Tap Into the Joy of Someone Else's Happiness

How Celebrating Others' Joy Can Transform Your Own Happiness

This was first posted on my original Substack, “What It’s All About”. Just in case it looks familiar, I promise it wasn’t plagiarized.

It's Saturday morning as I write this. While I wasn't planning on doing any sort of work today, I feel compelled to share some thoughts about feeling happy for others. Good friends of mine—ones that I love—are getting married today. I am so excited for them it's bordering on ridiculous.

The reason I am moved to share this is that this is another skill I’ve had to learn. Childhood taught me mostly competition and jealousy. Sure, it also taught me to tell people I was happy for them when appropriate out of politeness. But, honestly, every time I said it, it made me feel icky.

Only after beginning my self-awareness journey, learning how to make myself happy and seeing it modeled repeatedly, have I been able to start honestly feeling happy for others.