The School of Life

Contrary to some expectations, it isn’t only money we want from work. We also need our work to feel ‘meaningful’. But what exactly is meaningful work, and where can we find more of it? 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/PYIHz Be mor...

We talk a lot about love without fully understanding exactly what it means. True love is less an appreciation of strength than a tolerance of (and kindness towards) what is weak and misshapen in another person. 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:...

It’s easy to criticise modern societies for being ‘celebrity obsessed’. But the problem isn’t an interest in celebrity, it’s the sort of celebrities paraded before us. We don’t need no-celebrities, we need better-celebrities. 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 Lif...

James Baldwin was a great African-American writer who understood the meaning of freedom. His work and life give us a guide to how to escape our narrow societies. 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/ifrUe Be more mindful, present and...

Emotional neglect - the withholding of parental love during childhood - can have a psychological impact no less profound than other forms of abuse. Before we can start to recover, we first need to acknowledge the scale of its effects. 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 Scho...

It’s remarkably easy to spend most of one’s life in a blind rage. So much of existence is, after all, infuriating. But there are other options to be painfully and slowly learnt. 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/os_hI Be more mindf...

Emotional Intelligence, Daily. Start now: https://www.theschooloflife.com/subscription/ Why do we overlook the very people who treat us best? This film explores our tragic tendency to choose drama over peace and "complicated" types over kindness. Learn why we are magnetically drawn to pain, how to break toxic relationship patterns, and why valuing reliability and niceness is the ultimate sign of e...

We’re used to thinking that state broadcasters do something very important: but what really is their function in modern societies? A utopian proposal from The School of 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/nNUfq Be more mindful,...

Emotional Intelligence, Daily. Start now: https://www.theschooloflife.com/subscription/ Feeling overwhelmed by adult life? This film explores the inner child concept, revealing how our childhood selves influence daily struggles. Learn to reconnect with your emotional needs and practice radical self-compassion for lasting well-being. #InnerChild #SelfCare #MentalHealth #EmotionalWellness #Psycholog...

Relationships suffer from a fundamental tension between the desire to be honest and the fear of being abandoned. We go into relationships in order to be ‘ourselves’ but were we to really be entirely ourselves, there is a high risk we would be left. Could silence be the price we have to pay for companionship? Or is there another way? Enjoying our Youtube videos? Get full access to all our audio con...

Mental crises can seem to come out of the blue, but their roots probably reach back years, even decades. Recovery begins only when we begin to listen to what our pain is trying to tell us. 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/9QZGG Be...

Arthur Schopenhauer was deeply influenced by Buddhist thought and is in many ways the West’s answer to it: he too tells us to reign in our desires and adopt a consolingly pessimistic attitude to our struggles. 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:...

Some of our feelings about how the world might be in a 100 years time and more are based on an unexpected feeling: envy. It’s almost humiliating to contemplate how many of our current problems might no longer exist. 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 Subscrip...

Feeling at rock bottom? Don't despair. This film explores how to ask for help at times of crisis and loneliness. Learn to overcome shame and find support in times of crisis. #MentalHealth #Vulnerability #Help #Support #Crisis #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 S...

Jamie Oliver is a big inspiration for us at The School of Life, as he is a hugely talented teacher, opening an often complicated subject (food preparation) to a mass audience; we'd like to do for the health of the mind what he has done for the health of our bodies. Here Jamie - an extraordinarily generous person - comes to cook us a meal and chats to us about nutrition and well-being. Enjoying our...

Is happiness overrated? This film challenges the pursuit of constant contentment, advocating for a life of meaningful experience and psychological depth. Embrace the complexity of life and find fulfillment. #Meaning #Purpose #Psychology #LifeLessons #Philosophy #Growth Enjoying our YouTube videos? Get full access to all our audio content, videos, and thousands of thought-provoking articles, conver...

When deciding whether or not to have children, we should acknowledge that we aren’t choosing either a ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ answer - merely deciding which form of future suffering we are best suited for. 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://...

When relationships start, enthusiasm for our partners is typically natural and intense. We think of them constantly, we want only to spend more time in their company, we delight in their many skills and accomplishments: but this early phase of powerful admiration and longing rarely lasts. The world often explains this cooling as an inevitable result of sheer exposure. It is, they say, typical to n...

Life constantly requires that we say thank you to people - for presents, favours and helpful actions. But expressing thanks is a far from straightforward business. To be properly skilled at it, we need to learn the art of getting specific. 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...

Andy Warhol was one of the great artists of the 20th century who understood the legitimate role that glamour and business should play in the production of art. He has much to teach the modern 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.l...

A general principle of mental health is that the less we are able to express, the more unwell we get it. Our spirits can lighten and our horizons expand once we can find a way to lend outward form to our pains. 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:...

There’s a lot of pressure on us to make our individual lives interesting. But sometimes, the best experiences aren’t those connected up with our personal triumphs; they’re moments of joy at belonging with 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 Subscriptio...

Our sense of self-worth is dependent upon the love we were shown as children. The legacy of an unloving parent may be a lifetime of self-hatred, which we need to unpick in order to escape. 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/g8WsB Be...

We’re used to thinking that the purpose of comedy is just to help us relax and ‘have a good laugh’. But in fact, the mission of comedy is far grander and more world-changing. We should wake up to the full potential of comedy. 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 Lif...

Nietzsche’s concept of the Superman is one of the most exciting and yet weird aspects of his thought. What did he really mean by this unusual word? 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/shqcc Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get...