Once again I’ve become a statistic. Like it or not, we’re all numbers in various data banks. This time being a number makes me happy. In fact, makes me more joyful. At last count (it increases daily) I’m one of 109,048 worldwide participants in the Big Joy project. Devised by the Greater Good Science Center of the University of California, Berkeley, the online exercise claims to be the “largest-ever citizen science project on JOY.”

An inspiration is the film, “Mission: JOY,” which features a meeting between the Dalai Lama and the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu. The documentary (available for streaming online) is contagiously joy-filled.

Happiness, resilience, connection and kindness are skills that can be taught and practiced through “micro-acts of JOY,” says the Big Joy website. All it takes is seven minutes a day for seven days. On Day One you establish a well-being baseline. Each day you record your feelings before and after engaging in a micro-act of joy. That may be sharing a laugh, doing something kind, celebrating someone else’s joy, etc. On Day Seven, you get a report measuring how your sense of well-being (or joy) may have improved.

I guess you could call it your JQ — joy quotient. At week’s end, mine had shot up all of 4.3 percent. Not much, but every little bit helps. I’d started out with a relatively high JQ. On a scale from one to ten, I measured in the high sevens to begin with. At week’s end, I made it all the way to eight. 

I probably could’ve gone higher, but I blew it on Day Two, during the seven minutes in which I was supposed to experience awe. The project invited me to sit back, relax and “immerse” myself in an “awe-inspiring video.” Then came four minutes of drone-captured scenes from California’s Yosemite Park, all of it at rocket-forward speed. From sunrise to sunset took fifty-nine seconds. (Some days are like that.) We were treated to thirty-four seconds of heavenly splendor until dawn broke.  Myriad stars in a bejeweled night sky sparkled and disappeared faster than a flash bulb. A full moon sped past like a helium balloon caught in a gale wind. 

I was impressed by the skill of the film makers, but awed by the sights? Hardly.

Awe takes time. My late husband and I visited Yosemite years ago. I well remember the awe we shared as we slowed our pace, lingered to absorb sights, sounds, scents. I am frequently awed by what Creation offers on just about any day, just about any place. One of the gifts of aging is a willingness — a need! — to slow down, even stop. To pay attention. To drink it all in. To open ourselves to awe. To not cover the spectacular 1,170 square miles of Yosemite Park in four minutes or less.

Even if I wasn’t happy with the awe portion, I don’t regret devoting seven minutes daily to joy for a week. As the website points out, there’s a big difference between happiness and joy. Happiness tends to be fleeting, based on temporary emotions — feelings that we think of as positive. Joy is deeper, able to embrace sadness, anger, loneliness. Aristotle described it as “eudaimonic” happiness rather than hedonistic happiness — living a meaningful life as opposed to merely pursuing pleasure. Joy, said the Greeks, is a spiritual high.

Much of the time, I’m not happy. I’m unhappy over global and national events. I’m unhappy as I walk past the silent young woman who spends night after night on the bench in the park by my apartment.

I suspect you’re unhappy, too. It’s joy that empowers us when we’re unhappy. Joy allows space for hope and counters futility. In joy we recognize those daily opportunities, small and large, that allow us to address our unhappiness. Send that email, make that phone call, give that donation, carry that picket sign, deliver that hot meal to someone who’s ailing, listen patiently to someone who’s hurting, sing that song — even/especially if it’s the blues.

Micro-actions promise joy. Maybe even awe, when we take the time.