Atlas of the Heart: Mapping Meaningful Connection and the Language of Human Experience

Brown starts the places we go when life is good with joy and happiness. Brown believes joy is quicker and of higher intensity than happiness, which is more stable and low intensity. Joy is “an intense feeling of deep spiritual connection, pleasure and appreciation” (205). Joy is difficult to articulate. Brown cites researcher Matthew Kuan Johnson, who believes that cultures with more vocabulary to describe joy experience it more richly. He also posits that in experiencing joy, we “become more truly ourselves” (205), and the world feels more vivid. Joy and gratitude both increase the other, which Brown calls an “upward spiral.” Happiness is “feeling pleasure often related to the immediate environment or current happiness” (207). Brown believes that happiness, while pleasurable, can distract us from deeper feelings like joy and gratitude.

When life is good, we often feel calm, which is “creating perspective and mindfulness while managing emotional reactivity” (208). Calm people make the environment around them calmer and more centered. While there is debate about whether calm is a practice or an emotion, Brown believes it can be cultivated when we take a moment and ask questions. Asking, “Do I have enough information to freak out?” and “will freaking out help?” (209) help Brown to practice calm.