Creating Space for Joy: Finding Lightness in Demanding Times
- Shivalika Dhruvchand Srivastav
- Jan 12
- 3 min read
By Coral Health | Workplace Wellness Insights
For many professionals—especially those in high-stakes finance, healthcare, law, or caregiving roles—the word "joy" can feel wildly out of place at work. When your daily reality involves serious problems, tight deadlines, or supporting others through crises, feeling joyful can seem self-indulgent, unprofessional, or simply impossible.
If you feel life has become "all work," or if you are working in a serious/heavy work environment and have lost your sense of lightness, this message is crucial.
Joy is not the absence of seriousness. It is the fuel required to sustain it.
In demanding times, we often adopt a "survival mode" mentality, tunneling our vision only onto tasks and problems. While necessary for short bursts, living here permanently leads to profound burnout and compassion fatigue. Reclaiming a lightness mindset isn't about ignoring reality; it's about building the resilience to keep facing it.
🌤️ The Science of Smashing the "Joy Block."
Many of us harbor an unconscious belief: If I am happy while doing serious work, I am not taking the work seriously enough.
Positive psychology tells us the exact opposite is true. Positive emotions—even fleeting moments of joy, amusement, or connection—act as a "reset button" for our physiological stress response. This is known as the "undoing effect."
Without these moments of reprieve, the cognitive load of heavy work crushes our creativity and empathy. Finding joy at work is not a distraction from high performance; it is a prerequisite for sustaining it over the long term.
🪴 Practical Ways to Cultivate Lightness
You don't need to overhaul your life to find joy. You need to learn the art of joy cultivation in micro-doses.
1. Hunt for Micro-Moments
Joy doesn't always arrive as a grand event. It often hides in plain sight. It’s the perfect foam on your cappuccino, a funny interaction with a pet before logging on, or a three-minute exchange of memes with a team member.
The Practice: Set an intention to notice three things today that bring a tiny spark of lightness. Acknowledging them tricks your brain into looking for more workplace positivity.
2. Allow for "Gallows Humor" (Within Reason)
For workers in helping or caregiving roles, shared humor is often a vital survival mechanism. Sharing a laugh about the absurdity of a situation with colleagues who "get it" creates a profound connection and releases tension. It’s okay to find lightness even in the heaviness.
3. Protect "Unproductive" Play
High-achievers often turn even their downtime into "self-improvement." True joy often resides in activities with no goal. Read fiction, trashy novels, doodle badly, or sing loudly in the car. Give your brain permission to be inefficient.
Real Story: An ER nurse, overwhelmed by the trauma she witnessed daily, felt guilty for feeling happy outside of work. She felt "gray" and numb. Through counseling, she learned that compartmentalizing her joy was actually leading to compassion fatigue. By implementing small happiness practices—like a mandatory 10-minute dance playlist on her commute home—she began to thaw, finding she had more emotional capacity for her patients, not less.
Struggling to permit yourself to Feel Joy?
Many people in demanding roles feel that heaviness is a badge of honor. If you are craving lightness but feel blocked by guilt or exhaustion, Coral Health’s workplace wellness counselors can help you:
Deconstruct the beliefs that block joy
Develop personalized, realistic happiness practices
Combat compassion fatigue in helping roles
Learn to hold space for both grief and joy simultaneously
Start Today: Send a message right now to a colleague or friend simply to share something light—a joke, a memory, or a funny picture. Watch how the connection shifts your energy.
Then, if you're ready to systematically bring lightness back into your life, contact Coral Health for support.
Feeling like life is all work and no spark? You don't have to live in the heavy.
Coral Health's EAP offers:
✓ Counseling for compassion fatigue and burnout
✓ Strategies for finding joy in challenges
✓ Positive psychology coaching
✓ 24/7 support in multiple languages
📞 [24/7 Hotline]
Book a confidential session and reclaim your right to lightness.
Coral Health | Workplace Wellness Insights
Trusted by global organizations | Licensed counselors | Culturally sensitive support
