Sedentary Pandemic Life Is Bad for Our Happiness
The times when we most want comfort and rest may paradoxically be the times we most need to move, for the sake of our well-being.
How to Cope With Election Agony
In presidential elections, the happiness losers lose more than the winners win.
Are We Trading Our Happiness for Modern Comforts?
As society gets richer, people chase the wrong things.
Reading Too Much Political News Is Bad for Your Well-Being
Obsessing over politics could hurt your happiness and your relationships.
What to Do When the Future Feels Hopeless
Humans like to feel optimistic about and in control of where their life is headed. The pandemic has made it very hard to feel that way.
The Clocklike Regularity of Major Life Changes
Transitions feel like an abnormal disruption to life, but in fact they are a predictable and integral part of it.
Why It’s So Lonely at the Top
Work friendships are crucial to happiness. What happens when you can’t make them?
How to Navigate a Midlife Change of Faith
When we think of our identities as fixed and unchanging—I am this kind of person; I am not that kind of person—we’re shutting ourselves off from many of life’s possibilities.
‘Success Addicts’ Choose Being Special Over Being Happy
The pursuit of achievement distracts from the deeply ordinary activities and relationships that make life meaningful.
Love Is Medicine for Fear
Life, especially pandemic life, is full of threats and uncertainty. When we feel afraid, bringing more love into our lives can help.
A College Degree Is No Guarantee of a Good Life
Higher education is often described as an investment. But it’s still unclear if it pays off in happiness.
Sit With Negative Emotions, Don’t Push Them Away
If we want a life full of deep meaning, true love, and emotional strength, it’s going to involve the risk (and often the reality) of discomfort, conflict, and loss.
The Best Way to Handle Your Decline Is to Confront It Head On
Much like contemplating death can neutralize the fear of it, it can help to acclimate yourself to the idea of losing professional skills before it happens.
4 Rules for Identifying Your Life’s Work
What shape your professional path should take depends on how you define success.
Why So Many People Are Unhappy in Retirement
Too often, we imagine life to be like the hero’s journey, and leave out its crucial last step: letting go.
Two Errors Our Minds Make When Trying to Grasp the Pandemic
Disappointment and uncertainty are inevitable. But we don’t have to turn them into suffering.
The Three Equations for a Happy Life, Even During a Pandemic
“How to Build a Life” is a new column that aims to give you the tools you need to construct a life that feels whole and meaningful.