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Rediscovering Joy: A Shift in Perception

by Laura Eccleston

29 Apr 2025

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Rediscovering Joy: A Shift in Perception
These days, the world can often feel overwhelming, unpredictable, and heavy. And in the midst of it all, joy can seem distant or buried. So how do we reconnect with that spark we once knew as children, and find the light within ourselves to shine again?

We often hear older generations say, “things were better in my day,” but perhaps it’s not that the world was truly better, just that we saw it differently when we were young. Have we lost that lens of wonder as we’ve grown older? And if so, can we learn to see through it once more?

Most of us remember our childhoods as carefree and innocent, untouched by the drama unfolding in the wider world, even if our personal circumstances were difficult. My own childhood was far from easy. I was bullied at school and at home. Money was tight. We moved frequently. My father struggled deeply with mental health issues that affected our whole family, and yet, when I look back, while I do remember the pain, I often recall the good more vividly, endless summer days, bright and golden, picnics in the countryside, sandcastles on the beach. I didn’t care that some nights dinner was just beans with bread and butter, or that I wore my sister’s hand-me-downs. I simply loved playing in the garden and watching bugs in the grass.

But for my parents, those same years were experienced very differently. They were stressed, about money, politics, family dynamics, the same things that worry many of us now. If I talk to them about my childhood memories, even though we did the same things, their recollections are heavier. They bore the weight of responsibility. They had to keep reality in check, prepare for the worst, and carry the burden of providing.

And now it’s our turn, right? Now we have to take on the world. And maybe the world really is worse now?

No. The world hasn’t changed as much as it seems. What’s changed is our awareness of it.

As children, we didn’t pay attention to the wider world in the way we do now. Today, we are constantly bombarded by information. Social media and 24-hour news cycles bring global disasters, political turmoil, economic crises, and social injustices straight to the devices in our hands. It's instant, inescapable, and often overwhelming, and media outlets know that fear gets clicks. Rage, outrage, anxiety, they sell. The result? We live in a constant state of alert.

In some ways, it does feel worse. Our attention is saturated with fear, but the problems themselves? They’re not new.

When I was a child in the 1980s, the UK alone was wrestling with mass unemployment, strikes, and economic hardship. There were race-related riots born of police brutality, poverty, and inequality. The IRA was actively bombing English cities. Homophobia was widespread, and the AIDS epidemic was shrouded in fear and stigma. Football hooliganism was rampant. Housing estates were crumbling. Urban decay was everywhere. Cold War anxieties loomed, and standard crimes like murder, kidnapping, and burglary filled the news.

You could read that list and easily mistake it for today. We still face inequality, identity conflicts, fear of the unknown, and struggles for justice. Racism hasn’t vanished. Political extremism didn’t end with the Cold War, it just took new forms. We still wrestle with the balance between state control and individual freedom. The discourse has changed, but the roots remain.



Now our fears include AI and climate change. Our conflicts are globalised and digitised, but beneath the surface, the human condition hasn’t evolved all that much.

Even a hundred years ago, the world was reeling from World War I, gripped by economic collapse, and on the brink of fascism, communism, and revolution. Today, we talk about inflation, climate crisis, ideological divides, and geopolitical tension. We have new tools, nuclear energy, the internet, artificial intelligence, but they raise old questions: How do we use power responsibly? Who gains, and who is left behind?

A thousand years ago, people still longed for security, meaning, and belonging. Medieval Europe was marked by crusades, famine, plague, religious persecution, and a rigid class system. Today, we face wars, pandemics, algorithmic manipulation, and systems of inequality that echo feudalism in digital form.

So yes, the context has transformed, but the core of human experience remains. We are still telling stories. Still fearing death. Still chasing status. Still loving imperfectly. Still trying to figure out how to live a good life.

Our problems just wear different clothes now. Technology, science, and global interconnection have reshaped the world, but fear, greed, ignorance, and tribalism persist, just as they always have.

And yet, amid it all, we still create art. We still reach for one another. We still build community. We still search for joy.

Because if we can begin to understand that the world hasn’t fundamentally changed, that it’s our perception, our lens on reality, that has shifted, then we start to realise something powerful: we have the ability to shift our experience of life too. We can begin to transform stress into something lighter. Sometimes, even into joy.

The world has always been heavy, but joy has always been possible. The difference lies in how we see.

Children intuitively know this. They live in the present moment more than adults do. They don’t ignore problems, but they don’t live inside them, either. Emotions come, then pass. They marvel at the little things: a beetle on the pavement, the sound of wind in the trees, the stretch of shadows at sunset. Their world isn’t ruled by control, but by curiosity. Not by fear, but by play.

As adults, we can’t, and shouldn’t, abandon our responsibilities, but we can choose how we carry them. We can pause the noise, even briefly, and ask: What small joy can I notice today? What beauty is right in front of me? What if, just for a moment, I let myself laugh, or rest, or hope?

This isn’t about being naive. It’s about reclaiming a part of ourselves we didn’t even realise we lost. A piece of childlike wonder. Not despite the hardness of the world, but because of it.

Joy doesn’t require denial. It asks for attention. It’s the willingness to see the whole picture, not just the shadows, but the light too.

And in a world that constantly pulls us into fear and urgency, this change in perspective isn’t indulgence. It’s a quiet, powerful form of survival.

When everything feels relentless, awe becomes rebellion. Wonder becomes resistance. Play becomes medicine.

And joy… joy becomes a radical act of defiance.

Join the Conversation

Ruth
Ruth
29 Apr 2025 9:57 PM
Thank you so much for this article Laura 🫂👏🏻 You’re completely right, the world hasn’t changed, it is our perception! I was nodding my head as I read your words, and I really appreciate the timing of your article, as it is so easy to just see gloom and doom. Thank you for opening my eyes to look at life and the world in a more positive light. xo 🤩💐
HappyBerry
HappyBerry
01 May 2025 10:25 AM
I'm so happy you enjoyed my article Ruth and that it resonated with you so much. That really means the world to me as I would very much enjoy sharing more articles like this focusing more on the 'happy' side of HappyBerry. It's a subject close to my heart.
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