What Compersion Feels Like

Compersion is best defined as sympathetic joy. Simply put, it is the joy you feel when someone you love or care about is happy, even if their positive experience doesn’t have anything to do with you (or may not even benefit you). It’s a common word used in non-monogamous circles, first coined by the since-disbanded polyamorous Kerista commune in the early 1990s, specifically for the joy one feels when they see their partner being happy in their sexual or romantic relationship with someone else.