Happiness Archives - withgraceandwit.com

Grace, Wit, and the Art of Contentment: How to Find Peace and “Enough” in Everyday Life

Devotional / Bible Study, Contentment, Gratitude, Happiness, Paul

Contentment is a difficult thing. Our culture doesn’t really teach it — if anything, it teaches the opposite. We’re told to reach higher, want more, improve constantly. Even the definitions can’t agree. Google describes contentment using the word happiness. Merriam-Webster leaves happiness out entirely. And honestly, I don’t think they mean the same thing. Happiness […]

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Does Choice Affect Joy? Day 15 – May: I Find Joy

May: I find Joy / Choice, Gratitude, Happiness, Joy, Optimism

Choice. The quote I shared yesterday identified the power to choose how one reacts to their day: joy, happiness, negativity, pain. To reiterate, here is the quote. Today I choose life. Every morning when I wake up I can choose joy, happiness, negativity, pain… To feel the freedom that comes from being able to continue

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photo of kids playing with kitchen plastic toy

Play and Joy. Day 13- May: I Find Joy

May: I find Joy / Experience, Happiness, Joy, Moments, Play

Think about the phrase, “How about I…?” I watch our elementary school-age children play make-believe. They have such fun, even when they disagree. The answer to a dispute is, “How about I…?” The other follows up with, “Okay, how about I…” The play time often looks like this: Daughter 1 to Daughter 2 playing make-believe:

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Day 9 & 10 – May: I Have Joy

May: I find Joy / Happiness, Joy, Reflection

TIME magazine has a 2017 article titled 14 Ways to Squeeze More Joy Out of Every Day. Once again, this article uses joy and happy/happiness interchangeably. This doesn’t help with my study. I went to Jstor for some academic research, but I no longer have free access to academic journals. So, since it’s 2023, I

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A Week with Joy. Day 7 – May: I Find Joy

May: I find Joy / Experiment, Happiness, Joy, Peace, Reflection, Summary

Looking back after the first week of searching for joy. Where I found it, where I tried, and more ideas of how to increase joy in my life.

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Understanding Happiness. Day 6 – May: I Find Joy

May: I find Joy / 30 Days, 31 Days, Challenge, Experience, Happiness, Moments

Continuing my thoughts from yesterday, I’m going to explore the two other TED talks I mentioned, the ones about happiness. If joy is different than happiness, understanding happiness in my life is key. Listening to a psychologist and a monk give me two differing understandings of happiness. Emily Esfahani Smith gave a talk in 2017

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