What’s the Difference Between Joy & Happiness? Happiness occurs when the brain does NOT experience fear. Happiness is a felt sense of well-being linked with contentment, safety, satisfaction and pleasure. Happy states are caused by the transmission of happy hormones detailed in my previous blog. However, joy is a much stronger. Joy is short lived and cannot be sustained for long. Joy is a feeling of delight or bliss which is exhausting in the long run. It is also linked to st