Do We Limit Our Joy?

“In English, we have the words "empathy" and "compassion" to express our ability to feel the pain that others suffer, but we don't have a word for experiencing vicarious joy - joy on behalf of other people. Perhaps this is a sign that we all need to work on it.

- Jay Shetty, Think Like a Monk

Later in the book, Shetty briefly touches on the question: “Do we limit our joy?” By staying neutral or responding negatively to the successes of others and only feeling joy when we move our own pawn forward, are we unintentionally blocking ourselves from experiencing beauty and peace?

In a society centered around ego, competition and comparison often become embedded in our relationships—sometimes without us even realizing it. Yet, we influence others simply by how we are.

In short, if we recognize that our limited capacity for joy is a societal issue rooted in collective consciousness, then choosing to feel true joy for others can create a ripple effect. But this could be easier said than done.

Lately, most of my reading has focused on the idea of rising to a new level of consciousness. I won’t go off on a tangent about Spiral Dynamics, but it's a visual model that maps the stage-by-stage evolution of human consciousness and helps clarify how we move between these stages. If this topic sparks your curiosity, I definitely encourage you to explore it further.

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