"Joy is not an attitude you adopt alone but a response your mind and body generate when the conditions are right. Just as people have varying capacities for distress, they also have differing levels of tolerance for how much pleasure, ease, and excitement their nervous systems can safely hold."
"One of the biggest barriers to joy is intolerance for positive emotion, not sadness, as we most often think. For many people, especially those who grew up with emotional neglect, feeling good does not feel safe."
Joy is often misrepresented as a state to be performed and maintained, leading to the misconception that not feeling good indicates a lack of effort. Joy should be viewed as a natural response that can be cultivated under the right conditions, similar to muscle growth. Strengthening joy involves training the nervous system to tolerate positive emotions, especially for those with a history of emotional neglect or trauma, who may find joy feels unsafe or temporary.
Read at Psychology Today
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