The School of Life

There is no more important book to understand our times than Albert Camus's The Plague, a novel about a virus that spreads uncontrollably from animals to humans and ends up destroying half the population of a representative modern town. Camus speaks to us now not because he was a magical seer, but because he correctly sized up human nature. As he wrote: ‘Everyone has inside it himself this plague, because no one in the world, no one, can ever be immune.’ Uploaded 01-04-20Enjoying 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/RPixL Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/sbiaBFURTHER READINGYou can read more on this here: https://bit.ly/2xCcZ5CMORE SCHOOL OF LIFEWatch more films on Literature in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLliteratureSOCIAL MEDIAFeel free to follow us at the links…

Emotional maturity isn't just something we can achieve in the good times. It's a quality that can accompany us through the deepest crises. A key idea to keep in mind is that it isn't chiefly what happens to us that affects our lives, it's how we learn to think about what has happened - and that, fortunately, is very much within our control.Uploaded 08-04-20Enjoying 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/GQRnbBe more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/0fpiTFURTHER READINGYou can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3e6CufV“Some of us belong to a social group politely known as ‘worriers.’ That is, we are close to panic on a range of issues pretty much all the time. We worry that the scratch on our knee will turn cancerous, that we’ll catch a deadly disease from…

The School of Life is an organisation built to help you find serenity, resilience and connection. Here are 8 rules designed to guide you to the life you deserve, 8 key ideas to hold on to during difficult times.Uploaded 15-04-20Enjoying 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/zhmnhBe more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/mbrbVFURTHER READINGYou can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3b9zoGn“The School of Life has produced 500 films and written 5 million words. This is an enormous problem. To stand any hope of remaining in anyone’s mind, ideas – even very good ideas – need to be brief and reduced to an essence. That’s why, for the sake of our followers, we’ve summarised everything we believe down to eight key points: the credo of The School of Life…”MORE…

Dancing is one of the most releasing and necessary of all activities - but we too frequently hold back from the worry that we 'can't dance.' This film usefully reminds us that there's no such thing as not being able to dance, that the whole point is to move about wildly without shame - and that in doing so, we connect with others and with important forgotten bits of ourselves.Uploaded 22-04-20Enjoying 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/MLdmiBe more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/FimyQFURTHER READINGYou can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3cpPdJ0“One of the strangest but also most intriguing and redemptive things that humans get up to, in almost any culture one cares to study, is occasionally to gather in large groups, bathe in the rhythmic sounds…

Sometimes, in a cosy moment, one lover might ask another: What do you love me for? It's a moment of huge and philosophical importance: what is a good answer to this complicated question? There are a range of things one should never say - and one or two that will stand the best chance of cementing love.Uploaded 29-04-20Enjoying 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/N6RgCBe more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/EABZ_FURTHER READINGYou can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2KBDkE5“Sometimes, and it often happens in bed, we face an acute test at the hands of a lover to whom we have pledged our affections. We are asked, with little warning, and in a serious tone: ‘What do you love me for?’ Few moments in a relationship can be as philosophical as this – or as…

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We're always being told that we should make peace with how we look; but why? We never chose our bodies and nor should we necessarily be forced to identify with them. They're like a random taxi we were shoved into at birth. We've been forced to play the facial lottery and most of us are deeply unhappy with the results - and should in our own ways be allowed to be.Uploaded 06-05-20FURTHER READINGYou can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3ckaeVK"A characteristic emotion on seeing a favourite novel turned into a film is puzzlement. We may not hate the actor playing a particular role, we might even find them rather beautiful, it’s just that they tend not to be as we imagined they should be. We never thought that Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina or Ishiguro’s Stevens or Jane Austen’s Marianne Dashwood or Scott Fitzgerald’s Gatsby would look like quite… like that!..."MORE SCHOOL OF LIFEWatch more films on SELF in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLselfSOCIAL MEDIAFeel free to follow us at the links…

We are unnecessarily scared of being on our own because we fail to keep in mind the distinction between solitude (a fine condition) and loneliness (a pain). We need to recover a sense of the good sides of being by ourselves - in order to be able to make the right choices around friendship and love.Uploaded 13-05-20FURTHER READINGYou can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2A9k7HI“In the privacy of our minds, one thought – highly shameful by nature – may haunt us as we evaluate whether to stay in or leave an unsatisfactory relationship: what if we were to end things and end up in a place of appalling loneliness? We’re meant to be above such pragmatic worries. Only cowards and reprobates would mind a few weekends (or decades) by themselves. We’ve heard of those books that sing the praises of solitude (the divorcee who relocated to a solitary hut on a bare Scottish island; the one who went sailing around the world in a dinghy). But we can admit that we’re not naturals at this sort of…

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'Mummy-fication' is the fateful process whereby a woman turns into a proxy of her partner's mother and the partner turns into a small recalcitrant boy: with disastrous consequences for all. 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 you by http://www.theschooloflife.com Produced in collaboration with Khyan Mansley https://www.youtube.com/user/Khyan1 With Lucy Pearman - http://unitedagents.co.uk/lucy-pearman- Amir Khoshokhan - http://www.catfacetalent.com/comedians/amir-khoshokhan Steve Whitely - https://twitter.com/stevejwhiteley #TheSchoolOfLife Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Very high house prices aren’t an act of God or a fact of nature. They’re the result of all sorts of policy and design mistakes – which we should try to understand and correct. 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/gt4GR Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/0Vd9y 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/ CREDITS Brought to you by http://www.theschooloflife.com Produced in collaboration with Vale Productions http://www.valeproductions.co.uk #TheSchoolOfLife Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesUploaded 12-06-15 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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One of the strangest things about relationships is that we aren’t free to get together with just anyone. We all have strong types: but where do these come from and what do they tell us about ourselves? Uploaded 30-03-16Enjoying 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/aJtDMBe more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/VlqDWFURTHER READINGYou can read more on this and many other topics here: https://goo.gl/nf8EVF MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE More films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist below: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships SOCIAL MEDIAFeel 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/ CREDITSProduced in collaboration with:Richard…

Pop music and philosophy would seem, at first glance, to have little to say to one another. But in fact the latter has a lot to learn from the former. 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/EcfE7 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/jZvoK Produced in collaboration with Mad Adam http://madadamfilms.co.uk #TheSchoolOfLife Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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We often believe that the very worst and most immature thing to do might be to cry about our sorrows. In fact, the ability to go off for a while and have a very intense cry about how awful everything is is in fact a crucial bit of wisdom - and a very adult move as well. Being a crybaby isn't just something children should be afraid of being called, it's something every adult should be proud to remember about themselves.Uploaded 20-05-20Enjoying 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/2ZPQO Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/zErzDFURTHER READINGYou can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2LDGFmv“One of the wisest things about young children is that they have no shame or compunction whatsoever about bursting into tears, perhaps because they have a more…

We often think that the best way to have friends is to be deeply impressive and accomplished. In fact, the route to true friendship always flows through vulnerability. 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/Mv_Z8 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/Z_qlW 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/ CREDITS Brought to you by http://www.theschooloflife.com Produced in collaboration with Daniela Scherer http://www.danielasherer.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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It’s all too easy to be extremely tough on ourselves; we need – at points – to get better at self-compassion. Here is an exercise in how to lessen the voices of self-flagellation. 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/zH8ir Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/hIDQh The School of Life runs a global online psychotherapy service that assists clients from over 40 countries. To find out more and book a session today, please visit our website: https://t.ly/xP3EL FURTHER READING “When we fail and mess up in our lives (perhaps a project at work goes wrong or a relationship ends), our moods are at risk of heading towards two extremes: self-pity on the one hand, where it is exclusively everyone else’s fault and we bathe in a sense of our innocence and purity. And on the…

Many of us inhabit bodies and faces that don’t look as we feel they should. It’s one of the most painful aspects of being human. Here are a few minutes of consolation and wisdom. Uploaded 04-11-15Enjoying 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/I78K0Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/PbPmjFURTHER READING“Frustration with one’s appearance is an embarrassing – but, in truth, highly serious and valid – pain. Mature, reasonable people are not supposed to go around regretting their nose or hair. Yet you gaze in the bathroom mirror and think: why – in my brief existence on this planet – does that have to be me?...”You can read more on this and many other topics here: https://goo.gl/h1LD7Q MORE SCHOOL OF LIFEMore films on SELF in our playlist below: http://bit.ly/TSOLself SOCIAL…

Impotence has been turned into a major medical problem and diagnosed as a psychological mishap of the first order. But it is also a very intriguing phenomenon that could throw a flattering light on its sufferers. 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/7zw_a Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/EtDFz 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/ CREDITS Brought to you by http://www.theschooloflife.com Produced in collaboration with Khyan Mansley http://www.youtube.com/khyan1 #TheSchoolOfLife Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We’re meant to be pleased for our friends when they do well. In theory. In reality, their success is often simply unendurable, acting as a reminder of our own setbacks and failures. 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/G9tDm Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/Qrfet 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/ CREDITS Brought to you by http://www.theschooloflife.com Produced in collaboration with Khyan Mansley http://www.youtube.com/Khyan1 #TheSchoolOfLife Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In moments of agitation, personal and nation-wide, what would often best calm us down are not pills or meditation - but the right works of art. Here are seven of the world's most calming works of art, works that know how to restore perspective, reassure us of the future and gently return us to a more bearable state.Uploaded 27-05-20Enjoying 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/iXZBG Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/jhgxZFURTHER READINGYou can read more about this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2XuP952“Art has never been mere entertainment. Alongside philosophy and religion, it has been humanity’s chief source of consolation. It is what we should turn to in our very worst moments. Here are seven of the most calming works of art ever produced....”MORE SCHOOL OF…

Oscar Niemeyer was a great 20th-century Brazilian architect who taught the world how to build in a way that was at once modern and local. He gave Brazil a hugely seductive identity that was in touch with the past but also hopeful about the future. Uploaded 05-06-20Enjoying 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/tvuZ_ Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/q28wWFURTHER READINGYou can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2XRFGF7“One of the most depressing aspects of travel is finding that the world often looks the same in many different places. The towers of downtown Tokyo are indistinguishable from those of Frankfurt or Seattle. That’s no coincidence. Modern architecture was founded on the idea that buildings should logically look the same everywhere. The…

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesUploaded 09-06-20 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Though we all long to have our feelings and needs acknowledged, it seems that nothing is more common than for these to be neglected by people around us. We take so little time to listen to one another and to show that we have absorbed what people have told us. As a result, everyone gets increasingly angry and - deep inside - sad. The answer is to make the art of listening a global priority.Uploaded 11-06-20Enjoying 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/hjofp Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/EnyPQFURTHER READINGYou can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2BGovin“One of our deepest longings – deeper than we even perhaps recognise day to to day – is that other people should acknowledge certain of our feelings. We want that – at key moments – our…

It can seem as though we all need to learn to be less angry - and that no one has any problem raising their voice and getting their opinions across. The truth is more nuanced. A sizeable number of us suffer from shyness about expressing our real needs and our true aspirations - and thereby do ourselves and others a disservice. A short film which guides us to the need to speak up when we need to.Uploaded 17-06-20Enjoying 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/SORMLBe more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/klhUCFURTHER READINGYou can read more on this here: https://www.theschooloflife.com/thebookoflife/learning-how-to-be-angry/“There are many reasons to believe that one of the dominant problems in the world today is an excess of anger. We know all about the very shouty and their…

This is a film about how the world became modern - and in particular what is exciting and beautiful about this development, and at the same time, what is hugely depressing and possibly madness-inducing about it.Uploaded 24-06-20Enjoying 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/wR_jA Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/-jv-JFURTHER READINGYou can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/37TKL47“Since the middle of the eighteenth century, beginning in Northern Europe and then spreading to every corner of the world, people have become aware of living in an age radically different from any other and which they have called – with a mixture of awe and respect, trepidation and nostalgia – ‘the modern age’, or more succinctly, ‘modernity’. We are now all inhabitants…

Some of the reason why we choose such unsuitable partners in love is that we aren't trying to find someone who ideally suits us, we're looking out for someone who feels familiar. We recreate in adulthood patterns of attachment that we know from childhood - and thereby often perpetuate cycles of suffering and dissatisfaction.Uploaded 01-07-20FURTHER READING"Konrad Lorenz, who was born in 1903 and died in 1989, was an Austrian ornithologist and zoologist who spent most of his adult life in marshes and wetlands studying the behaviour of greylag geese and jackdaws. What particularly interested him was how these birds seem to develop an attachment to their mother from within a few minutes of their birth, following dutifully behind her and obeying her guidance in matters of sheltering and feeding..."MORE SCHOOL OF LIFEWatch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationshipsSOCIAL MEDIAFeel free to follow us at the links below:Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theschooloflifelondon/ X:…

Having had a good enough parent is a vital component of mental health in adulthood. But what really is a good enough parent? How can one tell if one had one or not? This film guides us as to what might have gone very right - and sometimes very wrong - in our childhoods.Uploaded 08-07-20Sign up to our mailing list to receive 10% off your first order with us: https://r1.dotdigital-pages.com/p/6TU0-63X/hellotsolIf you want to keep working on your mental well-being and self-understanding, download our hugely helpful new app now: https://bit.ly/3uyXqG1For information on The School of Life’s learning and wellbeing solutions for businesses, including workshops and talks, visit https://bit.ly/3ICqvGw Email business@theschooloflife.com or join our monthly business newsletter: https://bit.ly/3ICEJHq Join this channel to get access to exclusive members perks:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7IcJI8PUf5Z3zKxnZvTBog/joinFor books and more from The School of Life, visit our online shop:…

Many of us lead lives that are harder than they should be because we haven't realised a basic thing about ourselves: that we are introverts. We therefore keep driving ourselves into situations and challenges that should best be avoided and neglect our distinctive style of being content. We should dare to learn whether we belong in the introverted camp.Uploaded 15-07-20FURTHER READINGYou can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/308YFw6”The modern world purports to respect both introverts and their opposites but in practice, the action, the rewards and the glamour are all precisely designed to synchronise with the talents and sensibilities of those in the extroverted camp. To have any chance of seeming normal or achieving success, one must pull off a range of feats to which extroverts seem inherently well suited: impress strangers, attend conferences, make speeches, outshine competitors, manage people, join in with prevailing enthusiasms, reflect public opinion, socialise, travel a lot, go…

Feeling lonely can seem like a very modern problem - but our sense of being alone has a history, and the more we understand the peculiarities of this history, the more we can be liberated to enjoy - rather than feel ashamed about - our solitude.Uploaded 22-07-20Enjoying 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/tqNFBBe more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/jSViEFURTHER READINGYou can read more on this here: https://bit.ly/2ZOpuGC“When we think of what might have been lost on the way to becoming modern, we’re liable to think about mealtimes: how seldom they now take place communally, how rare it is for whole families to gather, how much technology can intrude. In paintings of communal meals that reflect the older way of doing things, we can appreciate how all ages used to come…

A distinguishing feature of much of the modern man-made world is that it is, first and foremost, very ugly: disappointing modern architecture abounds. We've almost ceased to notice how awful a lot of it is and forgotten how much better we can do. Here are five central reasons why so many buildings have gone wrong and an urgent blueprint for how to build the more beautiful world we deserve.Uploaded 29-07-20Enjoying 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/k_ZsnBe more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/kIJomFURTHER READINGYou can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2P42lKi“One of the great generalisations we can make about the modern world is that it is, to an extraordinary degree, an ugly world. If we were to show an ancestor from 250 years ago around our…

We are used to religions telling us consoling and soothing things; but what we often miss is that science has just as many wise and kindly perspectives on our lives - if only we know how to look.Uploaded 05-08-20Enjoying 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/S5uf3 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/l8OMWFURTHER READINGYou can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2PqfayK“According to a standard heroic secular account, at the start of the modern age and in just a few short decades, science was able to defeat religion through rigour and brilliance – and thereby forever liberated humankind from ignorance and superstition. For centuries, this account explains, religion had essentially been doing some very bad science. It had purported to tell us how old…

Self-hatred is a particularly vicious disease which destroys our ability to defend ourselves and to confront enemies. Here are some tips on how to make better friends with ourselves.Uploaded 12-08-20Enjoying 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/mfnBbBe more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/REZfDThe School of Life runs a global online psychotherapy service that assists clients from over 40 countries. To find out more and book a session today, please visit our website: https://t.ly/xP3ELFURTHER READINGYou can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/31HF6eX“Every day, especially in the era of social media (from the mental health perspective, probably the single worst invention of modern times), we are likely to face enemies. People who disagree with us, people…

We spend a lot of time worrying that we won't have enough time to lead a good life. But we would be far better off focusing on the quality of our lives rather than on their length.Uploaded 19-08-20Enjoying 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/lyKL4 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/n8p8qFURTHER READINGYou can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3aDi90p“History is filled with stories of extraordinary figures who died tragically young: John Keats (26), Emily Bronte (30), Alexander the Great (33), Mozart (35), Sylvia Plath (30), Van Gogh (37). In The Death of Gericault, the brilliant Romantic artist – who a few years before had won international renown for his Raft of the Medusa – is shown stretched out on his bed in his Parisian studio in the rue…

We long to get all our work done in order to have free time. But we should be very careful with leisure. Having nothing left to do work-wise can be a very dangerous challenge for our psyches: it can bring on despair and self-loathing. It may be that always having projects on the go can insulate us from mental unwellness.Uploaded 26-08-20Enjoying 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/pe3haBe more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/S4Hi5FURTHER READINGYou can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3aVvIZf"For most of our lives, we’re hard at work: we’re up till midnight in the library studying for a degree, we’re learning a trade, building a business, writing a book. We have hardly a moment to ourselves. We don’t even ask whether we are fulfilled, it’s simply…

Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (C-PTSD) refers to a state in which we are severely impacted in the present by emotional neglect in our childhoods. The symptoms include high anxiety, low self-esteem, a constant sense of dread - and (often) difficulty being able to sleep. By learning more about our condition, we can (probably through the help of psychotherapy) hope to free ourselves and be more at ease in the world.Uploaded 02-09-20If you are struggling with mental health there are lines where you can get professional support: https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/nhs-voluntary-charity-services/charity-and-voluntary-services/get-help-from-mental-health-helplines/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/HqVSNBe more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/UmQD1The School of…

Whether or not we count as a good person depends on an unexpected but crucial ingredient. Find out more about whether you qualify by watching the film.Uploaded 09-09-20Enjoying 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/iXhV7Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/lsExKFURTHER READINGYou can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3m7ovue“There is really only one question you ever need to direct at someone to work out whether or not they are a good person – and that is, with deliberate simplicity: Do you think you are a good person? And to this there is only one acceptable answer. People who are genuinely good, people who know about kindness, patience, forgiveness, compromise, apology and gentleness always, always answer no…”MORE SCHOOL OF LIFEWatch more films on…

There are few more important tasks for parents than to be able to listen properly to their children. It’s on the basis of having been listened to with close sympathy and imagination that a child will later on be able to accept themselves. FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/39RwTwy “There are few more important tasks for parents than to be able to listen properly to their children, that is, pick up on and give room to, their children’s moods, hatreds and enthusiasms, even when these run contrary to their own inclinations. It’s on the basis of having been listened to with close sympathy and imagination that a child will later on be able to accept themselves, remain in touch with what they feel and find partners who are interested in their core selves…” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on SELF in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLself SOCIAL MEDIA Feel free to follow us at the links below: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theschooloflifelondon/ X:…

Death will come to all of us, but how and when? A little film investigates – and is meant to scare us in good way, remembing us of the preciousness of each new day. 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/OMCZK Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/VRNoL 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/ CREDITS Brought to you by http://www.theschooloflife.com Produced in collaboration with Ana Stefaniak http://www.anastefaniak.co.uk/ #TheSchoolOfLife ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A happy relationship is often associated with constant wild and passionate sex. But in fact, one of the greatest joys, and a good indicator of mutual satisfaction, is the capacity to read in bed together. We may be doing better than we think. Uploaded 18-01-18Enjoying 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/jMtdp Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/HTFxOFURTHER READING“A bedroom at around 9pm. It’s quiet, save for the rustle of the leaves in the garden outside.We’re side by side, each absorbed in a different world. One of us might be in a submarine beneath the arctic ice floe, the other is flitting through the salons of 18th-century Paris. Every so often our toes touch momentarily but without raising notice.We might briefly stretch a hand to touch the nape of the partner’s…

Friedrich Nietzsche believed that human life is fundamentally divided into the 'Apollonian' and the 'Dionysian'. 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/niYq8 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/a9vSn 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/ CREDITS Brought to you by http://www.theschooloflife.com #TheSchoolOfLife ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This video sees Alain de Botton, Creator of The School of Life and narrator on the majority of our videos, talking at a Google event in London in 2017.Uploaded 10-12-14Enjoying 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/K3SyrBe more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/ykyVXSOCIAL MEDIA Feel free to follow us at the links below: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theschooloflifelondonX: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We work as we do because – of course – we need to; because nothing is cheap, because the bills are incessant; because of all the good and wise and sensible reasons that we’ve been highly aware of since mid adolescence at least. But that is too neat and we know it deep down; we know that there is also – alongside this – something more complicated that we use the idea of necessity to avoid. 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://www.theschooloflife.com/the-school-of-life-youtube/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=Why%20we%20work%20as%20hard%20as%20we%20do Learn, heal and grow. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://www.theschooloflife.com/signup/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=Why%20we%20work%20as%20hard%20as%20we%20do FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other…

Voltaire was one of the wisest, funniest and cleverest people of the 18th century. He continues to have lots to teach us about toleration, modesty and kindness. Uploaded 13-05-16Enjoying 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/2pSjaBe more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/a9KBTMORE SCHOOL OF LIFEWatch more films on LITERATURE:http://bit.ly/TSOLliteratureSOCIAL MEDIAFeel 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/ CREDITSProduced in collaboration with Reflective Filmshttp://www.reflectivefilms.co.ukScript written for The School of Life by Professor Nicholas Cronk, Director of the Voltaire…

Emotional Intelligence, Daily. Start now: https://www.theschooloflife.com/subscription/ Have you ever encountered someone who seems to shift their identity effortlessly? This film explores the profound challenge of lacking a sense of self, often rooted in childhood experiences where authentic expression was stifled. Understand the complexities of loving someone who struggles to know themselves, and how to navigate these relationships with insight and genuine curiosity. #SelfIdentity #ChildhoodTrauma #Relationships #Psychology #EmotionalIntelligence Unlock all the content of The School of Life with a subscription to our podcast, articles, videos, and exercises, specially tailored to your needs. Get weekly insights for better relationships, deeper self-knowledge, and inner calm straight to your inbox. Sign up for more ideas, plus 10% off your first shop order: https://www.theschooloflife.com/signup/ You can read more on this and other subjects in our articles, here:…

The word ‘trauma’ captures an acute paradox in our relationship to our own histories: some of what is most significant in our lives is inaccessible to day to day memory; the more important something is, the less we may be able to recall 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/WbHDL Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/Zi8DY The School of Life runs a global online psychotherapy service that assists clients from over 40 countries. To find out more and book a session today, please visit our website: https://t.ly/xP3EL FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3y9XtcI “The word ‘trauma’ — meaning a terrible event we live through that cannot be remembered but which generates painful related symptoms — captures an acute paradox…