The School of Life

It can take a very long time indeed to work up the courage to be simple. FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://www.theschooloflife.com/article/daring-to-be-simple/ “It can take a very long time indeed to work up the courage to be simple: to read simple books, to wear simple clothes, to have simple days and to say simple things. For a long time, all the advantag...

We associate being dutiful with being safe – that’s how it worked at school. But once we are in the big world, too much of a concern for duty can be our downfall. 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/6Juko Be more mindful, present and...

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 podc...

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. 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/BfiBZ Be more min...

Emotional Intelligence, Daily. Start now: https://www.theschooloflife.com/subscription/ Get weekly insights for better relationships, deeper self-knowledge, and inner calm straight to your inbox: https://www.theschooloflife.com/signup/ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We celebrate Rembrandt as one of history’s greatest painters. But his troubled life story provides us with clues for interpreting the hidden, radical purpose of his art. 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/S8r5B Be more mindful, pres...

Emotional Intelligence, Daily. Start now: https://www.theschooloflife.com/subscription/ Are you cheerfully single or catastrophically single? This film explores why some people find peace in solitude while others experience an existential crisis without a partner. Discover how your childhood relationship with your parents dictates your current self-worth, the intensity of your dating app use, and...

Emotional Intelligence, Daily. Start now: https://www.theschooloflife.com/subscription/ Can you love someone and still leave? This film dissects the conflict between romantic ideals and practical realities in relationships. Explore the tough choices of love and letting go. #Love #Relationships #LettingGo #Practicality #Romance #Dilemma Unlock all the content of The School of Life with a subscripti...

These days, a job needs to offer us more than financial security: we want them to provide us with status and meaning. But to feel truly satisfied with our careers, we may need to look elsewhere to find fulfillment. 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 Subscript...

Developing a sane relationship to our own past is a crucial factor in enabling us to avoid the common mistakes of "bad parenting". 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/S4v1w Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The S...

The decline in belief in the Biblical 10 commandments doesn’t mean that all rules of conduct are necessarily superfluous. Here is our attempt to reimagine a set of rules for how to behave around others. 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:/...

Emotional Intelligence, Daily. Start now: https://www.theschooloflife.com/subscription/ We all long to be truly known, but the paradox of early dating is that total honesty can be perilous. This film explores the art of "emotional editing"—the necessary practice of pacing our most difficult truths so they can be heard. Discover how judicious sequencing allows a partner to first witness our sanity...

We all are, at times, the victims of one of the cruellest and most remorseless of all mental afflictions: obsessive thinking. But why? FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://9qq0.short.gy/m0b8dK “For some of us, today like every day, will mean another case of immersing ourselves, from the moment we wake up, in a by-now very familiar set of painful thoughts. We w...

Francisco Goya was both one of the greatest artists of his age - and manic depressive. His work has much to teach us about how to handle our fragility and anxiety. 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/GVmNj Be more mindful, present an...

It’s perfectly normal to feel weak, lost, and unable to cope. Here is a collection of thoughts to remind us of our inner reserves 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/5CpP4 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the...

One of the key requirements for having a good chance of finding the right partner is not to mind too much being single. 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/CSHEq Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Li...

We’re given very little guidance on how to choose our partners and tend to leave it to that mysterious force we know as ‘instinct’. However, it truly pays to be a little more rational in this area and work out how our instincts operate and why they push us towards some people and away from others. Enjoying our Youtube videos? Get full access to all our audio content, videos, and thousands of thoug...

One of the greatest obstacles to a good life is the expectation of perfection. 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/NxDlC Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: http...

We regularly get into difficulties in love because we refuse to accept how much reassurance and stroking we need from the person we love. We imagine we’re grown up, we don’t want to countenance how fragile and easily wounded we might be, we don’t want to see the always susceptible and sensitive child beneath the impressive adult… Enjoying our Youtube videos? Get full access to all our audio conten...

The advent of medication to treat mental illness from the 1950s onwards has had untold benefits, enabling countless numbers of us to manage the symptoms of our unwellness. Yet pills can never ‘cure’ us on their own: they must be married with therapeutic treatments to be lastingly effective. Enjoying our Youtube videos? Get full access to all our audio content, videos, and thousands of thought-prov...

Many of us find our work rather boring and when we do, we tend to blame ourselves. But there are very large-scale reasons, rooted in history and economics, why certain sorts of modern work are both more lucrative and rather more boring than they might have been in the past. Enjoying our Youtube videos? Get full access to all our audio content, videos, and thousands of thought-provoking articles, c...

One of the most peculiar ideas of psychology is that trauma may end up ‘in the body.’ We can understand that a difficult event might be lodged somewhere in the mind - but how, and by what mechanism, might a trauma get remembered or stuck in our physical selves? Can a kidney ‘remember’ a sorrow? Can a wrist or a femur hold on to the memory of a punitive parent or a painful divorce? Enjoying our You...

The period of time we find hardest to inhabit is the present; for a range of powerful reasons we should take on board. 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/MaqBD Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Lif...

Learning to forgive is always difficult, but never more so than when the transgressor is ourselves. Here are some thoughts to help us begin to practice the neglected art of self-compassion. FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3jkOspQ MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on SELF in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLself SOCIAL MEDIA Feel free to follow us...

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 wi...