Day of Joy includes free ice cream
A Barrie company may have found the secret to joy, if not happiness.
Comfort Keepers has named this the year to Reclaim the Joy, and June 29 is its Day of Joy.
The good folks – located at 51 Churchill Drive – are celebrating by passing out sundaes to spread more joy on their Sundae Fun Day.
Ooey-gooey ice cream aside, a communal sharing of joy is considered a strong factor even in the driest of data-laden surveys.
Statistics Canada released the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) in the midst of the global pandemic which may have skewed some of the numbers.
However, it's worth noting that across Canada in 2019, 15.9 million people perceived their health as very good or excellent, and even more Canadians, 16.6 million, reported their mental health was very good, if not excellent.
Only 1.7 million said their mental health was poor, and not surprisingly, that figure rose to 2.3 million people by 2020.
Self-reported stress levels hovered around 5.3 million in both 2019 and 2020.
What makes people happy or experience a sense of joy?
According to the 2020 World Happiness Report, urban residents "are generally happier than rural dwellers in most countries, with these advantages being less, and sometimes reversed in a number of richer countries."
Canada is considered a richer country, so our average life satisfaction is lower in urban areas than in rural ones.
However, Barrie is a small urban city surrounded by rural farmland and forests, so we might be living in the best of both worlds.
In keeping with statistical analysis, according to last year's Comfort Keepers National Day Joy of Survey, 80 per cent of Canadians believe the world needs more joy.
"In our community, we have always celebrated the value and importance of connecting with family and friends, savouring the simple moments and not taking life for granted," said Erika Rendon, owner of Comfort Keepers.
"Our amazing network of caregivers bring moments of joy to so many seniors every day of the year – even during the most challenging of times. We thank them for all of their dedication and support and encourage our community to do their part in reclaiming joy for themselves, friends and loved ones," she said.
"It's never too late to take back the joy we may have missed and inspire others to do the same."
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