Relationships
The Sorrows of Love
Louis-Léopold Boilly, Les Malheurs de l’amour (The Sorrows of Love), 1790 If we happened to pass this painting in its home –…
View
Full Article Index
Emotional Skills
Giving Up on People Pleasing
The people pleaser needs to learn an unusual and little-mentioned art: that of giving up on people.
Read Article
Emotional Skills
The Benefits of Forgetfulness
We are rescued from many of our sorrows not by active solutions or nifty work of the intellect but by our reliable tendencies to forget.
Read ArticleArticles
Select themes
-
-
Self-Knowledge
The Importance of Hating People
The idea that we might, at points, need to create room for hatred – that mental well-being might rely on…
View
Self-Knowledge
On Not Being Able to Believe Your Own Luck
It would be natural to assume that luck was something it was very easy indeed to believe in: what could…
View
Relationships
The One Question We Forget to Ask Ourselves in Love – And Why
There’s one question that people who are deeply enmeshed in love – who might have been pursuing someone in vain…
View
Relationships
The Brutality of Dating
The word ‘brutal’ may sound a little hyperbolic and self-pitying when applied to an activity whose chief outward requirements involve…
View
Relationships
Starting New Love While Still Hung Up on an Ex
In the pantheon of modern villains of love, there is one character who stands out as worthy of particular condemnation:…
View
Self-Knowledge
Why We Love Our Bears
We gathered at The School of Life to discuss something unusual: our teddy bears. A group of us, all of…
View
Work
How to Steal a Very Expensive House
There’s a common assumption that the only way to own a beautiful house, or car or piece of clothing is…
View
Calm
The Consolations of Deep Time
Thinking about the age of the earth is – unexpectedly perhaps – among the more consoling and calming of all…
View
Select themes
Self-Knowledge
The Importance of Hating People
The idea that we might, at points, need to create room for hatred – that mental well-being might rely on…
View
Self-Knowledge
On Not Being Able to Believe Your Own Luck
It would be natural to assume that luck was something it was very easy indeed to believe in: what could…
View
Relationships
The One Question We Forget to Ask Ourselves in Love – And Why
There’s one question that people who are deeply enmeshed in love – who might have been pursuing someone in vain…
View
Relationships
The Brutality of Dating
The word ‘brutal’ may sound a little hyperbolic and self-pitying when applied to an activity whose chief outward requirements involve…
View
Relationships
Starting New Love While Still Hung Up on an Ex
In the pantheon of modern villains of love, there is one character who stands out as worthy of particular condemnation:…
View
Self-Knowledge
Why We Love Our Bears
We gathered at The School of Life to discuss something unusual: our teddy bears. A group of us, all of…
View
Work
How to Steal a Very Expensive House
There’s a common assumption that the only way to own a beautiful house, or car or piece of clothing is…
View
Calm
The Consolations of Deep Time
Thinking about the age of the earth is – unexpectedly perhaps – among the more consoling and calming of all…
View
