Do you savor moments of joy? Or do you postpone it until easier times?

When the world feels gray and shaky, joy might seem almost offensive—something for other people, something for other times. That real or imagined voice says, "What are you smiling about?"

Or else, we are just too busy multitasking, keeping up, side-hustling; we don't have the time to smell the proverbial roses.

But joy is not a luxury saved for when life finally calms down; it’s one of the little necessities that protect our humanity even when, especially when, everything is on fire.

Noticing joy is nothing like chasing “happiness.” Chasing happiness as a goal tends to backfire. “Am I happy yet? Am I happy enough?” When people constantly monitor themselves, they end up more stressed, more self‑critical, and more disappointed when life (predictably) doesn’t cooperate. The demand to be happy becomes one more task on an already exploding to‑do list, and the nervous system, like an overmanaged employee, becomes too stressed to........

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