As daunting as it can seem, learning how to successfully set clear boundaries with your friends is important for two big reasons. First — and this may seem counterintuitive — it makes you a better friend.
Read moreEver say “I’ll be happy when …?” Here’s why you need to stop doing that — now
Bug Robbins
The habit of saying “I’ll be happy when …” keeps us wishing and searching instead of enjoying and living.
Read moreHow Heat Waves Take a Toll on Mental Health
María Medem
The discomfort of heat, and the energy it takes for the body to cool down, can lower overall resilience. So agitation, irritation and pain become less bearable, he said.
Read moreThe Age of Distracti-pression
Karan Singh
If you’re wondering which pills and how many of them Americans have relied upon to make ourselves feel better since Covid-19 arrived, the answer, in short, is yes.
Read moreHow Our Brain Preserves Our Sense of Self
Credit: Zoe Liu
Psychologists have long noticed that a person's mind handles information about oneself differently from other details. Memories that reference the self are easier to recall than other forms of memory.
Read moreHow Universal Are Our Emotions?
Emotions can be thought of as “relational acts between people,” Batja Mesquita writes, rather than as mental states inside us.Illustration by María Medem
Emotions aren’t simply natural upwellings from our psyche—they’re constructions we inherit from our communities.
Read moreIt's Time to Stop Living the American Scam
Sebastian Koenig
“no one’s calling it anything other than what it is anymore: an endless, frantic hamster wheel for survival.”
Read moreThree Tips for Helping Kids Calm Down
Here are three things you can do to help a child regulate their body when they are upset and can't think.
Read moreWhat the Pandemic Can Teach us About Endings
Are we asking the right question?
Read moreWhy You Will Marry the Wrong Person
But though we believe ourselves to be seeking happiness in marriage, it isn’t that simple. What we really seek is familiarity —
Read moreAn Ode to Not Meditating
Tim Lahan
Why It's OK to Leave a Relationship That's Not Thriving
Comparing how much you want to stay vs. how hard it is to leave.
By Tyler Jamison Ph.D. for Psychology Today
How To Affirm the People in Your Life Who Use Multiple Sets of Pronouns
Kristen Ulve
Not everyone goes by solely she/her, he/him, or they/them. We spoke to 10 people who use varied pronouns about their identities and how to respect them.
By Wren Sanders for Them.us
What Children Lose When Their Brains Develop Too Fast
Illustration: Jarred Briggs
Adverse early experiences can make young minds inflexible, while a carefree childhood has clear cognitive benefits
By Alison Gopnik for The Wall Street Journal
Are You Anxious, Avoidant or Secure?
Shuhua Xiong
Over a decade after its publication, one book on dating has people firmly in its grip.
By Foster Kamer for The New York Times
Are There Hidden Advantages to Pain and Suffering?
Illustration by Mrzyk & Moriceau
Two new books examine how we benefit from unpleasant experiences.
By Meghan O’Gieblyn for The New Yorker
Tips for Starting and Getting the Most Out of Therapy
“This summer, while friends announced pregnancies and career changes, and others held postponed weddings in the brief window between the vaccine rollout and the delta surge despair, I quietly marked a milestone of my own: 52 therapy sessions in 52 weeks.”
By Sunny Fitzgerald for The Washington Post
What Data Science Can Tell Us About Our Dreams
On Being Episode with Dr. Christine Runyan
We recommend this On Being episode with Dr. Christine Runyan, clinical psychologist at the University of Massachusetts Medical School:
"The light at the end of the COVID tunnel is tenuously appearing - yet many of us feel as exhausted as at any time in the past year. Memory problems; short fuses; fractured productivity; sudden drops into despair. We’re at once excited and unnerved by the prospect of life opening up again.
Clinical psychologist Christine Runyan explains the physiological effects of a year of pandemic and social isolation - what’s happened at the level of stress response and nervous system, the literal mind-body connection. And she offers simple strategies to regain our fullest capacities for the world ahead."
On Being Video: The Esther Perel Love Lexicon
This short animated film taken from a recent Esther Perel interview is a gem for anyone navigating relationships and intimacy. We hope you enjoy.