Pleasure & Enjoyment

When considering the kind of experiences that make life better, most people first think that happiness consists in experiencing pleasures: good food, good times, and all the comforts money can buy. We imagine the satisfactions of traveling to exotic places and expensive gadgets. Pleasure is an important component of the quantity of life, BUT by itself it does not bring happiness. Enjoyment is characterized by a forward movement, by a sense of accomplishment, something that stretches your abilities is enjoyable, as is reading a good book that reveals things in a new light, as is having good conversation that expresses ideas that we didn't know we had. After an enjoyable event we know we have changed, that our self has grown in some respect, we have become more complex as a result of it.