The sauna life
Each cycle of steam and cold brought me closer to the land, my mother, and the version of myself I’d left behind
by Katja Pettinen
Transcend
Finding meaning, wonder and spirituality
Converted by Sister Ruth
At a Texas convent, what could a sublimely uncouth sister in her mid-80s teach me about helping people?
by Ronald W Dworkin
How to start growing your own food
A vegetable garden is more than a source of sustenance – it’s a psychological sanctuary. Here’s how to create your own
by Gary Pilarchik
Guides
View all
How to plan a pilgrimage
Whether religious or not, you can undertake a special, meaningful kind of journey that could leave you changed forever
by Oliver Smith
How to think about the sublime
An exquisite mix of fear and awe, pleasure and pain, the sublime stretches the imagination and reveals the limits of reason
by Nicole A Hall
Popular
Dance showed me the untapped power of our attention muscle
Through tango, I sharpened attentional skills that make any moment richer. But these can be honed on or off the dancefloor
by Sara Melzer
How to start growing your own food
A vegetable garden is more than a source of sustenance – it’s a psychological sanctuary. Here’s how to create your own
by Gary Pilarchik
The psychic who healed me
It was just like her – my bold, dead mother – to show up in my life again. Or was grief playing tricks on me?
by Amanda Leigh Lichtenstein
The sauna life
Each cycle of steam and cold brought me closer to the land, my mother, and the version of myself I’d left behind
by Katja Pettinen
Converted by Sister Ruth
At a Texas convent, what could a sublimely uncouth sister in her mid-80s teach me about helping people?
by Ronald W Dworkin
Why are we so drawn to characters that take us to moral extremes?
Video by Psyche
Cults needn’t fit stereotypes to be dangerous. Here’s how to identify a controlling social group
Video by BBC Ideas
Our world’s complex issues can’t be solved by lone heroes. Our stories should reflect that
Video by Psyche
Popular
View allDance showed me the untapped power of our attention muscle
Through tango, I sharpened attentional skills that make any moment richer. But these can be honed on or off the dancefloor
by Sara Melzer
How to start growing your own food
A vegetable garden is more than a source of sustenance – it’s a psychological sanctuary. Here’s how to create your own
by Gary Pilarchik
The psychic who healed me
It was just like her – my bold, dead mother – to show up in my life again. Or was grief playing tricks on me?
by Amanda Leigh Lichtenstein
The sauna life
Each cycle of steam and cold brought me closer to the land, my mother, and the version of myself I’d left behind
by Katja Pettinen
Notes to self
View all
Videos
View allWhy are we so drawn to characters that take us to moral extremes?
Video by Psyche
Our world’s complex issues can’t be solved by lone heroes. Our stories should reflect that
Cults needn’t fit stereotypes to be dangerous. Here’s how to identify a controlling social group
There’s a nourishing calm in quietly wandering, far from goals and distractions
‘You are me; I am you’ – a trans poet’s evocative message to her former self
To become more attuned to the world around you, try sketching outdoors
Born of memory and mystery – the otherworldly works of a self-taught, unhoused artist
The psychic who healed me
It was just like her – my bold, dead mother – to show up in my life again. Or was grief playing tricks on me?
by Amanda Leigh Lichtenstein
Dance showed me the untapped power of our attention muscle
Through tango, I sharpened attentional skills that make any moment richer. But these can be honed on or off the dancefloor
by Sara Melzer
The lost art of making a petroglyph
Inspired by 6,000-year-old rock art in Norway, I decided to create a new carving closer to home
by Rémy Noë
They keep the Hindu funeral pyres burning, but at what cost?
For the men and boys of the Dom community in Varanasi, sacred cremations demand a lifetime of exhausting, dangerous labour
by Radhika Iyengar
What if animals find beauty in the world, just like we do?
Chimpanzees favour the colour red. Junglefowl prefer symmetry. Our shared capacity for aesthetic pleasure is cause for wonder
by Brandon Keim
Scarred
The highway I’d helped build stretched before me. For the first time, I saw clearly what we had done
by JShawn Guess
Find meditation really boring? You’re not the only one
Other practices like sermons, yoga and retreats can also trigger ‘spiritual boredom’. Here’s why it’s normal and even useful
by Thomas Goetz
Confessions of a teenage fundamentalist
My world was dark and scary. But beautiful things crept in, and threats of hell just couldn’t compete
by Liz Boltz Ranfeld
Complexity science can deepen your mindfulness practice
What if ‘stress reduction’ is the least interesting thing mindfulness does? Complexity science offers new ways forward
by Pavel Chvykov
Monet understood the elusive power of a place’s atmosphere
The gist of a scene or place can subtly alter our very sense of being, an affecting quality captured by Monet’s paintings
by Pablo Fernandez Velasco
A life-saving boredom
For years, I sought to escape my own mind. Once I became fascinated by it, getting high lost its allure
by Rafael Frumkin
Reignite your creative fire with blackout poetry – the art of framing what’s already there
Directed by Andrew Lavers
African proverbs provide the blueprint for a meaningful life
Incorporating ancient African wisdom into wellbeing interventions could push positive psychology beyond its Western roots
by Richard Appiah
An Aboriginal painter depicts scenes from her youth in this beautiful short
A film by Grace Kemarre Robinya and Jonathan Daw
This sculptor finds deep weirdness – not divinity – in the human form
Directed by Ben Berman
We can live well, even though we don’t have a higher purpose
The novelist and poet Ursula K Le Guin shows we can reject nihilism and naive optimism by practising our collective freedom
by Alexis Shotwell