The School of Life

The person we may find it hardest to be kind and sympathetic to is, surprisingly, ourselves. Yet being a friend to ourselves provides the only viable basis for living an emotionally fulfilled life. Enjoying our Youtube videos? Get full access to all our audio content, videos, and thousands of thought-provoking articles, conversation cards and more with The School of Life Subscription: https://t.ly/CzJMl Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/3BjMl FURTHER READING “Polite people have it instilled in them from an early ag...

Many of our relationship problems stem from the emptiness of our vocabulary around our affectionate emotion. We have only the minimal word 'love'. Luckily, the Ancient Greeks had a more nuanced and complicated vocabulary that we can usefully borrow from. Enjoying our Youtube videos? Get full access to all our audio content, videos, and thousands of thought-provoking articles, conversation cards and more with The School of Life Subscription: https://t.ly/i21Hv Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/FN5Mf FURTHER READING “Love is...

Emotional Intelligence, Daily. Start now: https://www.theschooloflife.com/subscription/ Can world events drive you mad? Via Virginia Woolf's tragic tale, see how political stress deeply impacts mental health, especially for the vulnerable. Understand the toll and build resilience. #PoliticalAnxiety #MentalHealth #Resilience #VirginiaWoolf #Psychology Unlock all the content of The School of Life with a subscription to our podcast, articles, videos, and exercises, specially tailored to your needs. Get weekly insights for better relationships, deeper self-knowledge, and inner calm straight to your inbox. Sign up for more ideas, plus 10% off your first shop order: https://www.theschooloflife.com/signup/ You...

Being a victim of infidelity is one of the worst things that can befall us in love. One of the ways to come back from the harrowing experience is to ask what the real meaning of the infidelity might be.

Uploaded 26-06-17

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Emotional Intelligence, Daily. Start now: https://www.theschooloflife.com/subscription/ Why do we often gravitate towards emotionally unavailable partners? This film challenges our romantic narratives, arguing that true love isn't about overcoming obstacles or chasing hesitant affections. Discover the liberating wisdom of seeking out only the genuinely enthusiastic in dating, saving ourselves from needless heartache and embracing relationships that truly nourish. #DatingTips #SelfRespect #HealthyRelationships #EmotionalMaturity #LoveLife Unlock all the content of The School of Life with a subscription to our podcast, articles, videos, and exercises, specially tailored to your needs. Get weekly insights for better relationships, deeper self-knowledge, and inner...

Going cold on our partners is often a sign not that we have stopped caring, but that we are - somewhere deep down - furious or hurt. Enjoying our Youtube videos? Get full access to all our audio content, videos, and thousands of thought-provoking articles, conversation cards and more with The School of Life Subscription: https://t.ly/ho0r2 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/sIgLc FURTHER READING “The story of the path to coldness in love is well known. We start off fu...

Jacques Derrida was a key philosopher of modern times who made pioneering explorations into the subtexts of our key concepts.

Uploaded 02-09-16

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Nagging is one of the most understandable but counterproductive patterns of behaviour – that kicks in when we have failed to teach someone what we want and are feeling tired and bruised emotionally. But if we really want others to change, there is no alternative but to gather our strengths and try to convey information in a way that can be understood by someone else.

Uploaded 26-10-17

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Paradoxically, but also rather troublingly, there are certain lies that preserve the underlying truth about our feelings somewhat more effectively than the literal truth. An essay on the implications and background idea of the white lie.

Uploaded 17-02-17

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It’s deeply tempting to get into sulks in relationships. We should, however, always strive to explain, rather than silently act out, our rage. Enjoying our Youtube videos? Get full access to all our audio content, videos, and thousands of thought-provoking articles, conversation cards and more with The School of Life Subscription: https://t.ly/SgsDe Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/08OLT FURTHER READING “One of the most exciting aspects of the early days of a relationship can be the sense that a love...

Emotional Intelligence, Daily. Start now: https://www.theschooloflife.com/subscription/ Can world events drive you mad? Via Virginia Woolf's tragic tale, see how political stress deeply impacts mental health, especially for the vulnerable. Understand the toll and build resilience. #PoliticalAnxiety #MentalHealth #Resilience #VirginiaWoolf #Psychology Unlock all the content of The School of Life with a subscription to our podcast, articles, videos, and exercises, specially tailored to your needs. Get weekly insights for better relationships, deeper self-knowledge, and inner calm straight to your inbox. Sign up for more ideas, plus 10% off your first shop order: https://www.theschooloflife.com/signup/ You...

Those of us who aspire to work in a creative field often end up despairing that such roles seem so few and far between. Yet the search is less hopeless than it looks: we simply need to think more deeply about what ‘creativity’ really means.

Uploaded 18-08-21

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One of the stranger but more powerful discoveries of psychotherapy is that the average baby firmly believes it has two mothers and that this belief profoundly affects our future relationships. Enjoying our Youtube videos? Get full access to all our audio content, videos, and thousands of thought-provoking articles, conversation cards and more with The School of Life Subscription: https://t.ly/FeAfM Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/hErnn FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://9qq0.short...

Underlying so many of our emotional problems lies one phenomenon above any other; shame. Feeling misguidedly and disproportionately ashamed of who we are is at the root of an extraordinary amount of disturbance, rendering us harmful to ourselves and to the world. Enjoying our Youtube videos? Get full access to all our audio content, videos, and thousands of thought-provoking articles, conversation cards and more with The School of Life Subscription: https://t.ly/eV1Bw Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/FRlT9 The School...

We often observe self protective strategies in ourselves with a mixture of puzzlement and embarrassment. Why are we like this? Why can’t we be more normal? What’s up with us? Our newsletter is a treasury of ideas: ideas that can inspire, console, and improve your mental wellbeing. You’ll also hear news about our app, latest releases and exclusive Q&A content, where we answer your questions:https://www.theschooloflife.com/signup/ If you want to keep working on your mental well-being and self-understanding, download our hugely helpful new app now: https://www.theschooloflife.com/app/ Our website has bo...

We long to get all our work done in order to have free time. But we should be very careful with leisure. Having nothing left to do work-wise can be a very dangerous challenge for our psyches: it can bring on despair and self-loathing. It may be that always having projects on the go can insulate us from mental unwellness.

Uploaded 26-08-20

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Above and beyond having a job, what we really need to power our professional future is a sense of mission. A film that discusses what a mission is, and how we might find our own.

Uploaded 19-10-17

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Violent criminals are strangely compelling and consoling to read or hear about on the news. The reason is specific but unmentioned: they make us feel so normal. And so good. Enjoying our Youtube videos? Get full access to all our audio content, videos, and thousands of thought-provoking articles, conversation cards and more with The School of Life Subscription: https://t.ly/1dZIZ Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/VznyV FURTHER READING “Californian chef David Viens and his wife Dawn were having problems in their ma...

The German philosopher Hegel helps us to understand that progress in societies is never linear, and that these societies may have to go through a variety of reversals before advancing, a process he termed ‘the dialectic.’ Enjoying our Youtube videos? Get full access to all our audio content, videos, and thousands of thought-provoking articles, conversation cards and more with The School of Life Subscription: https://t.ly/tSIpM Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/2Vxpb FURTHER READING “There have been places and periods of histor...

Henry David Thoreau not only wrote Walden; he is also responsible for a small pamphlet titled Civil Disobedience, which recommends that – when a US president is taking a wrong turn – good citizens have a duty to protest. Enjoying our Youtube videos? Get full access to all our audio content, videos, and thousands of thought-provoking articles, conversation cards and more with The School of Life Subscription: https://t.ly/seqZ2 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/HGIh2 FURTHER READING “In March 1845, the United States acquired a new...

There are those who make it - and those who won’t. And yet it can be troublingly hard - from the outside at least - to understand why. What we can know for sure is that it won’t be about luck. FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://b4f4.short.gy/vcVLPQ “There are those who make it - and those who won’t. And yet it can be troublingly hard - from the outside at least - to understand why, even though the matter is one of the most urgent for anyo...

This is the BIG one, the question that has been searched for as long as humans have traveled the earth. Perspective on this matter is everything. One such perspective comes from British YouTube creator Jessica Kellgren-Fozard, who suffers from two rare nerve disorders as well as having impaired hearing, vision and mobility. In this episode, she shares her Seven Secrets of Happiness.

Uploaded 08-10-19

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Our difficulty in accepting criticism doesn’t arise from feeling it is undeserved, but rather the opposite. It confirms a secret belief in our own unworthiness.

Uploaded 20-10-21

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"To be...

Emotional Intelligence, Daily. Start now: https://www.theschooloflife.com/subscription/ Spot red flags early. This film reveals 6+2 key questions to assess a partner's emotional maturity. Avoid relationship pitfalls and find a truly grown-up connection. #EmotionalMaturity #Relationships #DatingAdvice #Psychology #RedFlags Unlock all the content of The School of Life with a subscription to our podcast, articles, videos, and exercises, specially tailored to your needs. Get weekly insights for better relationships, deeper self-knowledge, and inner calm straight to your inbox. Sign up for more ideas, plus 10% off your first shop order: https://www.theschooloflife.com/signup/ You can read more on this...

We tend to get very attached to plan As. We’ll get married, move into a house near the park, work in financial services, pivot into philanthropy and then end up in a cottage by the sea painting and looking after our grandchildren. Or we’ll become a famous actor, play in a selection of thoughtful dramas about the inner life and in time move into production or, perhaps, mentorship. Enjoying our Youtube videos? Get full access to all our audio content, videos, and thousands of thought-provoking articles, conversation cards and more with The School of Life Subscription: https://t.ly/t...

For Zen Buddhists, fireflies are not just a quirk of nature — they’re the perfect metaphor for the bitter-sweet brevity of life.

Uploaded 10-11-21

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At the very darkest points of individual and national life, we need – more than ever – to practice the art of resilience. Enjoying our Youtube videos? Get full access to all our audio content, videos, and thousands of thought-provoking articles, conversation cards and more with The School of Life Subscription: https://t.ly/2flx8 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/kkRQI The School of Life runs a global online psychotherapy service that assists clients from over 40 countries. To find out more and book a session toda...

Throughout our lives, we are continually compelled to ‘grow up’. But a secure relationship offers us the chance for the opposite: to regress to a more vulnerable, childlike state.

Uploaded 23-06-21

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We’re used to thinking of going traveling as the easy and fun bit of life, but in fact, it’s a process fraught with hidden complications and seldom mentioned anxieties. We consider why travel is often not quite what we expect it to be – and how we might learn to become, in the psychological sense, better travelers. If you like our films, take a look at our shop (we ship worldwide): https://goo.gl/7S7oB2
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We're always being told that the sign of a good and intelligent person is someone who keeps up with the news. But this addiction to the latest events may be a kind of illness that cuts us off from the real insights and information we need to lead good lives.

Uploaded 19-12-17

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Much is constantly happening that annoys us. But the question is how much does it all, beneath the surface, have to feel intentional as well? Enjoying our Youtube videos? Get full access to all our audio content, videos, and thousands of thought-provoking articles, conversation cards and more with The School of Life Subscription: https://t.ly/lKRdv Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/TO9QN FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3JKNNdK "Much is constantly...

The secret to overcoming shyness is to remember that others are, beneath the differences, always substantially the same as we are. Enjoying our Youtube videos? Get full access to all our audio content, videos, and thousands of thought-provoking articles, conversation cards and more with The School of Life Subscription: https://t.ly/20E8u Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/9PmkK FURTHER READING “Because shyness can grip us in such powerful ways, it’s tempting to think of it as an immutable part of our...

You’re up in the middle of the night and once again, you’re in trouble in love... Enjoying our Youtube videos? Get full access to all our audio content, videos, and thousands of thought-provoking articles, conversation cards and more with The School of Life Subscription: https://t.ly/oIYIn Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/G8VMd FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://9qq0.short.gy/LODUbC “You’re up in the middle of the night and once...

‘Perfectionists’ are generally held in high-esteem: praised for their self-discipline and refusal to compromise. Yet in truth, the trait is a manifestation of self-hatred - and must be overcome if we are ever to feel truly fulfilled.

Uploaded 25-08-21

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The worry that we are too materialistic is an inevitable one in modern consumer society. The answer, surprisingly, is that there are better and worse versions of materialism. Enjoying our Youtube videos? Get full access to all our audio content, videos, and thousands of thought-provoking articles, conversation cards and more with The School of Life Subscription: https://t.ly/NBU0c Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/6Oxl9 FURTHER READING “It doesn’t seem to make sense to suggest that there might be such a th...

One reason why relationships are valuable is that they enable us to know ourselves better; being part of a couple can help us to understand who we are. Enjoying our Youtube videos? Get full access to all our audio content, videos, and thousands of thought-provoking articles, conversation cards and more with The School of Life Subscription: https://t.ly/Q80f- Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/tvFiZ FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://9qq0.short.gy...

We have a very unhelpful tendency – when in relationships – to idealise what it was like being single. We should learn how to bear proper witness to our single days. FURTHER READING “One of the haunting thoughts that can make us especially snappy and bitter in relationships is the idea that if only we were single, we would be a lot happier. In love, we are so conscious of the troubles of our present lives, we are naturally drawn to look back and remember the nicer aspects of solitude. We remember being able to get up whenever we wanted; we recall not ha...

What lies behind the pessimism and witty bitterness of the cynic? As always: a lot of pain… Enjoying our Youtube videos? Get full access to all our audio content, videos, and thousands of thought-provoking articles, conversation cards and more with The School of Life Subscription: https://t.ly/VJBUc Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/jZLjQ FURTHER READING “Cynicism has, in certain quarters, a distinct kind of glamour. It sounds tough not to have too many hopes – and to claim to see through the dreams...

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Uploaded 04-03-20

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“We are, a lot of us, a great deal sadder, more anxious, more incomplete and more restless th...

The story of how Oscar Wilde went from celebrity playwright to prisoner, in such a short space of time, has much to teach us about disgrace and infamy.

Uploaded 13-10-21

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