Meaning and the good life
Articles, Films and practical Guides on meaning and the good life, part of Psyche’s coverage of values and ethical living.
Your purpose isn’t something to find, it’s something you form
In my therapy office, I’ve found that to live with greater purpose, we must think differently about where it comes from
by Ross White
For maximisers, bad choices really sting
We all make wrong decisions, but if you’re a ‘maximiser’ rather than a ‘satisficer’, the regret hurts all the more
by Richard Fisher
Can an entire society be mentally ill? A perspective from 1960
Video by The Search for America
What I found in one of the tiniest languages
The great complexity and extraordinary simplicity of a constructed language with no more than 140 words
by Hannah H Kim
True courage isn’t being fearless, it’s fearing well
Aristotle created the blueprint for the bravery we need to resist injustice and do the right thing, even at our own risk
by Andrew Culbreth
Embrace the monotony
A museum guard’s tale of long, slow hours on the job changed how I think about seemingly empty stretches of time
by Hannah Seo
A brief escape from social media
After leaving my phone behind for a week and coming back to it, I saw my social media use in a stark new light
by Tamur Qutab
Where are you on the ‘happiness curve’?
When I came across the U-shaped happiness curve, I knew I had to act if I wanted to buck the midlife average
by Richard Fisher
Plato warned that some pleasures separate us from reality
The contemporary obsession with feeling good might mean we’re losing sight of what makes life genuinely meaningful
by Derek van Zoonen
As if
Why we should embrace beliefs or stories that may not be, strictly speaking, true but are to some extent useful or good
by Sam Dresser
The benefits of thinking about deep time
On a walk through the Welsh countryside, I travelled through 4.6 billion years of Earth history – and you can too
by Richard Fisher
A way to enjoy more positive mental images
Psychologists have tested a way to seed ‘involuntary positive mental images’ in the brain. You can try it for yourself
by Christian Jarrett
Is being single a happier experience for women or men?
More people than ever are going solo. We identified a gender difference that hints at the ingredients needed to enjoy it
by Elaine Hoan & Geoff MacDonald
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
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