Measuring Joy - Part 1

This is a follow-up to yesterday's blog about the Joy to Stuff ratio.  Since one half of the ratio is joy, it is important to understand what joy is.....  and can it be measured?

I will change (adding two letters) the famous quote by Supreme Court Justice Potter   (vs what he was defining) from  "I know it when I see it"  to defining Joy as --- "I know it when I sense it". 

Joy is different from happiness or pleasure (see Counting Feelings) even though the dictionary defines joy with both of those terms ----  "the emotion of great delight or happiness caused by something exceptionally good or satisfying; keen pleasure; elation.  In Peter Kreft's book "Heaven, the Hearts Deepest Longing", he visually shows (pg 125) the three levels  of emotions - pleasure, happiness and joy (Dionysian) and the  three congnitive levels of the mind -sensation, knowledge and wisdom (Apollonian) associated with the levels of our "being" -physical body, soul and spirit.  Hence, Joy is at the deepest level connected with wisdom embedded in our spirit.

On the internet, I stumbled onto Laurie Kaufman Rees's recent (2012) web site attempting to measure Joy - "The Joy Project" which has a handy tool with 24 questions with the intent of quantifying your joy ( a perfect score is 120).  She probably agrees with Peter Kreft's illustration of joy,  since her website by-line is "The Biblical Pursuit of More Than Mere Happiness". 

When people are asked to define joy (see Jan's Joyous Jungle ) the responses range from individual physical sensations/activities (e.g. hot shower, giggling, smiling) to relationships (e.g. falling in love, friends, children); events (e.g. sunrise, sunset, concert); things (e.g. hot chocolate, homemade cookies); and spiritual (e.g. God's love, knowing your purpose).  But how to quantify those feelings, things, people, places, memories is the 64 dollar question?

I can see this will take some time to research - part of my definition of Joy  :)