The School of Life

What if we didn’t always have to be as sad and as anxious as we usually are? What if we could more properly appreciate the beauty and the potential that lie all around us? What if we noticed the trees and the interesting faces of strangers? What if we allowed ourselves to connect more deeply with the people we meet? What if we let go of our normal reserve and suspicion and fear? What if we surrend...

We often believe that compromise in love is the enemy of good relationships. In fact, it is only via compromise that we can ever have any kind of relationship at all. The art of romantic compromise deserves to be rediscovered and - in its own way - celebrated. FURTHER READING “We reserve some of our deepest scorn for couples who stay together out of compromise; those who are making a show of unani...

#24hours #adayinmylife #theschooloflife Continuing our series of films about working lives around the world, a farmer from Yorkshire, UK. 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/QpvZp Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best o...

Emotional Intelligence, Daily. Start now: https://www.theschooloflife.com/subscription/ Why do some people blow up a perfectly good relationship just as it’s getting serious? This film explores the "avoidant discard"—the heartbreaking moment when a partner erases a relationship in an instant. Learn why being "discarded" is often a sign that you weren't horrible, but that you were actually far too...

It’s an enormous privilege to have an adolescence - and, to an extent rarely spoken about, not everyone gets the chance to have one. Adolescence isn’t just a particular time of one’s second decade, and it won’t unfold automatically simply when one reaches fourteen or seventeen and three quarters. Adolescence properly understood is a state in which we’re able to explore - with courage and newfound...

Continuing our series about working lives around the world, a cattle herder from Cameroon. SOCIAL MEDIA Feel free to follow us at the links below: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theschooloflifelondon/ X: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Brought to y...

We can spend a lot of time in committed relationships wondering, maybe with a fair amount of anxiety: do they love me? Might it all suddenly end? But perhaps less time asking the more salient question: what can I do to help this valued relationship endure? Enjoying our Youtube videos? Get full access to all our audio content, videos, and thousands of thought-provoking articles, conversation cards...

Mark Zuckerberg is one of the richest people on the planet - and yet dresses like a very ordinary guy. That's both cheering and subtly deeply wounding to our pride. 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/WV6Bo Be more mindful, present a...

The idea of manliness has grown indelibly associated with the idea of being cool. We’d be wiser to shift the masculine ideal towards a new idea: warmth. 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/1o-VR Be more mindful, present and inspired....

Samuel Beckett is perhaps the greatest playwright of the 20th century, and the author of the masterpiece, Waiting for Godot. It’s hard to understand the modern world without his perspective. 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/Ym-gn...

Plato made up an enduring story about why philosophy matters based on an allegory about a cave… 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/ACXPw Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to...

Philosophy means, in Ancient Greek, the love of wisdom. But the word wisdom can sound very big and forbidding; what does it really mean to be wise? And how might we consciously strive to be a little wiser? 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: http...

We might expect that, if we could eavesdrop on the conversations of the most admirable, clever and loving couples in the world, those who had properly cracked the puzzles of intimacy and emotional maturity, we would hear them talking in the noblest ways about the most serious things… Enjoying our Youtube videos? Get full access to all our audio content, videos, and thousands of thought-provoking a...

We frequently ask ourselves to be not merely good, but perfection. Our perfectionism makes us sick. We need to learn to accept the virtue of being ‘good enough’. 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/mVE3h Be more mindful, present and...

Narcissism is the word we routinely use to describe someone self-satisfied and arrogant. But what do we really mean by the word – and are we applying it correctly? 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/JCAtC Be more mindful, present an...

The clue to good seduction is signalling a realistic yet loving assessment of the other; and a modest, intelligent relationship with one’s own flaws. 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/CGZpW Be more mindful, present and inspired. Ge...

A new series of films by The School of Life about work around the world - a guide to helping us to think about what makes work purposeful and worthwhile. SOCIAL MEDIA Feel free to follow us at the links below: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theschooloflifelondon/ X: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.co...

We might assume that the moment we cry in films is when something very sad or troubling is occurring. But the truth is rather stranger. We often break down is when things are particularly lovely. 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/v...

All of us have over the years made efforts to become adults, it can be at once grating and dispiriting to be told that there might, nevertheless, be an ‘inner child’ still lodged somewhere within us, holding us back. 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 Subscri...

A new series of films by The School of Life about work around the world - a guide to helping us to think about what makes work purposeful and worthwhile. Please visit the School of Life in Seoul: http://www.theschooloflife.com/seoul If you like our films, take a look at our shop (we ship worldwide): www.theschooloflife.com/shop Produced in collaboration with Jeremy Riggall http://www.sketchfilms.c...

We might assume that our great longing in relationships would be to be looked after by someone; an exceptionally kind person who could listen to us, nurture us, assist us and make us feel comforted and seen. But this is to ignore just how strong there is - in some of us - a diametrically opposed aspiration: a wish to find someone who is in a lot of pain and trouble… Enjoying our Youtube videos? Ge...

We have a very close sense of the stages of development of small children. But what about adults? How do we keep developing once we are ‘grown up’? And what are the key stages of development? 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/1XHlL...

We’re used to being rather mean about people who have ‘daddy issues’. We should be more careful and more kind. Daddy issues can lead to the worst kind of political situations – and need to be understood as psychological phenomena. 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 o...

Beyond hubris: Deconstruct the Icarus myth. This film explores the psychology of ambition, the art of calculated risk, and the limits of fear. For the driven man seeking an edge, this is a must-watch. #Icarus #Risk #Ambition #Psychology #Motivation #Leadership Enjoying our Youtube videos? Get full access to all our audio content, videos, and thousands of thought-provoking articles, conversation ca...

There's a particular pleasure to be felt in the mighty things of nature: thunderstorms, the stars, vast deserts, oceans, the icecaps. One philosopher who analysed our pleasure was Edmund Burke, who pinned a word to this sensation and theorised about why it was so nice: he gave us the concept of The Sublime. Enjoying our Youtube videos? Get full access to all our audio content, videos, and thousand...