Too often, we feel unworthy of happiness. Or, we feel that we have to earn the right to be happy. Or that we have to look outside ourselves in order to be happy.

And even worse, we often don’t truly consider joy at all.

But first, what’s the difference between happiness and joy?

Happiness is usually considered to be temporary, something that depends on the circumstances.

Joy, on the other hand, comes from within, it’s a state of being rather than a state of mind.

For example, I get a lot of joy from teaching. It fulfills something deep within me. I haven’t always had the job of teacher, but even when sitting in a bar talking about the differences between syrah and shiraz, or showing someone how to fold a paper napkin into a swan, I’ve always gotten deep satisfaction from it.

At the same time, I feel a surge of happiness when a student suddenly understands a difficult concept – that flash of “a-ha!” on their face is like nothing else. I’ve literally jumped up and down in the classroom when a kid gets it. But it is fleeting.

Happiness always fades. Joy sticks around. But both are really important.

The pleasure we get in being happy is awesome! A really amazing meal, a great book, an exciting movie, all those things make life so much fun, so pleasurable. There’s nothing wrong with that, even if it is short-term. As we all know, happiness fades quickly in difficult times.

The sustained satisfaction from having joy in our lives is so meaningful. Close connections with family and friends, a career you love, caring for pets, all of those things can have difficulties within them. But the joy they bring carry us through those hard times.

I wrote these affirmations to remind myself that I am worthy of both happiness and joy.