What fills you with joy? | Hacker News Reader

What fills you with joy?

1 pointsamh7482 comments

What makes you feel alive? What always lifts your spirit? What excites and/or inspires you deeply?

Or, alternatively, what in your imagination would do that for you?

Don't just give a short answer, describe it, tell us the how or the why! :)

It could be anything from solving exciting problems to spending time with your kids, as long as it's genuine!

There are a lot of things. I'm actually searching out more and more refined pathways to joy each day. One specific thing that has been filling me with joy at the moment is listening to Debussy and then watching videos of art in fast forward. The combo is really something, and it got me through a very painful moment this summer. Before that, my muse was searching out videos of people walking around in tourist attractions (also in fast forward). But so many things bring me joy. Most of all creating music gives me joy, but also listening to music gives me joy. One unexpected source of joy is from the genre of music called "hash noise". It's an acquired taste, but I have a theory that listening to it opens new synapses in my mind. If you look at nature, noise can be found everywhere. Think of how relaxing the sound of waves crashing on the beach sound. That's noise. I could go on though, religion, science, reading about hardware and the occult. I think joy and meaning is, perhaps, shattered into a million pieces and you can find it almost everywhere, even in places that you would never imagine, like reaching your lowest points in life or even on websites that people think are wrong. My new goal is "Praxis", which I might define as the joy of living a very conventional life. This will be new for me, but I suspect it's a necessary step in my own personal journey.

I really appreciate the detailed response! So much to chew on :)

In particular, your points regarding music, nature, and noise, and finding joy and meaning in the most unexpected of places: so awesome!

It's actually quite inspiring that you're able to seek out so many sources of joy. I really need to do more of that as well.

A question about listening to music, if you don't mind: Do you have dedicated time where you're just listening to the music, ie not doing anything else?

I guess I'm wondering about all these things because I've been trying to figure out how to get myself into the 'mood' for joy. I struggle with calming myself down and haven't been able to just relax and do things I supposedly enjoy. Any tips on navigating that?

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