Happiness is an emotional state—feeling happy about something means feeling satisfied—or maybe it’s an assessment of our life or someone else’s. Joy is an episodic emotion and is felt concurrent with the situation prompting this emotion and arises during activities. The following factors can explain the main differences between joy and happiness…

Most dictionaries define gratitude as the quality of being thankful and a readiness to show appreciation. Appreciation is recognizing the actions or good in someone or something. While these definitions somewhat overlap, our feelings of gratitude may lead to appreciation. Here’s the takeaway…

Our brains scan for and notice negativity without conscious thought. Today, however, it is possible to rewire our brains for positivity vs. negativity. A gratitude practice is an effective way for us to do this. It works because the more you practice gratitude, the more you strengthen the brain’s neural circuits for gratitude. Here’s what gratitude does to your brain…

When we use our gratitude practice to ignore our feelings or justify an awful experience, “because at least I’m not as bad off as someone else,” it can be destructive to our well-being. Here are a few signs that your gratitude practice is off track.