2024 National Day of Joy

The National Day of Joy, sponsored by Comfort Keepers®, is about finding joy in everyday moments. Too often, the pursuit of joy is relegated to the background of people’s lives as they tackle their day-to-day responsibilities. But finding joy, no matter your age, is important for maintaining your physical health, mental health, and overall well-being.

When you experience joy, you can’t help but wear a smile on your face and allow yourself to laugh – which is literally great medicine for your body. The Mayo Clinic reports that, physiologically, laughter enhances your intake of oxygen and stimulates your heart, lungs and organs. Laughter also releases endorphins into your brain, relieves your stress response and soothes tension. Beyond a quick pick-me-up, finding joy and laughter improves your immune system by reducing negative thoughts that can increase stress and decrease the body’s immune response. Finding joy also helps to improve mood, ease anxiety and even helps to lessen depression. 

The National Day of Joy was inaugurated in 2019 by Comfort Keepers, a provider of in-home care for seniors and other adults. As part of the first annual Day of Joy, Comfort Keepers released the results of its National State of Joy survey, which polled Americans on what brings the most joy into their lives. The survey found that people with the greatest levels of joy are older, with those over 60 averaging higher levels of joy than 18-29 year olds and those 45-60.

Additionally, Day of Joy events were held in cities and states nationwide, newspapers, magazines and television news programs reported on the Day of Joy, and thousands shared their experiences on social media. 

Comfort Keepers believes that promoting joy in our clients’ lives is our most important job. Regardless of their age, the people we care for desire all the same things that people of any age do – connectedness, love, meaning, purpose, and hope. When seniors find joy in their lives, Comfort Keepers research has found that it benefits both them and their adult children who will have peace of mind knowing that their parents are happy and safe. In turn, this gives adult children the freedom to undertake their own family priorities and enables a more meaningful child-parent relationship versus a stress-filled, caregiver-parent relationship. As the U.S. population grows older and the ranks of those 65 and over swell to encompass a fifth of the U.S. population by just 2030 (according to the U.S. Census Bureau), Comfort Keepers believes that helping seniors find joy will benefit our clients, their families and our nation. 

We want the National Day of Joy to spur people to pursue simple acts of joy, whether that is playing with their children, talking with someone they love, taking a walk in the woods, laughing with friends, or even blowing bubbles!