
The Surprising Power of Joy

As a culture we are obsessed with the pursuit of happiness, and in the process, we forget about joy.
Full Session

Featured Highlights
Setup
We're often taught that our surroundings are incidental to our well-being, but an emerging body of research shows that the physical world can be a powerful tool for cultivating happier, healthier lives. Studies show that workers in colorful offices are more alert, friendly, and confident than those in drab ones, that windows can speed healing, and children progress faster in classrooms with better lighting. Join Ingrid Fetell Lee, author of "Joyful: The Surprising Power of Ordinary Things to Create Extraordinary Happiness," as she shares how simple changes to the world around us can improve our health, stimulate creativity, facilitate social harmony, and of course, promote joy. Underwritten by Sotheby's.
Happiness versus joy
Happiness and joy are often used interchangeably, but they’re actually two very different things. Happiness is a broad evaluation of how we feel about our lives over time, says designer Ingrid Fetell Lee, and the varying degrees of happiness — the ups and downs — make happiness hard to measure. Sometimes, we're not always sure just how happy we are. But joy is much simpler and more immediate, she explains; it’s “an intense momentary experience of positive emotion.” It’s observable in direct physical expressions like smiling, laughter, and a feeling of wanting to jump up and down.
Big IdeaIf I asked you what anxiety feels like in your body, you could probably tell me instantly. But we forget that joy has a feeling too.Ingrid Fetell Lee
Joy carries a plethora of positive impacts. Research shows that joy helps us be up to 12 percent more productive. It increases our cognitive flexibility and strengthens our relationships. “We live in this state of burnout," says Lee, “but if we make room for small moments for joy, they can help us be more resilient over the long haul.”
Swimming pools and rainbows — what gives you joy?
As a designer, Ingrid Fetell Lee wanted to understand the physical elements of joy. She found that things like cherry blossoms, bubbles, swimming pools, treehouses, rainbows, and rainbow sprinkles are universally joyful. The patterns she noticed became categories to organize the type of joy certain things elicit. Lee explains these different aesthetics of joy:
Big IdeaWe live in a world that is so sharply divided and polarized that sometimes it can feel like our differences are so stark as to be insurmountable. To me, there’s something really powerful in the idea that we all find joy in some of the same things. That underneath it all, there’s this part of us that has this silly attraction to things like googly eyes and rainbows.Ingrid Fetell Lee
Growing up doesn't have to mean giving up joy
We all start out joyful, says Ingrid Fetell Lee. “But as we get older, being colorful or exuberant opens us up to judgment,” and we worry about “being dismissed as childish or superficial or frivolous or self-indulgent.” Give yourself permission to do what feels joyful to you, Lee says, and ask yourself, what is something I loved to do when I was younger that I stopped doing, for some reason?
Did You Know?
“We often see joy as a distraction from success, something that we put off to our nights and our weekends because it doesn’t belong in the workplace, when in fact joy can be a catalyst for our success,” says Lee. Though it can be tempting to postpone joy during stressful times at work, it is ultimately one of our best tools to restore well-being.
Superficial changes, profound transformation
“We have a massive untapped opportunity to use our spaces in ways that can help people thrive,” argues Ingrid Fetell Lee. The lack of joyful design is most extreme in the places that house the people who are most vulnerable in our society, she says — places like schools, hospitals, nursing homes, and jails. Lee discusses a city in Albania and a youth development program in New York CIty that are making radical changes to their communities through simple pops of color:
Big IdeaWhen we say that color is a luxury and housing projects shouldn’t have that because they should only have the bare minimum, and when we say that people in poverty don’t deserve small joys in their day-to-day lives, it’s inherently dehumanizing.Ingrid Fetell Lee
Our physical surroundings can help us cultivate happier and healthier lives, both individually and socially — but at the same time they can be used to further marginalize people who are vulnerable. “This is an emerging public health issue and public health opportunity,” says Lee, and one that deserves attention.
How can we be more joyful? Try joyspotting.
A simple way to be more attuned to joy is what Ingrid Fetell Lee calls joyspotting, or noticing all the tiny joyful things in the environment immediately around us. For more joyful relationships, Lee emphasizes the importance of sharing joy and celebrating our partner’s joy with them. In designing living and working spaces, she suggests “joy is a palette we can work with” for “finding the right aesthetics for the right environment.”
Big IdeaThe first moment of genuine joy is the moment of commitment to the human experience. Joy is what makes us human. When we deny that, when we push joy off to the margins, when we say it’s extraneous, or it’s a luxury, we lose a piece of our humanity.Ingrid Fetell Lee
Joy is often the first thing to go when we’re stressed or experiencing a crisis. “If you feel yourself entering a mode of chronic stress, where it’s relentless, it’s very easy to dig in and say, I just have to get to the other side,” Lee points out. “That’s a good trigger to say, I should do some small and joyful thing now.”
Learn More
Additional Information
Resources
The Aesthetics of Joy
5 Simple Tips to Find Joy Every Day
Joyful: The Surprising Power of Ordinary Things to Create Extraordinary Happiness
Joy is a Form of Resilience
Explore More
Society

Whether expressed through systems that are easy to navigate, devices that are friendly to their users, and spaces that are pleasing to the eye, thoughtful design can break dow...


In today’s world, we tend to switch jobs more frequently than previous generations, and are more likely to have multiple jobs. Side gigs where we express passions or find mean...


Shakespeare is ubiquitous in literature classes and theater, but the avenues of relating to his work are not always clear to young people and modern audiences. Some, such as S...

October is National Book Month, and we’re celebrating by looking back at some of our favorite conversations about reading and writing from the Aspen Ideas Festival and Aspen I...

Finding ways to ground ourselves on a planet too often in turmoil can foster the resilience we need to function at our best. By maintaining close personal ties, learning new s...

Philosophers throughout history have debated what it means to live a good life, and it remains an ongoing and unresolved question. Deep personal relationships, fulfilling work...

You may have heard of Dry January and mocktails, but what is being "sober curious" really about? Sans Bar's Chris Marshall explains the growing movement and shares how he's b...


The United States is a more secular society than many, and the percentage of people who don’t identify with organized religion is rising. Some of the impacts from that shift m...


About two decades ago, NPR host Mary Louise Kelly had her first child and went down the extremely common yet commonly daunting life path of balancing a demanding career with a...

Everyone has a story to tell – and sharing them reminds us of our common humanity. Few know this better than StoryCorps CEO Sandra Clark. Over the last 20 years, the organizat...

It's been a big year for Patagonia, as it celebrated a 50th anniversary and legally restructured to commit all profits to environmental causes. What can be learned from the co...


Artificial intelligence is clearly going to change our lives in multiple ways. But it’s not yet obvious exactly how, and what the impacts will be. We can predict that certain...

Advocates, healthcare providers, legislators, researchers, and venture capitalists are bringing the unique health needs of women to light – from vigorous policy debates on iss...


Actor Rainn Wilson had his dream job on the hit TV show “The Office,” but was still being kept up at night by anxiety, depression, and life’s big unanswerable questions. He we...

Lisa Damour is a clinical psychologist, author, and a senior advisor to the Schubert Center for Child Studies at Case Western Reserve University. We caught up with her about h...

How do we describe the Republican Party today, and what are the dynamics that will shape its future?

In their new book, co-authors and Stanford professors Rob Reich and Mehran Sahami argue that big tech’s obsession with optimization and efficiency has sacrificed fundamental h...

Like Photoshop, photography, or even pigment, A.I. represents new technology for creative expression that aims to close the gap between imagination and physicality. Alexander...

Journalist Tom Friedman reflects on 28 years of reporting, and renowned architect David Adjaye shares how he approaches the design of physical spaces — and how those spaces ha...

How can we unlock the power of entrepreneurship to widen access to health care, close gender disparity, and increase prosperity in the global South? Hear from expert voices an...