The Missing Biomarker: Why True Health Demands Joy

"The meaning of life is just to be alive."

- Alan Watts

Having health, or being healthy, is typically measured objectively through measurements like cholesterol levels, physical strength or VO2 max testing, metabolic functioning, and so on. It can also be subjective, often comparative. Do I look good enough? Do I feel good, or better said, am I in any pain or physical discomfort? Though all of these things are important (save for maybe the looking good part), there is often no consideration for the feeling of joy, or happiness, and the role that plays in health. To be the strongest, best-looking person with flawless biomarkers and easing through life without pain is all worthless if that person is miserable. The person doesn't even have to be miserable. If they are lacking the necessary elements of life that would bring joy, then they are not in optimal health. Misery is a worst-case scenario, but indifference is also not the target.

What is Joy, and How do I Seek it Out?

What brings joy to your life? This is a more difficult question to answer than we may want to believe. The question is not "what makes you feel satisfied?" or "what makes you feel good?" This is all very well articulated and described by Arthur Brooks and his "macronutrients" and "pillars" of happiness. But the core question surrounding joy—which I am using here synonymously with Brooks’ concept of "enjoyment"—is about finding the things in life that bring profound, meaningful, lasting, impactful, intense feelings of well-being, harmony, and contentment.

You can find joy in faith, family, friendships, and work (the pillars of happiness described by Brooks), but you have to know how to cultivate it. Often, we leverage these pillars to find deep meaning or satisfaction (the other two macronutrients of happiness), but we completely forget to experience the raw enjoyment of them in the present moment. We find meaning in working hard to support our family, and we feel satisfaction when we follow through on our obligations, but the actual day-to-day enjoyment is postponed. Instead of finding simple joy at the dinner table or while reading bedtime stories to our children, we convince ourselves we need something material to bring us "joy." Joy is commonly, and incorrectly, associated with material or superficial things like a nice car or having sex. In reality, joy is related more to the family vacation you take in the fancy car you bought or the love you feel toward the person you are intimate with. It arises from within and has less to do with laughing, smiling and the things we have and more to do with a sense of purpose and contentment with who we are as a person.

The whole point here is to level-set on the "why" in our lives. Why do we work? Why do we commit to certain obligations and avoid others? Why do we prioritize some activities and/or relationships, yet we completely neglect others? Audit yourself on this and it is amazing what you will find. In other words, if you are doing things that do not bring you joy, you should explore why you are doing them. And if you are not doing things you know would bring you joy, you should also explore that.

Take this sequence: Why do I work? To make money. Why do I need money? To pay the bills. Why do I need to pay the bills? To provide for my family. Why do I need to provide for my family? Because I love my family.

So at face value, I work because I need money. Upon deeper reflection, I work because I love my family. Following this exercise for all the different aspects of our lives, we can really start to hone in on what is important. In this example, making money is not the variable of interest. Love for my family is. Now as I am making career decisions and committing to obligations, I can arm myself with this perspective. Is a raise and a promotion the best way to show my family I love them, or is freeing up more of my time a better way? There is no right or wrong answer, but examining the question more deeply will bring you to a more satisfying answer that can ultimately bring you closer to being able to manufacture joy on a more regular basis.

What does Joy have to do with Health?

When we think about health, we are not simply thinking about living without pain or with perfect biomarkers. We are thinking about enjoying as many moments as we can, and finding satisfaction and meaning, even through struggle.

This means living in the present moment, doing our best to plan and prepare for the future, but not putting off joy at the expense of our current selves, and not keeping joy contingent on the perfect execution of "the plan."

Let's take Viktor Frankl and his life experience as an example. He was subject to three years of life inside a concentration camp, enduring unimaginable circumstances that are difficult to overstate. Where is the enjoyment, satisfaction, or meaning in a life defined by suffering? Objectively, Viktor Frankl was extremely unhealthy. He was surviving inhumane conditions that were outright disgusting, barely maintaining enough caloric intake for life, let alone health (not to mention the physical and psychological torture and regular encounters with the possibility of execution). Yet, somehow, he persevered. He did not just survive, but went on to become extremely influential in the field of psychology and invented and popularized Logotherapy. In Man's Search for Meaning, he shares many of the horrifying details of his experience in the multiple concentration camps he called home, but he also shares a lot about what it means to be alive. He perfectly illustrates the idea that our body is simply a vessel for our mind and spirit, and no matter what the body endures, avoidable or not, the spirit can remain unbroken.

"Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way" - Viktor Frankl

If the meaning of life is to be alive (per Alan Watts), then finding meaning in everything you do is a logical prerogative. Meaning, satisfaction, and joy. We can find these things in the esoteric, wonderful things we are capable of, and we absolutely should push ourselves to be the best, most productive, person we can be. But we should still be able to find these in the most mundane aspects of life, or even in times of abject suffering. Frankl suggests there are three paths for finding meaning in life, and I think you could easily argue these paths are the same for joy and satisfaction:

• Performing a deed or creating something (think powerful volunteer work, authoring a novel, starting a business, etc.)

• By coming into contact with someone or experiencing something (think falling in love or profound experiences in nature)

• By experiencing unavoidable suffering, and the attitude we take toward it (in Frankl’s experience, this was concentration camp life, or in another example, it is facing a terminal illness with joy in your heart and not shame or despair)

We can find enjoyment, meaning, and satisfaction ranging anywhere from doing the dishes to discovering a cure for cancer to being subject to the torments of a concentration camp. The power to do so is within our spirit and we are all capable. We need to get comfortable with asking ourselves "why" to break out of the routines and habits that our society and culture have embedded in us, to the point that our lives are on autopilot. We need to wake up, cultivate joy whenever and wherever we can, and endure suffering and hardship with a positive attitude. True joy arises from living a life of virtue, a life that is aligned with who we are and the sense of inner peace that comes with that.

We will undoubtedly all be subject to unavoidable suffering in one way or another, and facing that with courage will be a daunting task. But every single day we are senselessly subjecting ourselves to completely avoidable suffering, delaying gratification and joy at the expense of our well-being and the well-being of the friends and family we care so much about—the ones we are suffering "for." It is OK to seek and experience the external pleasures in life and it is true that genuine joy comes from an internal state of steadiness, confidence and contentment. Now, let's reflect on that avoidable suffering we endure, identify the true bringers of joy to our life, and start living like today was the gift that it is.