to Find Joy According to Science

3 Ways to Differentiate Joy & Happiness

Social copy [IG]: If being happy is the end-all-be-all, we’re headed for a path of disappointment. Happiness is dependent on circumstances and can disappear just as quickly as it came. Joy, on the other hand, has roots that go deeper. It stays with us through the good and the bad because it is rooted in an interior life, rather than transient, material things. Read more about joy in “3 Ways to Differentiate Joy & Happiness” by @GrottoNetwork.

[Twitter&FB]: Joy stays with you when happiness fades. It’s present in both the ups and downs — and that’s why we need it. Read more via @GrottoNetwork

4 Ways to Cultivate Joy in Our Lives

4 Tips for Staying Joyful in a World that Glorifies Stress

How I Found Joy in the Struggle

GRAPHICS

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The American Psychological Association (APA) defines joy as: a feeling of extreme gladness, delight, or exaltation of the spirit arising from a sense of well-being or satisfaction. They then break joy into two categories: active and passive. Passive joy is defined as a kind of contentment with the way things currently are. For example, my experience of joy watching my friends and I having fun is an example of passive joy. Active joy, on the other hand, is defined as wanting to share your experience of joy with others. This could be wanting to share an amazing travel experience with your close friends because you want them to experience the same wonder and awe that you experienced. It’s also important to note that joy is different than happiness. Research has found that joy activates different systems than happiness does. Joy activates the parasympathetic nervous system, which promotes feelings of peace and calm; while happiness activates the sympathetic nervous system, which is associated with excitement, energy, and activity. The experience of joy is associated with an increase in energy as well as an increase in confidence and self-esteem, according to the APA. Another difference between joy and happiness is that joy can coexist with more negative emotions, such as grief or pain, while happiness is much harder to sustain in the presence of negative emotions. Psychologist George Vaillant describes this difference by saying, “Without the pain of farewell, there is no joy of reunion” and “Without the pain of captivity, we don’t experience the joy of freedom.” . We see this paradox most clearly in the example of the lives of the saints. For example, St. Mother Teresa was surrounded by pain, suffering, and death — and yet was joyful. “The best way to show my gratitude is to accept everything, even my problems, with joy,” she said. Read more about joy via the link in our bio. Design by @beaheartdesign . Words by @juliahoganlcpc .

A post shared by GrottoNetwork (@grottonetwork) on Aug 21, 2019 at 7:01pm PDT