I · The Hall of Emotions
Twelve feelings, with their etymology and their cure.
Click any orb. Each emotion is a small room you can enter and leave whenever you want.
Joy
Etymology
From Latin gaudia 'inward delight'. The Greeks called it chara, kin to charis, grace.
What the body does
Dopamine and serotonin in coordinated bloom; left prefrontal cortex lights up. The body widens — chest open, breath deepens.
Art & music
Beethoven's Ode to Joy. Matisse's Dance. The closing of A Midsummer Night's Dream.
How to meet it
Don't ration it. Joy shared multiplies; joy hoarded curdles.
Journal prompt
What did joy feel like in your body this week?
Happiness is the meaning and purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.
— Aristotle
The happiness of your life depends on the quality of your thoughts.
— Marcus Aurelius
Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?
— Mary Oliver
I dwell in possibility.
— Emily Dickinson