We might assume that our great longing in relationships would be to be looked after by someone; an exceptionally kind person who could listen to us, nurture us, assist us and make us feel comforted and seen. But this is to ignore just how strong there is - in some of us - a diametrically opposed aspiration: a wish to find someone who is in a lot of pain and trouble… 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=The%20Appeal%20of%20Rescuing%20Other%20People 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=The%20Appeal%20of%20Rescuing%20Other%20People FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects in our articles, here: https://www.theschooloflife.com/article/the-appeal-of-rescuing-other-people/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=The%20Appeal%20of%20Rescuing%20Other%20People “We might assume that our great longing in relationships would be to be looked after by someone; an exceptionally kind person who could listen to us, nurture us, assist us and make us feel comforted and seen. But this is to ignore just how strong there is – in some of us – a diametrically opposed aspiration: a wish to find someone who is in a lot of pain and trouble, who is confused and sad, unhappy and overwhelmed, and who cannot therefore possibly do very much for us, but who we, on the other..” 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: X: https://x.com/TheSchoolOfLife/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@theschooloflife?lang=en CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Diego Lodeiros https://thebrightagency.com/uk/licensing/artists/diego-lodeiros Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk

Please subscribe here: http://tinyurl.com/o28mut7 If you like our films take a look at our shop (we ship worldwide): http://www.theschooloflife.com/shop/all/ Brought to you by http://www.theschooloflife.com Do you speak a different language to English? Did you know you can submit Subtitles on all of our videos on YouTube? For instructions how to do this click here: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6054623 SOCIAL MEDIA Feel free to follow us at the links below: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theschooloflifelondon/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ Produced in collaboration with http://www.

Feeling overwhelmed by a difficult choice? This film explores the psychological and philosophical underpinnings of decision-making. Discover how to approach difficult choices with a calm and rational mindset. Learn to embrace uncertainty and find peace in the imperfect. 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=When%20it%E2%80%99s%20extremely%20hard%20to%20choose 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=When%20it%E2%80%99s%20extremely%20hard%20to%20choose FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects in our articles, here: https://www.theschooloflife.com/article/when-its-extremely-hard-to-choose/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=When%20it%E2%80%99s%20extremely%20hard%20to%20choose “A significant and intense chunk of our lives may be spent pondering ‘hard choices.’ Should we continue in our relationship with X or part from them to see who else we might find? But what if we land on no one better? Yet what if we stay and the relationship never improves? Should we buy this property that’s beautiful but worryingly close to the railway tracks? Or should we buy the other one that has less charm but might be quieter? Should we accept this job that has prestige and the possibility of a stellar future? Or should we stay where we are because we love our colleagues and have a high quality of life?...” 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: X: https://x.com/TheSchoolOfLife/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@theschooloflife?lang=en CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Mike Booth https://www.youtube.com/somegreybloke Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk

Our societies are attached to a phrase which it can be a bit too easy to assume we understand. The talk is of people ‘growing’ and of having ‘grown’ which alludes to some kind of important psychological evolution and development. But what does ‘growing’ really involve? What is it we are developing a capacity to do when we so-called grow and what are we leaving behind? And, crucially, how might we train ourselves to grow a little more - and a little more quickly? 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/app/ Learn, heal and grow; get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://www.theschooloflife.com/signup/ FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects in our articles, here: https://www.theschooloflife.com/articles/self-knowledge/growth-and-maturity/ “Our societies are attached to a phrase which it can be a bit too easy to assume we understand. The talk is of people ‘growing’ and of having ‘grown’ which alludes to some kind of important psychological evolution and development. But what does ‘growing’ really involve? What is it we are developing a capacity to do when we so-called grow and what are we leaving behind? And, crucially, how might we train ourselves to grow a little more - and a little more quickly? What we may essentially be pointing to with the idea of growth is the ability to stop responding to situations in the present through lenses unconsciously distorted by our psychological histories and, especially, the quirks and biases bequeathed to us by our invariably somewhat complicated childhoods…” 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: X: https://x.com/TheSchoolOfLife/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@theschooloflife?lang=en CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Natalia Beigaj https://www.nb-animation.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk

What if we didn’t always have to be as sad and as anxious as we usually are? What if we could more properly appreciate the beauty and the potential that lie all around us? What if we noticed the trees and the interesting faces of strangers? What if we allowed ourselves to connect more deeply with the people we meet? What if we let go of our normal reserve and suspicion and fear? What if we surrendered to loving and to being loved? 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=The%20Ecstatic%20Joy%20we%20deny%20ourselves 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=The%20Ecstatic%20Joy%20we%20deny%20ourselves FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects in our articles, here: https://www.theschooloflife.com/article/the-ecstatic-joy-we-deny-ourselves/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=The%20Ecstatic%20Joy%20we%20deny%20ourselves “Very occasionally, we get a glimpse of what it might be like to be truly happy. Maybe it’s late at night on a summer’s evening; perhaps we’ve just recovered from an illness; we might have been deeply affected by a book or a piece of music and have gone on a walk on our own through the city or the countryside…” 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: X: https://x.com/TheSchoolOfLife/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@theschooloflife?lang=en CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Natalia Begaj Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk

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=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDjlHY5Z2xI&t=7s 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=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDjlHY5Z2xI&t=7s FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects in our articles, here: https://www.theschooloflife.com/article/people-pleasers-in-relationships/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=people%20pleasers%20in%20relationships “It can take a while to realise what’s happened. For a long time, it simply seems that one has miraculously fallen in with a partner entirely well attuned to all of one’s tastes and proclivities. One loves that particular show? Amazingly, so do they. This song is by one’s favourite band: they’ve adored it for years. Pasta with mushrooms; it’s exactly what they crave…” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships SOCIAL MEDIA Feel free to follow us at the links below: X: https://x.com/TheSchoolOfLife/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@theschooloflife?lang=en CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Deanca Renysta https://www.deancarensyta.com/showreel Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk

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%20it%20can%20take%20us%20so%20long%20to%20understand%20how%20unwell%20we%20are 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%20it%20can%20take%20us%20so%20long%20to%20understand%20how%20unwell%20we%20are FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects in our articles, here: https://www.theschooloflife.com/article/why-it-can-take-us-so-long-to-understand-how-unwell-we-are/ “A lot about our behaviour doesn’t make sense until we can take on board a basic idea about the way we humans are built: that our biology privileges survival over self-awareness. In other words, the most important priority for members of our species is to live and to keep going, not to pause, understand and take stock…” 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: X: https://x.com/TheSchoolOfLife/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@theschooloflife?lang=en CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Mike booth https://www.youtube.com/user/somegreybloke Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk

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=The%20Avoidant%20Partner%20with%20the%20Power%20to%20Drive%20You%20Mad 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=The%20Avoidant%20Partner%20with%20the%20Power%20to%20Drive%20You%20Mad FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects in our articles, here: MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships SOCIAL MEDIA Feel free to follow us at the links below: X: https://x.com/TheSchoolOfLife/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@theschooloflife?lang=en CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Faye Fillingham https://www.instagram.com/fayefillingham/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk

Struggling with self-doubt? Learn what self-esteem truly is and how to cultivate it. Discover the impact of self-esteem on your relationships, career, and overall happiness. Join us for practical tips and insights on boosting your self-confidence. #selfesteem #personalgrowth #confidencebuilding 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= 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=What%20Self-Esteem%20Is You can read more on this and other subjects in our articles, here: 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: X: https://x.com/TheSchoolOfLife/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@theschooloflife?lang=en CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Diego Lodeiros https://thebrightagency.com/uk/animation/artists/diego-lodeiros Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk

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=The%20Impact%20of%20Anger%20on%20Young%20Children 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=The%20Impact%20of%20Anger%20on%20Young%20Children FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects in our articles, here: https://www.theschooloflife.com/articles/self-knowledge/trauma-and-childhood/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=The%20Impact%20of%20Anger%20on%20Young%20Children 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: X: https://x.com/TheSchoolOfLife/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@theschooloflife?lang=en CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Gemma Green-Hope https://www.gemmagreenhope.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk research, scientific studies, psychology research, child psychology, brain development, social issues, social justice, child welfare, child protection, early childhood education, child development, education system, school environment, bullying,

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=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDjlHY5Z2xI&t=7s 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=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDjlHY5Z2xI&t=7s FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects in our articles, here: 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: X: https://x.com/TheSchoolOfLife/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@theschooloflife?lang=en CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Deanca Rensyta https://www.deancarensyta.com/showreel Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk

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=Getting%20Better%20at%20Picking%20Lovers 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=Getting%20Better%20at%20Picking%20Lovers FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects in our articles, here: https://www.theschooloflife.com/article/getting-better-at-picking-lovers/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=Getting%20Better%20at%20Picking%20Lovers 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: X: https://x.com/TheSchoolOfLife/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@theschooloflife?lang=en CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Mike Booth https://www.youtube.com/@somegreybloke Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk

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/Sj34R Learn, heal and grow. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/tAuoO FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects in our articles, here: https://t.ly/Ro7Hn “One of the simplest and most useful exercises that psychotherapy has gifted to us is known as the Empty Chair Technique. A client who has been wrestling with their feelings towards someone is gently requested to stop discussing them in the third person and is instead invited to face a chair and start talking to this bit of furniture as if there were on it – to all intents – the specific troubling person in their life, perhaps a long dead absent father, a neglectful mother or a traitorous so-called friend…” 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: X: https://x.com/TheSchoolOfLife/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@theschooloflife?lang=en CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Hannah O'brien https://www.hanobrien.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk

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/pAp30 Learn, heal and grow. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/SAMBZ FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects in our articles, here: https://t.ly/Z8GWC “For some of us, our lives are guided – and hemmed in – by one overwhelming imperative: we must never let people down. Not just a few friends and family members, but pretty much anyone who wants anything of us. Perhaps someone wants to see us again for supper. We kept them entertained and now they want more. The problem is that we really don’t much like them – but we go anyway, because how could we not, next time and probably the twenty times after that. We give money to people we don’t trust, we stay up too late at parties we hate, we wind up on holiday with characters we have little in common with. We would feel a sense of obligation to someone…” 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: X: https://x.com/TheSchoolOfLife/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@theschooloflife?lang=en CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Mike Booth https://www.youtube.com/user/somegreybloke Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk

Why is it so hard to regulate your emotions? Learn how to stay in tune with your mood and embrace emotional fluctuations. Read our article, ‘We are made of moods’ to find out more about your changing emotional states: https://t.ly/lfggR Our moods are affected by the smallest of changes – from fluctuations in our blood sugar content and serotonin levels, to whether or not our partner gave us a kiss before we left for work. In turn, our emotions condition almost every aspect of our behaviour: how we respond to events, react to challenges, and feel about ourselves. Understanding just how powerfully our emotional state impacts our thoughts and actions can help us manage those effects more readily – and build a more stable and forgiving relationship with ourselves. ☀️📚 About The School of Life: We are a passionate group of people on a mission to bring about healing, growth, calm and self-understanding. We derive our ideas from psychology, psychotherapy, philosophy, art and culture. As our name – The School of Life – suggests, we are here to teach people how life can be lived and what can make it truly worthwhile, effective and fulfilling. To discover more, visit our website and subscribe today: https://www.theschooloflife.com/subscribe-for-the-app-and-unlimited-website-articles/ --- ✅ To keep up-to-date with all of our upcoming YouTube videos, subscribe to our channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@theschooloflifetv?sub_confirmation=1 --- 📈 Do you want to equip your business with the tools to promote emotional well-being and success? Contact us today to find out about our programmes: https://www.theschooloflife.com/at-work/who-we-are/ --- ☎️ Find us on other social channels: X: https://x.com/TheSchoolOfLife/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@theschooloflife?lang=en Credits Mike Booth https://www.youtube.com/user/somegreybloke #TheSchoolOfLife #MoodChanges #EmotionalAwareness

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/kpfDa Learn, heal and grow. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/8nQvU FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects in our articles, here: https://t.ly/DhSrw “‘Avoidant’ is the term usefully coined by attachment theorists to define those of us who, through no fault of our own but with full responsibility for our condition, have grave difficulties around intimate relationships…” 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: X: https://x.com/TheSchoolOfLife/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@theschooloflife?lang=en CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Natalia Begaj Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk

In order to accurately reflect what we truly think we may have to not to agonise about every word, not to go back and correct anything - and instead, just to write down everything that comes into our minds the very moment it does so. 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/t2KUC Learn, heal and grow. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/2s7vk FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects in our articles, here: https://t.ly/3LbVT “Usually, when we set out to write, sounding coherent and polished are our central priorities. We may think hard before setting anything down, we keep an eye on spelling, we may go back and correct words that feel not entirely right, we may delete a paragraph or two - all in the hope of eventually reaching a point where what we have articulated seems accurately to reflect what we truly think…” 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: X: https://x.com/TheSchoolOfLife/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@theschooloflife?lang=en CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Aaron Sampson https://www.motionmaverick.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk

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/m5AOk Learn, heal and grow. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/S1yuf FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects in our articles, here: https://t.ly/-MbB0 “One of the stranger aspects of the way we’re built is that we need to go through a number of stages of development in childhood and adolescence in order to reach maturity – and if for whatever reason we miss out on any one of them, then a part of us will in the background be craving to return to finish the stage, even if it is one normally associated with being a toddler and we happen to be well into middle age…” 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: X: https://x.com/TheSchoolOfLife/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@theschooloflife?lang=en CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Deanca Rensyta https://www.deancarensyta.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk

In relationships, honesty is key. Learn how to say what you truly feel by following this one simple rule. If you are looking for more rules to help guide your relationship, check out this article: https://t.ly/xN15r The secret to maintaining a mature and respectful relationship is honest and open communication. Yet many of us hold back, suspecting that a frank confession of our feelings would risk upsetting or alienating our partner. The solution lies not in giving vent to anger, but in voicing the more vulnerable and sympathetic fears that lie beneath our complaints. Watch our film to learn the art of vulnerable communication – and discover what a healthy relationship truly looks like. Looking for more relationship advice? Check out our Relationships playlist here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwxNMb28XmpcEwc0qydf2jSszQFSht81E ☀️📚 About The School of Life: We are a passionate group of people on a mission to bring about healing, growth, calm and self-understanding. We derive our ideas from psychology, psychotherapy, philosophy, art and culture. As our name – The School of Life – suggests, we are here to teach people how life can be lived and what can make it truly worthwhile, effective and fulfilling. To discover more, visit our website and subscribe today: https://t.ly/LjQsf --- ✅ To keep up-to-date with all of our upcoming YouTube videos, subscribe to our channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@theschooloflifetv?sub_confirmation=1 --- 📈 Do you want to equip your business with the tools to promote emotional well-being and success? Contact us today to find out about our programmes: https://t.ly/VySeS --- ☎️ Find us on other social channels: X: https://x.com/TheSchoolOfLife/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@theschooloflife?lang=en Produced in collaboration with: Deanca Rentysata https://www.deancarensyta.com/showreel Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk #TheSchoolOfLife #Relationships #HealthyRelationships

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/YYcY- Learn, heal and grow. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/2Qz2F FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects in our articles, here: https://t.ly/JUv3U “As we know only too well, becoming an adult has very little to do with turning 18 or 22, driving a car or being entitled to drink, getting a mortgage or having a child. An adulthood worthy of the name is an internal process which may post-date the acquisition of a formal adult identity by many years. We might be 92 and still, very slowly, leaving adolescence behind. If we lived to be 450, many of us would still be struggling to acquire the fundamental constituents of a grown-up…” 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/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Léon Moh-Cah http://leonmohcah.com http://instagram.com/leon_moh_cah Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk

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/o2Ko1 Learn, heal and grow. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/fLL3V FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects in our articles, here: https://www.theschooloflife.com/articles/ “(1)We tend to imagine that in order to live a good life, we need to have to have an appetite for the truth. (2)But what if, in reality, in order to keep going and get anything done, we actually need to blind ourselves to a range of realities and have to swallow a number of illusions without which we couldn’t possibly have the willpower to continue. (3)Here are some of the blind spots necessary to our flourishing. (4)First and foremost, we need to pretend that we’re not going to die and therefore have to convince ourselves that all the things we fervently trust are so important and so urgent, really do matter and won’t look like incomprehensible, futile mulch within a hundred years or less. (5)We have to care manically about what ‘others’ think - though they hardly give us a thought, let alone a fair one. (6)We have to imagine that we could (one day) be loved and understood - though few things are, in fact, ever more in doubt. (7)We have to stay on our side - though we know, in our hearts, how beastly and strange we really are. (8)We have to melt at the cuteness of small children - though we know how most of them will turn out and that the world we’re teaching them about doesn’t really exist. (9)We have to look forward to the next few years with excitement - though almost every new day is a scratchy six or below. (10)We have to believe that we’re collectively making progress - though every invention unleashes a necessary set of appalling unintended consequences. (11)We have to care about humanity - though most of its members are insufferable from close up. (12)We have to look forward to the future - though if we had a chance to learn what fate had in store, we almost certainly would not want to know. (13)We have to keep being excited about buying things - though we know how seldom any of them make a difference. (14)We have to keep going travelling - though being somewhere else is always better in memory or anticipation. (15)We have to keep seeing our so-called friends - though we would be crushed by hearing a fraction of what really goes through their minds. (16)We have to believe in a comfortable, wise old age - though it will mostly be agony, aches and catheters. (17)We have to not properly notice how beautiful, interesting and opportunity-filled life is - in case we were to go mad from excitement and regret. (18)In short, let’s not fool ourselves that we really want to know the full truth. We require only so much of it as is compatible with making it out of bed. We have to confront an uncomfortable fact about self-awareness: those who most know how to enjoy life may also be those who - at points - are masters at fruitfully lying to themselves.” 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/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Deanca Rentysata https://www.deancarensyta.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk

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/TwXBA Learn, heal and grow. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/v6z_4 FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects in our articles, here: https://t.ly/OqqhD “The loveliest people are not the applauded and the haughty ones, the elated and the optimistic ones. They are the ones who long ago shed their pride, who can tell you frankly how lonely and sad they are, who can face their self-hatred and accept their regrets…” 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/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Faye Fillingham https://www.instagram.com/fayefillingham/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk kindness, compassion, empathy, emotional intelligence, self-awareness, vulnerability, authenticity, human connection, relationships, personal growth, spotting genuine people, seeing beyond the surface, traits of truly lovely people, understanding hidden kindness, appreciating vulnerability, connecting with authentic individuals, building meaningful relationships, emotional intelligence in real life, finding beauty in unexpected places, the power of 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/sL5rg Learn, heal and grow. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/7hiAu FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects in our articles, here: https://t.ly/FAPv3 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/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Diego Lodeiros https://vimeo.com/diegolodeiros Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk burnout, stress management, self-care, mental health, work-life balance, emotional intelligence, productivity, time management, self-improvement, well-being, low battery life, exhaustion, preventing meltdowns, avoiding burnout, recharging your energy, emotional depletion, workplace stress, managing difficult emotions, setting boundaries, self-compassion, how to avoid burnout at work, signs you're nearing exhaustion, tips for managing stress, effective self-care strategies, improving work-life balance, boosting your emotional intelligence, increasing productivity when tired, time management for busy people, self-improvement tips for well-being, how to recharge your emotional battery

There’s a difficult mood we’re in danger of falling into that’s made up of four elements in particular: low spirits, guilt, paranoia and irritability. It’s in such a mood that we might step back and ask ourselves a distinctive question: "Might I - at heart - be very angry with someone right now?" 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/oSEku Learn, heal and grow. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/LqJst FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects in our articles, here: https://t.ly/E2glN “There’s a difficult mood we’re in danger of falling into that’s made up of four elements in particular: low spirits, guilt, paranoia and irritability. In such a mood, we may feel guilty and ashamed without being able to put a finger on anything concrete we’ve done. At the same time, we’re in a paranoid state of mind, as if people out there didn’t like us especially, or we were in imminent danger of being found out for doing something forbidden. And then we might feel non-specifically irritable – and get uncommonly grumpy when we can’t find a household item or the printer jams…” 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/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Natalia Biegaj https://www.nb-animation.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk

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://t.ly/H40fh Learn, heal and grow. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/ERef4 FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects in our articles, here: https://t.ly/RSqUs “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…” 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/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Mike Booth https://www.youtube.com/somegreybloke Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk https://drive.google.com/file/d/1idvq4Wi8osIMgab1JjX66gNROyp5t2g5/view?usp=sharing work-life balance, motivation, career advice, productivity, purpose in life, happiness at work, financial independence, time management, success mindset, hidden reasons we work hard, why do we work so much, rethinking work ethic, finding meaning in work, beyond the paycheck, is hard work worth it, is there more to life than work, chasing your dreams, work-life balance tips, how to find purpose in your work

We may check our phones to see if any messages might have come in, if someone posted an interesting film, if something dreadful has happened overseas. But this is in danger of sounding far too normal and too kind to us. The truth is a lot darker and rather more humbling. 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/8lEEx Learn, heal and grow. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/P3C2N FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects in our articles, here: https://t.ly/Ln8RA “There are the standard, conventional-sounding answers: we check our phones to see if any messages might have come in, if someone posted an interesting film, if something dreadful has happened overseas. But this is in danger of sounding far too normal and too kind to us. The truth is a lot darker and rather more humbling. We don’t pick up our phones to find out what’s going on, we pick them up to ensure – with considerable ruthlessness – that we are in no danger of finding out anything more about ourselves. If we forensically study the moments when we are drawn to pick up our devices, these are almost always when some kind of anxiety is pressing in on us – an anxiety on whose analysis and interpretation the correct navigation of our lives may depend. We are using our devices as an alternative to thinking about our futures, we employ our machines to block insight, to halt the business of processing, to alienate our minds from their most promising and complex substrata…” 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/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Léon Moh-Cah https://leonmohcah.com/animation Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk phone addiction, psychology of phone use, digital detox, self-awareness, communication technology, screen time, mental health, personal growth, anxiety and phone use, avoiding self-reflection, phone use and relationships, phone use and productivity, overcoming phone addiction, introspection exercises, questions to ask yourself, mindful phone use,

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/1l2hk Learn, heal and grow. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/8YVAl FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects in our articles, here: https://t.ly/1gfLW “This is a psychological game that offers us an entertaining and unique way to learn about what’s really going on in our minds. We’re offered the beginnings of a story – and are then invited to imagine the rest. What might happen to the little boy and girl lost in the forest, or the old wizard who has just come across an ancient book in a monastery or the shipwrecked sailor on a dark volcanic island? The way we complete the story ends up showing us a remarkable, immense amount about our values, fears, concerns and hopes. Play the game in company for entertainment and confession; play it on your own to mine the contents of your deep self…” 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/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Aaron Sampson https://www.instagram.com/motionmaverick/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk the school of life,schooloflife,education,relationships,alain de botton,philosophy,talk,big questions,love,wellness,mindfullness,psychology,self-discovery,self-awareness,personal growth,mental toughness,emotional intelligence,men's health,subconscious mind,hidden desires,uncovering limiting beliefs,what men really want,finding your purpose in life,stop negative self-talk,accessing your intuition,quieting your inner critic,mindfulness meditation for men

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/NIG9F Learn, heal and grow. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/tUheA FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects in our articles, here: https://t.ly/vWIPK “We hear so much about the difficulties caused by those who cannot be intimate, who seem incapable of disclosing anything of what they genuinely feel, it can take time to register the opposite but no less grave problem: those who cannot keep enough of themselves to themselves, those whose hunger for closeness overwhelms their concern for their own safety, those who will, in a poignant bid to hold others’ attention, lay out – within minutes of a new encounter – secrets that they would have been wiser to take to the grave. This isn’t to deny the fun that oversharers can bring to social life. These won’t be the types talking about the economic contraction or where they last went on holiday. Contact with other humans should be about getting to the marrow of things, they believe, which is why we will quickly get to hear about their ex’s sexual difficulty, the vicious row they had about their mother’s will, exactly how much they earn, the troubles they have with their digestion, their favourite bedroom position and the nature of an early childhood trauma… 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/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Hannah O’Brien https://www.hanobrien.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk oversharing, social media, boundaries, privacy, mental health, communication, relationships, self-awareness, self-love, personal growth, oversharing on social media, dangers of oversharing, how to set boundaries, the importance of privacy, emotional vulnerability, building healthy relationships, tmi (too much information), online safety, social anxiety, self-disclosure, how oversharing can hurt you, the psychology of oversharing, why we overshare on social media, setting boundaries in relationships, building healthy communication skills, protecting your privacy online, overcoming social anxiety, how to be more self-aware, tips for healthy self-disclosure, finding true connection online

We humans are extraordinarily and painfully vulnerable creatures. Especially in our early years, we are at huge danger of being psychologically damaged by those around us. Damage is in one way or another always caused by a shortfall of tenderness and care. As we might put it, it’s caused by a shortfall of love. Examples of shortfalls of love are very varied: perhaps at an early point someone went missing or someone died, someone was cruel or someone misunderstood. And as a result of this deficit, universally, some kind of wound was sustained… 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/kBCyt Learn, heal and grow. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/C4a6_ FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects in our articles, here: https://t.ly/AP-H- “1. We humans are extraordinarily and painfully vulnerable creatures. Especially in our early years, we are at huge danger of being psychologically damaged by those around us. Damage is in one way or another always caused by a shortfall of tenderness and care. As we might put it, it’s caused by a shortfall of love. Examples of shortfalls of love are very varied: perhaps at an early point someone went missing or someone died, someone was cruel or someone misunderstood. And as a result of this deficit, universally, some kind of wound was sustained. 2. We are psychologically very ingenious creatures. In the face of any wound, we develop an array of very clever defence mechanisms. The purpose of defence mechanisms is to protect us against further damage, to help us to get through to the next stage of existence; to keep us going; in extremes, to save our lives…” 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/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Natalkadesign https://www.natalkadesign.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk psychology, self-improvement, self-help, emotional healing, mental health, self-awareness, personal growth, inner child healing, trauma recovery, emotional intelligence, defense mechanisms, emotional wounds, self-discovery, self-sabotage, limiting beliefs, unhealthy coping mechanisms, emotional maturity, breaking free from the past, inner peace, self-compassion, how to identify your defense mechanisms, understanding your emotional wounds, overcoming self-sabotage patterns, how to heal from childhood trauma, developing emotional intelligence, breaking free from limiting beliefs, achieving emotional maturity, letting go of the past for a better future, self-compassion for emotional healing, how to overcome psychological barriers

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/HReUy Learn, heal and grow. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/92HY1 FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects in our articles, here: https://t.ly/T9En4 “Missing someone that we’re close to – because they’ve had to go to another country, or are up in the north on a course, or went on a hiking trip with their friends – is such an unpleasant emotion, it feels peculiar to suggest that it is also, at a profound level, an extraordinary achievement and an important marker of emotional maturity. It is in no way simple for a prototypical adult to be able to miss anyone and we are often, almost without knowing it, engaged in complex manoeuvres to ensure that we resolutely won’t…” 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/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Nicky Francis https://www.nicolajanefrancis.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk relationships,love,emotional maturity,vulnerability,connection,attachment theory,communication,self-reflection,personal growth,psychology,missing someone,long distance relationships,coping with absence,healthy relationships,emotional intelligence,emotional baggage,fear of intimacy,letting go,heartbreak,self-love,how to deal with missing someone,the importance of missing someone,the fear of missing someone,loss,lonely,power,friendships,social interaction,how to

Sometimes we may end up in a couple where we spend a lot of time complaining - to concerned friends and family - that the other person is evidently and committedly ‘afraid of intimacy.’ They don’t often talk of their emotions; they may find it hard to be physically cosy; they don’t cry so often. 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/7K1To Learn, heal and grow. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/35AUz FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects in our articles, here: https://t.ly/Wj9FS “Sometimes we may end up in a couple where we spend a lot of time complaining – to concerned friends and family – that the other person is evidently and committedly ‘afraid of intimacy.’ They don’t often talk of their emotions; they may find it hard to be physically cosy; they don’t cry so often. Whereas we on the other hand – as all our acquaintances know – are the emotionally fluent ones. We long to be close to someone, we long to discuss our feelings openly and without restraint, we are healthy and ready for love. It’s simply such a pity – and so profoundly unfortunate – that we have ended up with such an unyielding and resistant partner…” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships SOCIAL MEDIA Feel free to follow us at the links below: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theschooloflifelondon/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Dave Anderson https://daveandersonart.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk

There is one question that, perhaps more than any other, gets to the root of who we are and what motivates us: “What did I need to do in childhood to win the support and approval of my parents?” We might - to sharpen the picture - need to lean on a few subsidiary enquiries… 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/_D9cB Learn, heal and grow. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/cUQdU FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects in our articles, here: https://t.ly/JYcLU “There is one question that, perhaps more than any other, gets to the root of who we are and what motivates us: What did I need to do in childhood to win the support and approval of my parents? We might - to sharpen the picture - need to lean on a few subsidiary enquiries: To please my father, I needed to… To please my mother, I needed to… Not to upset my mother, I needed to… Not to upset my father, I needed to… Whatever might be claimed, no family ever gives its offspring unconditional love; there is always, more or less subtly, something that one has to do and to be - and other things that must at all costs be skirted…” 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/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Deanca Rensyta https://www.deancarensyta.com Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk

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/exaeV Learn, heal and grow. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/8R7jq FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects in our articles, here: https://t.ly/1SI_x MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships SOCIAL MEDIA Feel free to follow us at the links below: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theschooloflifelondon/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Mike Booth https://www.youtube.com/user/somegreybloke Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk

Much is said about the virtues and pleasures of individuality but let's also admit to how frankly lonely and frightening it can be to find ourselves (yet again) in a peculiar minority, where the differences between us and others strike us as bewildering rather than emboldening, how do we alleviate these isolating thoughts? 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://bit.ly/4cWPq6D Learn, heal and grow; get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://bit.ly/4aVl6r3 FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects in our articles, here: https://bit.ly/4aBcjuB “Much is said about the virtues and pleasures of individuality – of being someone who stands out from the crowd and delights in their particularity. But let’s also admit to how frankly lonely and frightening it can be to find ourselves (yet again) in a peculiar minority, where the differences between us and others strike us as bewildering rather than emboldening, when for example: — Everyone wants to gossip but we prefer generosity and forgiveness. — Everyone is at ease but we’re melancholy and self-conscious. — Everyone is cheerful but we can’t let go of anxiety and apprehension.” 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/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Natalia Ramos https://www.behance.net/sofiaramosf93f Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk

The most curious and hazardous feature of the way we’re built lies in the difficulty we have registering what we actually feel. 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://bit.ly/3UcYvQn Learn, heal and grow; get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://bit.ly/3vMy9fA FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects in our articles, here: https://bit.ly/3UeeGOx “The most curious and hazardous feature of the way we’re built lies in the difficulty we have registering what we actually feel. Our vast and strange minds get filled with thoughts that go unsifted and with feelings we don’t have the courage to look at. We might be angry or sad while lacking any active awareness that we are so. Or guilty or envious without any grasp of what is at play behind a thin psychological curtain. And we remain unconscious - always - because we are resistant to ideas that threaten our sense of calm, our self-image and our gratifying illusions about ourselves. We surely can’t be angry because we’re kind people who couldn’t feel negatively about a beloved elderly relative. Or we can’t be sad at not being invited to the party because we don’t care about trivial, social matters. And it isn’t possible that we are envious because we aren’t people to covet others’ advantages…” 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/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Natalie Ramos http://www.nataliarama.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk #UnpackYourEmotions #HealFromWithin

Many of us are haunted by a harsh inner critic: one who is particularly fond of telling us that we are a loser. Here’s why such a critic exists – and how we can silence them. 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://9qq0.short.gy/aQ2Y3L Learn, heal and grow; get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://9qq0.short.gy/jsS8MH FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects in our articles, here: https://9qq0.short.gy/PyUUiC “Some of us are continually haunted by a sense that we are losers. Acquaintances may speak well of us. Colleagues may praise us, but there is an inner critic inside who has a very different verdict: you are a piece of nonsense, you are laughable, you are repulsive. This critic is extremely assiduous and determined, they are a world champion of sorts. They’ll get into an argument with our best friend to insist that no, despite what they think, we really are awful; they’ll disregard the evidence of a promotion or surprise birthday party and keep returning to the same theme: you are repulsive…” 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/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Deanca Rensyta https://www.deancarensyta.com/showreel Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk

We should resist invitations to argue by recognising them for what they are: attempts by the other party to rescue themselves from unbearable feelings. 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://9qq0.short.gy/SJtYvX Learn, heal and grow; get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://9qq0.short.gy/c704Jm FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects in our articles, here: https://9qq0.short.gy/wU8qm6 “However deep our theoretical commitment to serenity, in the course of an average day, we are likely to encounter a number of extremely well-crafted invitations to lose our tempers badly. Our partner will press a well-flagged nuclear button related, let’s imagine, to their views on our mother or our career choice. At work, a colleague may deliberately not answer a very simple question to which we urgently need an answer. A shop attendant may give us a bored, insolent shrug. Someone in the supermarket may falsely accuse us of standing in the wrong line…” 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/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Hannah O’brien https://www.hanobrien.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk

The idea of trying to avoid love sounds paradoxical in the extreme: why do we take active measures to sabotage love? 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://9qq0.short.gy/DxKw9z Learn, heal and grow; get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://9qq0.short.gy/DC05gY FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects in our articles, here: https://9qq0.short.gy/QPZWMS “The idea of trying to avoid love sounds paradoxical in the extreme: why would anyone take steps to deny themselves an experience which seems so plainly positive and life enhancing? Plenty of people are denied love by external forces; why would anyone take active measures to sabotage love if it lay before them?” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships SOCIAL MEDIA Feel free to follow us at the links below: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theschooloflifelondon/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Nicky Francis https://www.nicolajanefrancis.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk

Why might kindness be so hard to bear? Why should warmth prove - on occasion - comprehensively repulsive? Why might nausea descend in the face of emotional maturity? 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://9qq0.short.gy/zqGz6G Learn, heal and grow: get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://9qq0.short.gy/RaAZCl FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects in our articles, here: https://9qq0.short.gy/5EJiCJ “There are many things that might disrupt the mood of a promising early date: a sudden discovery of a maddening political opinion, a grating laugh, poor dental hygiene, an unfortunate choice of top. But there is a far more perplexing and, superficially at least, paradoxical kind of distaste that might abruptly arise. One might want to take leave of a companion - and even rush outdoors to vomit - not because they are crude, dim or nasty but because they have revealed themselves to be undeniably and conspicuously nice…” 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/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Natalia Biegaj https://www.nb-animation.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk

A key principle governing the natural world is that animals adapt to thrive in particular habitats; what we call an animal’s character is essentially a set of traits that gives it maximal opportunity to flourish in specific circumstances. We humans are - in the end, beneath a layer of civilisation - not so different. 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://9qq0.short.gy/wtzpqS Learn, heal and grow; get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://9qq0.short.gy/6jo2Uh FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects in our articles, here: https://9qq0.short.gy/B26viZ “A key principle governing the natural world is that animals adapt to thrive in particular habitats; what we call an animal’s character is essentially a set of traits that gives it maximal opportunity to flourish in specific circumstances. The owl is - for example - furtive and nocturnal to help it succeed in crowded habitats with heavy pressures on food supplies. Stick insects are docile and skilled at disappearing into a background of twigs and branches to help them avoid the attention of rodents and spiders. And African wild dogs are collaborative and respectful of hierarchies to lend them the very best chances of cornering impalas and springboks..” 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/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Jesse Collett https://www.jessecollett.co.uk/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk

What happens to a child who is not loved properly? The answer one might expect is that they start to hate the person who doesn’t give them the love they need. Far from it. The reality is that the child becomes filled with shame. But what is shame? And how does it impact your adult life? 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://9qq0.short.gy/YbY86t Learn, heal and grow; get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://9qq0.short.gy/hJnlBw FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects in our articles, here: https://9qq0.short.gy/6obBdx “What happens to a child who is not loved properly? The answer one might expect is that they start to hate the person who doesn’t give them the love they need. Far from it. The reality is that the child becomes filled with shame. What is shame? A sense that one is profoundly unworthy, dirty, soiled, sinful, ugly, embarrassing – and also, in danger; a fit subject of attack and ridicule by strangers. The child is unable to redirect the blame outward: it does not ask: ‘What is wrong with my parents for not loving me adequately?’ It simply wonders in a forlorn way: ‘What have I done wrong in order to have ended up on the receiving end of my parent’s disapproval?’ A primitive fear of abandonment kicks in. The child prefers to attack itself for being bad than to confront a yet more awful possibility: that it is entirely dependent for its well-being on inadequate and unkind parental figures. MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships SOCIAL MEDIA Feel free to follow us at the links below: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theschooloflifelondon/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Natalia Biegaj https://www.nb-animation.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk

When looking at the odder aspects of other people’s and our own behaviour, there is one simple-sounding question we should always keep close to the front of our minds: what did you need to do in your family of origin in order to be loved? and might you still, by extension, unconsciously be operating under these conditions. 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://9qq0.short.gy/AbJqPO Learn, heal and grow; get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://9qq0.short.gy/bsaQgu FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects in our articles, here: https://9qq0.short.gy/QQIIlj “When looking at the odder aspects of other people’s and our own behaviour, there is one simple-sounding question we should always keep close to the front of our minds: what did you need to do in your family of origin in order to get noticed, cared for and loved? What conditions of love did you grow up with - and might you still, by extension, unconsciously therefore be operating under (for it can take our deep minds a very long time indeed to recognise that they are no longer subject to a parental aegis)? …” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships SOCIAL MEDIA Feel free to follow us at the links below: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theschooloflifelondon/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Mike Booth https://www.youtube.com/somegreybloke Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk

It is estimated that some 70,000 separate thoughts hurry through consciousness from the moment we wake up to the time we slip into sleep. To help us understand those thoughts we've produced five questions to direct our minds to areas which we tend to neglect, and from where trouble can most intensely arise when we do so. 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://9qq0.short.gy/XG5Y7z Learn, heal and grow; get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://9qq0.short.gy/kB8blr FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects in our articles, here: https://9qq0.short.gy/okh44o “Our minds are some of the busiest places in the known universe. It is estimated that, under a deceptively calm exterior, some 70,000 separate thoughts hurry through consciousness from the moment we wake up to the time we slip into sleep – some of these elaborate and sequential, many more fragmentary and sensory by nature. What these many thoughts have in common is that we seldom do them any kind of justice. The river of ideas and feelings is relentless, turbulent and chaotic. In a typical minute, we might briefly register that we are annoyed with a friend, then our minds are directed to a worry about a tax return, which is then quickly supplanted by the sighting of a raven, which makes us think of our grandmother, who evokes a trip we once took to Greece, which ushers in thoughts of some lip balm we need to purchase, which is then supplanted by a registering of a pain in our left knee, which is succeeded by a memory of a friend we lost touch with after university, which cedes to a recurring reflection on what kind of lamp we might invest in for the living room. And we might here still only be at the thirty second mark of what we casually call ‘thinking’ or just ‘gazing out of the window’…” 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/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Gemma green Hope https://www.gemmagreenhope.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk

We all are, at times, the victims of one of the cruellest and most remorseless of all mental afflictions: obsessive thinking. But why? FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://9qq0.short.gy/m0b8dK “For some of us, today like every day, will mean another case of immersing ourselves, from the moment we wake up, in a by-now very familiar set of painful thoughts. We will dwell – once again – on how awful we look and more particularly, on how our nose is repulsively proportioned relative to the rest of our face. We will think – once again – of a website we inadvertently visited twelve years ago and how the police might be preparing to close in on, and arrest, us. We will think – once again – of how several of our neighbours (especially the people upstairs) might be colluding to ruin and disgrace us. Or we will think – once again – of something we said to a colleague which we fear they misconstrued and which may well lead them to seek disciplinary action against us at any moment…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Natalia Biegaj https://nb-animation.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk

We tend to evaluate people on how interesting they are. But we are thereby liable to miss a more acute and relevant issue: how interesting does a given person make us feel? Why in the company of some do our minds quickly fill with stories, while around others, we experience ourselves as blank, dull and close to inert? FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://9qq0.short.gy/fEFTlw “We start with an unusual observation: there is a huge variance in how much we feel we have to say for ourselves around some people compared to around others; certain people make us feel boring, others do not. We tend to evaluate people on how interesting they are. But we are thereby liable to miss a more acute and relevant issue: how interesting does a given person make us feel? Why in the company of some do our minds quickly fill with stories, while around others, we experience ourselves as blank, dull and close to inert. Why – when some people ask – ‘so what have you been up to lately?’ do we positively brim with a multitude of topics, whereas with others, outwardly equally polite, do we struggle to remember that we have ever even existed?..." 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Deanca Rensyta https://www.deancarensyta.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with: Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk

We often observe self protective strategies in ourselves with a mixture of puzzlement and embarrassment. Why are we like this? Why can’t we be more normal? What’s up with us? Our newsletter is a treasury of ideas: ideas that can inspire, console, and improve your mental wellbeing. You’ll also hear news about our app, latest releases and exclusive Q&A content, where we answer your questions:https://www.theschooloflife.com/signup/ If you want to keep working on your mental well-being and self-understanding, download our hugely helpful new app now: https://www.theschooloflife.com/app/ Our website has books and articles to help you lead a more fulfilled life: https://b4f4.short.gy/QElbpO ​​For Psychotherapy and other therapeutic services: https://www.theschooloflife.com/therapy-booking/?presetTherapyType=Psychotherapy For information on The School of Life’s learning and wellbeing solutions for businesses, including workshops and talks, visit https://www.theschooloflife.com/at-work/ Email [email protected] or join our monthly business newsletter: https://share-eu1.hsforms.com/1U9XMcR1KRRSyg1D8hYB1TQg4qle FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects on our blog, here: https://www.theschooloflife.com/article/letting-go-of-self-protective-strategies/ “There’s an enlightening and sometimes slightly painful exercise one can do by oneself to learn a bit more about the origins of how one feels and behaves. Pick out an emotional skill or habit that you know you’re not very good at – and write it down on a sheet of paper. Here are some examples: — Staying calm — Taking pride in yourself — Trusting — Missing people who go away We often observe these traits in ourselves with a mixture of puzzlement and embarrassment. Why are we like this? Why can’t we be more normal? What’s wrong with us?” 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/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Léon Moh-Cah http://leonmohcah.com Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk

When trying to understand why we might be feeling unhappy, we tend to be drawn to reasons relatively close to home: it might have to do with friends, relationships, health, jobs, families or schedules. What we tend not to do, however, is to start talking about our place in history; it would sound overblown or plain bizarre to begin to pin a sizeable share of our difficulties to broad historical and sociological forces. FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://9qq0.short.gy/1jUScD “When trying to understand why we might be feeling unhappy, we tend to be drawn to reasons relatively close to home: it might have to do with friends, relationships, health, jobs, families or schedules. What we tend not to do, however, is to start talking about our place in history; it would sound overblown or plain bizarre to begin to pin a sizeable share of our difficulties to broad historical and sociological forces. Yet whatever role our psyches and our families and colleagues might be playing in our moods, a proper understanding of our situation cannot be complete without consideration of the highly peculiar and novel era in which we exist. We are troubled in part because we dwell in highly unbalanced times…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Gemma Green Hope https://www.gemmagreenhope.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk

The process of locating a partner to love is famously so hard, it may for a long time disguise an alternative, even more complicated reality: that whatever we claim, it would be a lot easier for us if we never found them. FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://9qq0.short.gy/OscLTV “The process of locating a partner to love is famously so hard, it may for a long time disguise an alternative, even more complicated reality: that whatever we claim, it would be a lot easier for us if we never found them. The hurdles of dating undeniably exist; that doesn’t mean that they aren’t also being gratefully used to hide - mostly from ourselves - a harder-to-mention wish to remain on our own. Consciously, we may tell ourselves that we would dearly love to land on a compatible soul. Inside, we are hard at work ensuring we won’t - and for a variety of hugely understandable reasons: - because it is simply too painful to hope. - because we have realised that we have too much talent for identifying characters who can torment us. - because we have had enough of other people’s madness and too much experience of our own; because humans may be best enjoyed from a distance.” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Deanca Rensyta https://www.deancarensyta.com/showreel Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk

Part One of this film is here: https://youtu.be/K2a79WhvmAU 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/pJzMG Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/sv0nB FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://9qq0.short.gy/sWpdRU “Emotional maturity is a state few of us ever reach - or at least not for very long. But it may help us to try to lay out what some of the ingredients are so that we have an idea what we might aim for: If we were to grow into emotionally mature people, this is some of what we would have learnt how to be: - We would strive to understand the specific ways in which our childhoods had made us crazy. We would accept that most of what we are is shaped by relatively small events that unfold before we are ten. We would find a good therapist. - We would notice the patterns. Perhaps we wouldn't need to keep trying to impress older figures of authority; or to fall in love with distant people who were involved with someone else. We would acquire a (low-resolution) map of our neuroses. - There would be a little more delay between feeling something and having to act on it. We might even at times simply observe a feeling and do nothing. - We could bear to listen. We would no longer cut across and say, ‘That reminds me of something…’ just as another person started to share their story. We would soothe our own wounded egos into silence, look warmly into their eyes and say, ‘Tell me more, this sounds so interesting…’ - Fewer people would strike us as being either very good or very bad; we would sense the struggle in everyone to keep afloat. We would judge that we were all a mixture of the good-hearted and the egoistic. We would have less of an impulse to stone wrongdoers. - We would take measures to stay pessimistic about how things turn out; we would remind ourselves on an hourly basis that all relationships are riven with pain, all business ventures are maddening, and all families are demented. We wouldn't feel so persecuted; this is how things universally are (it's just that other people carefully omit to speak about it). We would get less hopeful and - therefore - less bitter and less furious. Of course, things are often slightly disastrous, of course, we have made some terrible mistakes, of course, we have been betrayed and treated badly. It would all feel eminently and supremely normal...” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Hannah O’Brien https://www.hanobrien.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk

Part Two: https://youtu.be/TuE7uDd_kfY 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/s_nMb Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/xK6Mo FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://9qq0.short.gy/j24Tal “Emotional maturity is a state few of us ever reach - or at least not for very long. But it may help us to try to lay out what some of the ingredients are so that we have an idea what we might aim for: If we were to grow into emotionally mature people, this is some of what we would have learnt how to be: - We would understand the key role of self-understanding in helping us to grow into more reliable and predictable partners, parents, friends and colleagues. Our greatest ambition would be to reach a heightened understanding of our own minds. - We would constantly be aware of not being able to complete more than a fraction of this elevated goal and would hence be deeply cautious in all our assertions and conclusions. ‘Sorry’, ‘perhaps’ and ‘maybe’ would be some of our favourite words. - We would recognise what unfaithful allies our conscious minds are for the project of self-discovery; how much of us wants to know ourselves and how very much more doesn’t want to in the least. We would be humbled by the strength of our inclinations to distraction and denial. - We would properly realise that we were going to die and would put this terrifying thought to use on a daily basis to nudge us towards greater appreciation, authenticity and focus. It would help us to say, at points, and at last, ‘no.’ - We would realise, with considerable dark humour, that we were fools. We are idiots now, we were idiots then and we will be idiots tomorrow. There are few other options for a human being. - We would shed our pride; we would realise how much we constantly misunderstand - and never more so than when we begin to have faith in our competence and sanity. - We would acknowledge the influence of the body on the mind. We may sink into existential despair not because there is anything objectively tragic at hand, but because we are in urgent need of an orange juice or missed out on an hour of sleep. - We would respect the art of diplomacy and the importance of politeness; we would acknowledge the surprising thought that other people may be just as easily hurt as we are. - We would learn, painfully, to use language to give those around us an indication of what is at play within us. We wouldn't hold it against them that they didn't understand things we had never bothered to teach them. - We would realise how much others long for warmth and reassurance and would be less inhibited about offering those two very serious categories of gifts: cosiness and sweetness. - We would acknowledge that it was impossible to be friends with, or liked by, everyone. Attempting to please universally ultimately only leads to offending many; we would know how to disappoint frankly and quickly to avoid drawn-out appeasement. - We would feel more carefree at the idea of being strange. Public opinion would matter less, because we would have seen enough of the shallowness and reflex moralism of crowds. This would be our one life, we would know; and we would have the courage to be oddballs where we needed to be. - We would take our own boredom as a guide. Everyone else might declare it a brilliant book or an extraordinary play. We might toss it aside or walk out. This is some of what we might think and feel if we ever became those paragons of true intelligence: emotionally mature people.” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Hannah O’Brien https://www.hanobrien.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk

You’re up in the middle of the night and once again, you’re in trouble in love... 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/oIYIn Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/G8VMd FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://9qq0.short.gy/LODUbC “You’re up in the middle of the night and once again, you’re in trouble in love. You had another discussion over dinner. You tried to get them to see that sometimes because of X, you do Y and they respond with Z — and it’s unpleasant. And they countered — at first politely and then with great irritation — that even though A, you think B and that’s why C is maddening to them. Both of you tried — pretty valiantly — to get your points across with calm and kindness. Both of you managed to be more or less polite, more or less restrained, more or less grown up. And by the end of the two hour conversation, you parted in an almost affectionate way and went to sleep in different rooms…” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships SOCIAL MEDIA Feel free to follow us at the links below: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theschooloflifelondon/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife X: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Mike Booth https://www.youtube.com/user/somegreybloke Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk

One of the reasons why we tend not to make friends as often as we might comes down to a powerful background idea whose full destructive force we may not even be aware of: the belief that any decent person already has all the friends they need. 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/R0eO8 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/Cp3ox FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://9qq0.short.gy/rbdT7P “One of the reasons why we tend not to make friends as often as we might comes down to a powerful background idea whose full destructive force we may not even be aware of: the belief that any decent person already has all the friends they need. Somewhere in our minds, the notion has been lodged that only very sad and inept people would - at this stage in their lives (and by this is simply meant whatever stage one happens to be at) - still have a space in their social agenda for a new entrant. Everyone else - anyone worth knowing, anyone talented, interesting and good - would long ago have acquired the gang to which they were now continuously and irredeemably wedded…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Nicky Francis https://www.nicolajanefrancis.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk

Two of the strangest but most powerful concepts in psychology are sadism and masochism. Why do we seem to delight in inflicting suffering or, even more strangely, to take satisfaction in enduring 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/VSV_4 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/tWeS_ FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://9qq0.short.gy/x3epE8 “Two of the strangest but most powerful aspects of our psychology are drives we refer to respectively as sadism and masochism. By sadism is understood an enjoyment in causing others suffering. And by masochism, an enjoyment in receiving ill-treatment from others. Though commonly associated with sexual scenarios, these drives operate in all areas of life: at the office or in the school yard as much as in the bedroom or the dungeon. Unfortunately, much of what humans do is in the end explicable only with recourse to these two melancholy concepts…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Nicky Francis https://www.nicolajanefrancis.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk

One of the stranger but more powerful discoveries of psychotherapy is that the average baby firmly believes it has two mothers and that this belief profoundly affects our future relationships. 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/FeAfM Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/hErnn FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://9qq0.short.gy/SU3g8P “One of the stranger but more powerful discoveries of psychotherapy is that the average baby firmly believes it has two mothers. Mother 1 is kind, she comes when it calls, she gives it milk as soon as it needs it, she's sweet-natured and generous, wondrous and eminently deserving of love. But then there's another Mother, a far more challenging and terrifying proposition whom we can call Mother 2: and she sometimes doesn’t give baby milk exactly what it wants when it wants it, she occasionally fails to interpret its needs, she can misjudge the temperature of the water at bath time, she has friends who come around and distract her and a phone that rings; she gets it wrong…” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Nicky Francis https://www.nicolajanefrancis.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk

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/yD7c1 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/AFOod 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://www.theschooloflife.com/self-knowledge/ “One of the strangest and most tantalising ideas in psychotherapy is that of the ‘repetition compulsion.’ This tells us that, as a result of certain traumas that have not been properly understood and unpicked, we will be inclined to keep putting ourselves back into, and in effect re-enacting, difficult situations from the past that run counter to our emotional needs in the present…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Max de Jong https://www.maxinoodlemotion.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk

One reason why relationships are valuable is that they enable us to know ourselves better; being part of a couple can help us to understand who we are. 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/Q80f- Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/tvFiZ FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://9qq0.short.gy/vGX7Ul “One reason why relationships are valuable is that they enable us to know ourselves better; being part of a couple can help us to understand who we are. Our partners may see what we no longer can; both what is adorable and what is more perplexing and difficult. They might, for example, remind us that we’ve told that anecdote (three times) before or that purple doesn’t suit us. They can tell us that we’ve overreacted to a problem at work or that we’ve placed our trust in an envious friend. Their responses give us a chance to grow sightly less obtuse, haughty and peculiar…” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Léon Moh-Cah http://leonmohcah.com Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk

What if being lonely were actually a sign of being an interesting, emotionally sincere and thoughtful person? What if, in a world of superficial alliances, lonely was just what a more serious person tended naturally and legitimately to be? 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/v7bXI Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/uynkO FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://b4f4.short.gy/C1jggt “ How many friends do you have? Most of us would rush to think of a high number. To have to admit to having very few is - in our societies - a marker of shame and failure. But what if being lonely were actually a sign of being an interesting, emotionally sincere and thoughtful person? What if, in a world of superficial alliances, lonely was just what a more serious person tended naturally and legitimately to be? With this in mind, we might take an unusual test that seeks to explore how few friends we might actually have. “ 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Mike Booth https://www.youtube.com/user/somegreybloke Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk

We tend to get very attached to plan As. We’ll get married, move into a house near the park, work in financial services, pivot into philanthropy and then end up in a cottage by the sea painting and looking after our grandchildren. Or we’ll become a famous actor, play in a selection of thoughtful dramas about the inner life and in time move into production or, perhaps, mentorship. 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/tK4sw Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/pWmPz FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://b4f4.short.gy/dwaFTs “We tend to get very attached to plan As. We’ll get married, move into a house near the park, work in financial services, pivot into philanthropy and then end up in a cottage by the sea painting and looking after our grandchildren. Or we’ll become a famous actor, play in a selection of thoughtful dramas about the inner life and in time move into production or, perhaps, mentorship. And then life laughs and we get cancer or are fired; or say the wrong thing or declare bankruptcy or get tinnitus or go bipolar. There are around 78 major organs in the body and each one of them can go spectacularly wrong in hugely florid and rapid ways. We’re surrounded by millions of people whose aspirations are actively or passively in conflict with our own. We are acutely fragile bundles of nerves and neurons adrift in a sharp-edged random universe. The chances of something going wrong are enormous - and they will…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Gemma Green-Hope https://www.gemmagreenhope.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk

Much of the reason why we give up far too soon, fall into despair and abandon our projects is not because things are hard per se but because they are harder - far harder - than we had ever expected them to be. It isn’t necessarily difficulty that sinks us; it’s bad notions about what a noble task should legitimately demand. 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/fpJka Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/PyR7G FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://b4f4.short.gy/pjki2i “Much of the reason why we give up, fall into despair and abandon our projects is not because things are hard per se, but because they are harder – far harder – than we had ever expected them to be. It isn’t necessarily difficulty that sinks us; it’s misconceived notions of what a task should legitimately demand. We operate with recklessly inadequate views of what it might take to have a moderately good relationship, to run a more or less viable business, to have a circle of friends, to be healthy, to build a home or to achieve balance of mind. We lose our tempers, we bang whatever machine we are fiddling with, we let out screams at broken household items, mislaid keys and incompetent colleagues, because we perceive an injustice where there is in fact only an encounter with what are entirely reasonable and, were we to have investigated further, predictable degrees of pain.” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Deanca Rensyta https://www.deancarensyta.com/showreel Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk

One of the sadder symptoms of not having been treated well in childhood is a remarkable tolerance - and indeed appetite - for not being treated entirely nicely by partners in adulthood. 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/UWB_V Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/6qmTk FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://b4f4.short.gy/5nCo2d “One of the sadder symptoms of not having been treated well in childhood is a remarkable tolerance - and indeed appetite - for not being treated entirely nicely by partners in adulthood. As graduates of rocky pasts, we are at high risk of ending up recklessly passive around partners who don’t appear to have too much interest in our true needs and aspirations. Where others would read a sharp risk in such neglect, we simply sense normality. Where others would be plotting an escape, we settle in for the long term. Where others would despair of intransigence or meanness, we see every chance of being able to change a partner - so long as we keep quiet and hope…” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Deanca Rensyta https://www.deancarensyta.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk

For those prone to stress and losing their tempers, the Yoruba people of West Africa can offer a distinctive remedy: an unflappable attitude known as 'itutu'. 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/pWqHt Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/abHQY FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://b4f4.short.gy/yNBYOx 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/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife X: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Alexandra Balan https://www.sashaanimates.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk

Our new book, A Therapeutic Journey, is a collection of the very best ideas from this channel. This talk was hosted by How To Academy London’s home of big thinking. Find out more about their live programme of talks, conversations and debates with leading authors, artists, scientists and scholars at http:www.howtoacademy.com, and follow their biweekly podcast on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. 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/6SZsa Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/R8TNc 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 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/

We worry so much about lots of things that turn out never to happen... How can we stop? FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://b4f4.short.gy/RYv9Nq “We spend a lot of our lives worrying but one of the basic things we almost never remember to do is to go back and check how our worries fared against reality. For example, one week, we might be worried about running out of money; the next of being sued by a contractor at work; the third about having offended a friend, the fourth of being brought down by a rumour on social media and the fifth about leaving out something key from our tax returns. The worries go on and on, shifting relentlessly from one target to another - ruining our precious time on earth in the process. What we seldom ever get around to doing - once the event is past - is pausing to compare the scale of the worry with what actually happened in the end. We are too taken up with the next topic of alarm ever to return for a composed audit…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Léon Moh-Cah http://leonmohcah.com Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk

There are those who make it - and those who won’t. And yet it can be troublingly hard - from the outside at least - to understand why. What we can know for sure is that it won’t be about luck. FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://b4f4.short.gy/vcVLPQ “There are those who make it - and those who won’t. And yet it can be troublingly hard - from the outside at least - to understand why, even though the matter is one of the most urgent for anyone reflecting on love and their chances of succeeding at its run of complexities. What we can know for sure is that it won’t be about luck…” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Natalia Biegaj https://www.nb-animation.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk

Narcissism is one of the more misunderstood terms of our time. We’re so aware of the bad narcissist - one whose overweening pride leaves them no room for empathy or kindness - that we are at risk of missing the central role that narcissism should play in the development of any healthy human. 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/K5xjN Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/k-X_x FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://b4f4.short.gy/pClwtf “Narcissism is one of the more misunderstood terms of our time. We’re so aware of the bad narcissist - one whose overweening pride leaves them no room for empathy or kindness - that we are at risk of missing the central role that narcissism should play in the development of any healthy human. None of us is able to thrive without a chance to deeply like ourselves. As psychotherapy recognises, we universally require a dose of what is termed ‘healthy narcissism’, a sense of our lovability and rightful place in the world bequeathed to us…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Léon Moh-Cah http://leonmohcah.com Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk

We’re likely to try out many sorts of lives before we land, finally, on the quiet variety. 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/yQBuw Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/-uh5I FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://b4f4.short.gy/nvZMUM “We’re likely to try out many sorts of lives before we land, finally, on the quiet variety. Rarely does anyone start there, the kind of life where we try to be in bed by ten and are intensely grateful when nothing has gone dramatically wrong in the preceding hours. First we might try out the life of fame, the sort where we dream that someone will stop us in a shop or train station and say, ‘Aren’t you…?’ or ‘Don’t I know you from…’” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Mike Booth https://www.youtube.com/somegreybloke Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk

One of the most peculiar ideas of psychology is that trauma may end up ‘in the body.’ We can understand that a difficult event might be lodged somewhere in the mind - but how, and by what mechanism, might a trauma get remembered or stuck in our physical selves? Can a kidney ‘remember’ a sorrow? Can a wrist or a femur hold on to the memory of a punitive parent or a painful divorce? 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/bFVj8 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/pbujb 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://b4f4.short.gy/Q5DF4U “One of the most peculiar ideas of psychology is that trauma may end up ‘in the body.’ We can understand that a difficult event might be lodged somewhere in the mind - but how, and by what mechanism, might a trauma get remembered or stuck in our physical selves? Can a kidney ‘remember’ a sorrow? Can a wrist or a femur hold on to the memory of a punitive parent or a painful divorce? But mind and body are not impermeable entities; much traffic flows between them. When we are sad, some of the grief in our minds may well find a home in our shoulders; when we are terrified, some of the fear from our imaginations can grip onto our lower vertebrae…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Jesse Collet https://www.jessecollett.co.uk/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk

We regularly get into difficulties in love because we refuse to accept how much reassurance and stroking we need from the person we love. We imagine we’re grown up, we don’t want to countenance how fragile and easily wounded we might be, we don’t want to see the always susceptible and sensitive child beneath the impressive adult… 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/Zk7W_ Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/Ko8nb FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://9qq0.short.gy/BFuR8G “We regularly get into difficulties in love because we refuse to accept how much reassurance and stroking we need from the person we love. We imagine we’re grown up, we don’t want to countenance how fragile and easily wounded we might be, we don’t want to see the always susceptible and sensitive child beneath the impressive adult. And so, in the face of ‘small things’ that have undeniably hurt us (a missing warm comment here, a lack of touch there), we go numb instead, we silently and swiftly pull up the drawbridge, we unconsciously prepare to recriminate, we tell ourselves that we have a lot of work to do and should spend more time by ourselves. The last thing we can acknowledge is that we might be sad, confused and secretly furious…” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Mike Booth https://www.youtube.com/user/somegreybloke Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk

Francisco Goya was both one of the greatest artists of his age - and manic depressive. His work has much to teach us about how to handle our fragility and anxiety. 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/GVmNj Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/NCEUz FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://9qq0.short.gy/ebw7CO “The Spanish painter Francisco Goya is one of the outstanding artists of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Born into a middle-class family in 1746, in Fuendetodos in Aragon, he began painting young and was quickly recognised by his contemporaries for his genius. We acclaim him today for, among other works, his masterpieces, The Third of May 1808, his portrait of Charles IV and his family — as well as his series of unflinching prints, The Disasters of War. However, his most emotionally compelling work is a print he made in 1799, titled — hauntingly and evocatively — The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters…” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on ART and ARCHITECTURE in our playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwxNMb28Xmpcp7jXVszdNruKUtHZ2zuZb 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 Produced in collaboration with: Gemma Hope Green https://www.gemmagreenhope.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk

It can take a very long time indeed to work up the courage to be simple. FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://www.theschooloflife.com/article/daring-to-be-simple/ “It can take a very long time indeed to work up the courage to be simple: to read simple books, to wear simple clothes, to have simple days and to say simple things. For a long time, all the advantages and glamour seem to lie with complexity. We are pulled towards rare and hard-to-follow ideas; we entertain our friends with elaborate meals; we pursue convoluted relationships; we have careers that enmesh us in cumbersome commitments; we fill our leisure hours with exotic hobbies…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Motion Maverick Ltd https://www.motionmaverick.com/ https://www.instagram.com/motionmaverick/

It’s often said that no one can ever really say what a good relationship is, let alone draw up a checklist for a prospective one. We politely disagree… 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/lqRVO Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/s9P4- FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://9qq0.short.gy/PKUS7i “It’s often said that no one can ever really say what a good relationship is, let alone draw up a checklist for a prospective one. We politely disagree: 1. Pick someone you feel profoundly grateful ever decided to look your way. Start from a sense that you are the lucky one - and that they are superior (the truth is irrelevant). 2. Make sure you fancy them. Check out that you have compatible areas of perversion - and little interest being normal in bed. 3. Allow yourselves both to admit, from an early stage, that you are ‘mad’; heavily distorted by your pasts, unable to understand yourselves, prone to irrational assumptions - and unsteady in your assessments of reality. 4. Make apology the most regular of occurrences. Say sorry about everything all the time and reduce the price of an admission to almost zero. 5. Remove all pride from your character. You were an idiot then, you are an idiot now, you will be an idiot tomorrow. There’s no other option for a human being. Make jokes. 6. Regularly explore how you have disappointed one another. Let them sometimes hate you and you them. Don’t be frightened by anger moderately expressed. The enemy of love is stifled emotion, not maturely explored authenticity. Listen very carefully when they tell you how they feel. 7. Never describe them categorically as this or that (insulting trait). Only ever say: I feel you are this or that… Observe the difference. 8. Get good at sensing the fear beneath your angry moods, then express the fear gently rather than acting out the anger. 9. Reduce expectations of perfection. It’s going to get horrible at times. Allow for major frustrations. You will want to kill them and they you. Don’t. 10. Accept you will have crushes on others. Let them wash over you - and, if the mood is right, share them with the partner. 11. If there are children, recognise that love will suffer hugely. Look forward to properly picking up the baton again in 15 years. 12. Become the sort of person who has no embarrassment about being ‘needy.’ Accept the child in you and look after their needs in the relationship. 13. Read up about attachment theory - and keep the concepts close at hand. 14. Stop being defensive; stop needing to maintain a proud hold on your own dignity. Laugh continually at your foolishness - and apologise for it. 15. Accept that they can’t save you from your own disturbances. Try to be happy in yourself and if you are not, don’t redirect the blame. Observe how often your rocky patches are projected versions of your own life crises. Get a therapist. 16. Don’t expect everything from love. 17. Be very prepared (though reluctant) to leave. Remain out of choice, never desperation. “ MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Hannah O'brien https://www.hanobrien.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk

What is a Transcendental experience and how can it benefit us? FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://www.theschooloflife.com/article/what-is-a-transcendental-experience/ “A ‘transcendental experience’ – from the Latin transcendere, meaning ‘to go beyond’ – denotes a brief, uncommon, ecstatic and revelatory period in which we are able to loosen our hold on our characteristically narrow ego-specific concerns and can identify with a totality that is larger, older, greater and deeper than we are – and feel intensely unburdened and liberated thereby…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Deanca Rensyta https://www.deancarensyta.com/showreel Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk

Unfortunately, we go around the world with scripts in our minds. That is to say collections of expectations about how events will unfold and how we should best respond to them. These tell us a lot about our pasts, but the tragedy is that, unaware they exist, we let them determine our futures. 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/B9BaM Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/r50Gu 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://9qq0.short.gy/mvsDdO 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Aaron Sampson https://www.motionmaverick.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk

How can we prevent damage in our relationships? To start with we can regularly ask our partners two ostensibly simple yet hugely central and effective questions… 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/843mW Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/GMpyM FURTHER READING You can read more on this here: https://9qq0.short.gy/ys7oSs “Relationships get damaged; every day brings with it small challenges - disappointments, frustrations, and irritations - that can come between even the most committed lovers and subtly wear away at the sincerity of their connection. To prevent the risks, lovers should regularly make room to ask themselves - in a calm spirit of gentle openness and curiosity - two ostensibly simple yet hugely central and effective questions: What are you angry with me about? How have I scared you recently?” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships SOCIAL MEDIA Feel free to follow us at the links below: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theschooloflifelondon/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Gemma Green-Hope http://www.gemmagreenhope.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk

We believe ourselves to be original at every turn while in fact we’re more commonly found rehearsing almost identical patterns in our choices and behaviors. 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/VZs6s Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/bakB8 FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://9qq0.short.gy/QazafT “It sounds odd to say that we might be locked within a story. What might this curious expression mean? Chiefly that we keep unknowingly repeating dynamics that go in very particular - and not especially pleasant - directions. We’re involved in stories of defeat, humiliation, suffering, fear and loneliness, believing ourselves to be original at every turn while in fact rehearsing almost identical patterns in our choices and behaviours. And we probably do this in two areas above all: our working lives and our love lives…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Reflective Films https://www.reflectivefilms.co.uk/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk

A general principle of mental health is that the less we are able to express, the more unwell we get it. Our spirits can lighten and our horizons expand once we can find a way to lend outward form to our pains. 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/WeuWe Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/E3-I9 FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://9qq0.short.gy/yMFjhk “A general principle of mental health is that the less we are able to express, the more unwell we get it. It’s when we have to stifle our rage, sadness or fear that we start to develop secondary symptoms (sleeplessness, paranoia, bitterness, poor digestion); just as our spirits can lighten, and our horizons expand, once we can find a way to lend outward form to our pains…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Cara Watson https://cara-watson.com/Animation Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk

Relationships suffer from a fundamental tension between the desire to be honest and the fear of being abandoned. We go into relationships in order to be ‘ourselves’ but were we to really be entirely ourselves, there is a high risk we would be left. Could silence be the price we have to pay for companionship? Or is there another way? 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/ctA55 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/MqJRS FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://9qq0.short.gy/2YF8kv “Relationships suffer from a fundamental tension between the desire to be honest and the fear of being abandoned. We go into relationships in order to be ‘ourselves’ but were we to really be entirely ourselves, there is a high risk we would be left. Silence seems the price we have to pay for companionship. However much we may claim to be open minded, very few of us genuinely make room for another’s complexity in so far as we are its targets. We say they can ‘tell us anything’ but in practice the topics any of us are really prepared to listen to is small - and lovers unconsciously mutually know it. Tell me who you really are - just leave out most of the details…” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Léon Moh-Cah https://nananastudio.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk

James Baldwin was a great African-American writer who understood the meaning of freedom. His work and life give us a guide to how to escape our narrow societies. 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/ifrUe Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/EDd8g FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://www.theschooloflife.com/article/james-baldwin/ “James Baldwin was a novelist, essayist and activist whose writings on racism and the idea of self-acceptance in 20th century America challenged readers to investigate their innermost thoughts and beliefs…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Mike Booth https://www.youtube.com/@somegreybloke Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk

An unexpected and troublesome feature of being human is that we feel so much more than we spontaneously realise we feel. There are emotions coursing through us - of anger or joy, resentment or fear - that lie just outside the sphere of ordinary consciousness and that elude us as we rush through the challenges of our lives. 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/xz3uZ Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/2w0fq FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://9qq0.short.gy/qVcZ2P “An unexpected and troublesome feature of being human is that we feel so much more than we spontaneously realise we feel. There are emotions coursing through us — of anger or joy, resentment or fear — that lie just outside the sphere of ordinary consciousness, and which elude us as we rush through the challenges of our lives. These emotions lie low in part because they are often too shocking, sad or contrary to expectations for us to want to make sense of them. We might hate where we are supposed to love; or may feel sad where we are meant to be practical — and so, out of timidity and fear, we omit to register our authentic reality. Or else our feelings get ignored because they enter our minds too fast, and in too great a quantity for us to disentangle them in the limited time we devote to self-understanding…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Na Na Na Studio https://nananastudio.com/ Léon Moh-Cah http://leonmohcah.com Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk

When relationships start, enthusiasm for our partners is typically natural and intense. We think of them constantly, we want only to spend more time in their company, we delight in their many skills and accomplishments: but this early phase of powerful admiration and longing rarely lasts. The world often explains this cooling as an inevitable result of sheer exposure. It is, they say, typical to neglect what is always around. But the true reasons seem more complicated, more psychologically rich and, in their own way, a lot more hopeful. 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/yTaqZ Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/CzsDD FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://9qq0.short.gy/Izy3Md MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Deanca Rensyta https://www.deancarensyta.com/about Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk

We don't have to be Hindus to admire the imaginative way in which the religion seeks to align its teachings with the particular demands we face across time. 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/ltnWQ Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/jbAQ7 FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://admin1.hopp.to/Article “Most world religions and philosophies make the cardinal error of supposing that what they see as the meaning of life should — by virtue of its importance — apply to everyone, irrespective of age, circumstance or position. So proud are they of their insight into existence, they can’t help but accord it universal and dogmatic application. Hinduism is a great deal more supple and imaginative. It too has a sense of how a good life should be lived, but crucially, it never assumes that the rules should apply across the board. It cuts up populations into segments — and differentiates right conduct according to four life stages collectively called ‘ashramas.’...” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on EASTERN PHILOSOPHY in our playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwxNMb28XmpeUL1vz9Su7OmeghBDgmj7X 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 Produced in collaboration with: Reflective Films https://www.reflectivefilms.co.uk/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk

Our 3am awakenings are signs that we have not been doing the sort of self-reflection we need to do in order to be at – or sleep in – peace. 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/MLPI_ Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/1oA-G FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/42Z1bDR “Sometimes we have simply had too much coffee, or the bedroom is too hot…but most often, insomnia is psychological. It is the mind’s revenge for all the efforts we have, largely unbeknownst to us, been making not to have certain thoughts in the day. We are being woken up by a need to think about something that we have assiduously been ignoring, probably thanks to our work, or our social and family commitments. Having attempted to get our attention by more normal means in the clamour of the day, our deep minds are now trying to get us to have an appointment with certain insights in the quieter hours of night…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Mike Booth https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCbQk_s7ZmvUZ3MqilVcdLg Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk

Taking the time to start a small chat with a stranger might be more consequential than it seems. It may even play a part in changing the world. 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/gcwuj Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/wlSZ0 FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3VMWVFb “Taking time to have small chats about nothing in particular with people we don’t know and are unlikely ever to meet again can — from some perspectives — seem like the height of absurdity. Maybe we’re in a coffee shop and someone is preparing us a drink. Perhaps we’ve crossed a neighbour in the hallway while getting our post. Or we’re on a train, waiting for the doors to open. Why would we bother to hold up our day for a few moments, given how many things we already need to do and how many good friends we have that we haven’t seen in far too long? We may also have a more high minded defence for our silence: we aspire to be profound people and there is no way that we can get anywhere meaningful with a near or complete stranger in a compressed amount of time. We shun the smaller chats because — in the back of our minds — we tell ourselves that we are already sufficiently deeply committed to the long and consequential ones…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Natalia Beigaj https://www.nb-animation.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk

Every parent offers their child one of three possible answers to the question ‘what do I need to be loved?’ This answer will shape not just their earliest years, but the course of their adult lives. FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/41PS8F3 “The moment babies are born, their minds are dominated by a powerful implicit question: What do I need to do in order to be loved? We have to remember that babies are entirely at the mercy of the prevailing environment, and therefore, knowing what exactly the people in this environment want from them in exchange for keeping them alive is central to their very survival. Furthermore, how the question is answered will shape their entire personality and sense of adult priorities; who we are is predominantly the result of what we needed to do to capture and sustain the interest of the people who put us on the earth…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Léon Moh-Cah Na Na Na Studio https://nananastudio.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Graeme Probert www.gpmotion.co.uk

The triggers for addictive behaviours are always rooted in painful, self-critical emotions. 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/0vGhl Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/M0QxW FURTHER READING “Many of us are prey to addictive behaviours which we know run contrary to our deeper interests but which we find ourselves entirely unable to desist from at key moments. Let’s pick three of these: — Bulimia — Porn addiction — Alcoholism We will appreciate, as soon as we come out of the tunnel of addiction, that we have neglected our interests and harmed ourselves. And yet we are at a loss as to what we might do. What, if anything, could help? One kind of answer is this: we should try to notice when the desire to regurgitate food or watch porn or drink strikes us. Though this might sound strange, those in the grip of addictions seldom do notice. They don’t pay much attention to what has immediately happened before their desires strike; it doesn’t occur to them that anything has…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Provincia Studio https://www.youtube.com/c/ProvinciaStudio Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

One of the most significant discoveries of the early 20th century was of a part of the mind we now refer to as ‘the unconscious.’ It came to be properly appreciated that what we know of ourselves in ordinary consciousness comprises only a fraction of what is actually at play within us; and that a lot of what we really want, feel and are is not at our mental fingertips, lying instead in a penumbra of ignorance, fantasy and denial which we can only hope to dispel with patient and compassionate efforts, probably with the assistance of an analyst. Carl Jung's Word Association Test - included below - is a tool designed to help us access the unconscious. It comproises a sequence of a 100 words. Say the very first thing that comes into your head in response to the following prompts. Then reflect on your answers and see whether any material surfaces that feels valuable but outside of the reach of your ordinary thoughts: 1. head 2. green 3. water 4. to sing 5. dead 6. long 7. ship 8. to pay 9. window 10. friendly 11. to cook 12. to ask 13. cold 14. stem 15. to dance 16. village 17. lake 18. sick 19. pride 20. to cook 21. ink 22. angry 23. needle 24. to swim 25. voyage 26. blue 27. lamp 28. to sin 29. bread 30. rich 31. tree 32. to prick 33. pity 34. yellow 35. mountain 36. to die 37. salt 38. new 39. custom 40. to pray 41. money 42. foolish 43. pamphlet 44. despise 45. finger 46. expensive 47. bird 48. to fall 49. book 50. unjust 51 frog 52. to part 53. hunger 54. white 55. child 56. to take care 57. lead pencil 58. sad 59. plum 60. to marry 61. house 62. dear 63. glass 64. to quarrel 65. fur 66. big 67. carrot 68. to paint 69. part 70. old 71. flower 72. to beat 73. box 74. wild 75. family 76. to wash 77. cow 78. friend 79. luck 80. lie 81. deportment 82. narrow 83. brother 84. to fear 85. stork 86. false 87. anxiety 88. to kiss 89. bride 90. pure 91. door 92. to choose 93. hay 94. contented 95. ridicule 96. to sleep 97. month 98. nice 99. woman 100. to abuse 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/3UKty5H “One of the most significant discoveries of the early 20th century was of a part of the mind we now refer to as ‘the unconscious.’ It came to be properly appreciated that what we know of ourselves in ordinary consciousness comprises only a fraction of what is actually at play within us; and that a lot of what we really want, feel and are is not at our mental fingertips, lying instead in a penumbra of ignorance, fantasy and denial which we can only hope to dispel with patient and compassionate efforts, probably with the assistance of an analyst. Sigmund Freud’s The Interpretation of Dreams, first published in Vienna in 1900, was the landmark study of the workings of this unconscious region, and detailed the mind’s relentless attempts to hide a great many of its most salient truths from itself in the form of dreams - which might shock, disturb or excite us while they unfolded but would then be deliberately forgotten or misunderstood upon our waking…” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on PSYCHOTHERAPY in our playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwxNMb28XmpcpxBm1RoGRx4mVKNRIrKkG 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 Produced in collaboration with: Reflective films https://www.reflectivefilms.co.uk/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

In contact with given challenges, we leave behind our adult faculties and slip very quickly into a child-like spectrum marked by panic, rage, despair, terror and appeasement. The specific occasions that shift us from adult to child can serve as an individual guide to our own traumas… FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3KUmwrM “Sometimes at moments of particular stress, one adult will turn to another and say: ‘Stop behaving like a child.’ Or even, ‘Act your age.’ This isn’t merely rude - though it might be that too. In contact with given challenges, we revert back to an earlier stage in our development. We leave behind our adult faculties, the ones associated with reason, logic, calm, strength, forbearance and perspective, and slip very quickly into a child-like spectrum marked by panic, rage, despair, terror and appeasement. The specific occasions that shift us from adult to child are an individual guide to our own traumas…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Natalia Biegaj https://www.nb-animation.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

No animal, perhaps, can hate itself except - of course - a human being: it’s one of the strangest, and most regrettable, flaws in our condition. This tendency to self-hatred is not only destructive of our spirit, it constantly undermines our efforts to establish workable relationships. 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/l5ch7 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/-ktXc FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3nLEUKp “No animal, perhaps, can hate itself except - of course - a human being: it’s one of the strangest, and most regrettable, flaws in our condition. This tendency to self-hatred is not only destructive of our spirit, it constantly undermines our efforts to establish workable relationships, for it is logically impossible to allow anyone else to love us insofar as we remain obsessed by the thought of our own loathsome natures. Why let another think better of us than we think of ourselves? If anyone did step forward and tried to be kind to us, we would have to despise them with the intensity owed to all false flatterers…” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Aaron Sampson https://www.motionmaverick.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

It feels natural, at times, to lament how boring our lives are. We do the same things each week, nothing special or exciting ever seems to happen. We enviously compare our dull routines to the adventures of others. An antidote to our sense of tedium can be found a thousand years ago in the work of Sei Shonagon, a lady-in-waiting at the Imperial Place in Kyoto. FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3Jp2kh7 “It feels natural, at times, to lament how boring our lives are. We do the same sorts of things each week, nothing special or exciting ever seems to happen. We enviously compare our dull routines to the adventures of others. An antidote to our sense of tedium can be found in the work of Sei Shonagon. Around a thousand years ago, she kept a journal of the decade or so she spent as a lady-in-waiting at the Imperial Place in Kyoto, then the capital of Japan. Despise the high-status of her job, her daily life was, externally, deeply uneventful: an afternoon’s carriage ride outside the walls of the court compound might be the highlight of a year; a day trip to hear a sermon in a temple seems to have been the farthest extent of her travels; she spent all most all of her time indoors, in just two or three rooms; she saw the same few people month after month; her work largely involved keeping respectfully silent, knowing when to bow and remembering the complex titles of various officials…” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on EASTERN PHILOSOPHY in our playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwxNMb28XmpeUL1vz9Su7OmeghBDgmj7X 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 Produced in collaboration with: Zedem Media https://zedemanimations.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

One of the stranger but more useful suggestions of psychotherapy - and in particular, a branch of it known as Transactional Analysis - is that all of us contain within ourselves three essential personalities… 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/QCbPJ Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/2ibnM FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3JDoA5K “One of the stranger but more useful suggestions of psychotherapy — and in particular, a branch of it known as Transactional Analysis — is that all of us contain within ourselves three essential personalities: — a child — a parent — and an adult” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Aimee Sumo https://www.instagram.com/aimeesumo/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

All of us have over the years made efforts to become adults, it can be at once grating and dispiriting to be told that there might, nevertheless, be an ‘inner child’ still lodged somewhere within us, holding us back. 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/GVIZL Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/D7hjI FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3JFHf1M “One of the more consistently confronting and at times embarrassing concepts that psychology forces us to consider is that of an ‘inner child.’ All of us have along the years made such efforts to become adults, it can be at once grating and dispiriting to be told that there might, nevertheless, be an ‘inner child’ still lodged somewhere within us. But in truth, we contain within ourselves a version of all the people we have ever been. There is, in recessive form, somewhere in the folds of our natures, a confused teenager, a sad child, a jealous or hungry infant. No version of us entirely disappears, it is merely added to and buttressed, just like an oak tree that still contains, in its rings, the marks of all its former circumferences…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: ttps://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Deanca Renysata https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNIAeV1uBPI Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

We can spend a lot of time in committed relationships wondering, maybe with a fair amount of anxiety: do they love me? Might it all suddenly end? But perhaps less time asking the more salient question: what can I do to help this valued relationship endure? 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/3SqSl Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/Vd0Kn FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3JmGkDi “We can spend a lot of time in relationships to which we are ostensibly committed wondering, maybe with a fair amount of anxiety: do they love me? Is this solid? Might it all suddenly end? But perhaps less time asking the more salient question: what can I do to help this valued relationship endure?” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Gemma Green-Hope http://www.gemmagreenhope.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

We can state the matter starkly: we cannot be good lovers if we don’t know how to be vulnerable. 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/bSkGU Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/Qgzdn FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3ZviHhi “We can state the matter starkly: we cannot be good lovers if we don’t know how to be vulnerable. We make ourselves psychologically vulnerable whenever we let a partner know some of the ways in which we are weak, needy, scared, immature, incompetent or just plain odd - that is, some of the ways in which we are human. To be vulnerable is to dare to take off the usual cloak of normality and sensibleness with which we navigate the world and for once, to show someone who we really are, with all the fragility and unusualness implied. We might, as vulnerable people, admit to a desire to be mummied or daddied, to curl into a ball, to cry over a so-called small thing, to be reassured about an apparently minor flaw, to call up our lover every ten minutes, to suffer from anxiety or paranoia, to speak in a regressive voice or to hug a favourite stuffed animal…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: ttps://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Aaron Sampson https://www.motionmaverick.com https://www.instagram.com/motionmaverick/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

Almost inevitably, somewhere along the path of our friendships, we are fated to stumble upon one of the most paradoxical yet universal of characters: the envious friend. The situation is as wounding as it is uncharted. How are we to cope? Can this be happening to us? 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/fYYxl Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/D27mh FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3SiD8vv “Almost inevitably, somewhere along the path of our friendships, we are fated to stumble upon one of the most paradoxical yet universal of characters: the envious friend. At one level, this person is kind, sympathises with us in our sorrows and believes that they want the best for us. Yet, despite such salutary affections, we may not be able to overlook some more troubling dynamics shimmering beneath the surface: - when we invite them for dinner, they repeatedly ‘forget’ to say thank you. - when we have a new partner, they don't appear overly pleased - when we get a new job, they don’t ask us a single question about how its going. The situation is as wounding as it is uncharted. How are we to cope? Can this be happening to us? A few ways forward suggest themselves…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Keegan hill Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

In 1888, a penniless Dutchman, who would in a few months be committed to an asylum and be dead within two years, sat down in the eastern corner of the Place du Forum in Arles and set to work on one of the most astonishing and beloved paintings ever made. The story is so familiar that we are apt to lose sight of its ongoing relevance and universal import… 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/8vsZk Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/Y8G-N FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3YQYvpD “In mid-September 1888, a penniless Dutchman, who would in a few months be committed to an asylum and be dead within two years, sat down in the eastern corner of the Place du Forum in Arles and set to work on one of the most astonishing and beloved paintings ever made. ‘Café Terrace at Night’ juxtaposes our snug night time rituals under our defiant man-made lamps with the ultimate mysteries and sublimity of the cosmos. And yet, as we know, Van Gogh found no buyers for his masterpiece; no museum came begging, no gallery gave a damn. His work appeared wholly worthless to his entire era. He could barely afford lunch or a new pair of shoes. The local children mocked him. Rarely has a more despised or marginal figure walked the earth…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Natalia Beigaj https://www.nb-animation.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

It’s an enormous privilege to have an adolescence - and, to an extent rarely spoken about, not everyone gets the chance to have one. Adolescence isn’t just a particular time of one’s second decade, and it won’t unfold automatically simply when one reaches fourteen or seventeen and three quarters. Adolescence properly understood is a state in which we’re able to explore - with courage and newfound independence - who we might be outside of the projections and mental dictates placed upon us by our parents… 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/778FG Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/RzrdS FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3llb7qL “It’s an enormous privilege to have an adolescence - and, to an extent rarely spoken about, not everyone gets the chance to have one. Adolescence isn’t just a particular time of one’s second decade, and it won’t unfold automatically simply when one reaches fourteen or seventeen and three quarters. Adolescence properly understood is a state in which we’re able to explore - with courage and newfound independence - who we might be outside of the projections and mental dictates placed upon us with enormous ingenuity and great force by our parents. Parents are the greatest propagandists that any of us will ever meet with - and part of their genius is that we rarely know what they are up to. Below the surface they are engaged in a ruthless and ongoing attempt to sell us a version of reality: to tell us what we are ‘really’ like, what we actually need, what life is truly about - and who they have been and what their motives are. It goes without saying that some of their ideas will be eminently correct but the function of adolescence is to take a good long look at, and deal with, the ones that aren’t…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Cara Watson https://cara-watson.com/Animation Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

If we had to make one generalisation about why relationships fail, it would be this: because of defensiveness. Defensiveness is behind a predominant share of the failure of all relationships. The difficulty is that there appears to be no way of escaping the sort of situations that can trigger defensiveness… 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/zY1V6 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/JNCwF FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3HLjeW6 “If we had to make one generalisation about why relationships fail, it would be this: because of defensiveness. Defensiveness is behind the lion’s share of the failure of all relationships. The difficulty is that there is no way of escaping the sort of situations that can trigger a defensive response…” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Richard Foster http://www.madebyrichfoster.com Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

The news is often determined to tell us that we live in uniquely critical times, beset by political disasters and afflicted by terrible crises and that the demise of human civilisation is surely imminent. We are encouraged to view the world - and our own lives - in bleak, apocalyptic terms. Oddly, as the great 18th century historian Edward Gibbon shows us, history can be powerfully consoling, not because it tells us that our times are great, but because it shows us how normal large societal troubles really are. 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/SSYin Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/Uxamv FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3Jf9cxU “The news is often determined to tell us that we live in uniquely critical times, beset by political disasters and afflicted by terrible crises and that the demise of human civilisation is surely imminent. We are encouraged to view the world - and our own lives - in bleak, apocalyptic terms. Oddly, history can be powerfully consoling, not because it tells us that our times are great, but because it shows us how normal large societal troubles really are. The English 18th century historian Edward Gibbon is particularly helpful with this task of bringing us to a less frightened perspective. His massive, elegantly written work covers 1500 years, from the pinnacle of Roman power around the year 180 AD, through the collapse of the Western Empire to the final fall of its last outpost, the city of Constantinople, in 1453. Gibbon started work on the series of volumes around 1770 and completed the final volume on a summer’s evening in 1787 while he was on holiday in Switzerland…” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on LITERATURE in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLliterature 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 Produced in collaboration with: Tracy Wedderburn tj-tracyfoster.squarespace.com Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

#parents #bullying #childhood One of the strangest and saddest phenomena of psychological life is that there are parents, too many parents, who end up - while sometimes only half realising it - bullying their own children. The bullying may take many forms. Why do parents bully their children? 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/m7yhW Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/WvVmK FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3HdP79F “One of the strangest and saddest phenomena of psychological life is that there are parents, too many parents, who end up - while sometimes only half realising it - bullying their own children. The bullying may take many forms. Why do parents bully their children? In short, in order to try to feel better about themselves. Because they suffer intensely in the very same area that they are bullying their child in. If we, as children, want to know what our parents were afraid of or haunted by, we only need to ask: in what areas did they bully me? What did they make me feel scared or inadequate about? Someone made them feel awful and they surmise - by twisted logic - that they will feel better through the process of making their own child feel very bad indeed; they aren’t doing it personally, the child is collateral damage to a misguided project of healing and attenuation of symptoms. It doesn’t make any sense of course, but it may actually work for the parent, for a time.” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Mike Booth Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

One of the most important preconditions of a good relationship is a satisfactory perspective on being single. The more we are happy to be on our own, the more we will be able to exercise the correct degree of caution around finding a new companion. Discover why the bedrock of true love is happy singledom. 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/RQtr4 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/FmIrY FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3ipyvCp “One of the most important preconditions of a good relationship is a satisfactory perspective on being single. The more we are happy to be on our own, the more we will be able to exercise the correct degree of caution around finding a new companion. The bedrock of true love is happy singledom. Yet our societies do very little to help us to be calm or at ease in our own company. Singledom is framed as an involuntary, depressing and always hopefully temporary state…” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Na Na Na Studio http://nananastudio.com Leon Moh-Cah http://leonmohcah.com Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

The most unexpectedly uplifting and consoling artist of the 20th century was the abstract painter Mark Rothko, the high priest of grief and loss who spent the latter part of his career turning out a succession of sublime and sombre canvases that spoke, as he put it, of the ‘tragedy of being human’. 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/2UO2j Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/8yZbf FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3QcGoaA “The most unexpectedly uplifting and consoling artist of the 20th century was the abstract painter Mark Rothko, the high priest of grief and loss who spent the latter part of his career turning out a succession of sublime and sombre canvases that spoke, as he put it, of the ‘tragedy of being human’ — and who, in 1970, ended his own life at the age of 66 in his studio in New York. Born in Dvinsk, Russia, Rothko emigrated to the United States at the age of ten and immediately grew to despise the aggressive good cheer and steely optimism of his adopted land. Appalled by the sentimentality around him, he learnt to make art that was insular, unrelenting, sombre and oriented towards pain. It was, one critic said, the visual equivalent of a condemned prisoner’s last gasp. Rothko’s favourite colours were a burnt burgundy, dark grey, pitch black and blood red, occasionally, alleviated by a sliver of yellow…” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on ART/ARCHITECTURE in our playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwxNMb28Xmpcp7jXVszdNruKUtHZ2zuZb 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 Produced in collaboration with: Diego Londeiros https://thebrightagency.com/uk/animation/artists/diego-lodeiros?collection=gifs Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

There’s a strange law of psychology that reveals that small children who are treated badly by their parents will always — rather strangely — blame themselves, and not their parents, for their injuries. 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/vW0GJ Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/LSCyA FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3jt2Akt “There’s a strange law of psychology that reveals that small children who are treated badly by their parents will always — rather strangely — blame themselves, and not their parents, for their injuries. They hate who they are rather than hating those who have done them wrong…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Julia Marchowska https://www.juliamarchowska.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

A film on the poem 'Ithaka' by the Greek-Egyptian poet Constantine Cavafy. We spend much of our lives trying to fulfill our distant ambitions: wanting to create the circumstances in which, finally, we’ll be happy. It’s an enchanting idea but, ironically, it means that most of the time we’re restless because we’re not there yet. The present is just the tedious, dreary period we have to get through until, in the future, we can relax and enjoy ourselves. Ithaka shows us there is another way. 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/ZDXkk Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/gSi6s FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3YQHpJw MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on LITERATURE in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLliterature 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 Produced in collaboration with: Reflective Films https://www.reflectivefilms.co.uk Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

In relationships, whatever our professed scepticism, we frequently proceed as if mind reading were not only possible but a standard requirement and possibility in love, something of whose absence we would have every right to complain with bitterness and surprise. 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/2-Ctp Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/jRTLS FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://www.theschooloflife.com/article/why-you-cant-read-your-partners-mind/ “Of course, most of us don’t officially have the slightest belief in mind reading. We scoff at the absurd idea that we might telepathically know what number between one and a million a stranger is thinking of, or that we could place our hands on someone else’s skull and thereby intuit the precise details of what they dreamt of last night. But in relationships, whatever our professed scepticism, we very frequently proceed as if mind reading were not only possible but a standard requirement and possibility in love, something of whose absence we would have every right to complain with bitterness and surprise…” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Julia Marchowska http://www.juliamarchowska.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time is one of the longest novels ever written. It's very beautiful - and in a way a little boring too. This is for all those among us who suffer from insomnia - to send you into the best kind of sleep. 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/x_BXO Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/bm0TO FURTHER READING You can read more on Marcel Proust and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3BfONDS “Marcel Proust was an early 20th-century French writer responsible for what is officially the longest novel in the world: À la recherche du temps perdu – which has 1,267,069 words in it; double those in War and Peace. The book was published in French in seven volumes over 14 years: Du côté de chez Swann, 1913 À l’ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs, 1919 Le Côté de Guermantes, 1920 Sodome et Gomorrhe, 1922 La Prisonnière, 1923 Albertine disparue, 1925 Le Temps retrouvé, 1927 It was immediately recognised to be a masterpiece, ranked by many as the greatest novel of the century, or simply of all time.” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on LITERATURE in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLliterature 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 Produced in collaboration with: Diego Lodeiros https://thebrightagency.com/uk/animation/artists/diego-lodeiros Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

The concept of being triggered, though it may at times be overused, sits on top of a hugely important concept in psychological life. One moment we are calm, the next we are catapulted into despair and terror. It may be important to know how to be scared or incensed when situations actually demand it, but it is also deeply counterproductive to be visited by powerful emotions that aren’t warranted by what lies before us and that fail to advance our interests in any way. 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/b1AiN Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/XZ7BB FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3gKKwRU “The phenomenon of being ‘triggered’ — though it may, at times, be applied too liberally — sits on top of a hugely important concept in psychological life which demands our respect, compassion and attention. To be triggered is, in its most basic form, to respond with intense fear and anger to a situation in the here and now which, to other people, may seem blameless and unconcerning. One moment we are calm, the next we are catapulted into despair and terror; only minutes ago, the future looked hopeful, now only ruin and disaster seem to lie ahead…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Adriana Monteforte https://adrianamonteforte.myportfolio.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

How to win friends and influence people is the title of possibly the most famous book of the twentieth century. It is also one of the books most routinely ridiculed by people who think they are clever. But are they right? Or should you pay keen attention to its teachings? 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/mlg05 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/FFjrG FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3OplSCS “How to Win Friends and Influence People is the title of possibly the most famous book of the twentieth century. It is also one of the books most routinely ridiculed by people who think they are clever. Why on earth, these people mutter, would an intelligent person need help with something as basic as that? And in any case, good people don’t need to win friends: they should already have them. Certainly they shouldn’t try to ‘influence’ them: they just need to say witty, intelligent things. But these were not the assumptions of a man far cleverer and more important than intellectual history has been prepared to allow…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Aaron Sampson https://www.motionmaverick.com https://www.instagram.com/motionmaverick/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

It’s one of the great paradoxes of mental life that we’re often unable to access our true feelings about important matters. We may settle, in haste or fear, on the most obvious answers. We ignore our deep truths first and foremost because we aren’t trained to solicit them. 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/geP4T Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/azn2J FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3Gjexmq “It’s one of the great paradoxes of mental life that we’re often unable to access our true feelings about important matters. What we really think about — for example — the character of a friend, or the next best move we should make in our career or our stance towards an incident in childhood… All of our conclusions on such critical topics can remain locked inside us, part of us but inaccessible to ordinary consciousness....” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: ttps://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Provincia Studio Title animation produced in collaboration with: Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

The Oedipus Complex is one of the strangest and most counter-intuitive concepts in psychoanalysis. However, through a certain lens it can offer us a guiding narrative about how we come, through the varied experiences of childhood, to have our own distinctive approach to sexuality. 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/4OUXE Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/Q-9aA 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/3hg2AmK 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Diego Lodeiros https://thebrightagency.com/uk/animation/artists/diego-lodeiros Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

In order to recover from many kinds of mental distress, there’s really no alternative but to get acquainted with psychotherapy. 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/eOzFO Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/-xfI1 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/3NtZtny “In order to recover from many kinds of mental distress, there’s really no alternative but to get acquainted with psychotherapy. Though often dense and complicated, the central ideas of psychotherapy can be summarised as follows: 1. Every human is in part neurotic. A neurosis is any pattern of thinking or behaviour that blocks the full flowering of our personalities and potential. We may be neurotic in love or at work, in our friendships or in our attitudes to creativity or politics. It should be part of every evolved human’s mission to seek to understand and unpick the neurotic elements of their own personalities. The enquiry ‘And how are you neurotic?’ should not be taken as an insult, rather a sensible and kindly request for more information on our particular share of humanity’s warps…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Gemma Green-hope http://gemmagreenhope.com Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

Diaries are a forum in which we can raise and then galvanise ourselves into answering the large questions which lie behind the stewardship of our lives: What do I really want? Should I leave? What do I feel for them? 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/xZEFz Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/6A5XR FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3SBtGlu “What should in an ideal world define someone as a writer isn’t that they publish books, or give talks at literary festivals or wear black; it’s that they belong to a distinct group of people who — whenever they are confused or in distress — gain the greatest possible relief from jotting things down. ‘Writers’ in the true sense are those who scribble — as opposed to drink, exercise or chat — their way out of pain…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Elaine Song Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

One of the most provocative analyses of love ever produced is to be found in the writings of the Danish Existential philosopher Soren Kierkegaard. In a book entitled Works of Love, he proposed a theory which deliberately upset every leading idea that his own age liked to entertain about this hallowed concept. FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3yNFBW8 “One of the most provocative analyses of love ever produced is to be found in the writings of the Danish Existential philosopher Soren Kierkegaard. In a book entitled Works of Love, published in Copenhagen in 1847, Kierkegaard — then thirty-four years old — proposed a theory which deliberately upset every leading idea that his own age (in this respect very similar to our own) liked to entertain about this hallowed concept. First and most importantly, Kierkegaard insisted that most of us have no idea what love is — even though we refer to the term incessantly. The first half of the nineteenth century in Europe saw the triumph of what we today call ‘Romantic love’, involving a veneration and worship of one very special person with whose soul and body we hope to unite our own…” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on WESTERN PHILOSOPHY in our playlist: https://bit.ly/3TvF5E1 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 Produced in collaboration with: Reflective Films http://www.reflectivefilms.co.uk Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

It’s natural for most of us to spend time descending into worry about our reputation: what if we are accused of something, what if we are ostracised, mocked and cancelled? A useful way out of the panic was suggested many centuries ago by the Stoic thinkers of Ancient Greece and Rome. 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/n1w4X Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/gMqIG FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3enfYod “It’s natural for most of us to spend time worrying about our reputation: what others think of us, whether we are deemed good or bad by the community… This can quickly become a painful topic, and our thoughts can descend into bonfires of worry: what if we are accused of something, what if we are ostracised and mocked, what about if we become a pariah? A useful way out of the panic was suggested many centuries ago by the Stoic thinkers of Ancient Greece and Rome. They suggested that we divide the topic of reputation into two. On the one hand, who we are and what we think of ourselves. And on the other: what other people may decide to declare or say about us.” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Compote Collective http://compote-collective.com Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

We might think back to our pasts and give our carers a score out of ten to measure how things went. It isn’t unfair or mean sometimes - in the privacy of our own minds - to hold people to account. Finish the sentence, "My Parent made me' below and give each a score out of 10. My parent made me: - feel deeply loved and wanted. - Was often highly attuned to what I actually felt - Was able to tolerate a degree of innocent disobedience - Was authentically happy about my success - Lacked sadistic impulses - Avoided imposing too many of their own issues on me - Didn’t demand to be admired - Wasn’t too exciting - Knew how to play - Had boundaries - Tolerated dissent - Took an interest in my ‘small’ joys and pains We don’t need a score of a hundred and twenty to be robust, but if things were to drop much below sixty, there might be grounds for a good deal of reflection and sorrow. 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/4dSKU Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/0MF1U FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3Mdm2fy “Some people assume that you can’t really say what a good — or indeed a bad — parent actually is. But we don’t agree. So we’ve designed a checklist of what we think makes up a good parent…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Gemma Green-Hope http://gemmagreenhope.com Sarah Hope http://www.artist-sarah-hope.co.uk Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

The most fundamental idea at the heart of modern psychotherapy is that in order to heal ourselves from our neuroses in the present, we have to understand what went on in our childhoods. 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/eCzoy Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/QV1i- FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3LULJBq The most fundamental idea at the heart of modern psychotherapy is that in order to heal ourselves from our neuroses in the present, we have to understand what went on in our childhoods. Though this thesis makes impeccable theoretical sense, there is one enormous problem with it: amnesia. Simply put, almost no adult remembers a single thing that happened to them before they were three years old: countless days and nights, a succession of complicated moods, sensations and events will have vanished into thin air, like a library of precious books that is sent up in smoke or dumped unceremoniously into the sea. Furthermore, most of us remember very little of what went on before we were seven. This may seem like an obvious point, but it has momentous implications. A period that we’ve identified as extremely central is also going to be entirely nebulous… 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: ttps://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Na Na Na Studio https://nananastudio.com Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

There is a form of therapy which is, right now, in most countries of the world, illegal but which stands to become a dominant way of doing therapy over the coming years and may be the principal route by which many people will heal from their traumas. 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/Gg-Je Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/z_H7i FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3xwDWDK “There is a form of therapy which is, right now, in most countries of the world, illegal but which stands to become a dominant way of doing therapy over the coming years and may be the principal route by which many people will heal from their traumas. The reason why psychedelic therapy is likely to prove so important is that it has the power to overcome the central impediment to successful therapy right now…” 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/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Deanca Rensyta https://www.deancarensyta.com Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

Darwin liked to say he had thought of calling his book “the Ascent of Man” - but that that would suggest some idea of progress. Rather what he wanted to do was show that despite the obvious technical advances of past centuries modern people were still at the same moral level, or perhaps slightly worse, than their remote ancestors. 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/qSQ9q Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/WjvSY FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://www.theschooloflife.com/article/charles-darwin-and-the-descent-of-man/ "It is completely understandable that we are often maddened by what might be called ‘normal’ humanity. The way in which emotion so regularly triumphs over careful reasoning; the power of group loyalty, even when the group doesn’t seem to deserve much devotion; the vast mechanisms of status-seeking that drive so much excess consumption; widespread selfishness and indifference to the greater needs of more distant others. And we can find ourselves — in the privacy of our heads, or in the occasional late-night outburst — railing against the fools and idiots who (so unfortunately) seem to occupy so many of the prominent places of power, wealth and influence..." MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on LITERATURE in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLliterature 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 Produced in collaboration with: Zedem Media http://www.zedemanimations.com Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

The human mind between the ages of one and ten is infinitely attuned to its environment. A somewhat cold forbidding father or an erratic mother really may be all that are required to breed an elevated degree of anxiety or self-hatred that colours the next eight decades. 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/yZSHQ Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/udCE8 FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3qg8Jk2 “One of the most difficult things about being human is how easily influenced we are by our childhoods — and more particularly, our parents. The human mind between the ages of one and ten is dauntingly receptive, infinitely attuned to its environment. A somewhat cold forbidding father or an erratic mother really may be all that are required to breed an elevated degree of anxiety or self-hatred that colours the next eight decades...” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Mike Booth Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

It sounds really strange to speak of the upsides of being ill. Surely there are only downsides? 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/A-Kje Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/p2E41 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/3cCj4E0 “It sounds really strange to speak of the upsides of being ill. Surely there are only downsides? But rather than assuming, as we normally do, that our mental illnesses are just a problem for us, we can dare to ask in a spirit of open-minded exploration: What are my illnesses doing for me? Whatever their costs, what are their secret upsides? What are their unexpected benefits? Why might I be covertly siding with them against the possibility of health?” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Natalia Ramos https://www.instagram.com/natalia_ramas/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

One of the more curious aspects of the ways we are built is that it can take us a very long time indeed to work out what we need in order to be happy. 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/dSfO3 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/v9zA9 FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3dRCGnS “One of the more curious aspects of the ways we are built is that it can take us a very long time indeed to work out what we need in order to be happy. We might assume that the process was obvious; what could be more straightforward than to want. We’ve ostensibly been doing it since we were four years old and began a powerful campaign for an electric train or set of farmyard animals…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Aaron Sampson https://www.motionmaverick.com https://www.instagram.com/motionmaverick/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

However healthy it often is to try to fit in and assume we must just be like everyone else, there are also benefits in sometimes accepting that we might in the end not be and this needn’t be a cause of concern or shame. 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/IdLYC Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/FL9Vt FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3C9VF72 “However healthy it often is to try to fit in and assume we must just be like everyone else, there are also benefits in sometimes accepting that we might in the end be simply rather odd — though this needn’t be a cause of particularly concern or shame. Perhaps we simply do belong to the peculiar tribe of those who love — above pretty much anything else — to introspect, that is, to try to make sense of themselves, to process their emotions, to analyse their immaturities and to understand the psychological mechanisms they inhabit. We, the happy odd few, belong to that minor clan of the avid self-knowers who take entirely to heart the Ancient Greek command to ‘Know yourself’...” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Deanca Rensyta https://www.deancarensyta.com Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

Part of the pain of growing older is that we can start to see how much, at certain points, we misunderstood ourselves, what the costs of missing self-knowledge were and how beautiful it could be if we could just build ourselves a time machine and go back and correct all our mistakes. 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/msHgs Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/TcQP5 FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3JHgOqV “Part of the pain of growing older is that we can start to see how much, at certain points, we misunderstood ourselves, what the costs of missing self-knowledge were and how beautiful it could be if we could just build ourselves a time machine and go back and correct all our mistakes…” 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/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Mike Booth Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

It’s an embarrassing confession, but many of us spend a great deal of our lives asking, week after week, always with the same blend of frustration, despair and puzzlement: Why am I so lonely? The real answer is likely to be far less punitive and in its way far more logical… 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/AShSV Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/0FGsw FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3d4cjdG “It’s an embarrassing confession, but for a certain group among us, it’s fair to say that a great deal of our lives is spent asking essentially the same question, week after week, always with the same blend of frustration, despair and puzzlement: Why am I so lonely? Why, in other words, do I so often find myself at odds in social groups, why can’t I more easily connect with people, why do I not have more friends worthy of the name?” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Natalia Ramos https://www.instagram.com/natalia_ramas/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

One of the most useful realisations we might come to about ourselves is that we are ‘paranoid.’ 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/cxq3S Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/J8vtE FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3b3YJGZ "One of the most useful realisations we might come to about ourselves is that we are ‘paranoid.’ The word is easy to laugh off as impossibly eccentric, evoking people who insist that they are being tailed by the secret service or watched over by an alien species. But the reality is lot more normal-looking and far less comedic-feeling. To be paranoid in the true sense is to suffer from a repeated feeling that most people hate us, that most situations are extremely dangerous and that some kind of catastrophe is likely to befall us soon..." 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-school-of-life-for-business/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Gemma Green-Hope http://gemmagreenhope.com Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

We’re unlucky enough if we meet with people who want to do us wrong, show us contempt and take advantage of us. But this is as nothing next to the monumental bad luck of encountering people who do all this to us while also being extremely skilled at pretending that they aren’t. 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/2N3vN Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/COymP FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3ITWuSJ “We’re unlucky enough if we meet with people who want to do us wrong, show us contempt and take advantage of us. But this is as nothing next to the monumental bad luck of encountering people who do all this to us while also being extremely skilled at pretending that they aren’t; those master manipulators who are at once innocent-seeming and, deep down, profoundly scheming. These people won’t only hurt us, they will do something far worse: rob us of our understanding of ourselves, strip us of basic trust and, along the way, for a time, make us lose our minds…” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Natalia Biegaj https://www.nb-animation.com Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

Download: https://bit.ly/3O1Z0aM The School of Life App is a digital resource for making time for your mental wellbeing. It gathers the very best of our teaching – our films, essays, audio lessons, practical exercises and interactive media – making them available on your phone or device whenever and wherever you need them. It’s a tool for understanding more about yourself, making positive life-changes, and discovering the elements of better mental health and emotional maturity. “Your app is brilliant. You’ve clearly worked hard on it and it shows. Currently loving everything about it: bite size snippets, ability to save for later, home page not being never-ending, so it feels like you can complete it daily” – Sapna 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/O-ucG Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/x1GBu FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3uKInJQ MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on SELF in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLself SOCIAL MEDIA Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theschooloflifelondon/ X: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Gemma Green-Hope http://gemmagreenhope.com Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

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 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…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Nick Hilditch https://nickhilditch.com Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

The founding principle of modern psychotherapy - that it is all to do with one’s childhood - can sound especially irritating. Why should we be forever tied to things that happened infinitely long ago? 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/oGzp0 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/4DcDN FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3nqUVSA “In certain moods, the founding principle of modern psychotherapy — that it is all to do with one’s childhood — can sound especially irritating. Why should we be forever tied to things that happened infinitely long ago? One hardly ever sees one’s mother now and dad might have died twenty years ago. And anyway, aren’t genetics more important?” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: EUNJU CHOI https://www.encountersdigital.com/artist-profiles/eunju-ara-choi Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

We are used to thinking of what we call the news as a tool that can help us to vanquish ignorance. But what it continuously - albeit slyly - does is encourage us to forget entirely what we actually feel in relation to certain events and crucially why that is so important. 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/wcw4d Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/ORAZ0 FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3HEQQn3 “We are used to thinking of what we call the news as a tool that can help us to vanquish ignorance: we will, thanks to its updates, properly understand what is going on and where importance lies. But if we examine the role of this phenomenon with greater scepticism, we may find that it is as responsible for blinding us to ourselves as for introducing us to the complexities of so-called reality…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Jesse Collett http://jessecollett.co.uk Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

When we think of an ‘addict’, certain stock images come to mind: a homeless person sniffing glue, a gaunt figure with a heroin needle in their arm. But this masks what is in reality a far more universal phenomenon. We are all addicts. 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/JJXLE Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/T8mae FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3xOMHts “When we think of an ‘addict’, certain stock images come to mind: a homeless person in the park sniffing glue, a gaunt figure with a heroin needle in their arm, a breakfast-time vodka drinker… But such gothic characterisations mask what is in reality a far more universal and less overtly dramatic - though still pernicious - phenomenon. Addiction doesn’t have anything to do with what one is addicted to: it can’t be neatly circumscribed to those who rely on hard drugs or alcohol. In its essence, addiction simply means leaning on something - it could be anything - because it prevents particular ideas from coming into our minds. The addict relies on their chosen pursuit to block unwelcome emotions from storming the theatre of their consciousness…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Aaron Sampson https://www.motionmaverick.com https://www.instagram.com/motionmaverick/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

How could we lose touch with feelings that belong to us? Where might they go? And what might be driving their loss? 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/sWea7 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/YD6YI 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/3zoYsrz “The idea that we might - as the expression has it - ‘lose touch with our feelings’ is, when we reflect on it, a highly paradoxical one. How could we lose touch with feelings that belong to us? Where might they go? And what might be driving their loss? It seems we’re built in such a way that an understanding of much of what our minds and bodies go through is in no way automatic; it is mediated via the acceptance and understanding of other people. We know well enough about some things: if, for example, there were to be a gaping wound in our leg, or we hadn’t drunk anything for three days, we would know the truth soon enough. But many of our sensations are like bells that have no solid wire back to consciousness; they ring at a peculiar frequency that isn’t picked up by our minds when these have been attuned incorrectly…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Alexandra Balan https://www.sashaanimates.com/about-1 Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

One of the paradoxes of trying to understand our minds is that, at particular moments, we need to acknowledge that what passes through them may have very little to do with the workings of these minds themselves but rather our bodies. 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/73Qp9 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/WW1fd FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/38Icry0 “One of the paradoxes of trying to understand our minds is that, at particular moments, we need to acknowledge that what passes through them - the ideas we entertain and the moods we’re in - may have very little to do with the workings of these minds themselves. It may - for example - suddenly seem as though we have a new and very specific take on the world: we are sure that we should leave our job, say goodbye to our partner and never see our ungrateful children again. Or we may feel that we have come to a resolute new political certainty: that society is totally corrupt and human nature inherently selfish…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Deanca Rensyta https://www.instagram.com/deancarensyta/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

We often say we ‘didn’t get on too well’ with our father or that our mother was ‘slightly neglectful’ thinking we have a solid grip on events. However it is these compressed, ready-made, affectless accounts that stand in the way of properly connecting with our past and thereby truly knowing ourselves in the present. FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3FT0gul “One of the great impediments to understanding bits of our lives properly is our overly-ready assumption that we already do so. It’s easy to carry around with us, and exchange with others, surface intellectual descriptions of key painful events that leave the marrow of our emotions behind. We may say that we remember — for example — that we ‘didn’t get on too well’ with our father, that our mother was ‘slightly neglectful’ or that going to boarding school was ‘a bit sad.’...” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Natalia Biegaj https://www.nb-animation.com Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Deanca Rensyta Mihardja https://www.behance.net/deancarensa5a9 Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

We cannot be permanently fruitful or creative, excited or open. There are necessary times of retrenchment when there seems no alternative but to stop. We shouldn’t panic in these times, in fact we should endeavor to make our peace with them. 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/kaXVd Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/lt6Co FURTHER READING “Every year, nature quietly takes us through a moral lesson that has much to teach us about how we might relate to certain of the more dispiriting and despair-inducing moments in our own development. Beginning in mid-October in the northern hemisphere, the temperature drops, the nights draw in, the earth turns cold and hard, fog lies low over the land and rain drives hard across the austere, comatose grey-brown landscape. There is nothing immediate we can hope for; now we have nothing to do but wait, with resigned patience, until something better shows up…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Natalia Biegaj https://www.nb-animation.com Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

There is a widespread tendency to assume that others must know what we mean and want without us having actually told them clearly. We assume that if they don’t, then it must be a sign that they are being wicked or deliberately obtuse. The truth is we have forgotten the fundamental importance of teaching. 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/AG322 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/cg_Jq FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3ETcJO1 “One of the finest things about being a baby is that our minds can be read by others. Without us needing to say anything, people around us will have a guess at determining what we intend — and, typically, they’ll get it right. They’ll correctly surmise that we are craving some milk or that the sun is shining in our eyes, that it’s time for a snooze or that we want to jiggle the keys again…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Deanca Rensyta Mihardja https://www.deancarensyta.com/about Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

The key to originality doesn't lie in seeking out new ideas and experiences, but rather in examining our own neglected thoughts. 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/e2Sxq Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/n1ixU FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/388NgDO “The problem with libraries is that they can be so large, impressive, and filled with knowledge that they unwittingly embed in us an idea that everything worth registering, everything valuable and true, must lie ‘out there’, must already have been classed on a shelf with an index number to await our discovery the moment we cease to be so preoccupied with ourselves…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Aaron Sampson https://www.motionmaverick.com https://www.instagram.com/motionmaverick/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

When it comes to deciding what to do with our lives, we are frequently presented with what looks like a very painful choice: the passionate path vs the safe path, but which is best for us in the long term? 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/WRL_N Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/bjfl- FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3Ob5yow “When it comes to deciding what to do with our lives, we are frequently presented with what looks like a very painful choice: the passionate path vs the safe path. The latter involves the slow mastery of a dependable profession; we will be bored — but we know we’ll never be fired. Meanwhile, the former is a high-wire act in which we fantasise generating an income from what we deeply love and yet we constantly fear penury and humiliation...” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on WORK and CAPITALISM in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLcapitalism 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 Produced in collaboration with: Elaine Song https://vimeo.com/user46647401 Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

The real danger for most people is not that they ignore others in the name of their own needs, it’s precisely the opposite: that they constantly put aside authentic inner development for the whims of so-called respectable opinion. 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/P8Sub Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/nHih2 FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3x5gw96 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Gabriella Marsh https://gabriella-marsh.com/About-Contact Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

Nearly all of us wish to be known as 'nice' people. Yet our happiness may depend on a willingness to be — at points — strategically selfish. 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/u0B7- Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/D5bAv FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3JWJR9m “It’s natural and beautiful to strive to be a nice person. In a world full of cruelty and thoughtlessness, nice people are committed to being generous, sympathetic and gentle. They never want to cause anyone to feel defeated or to lose sleep. They will go to great lengths to spare others tears. It sounds especially lovely. Nevertheless, it seems impossible to go through the whole of life being nothing but kind. Sooner or later, we are all called upon to take decisions that, even as they protect things we very much care about, will ruffle feathers, generate upset and may lead us to be (at least for a time) violently hated in some quarters.” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Gemma Green-Hope http://gemmagreenhope.com Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

Nowadays, in our more difficult moments, many of us turn to social media for reassurance. Unfortunately, we're more likely to encourage further self-hatred. FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3MWP2rK 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Eunju Choi https://www.encountersdigital.com/artist-profiles/eunju-ara-choi Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

The answer to what humans need to find happiness is entirely different in the East than the West. Westerners would do well to understand the Eastern point of view. 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/PEDjc Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/IdxHS FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3KNsJCV “The Western intellectual tradition suggests that in order to be happy, what we need to do most of all is to go out and subdue the world; secure resources, found businesses, run governments, gain fame and conquer nations.By contrast, the Eastern tradition has for a long while told us something very different. In both its Buddhist and Hindu strands, it has insisted that contentment requires us to learn to conquer not the world but the instrument through which we view this world, namely our minds…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Mike Booth https://www.youtube.com/user/somegreybloke Assets used inline with Creative Commons full credit list here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xzXvDUffw5V0mh0oJmY-BAjnsO5q4eBGbGilcvxzeMc/edit Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

A surprising amount of suffering is inflicted upon us by those who ostensibly love us. An explanation can be found by understanding the psychology of cruelty. 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/8t_-h Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/mQ1Uu FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/34srQ3b “Part of why it is so hard to understand ourselves is that people are constantly doing things to us that defy the common-sense of view of how human beings might plausibly behave around people they claim to care about. We expect that those who might carry the title of mum or dad or husband or wife would, unless they had very clear reasons to do otherwise, show us kindness. And yet the brutal reality (which we must take on board for our own sanity) is that humans are frequently beset by feelings that are so intolerable and difficult, they develop urges to pass them on to others in a version of emotional pass the parcel…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Alix Bortoli: Direction, design, edit and Martin Leman: animation Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

The secret to being an interesting person has less to do with our job or achievements than it does with how attuned we are to our abnormalities. 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/Crh_P Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/bMOhu FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3tnDnt3 “Many of us crave to be more interesting people. The question is how we might become so. We rightly tend to associate being ‘interesting’ with achieving difference from the norm: with being able to serve up some unusual and intriguing stories and ideas. But what might be the best way to lay our hands on these?...” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Natalia Ramos Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

From the outside, it seems impossible to predict whether a couple will break up or stay together...unless we fathom the fundamental reason why all breakups occur. 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/DIJHC Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/PuhS3 FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/35ibdHq “It can seem very confusing why certain long-term relationships survive and some don’t. It can — from afar — look as if it’s the most cruel and alarming sort of lottery. Trying to explain love to a child or a visitor from another planet promises to be a perplexing matter indeed: all couples on their wedding day are united in wanting to make things work. Then, for reasons beyond anyone’s comprehension, some of them simply seem to dissolve and others don’t.To remove some of the terrifying element of apparent chance (and encourage us to work on the right aspects of our own couples), it may be helpful to become deliberately reductive about the real reasons why breakups occur…” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Tiaan Trutter https://www.artstation.com/tiaantruter Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

One of our greatest fears is to suffer a mental breakdown. Yet, in the long run, a breakdown might just be the most beneficial thing that will ever happen to us. 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/8BQHG Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/gpZsV FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3rV9AbP “One of the saddest and most puzzling phenomena of psychological life are the incidents commonly known as ‘breakdowns’, in which people find themselves suddenly unable to carry out their normal duties – and fall silent, take to bed and cannot stop crying…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Aaron Sampson https://www.motionmaverick.com https://www.instagram.com/motionmaverick/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

Could modern architects not learn to work with traditional materials while retaining the forms and the spirit of our own times? This is the question so beautifully answered by one of the greatest of all modernists, the American architect Louis Kahn. 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/lcGOn Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/IAkCj FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3HI9qda “Kahn was born in Russia in 1901 and emigrated with his parents to the US at the age of 3. As a young man he studied architecture at the University of Pennsylvania, but his career truly blossomed in the 1950s after a trip to Rome led him to a new appreciation of the beauty of Roman architecture. Kahn’s major contribution to modern architecture was to include ancient elements in his work without losing the innovation and clarity of modernism. He reminded the Modernists that they could be in dialogue with their most illustrious predecessors…” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on ART/ARCHITECTURE in our playlist: https://bit.ly/2XTKFF5 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 Produced in collaboration with: Mad Adam Films Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

Paradoxically, one of the signs of a 'mature' relationship is a willingness to be infantile with one's partner. Sign up to our new newsletter and get 10% off your first online order of a book, product or class: https://bit.ly/3HpVdSa For books and more from The School of Life, visit our online shop: https://bit.ly/3Gp6514 Our website has therapy, articles and products to help you lead a more fulfilled life: https://bit.ly/3ukIzjl CBT Therapy - https://www.theschooloflife.com/five-steps/psychotherapy/cbt/ FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects on our blog, here: https://bit.ly/3sdBTAS “We call them, for good reason, ‘adult’ relationships — that is, relationships entered into when we are grown up, and committed to the principles and virtues of a mature existence.What can be paradoxical therefore is the extent to which —in the finest couples — the atmosphere owes a debt to certain of the moods and interests of early childhood. For a start, we might want to call the partner ‘baby’, and they might call us ‘poppet.’ We might speak in slightly younger voices and in a higher register. We might buy them a furry giraffe and they might buy us an equally adorable soft toy version of a golden retriever. The two animals might even play games with one another and give each other cuddles when they are sad…” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships SOCIAL MEDIA Feel free to follow us at the links below: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theschooloflifelondon/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Gabriella Marsh https://gabriella-marsh.com Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

Most of life is dreadful — which is why it's important to focus on what remains hopeful, fun or sweet. Here's a roundup to keep us going. 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/V4luD Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/kcjgG FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/35qBdRa 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Deanca Rensyta https://www.deancarensyta.com/about Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

It might strike us as odd to claim that a person might be ‘too’ clever. Yet excessive intelligence can blind us to some of life’s simplest pleasures — and most important truths. 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/7au1a Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/OmYRn FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3qefVOq “It is hard to imagine that there could be any such thing as excessive intelligence. After all, most of the problems of the world and of individual lives clearly come down to a shortfall in cleverness – and a surfeit of impulsiveness, self-righteousness and cruelty.Yet it seems that there could still be a way of using our intelligence that cuts us off from necessary encounters with simple truths about us: With humdrum facts With down-to-earth ideas and appetites With unglamorous impulses and naive yet profound speculations” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Natalia biegaj https://www.nb-animation.com Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

‘I don’t play games,’ is a favourite mantra declared by hopeful people at the beginning love stories the world over. However, it can be less obvious what games playing really involves - and therefore how definitively to avoid its dynamics 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/hWM1U Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/pwxJG FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3HSk80j “Most of us have a general understanding that ‘games playing’ in relationships is a bad thing – and that all good people are opposed to them. ‘I don’t play games,’ is a favourite mantra declaimed by hopeful people at the beginning love stories the world over.However, it can be less obvious what games playing really involves – and therefore how definitively to avoid its dynamics. We too often associate this “so-called sport” with its most obvious manifestations in the dating phase: for example, when a person hides their desire beneath a veneer of indifference, or goes cold as soon as love is reciprocated.” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Gemma Hope-Green http://gemmagreenhope.com Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

Much is constantly happening that annoys us. But the question is how much does it all, beneath the surface, have to feel intentional as well? 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/lKRdv Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/TO9QN FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3JKNNdK "Much is constantly happening that annoys us. Trains pull out of platforms as we approach them; taps snap off their moorings; shopping bags leak; suppliers go bankrupt; colleagues resign; cars break down. It is all — undoubtedly — maddening. But the question is how much does it all, beneath the surface, have to feel intentional as well?" 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Michael Young http://www.michaelyoung.com.au/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

Dating apps have given us so many opportunities to find partners - but they haven't made it any easier for us to secure and build up true love. Here is a guide to how we might approach them with the necessary care. 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/-qIQB Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/AdEGV FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3qtegnk “For most of human history, relationships were relatively simple for a banal yet immovable reason: it was extremely hard to meet anyone acceptable – and everyone knew it. There were only a few people in the village, travel was expensive and social occasions few and far between. This had many drawbacks: it encouraged people to accept offers from suitors they were unconvinced by, it meant that characters who would have delighted each other died lonely and unfulfilled because there were a few mountains or a river between them…” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Deanca Rensyta https://www.deancarensyta.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

Even if we have no interest at all in becoming a Hindu, Hinduism offers us at least four fascinating ideas. 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/JY22O Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/ts88v FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3FosLyR "Even if we are not religious and have no interest at all in becoming a Hindu, Hinduism offers us at least four fascinating ideas… 1. LOOK FORWARD TO DEATH Hinduism is hugely radical in suggesting that there is nothing especially noble or interesting about being alive…" 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Mike booth Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

Remaining mentally healthy requires a bit of thought and effort. Here are a few things that can help us to remain balanced and calm. 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/FHjUG Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/R01tQ 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/3DOGuxm 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

It is a measure of our collective delusion that we are so ready to be proud of high achievers and so slow to detect the wound that powers them on. 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/cLi_e Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/422i- FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/304T25U ‘It might seem – at first glance – as though the people we term high-achievers could not possibly have any relationship to self-hatred: they are the ones who did exceptionally well in exams, whom the teachers admired, who won places at the best universities, who graduated with honours, who got into law and medical schools, who founded thriving businesses, who live in the wealthiest parts of town, who are up early in the morning preparing themselves healthy breakfasts before a day of important meetings. Surely we can’t impute that these might be sufferers from the ravages of self-disgust?..” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Eunju Choi https://www.rca.ac.uk/showcase/show-rca/eun-ju-choi/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

A lot of our problems come from living in a culture that forces us to laugh all the time. That’s why it can be helpful to gather the darkest truths in one place, feel sad about them for a while, then head out with a lighter heart, certain that we have seen the worst life can throw at us. If 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/lsufQ Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/ZhRUA FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3peXUxR “A lot of our problems come from living in a culture that forces us to laugh all the time. That’s why it can be helpful to gather the darkest truths in one place, feel sad about them for a while, then head out with a lighter heart, certain that we have seen the worst life can throw at us. Here is a very small selection: The only people we can think of as normal are those we don’t yet know very well. Social media has taught us a lot about people’s deep minds; faith in humanity is no longer an option…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Gabriella Marsh https://gabriellamarsh.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

There remain few expressions better able to capture the futility of a task than one which compares our efforts to ‘rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic.’ However, once we get to know them, we might come to think that they are what we should have been focused on all along. 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/Dv6VE Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/PBnbW FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://www.theschooloflife.com/thebookoflife/you-still-have-time/ “There remain few expressions better able to capture the futility of a task than one which compares our efforts to ‘rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic.’ The hull has been breached, the ship is sinking; to concern ourselves, at such a moment, with the position of the loungers would be the ultimate folly, the deepest possible failure to recognise the true hopelessness of the situation. The point seems grimly apt because we are, many of us, a little like the passengers on a stricken liner. Our larger hopes in life have been fatally holed: we see now that our career won’t ever particularly flourish; our relationships will always be compromised; we’ve passed our peak in terms of looks; our bodies are going to fall prey to ever more humiliating illnesses; society isn’t going to cure itself; significant political progress looks deeply improbable. Our ship is going down. It can feel as if trying to improve our condition, let alone find pleasure and distraction would be an insult to the facts. Our instinct is to be as funereal and gloomy as our ultimate end…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Gemma Green-Hope https://www.instagram.com/gemmagreenhope/?hl=en Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

Mental illness affects almost every aspect of our cognition, from threat-perception to decision-making. We must learn to be sceptical about the legitimacy of negative thoughts. 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/8YqaH Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/U0a6A 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/2YZDDDy "One of the great problems of human beings is that we’re far too good at keeping going. We’re experts at surrendering to the demands of the external world, living up to what is expected of us and getting on with the priorities as others around us define them. We keep showing up and being an excellent boy or girl – and we can pull this magical feat off for up to decades at a time without so much as an outward twitch or crack…" 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Elaine Song Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

For Zen Buddhists, fireflies are not just a quirk of nature — they’re the perfect metaphor for the bitter-sweet brevity of life. 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/9seyZ Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/Iryxa FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3D3HMVM “One of nature’s odder creatures is the firefly, a soft bodied beetle that emits a warm yellow glow from its lower abdomen, typically at twilight, in order to attract mates or prey. Though relatively rare in Europe and North America, the firefly is a common sight in Japan, where it is known as the hotaru. Hotarus are at their most plentiful in June and July, and can be seen in groups around rivers and lakes. The glittering light of the hotaru is deemed to be so enchanting, the Japanese hold firefly festivals – or hotaru matsuri – to watch their dance…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Josh Philip Saunders https://joshphilipsaunders.co.uk/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

How beautiful one feels has nothing to do with how one looks on the outside — and everything to do with one’s inner sense of worth. 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/i21Hv Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/FN5Mf FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3nSrt7F “When we are very concerned about certain of our physical features — a nose that is stubbornly a bit too large, eyes that are slightly too far apart, hair that is not as lustrous as it should be — we miss an overall point about our relationship to our appearance: how beautiful we feel has nothing to do with the objective structure of our face or body; it isn’t what we look like that counts. It’s how we feel inside. Our self-assessments are in the end solely based on our relative degrees of self-love and self-contempt…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Josh Saunders https://joshphilipsaunders.co.uk/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

Repeatedly choosing unsuitable partners may not be a sign of one’s misfortune. We’re more likely to be making the same mistakes on purpose — because, secretly, we believe we’re unworthy of love. 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/OUhfa Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/ZlZ_8 FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://www.theschooloflife.com/thebookoflife/why-we-keep-choosing-bad-partners/ "There is a particular kind of person who is always – it seems – unlucky in love. Despite their best intentions and efforts, they seem to move from one unsatisfying candidate to another without ever being able to settle. One lover turned out to be secretly married to someone else, another – after an initial period of enthusiasm – never called back, a third turned out to be alcoholic and violent… We can only express sympathy for what seems like so much bad luck..." MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Natalia Biegaj https://www.nb-animation.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

Our difficulty in accepting criticism doesn’t arise from feeling it is undeserved, but rather the opposite. It confirms a secret belief in our own unworthiness. 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/vv7l3 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/c9hiJ FURTHER READING "To be criticised is never pleasant. It is rarely a good day when we have to read an unflattering social media post about ourselves, when we are given harsh feedback on a project or hear that we are being gossiped about by strangers. However, the question of how much criticism needs to hurt depends on something which has nothing to do with the specific attack we happen to face: how much we happen to like ourselves..." 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Noelle Smith Design http://noelledoesartstuff.com/animation Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

The story of how Oscar Wilde went from celebrity playwright to prisoner, in such a short space of time, has much to teach us about disgrace and infamy. 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/Y54ZB Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/7YT_N FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3FIqRd2 “On Valentine’s Day in 1895, the most famous playwright in the English speaking world, Oscar Wilde, presented his new play, The Importance of Being Earnest, in London at St. James Theatre. The audience was packed with celebrities, aristocrats and famous politicians, eagerly awaiting another triumph from a man universally heralded as a genius. At the end of the performance, there was a standing ovation. Critics adored the play and so did audiences, making it Wilde’s fourth major success in only three years…” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on LITERATURE in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLliterature 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 Produced in collaboration with: Mike Booth https://www.youtube.com/somegreybloke Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

The true origins of shyness lie not in under-confidence but, very often, in self-hatred. We will be able to face social situations with energy and self-belief when we finally become able to like ourselves a little more. 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/20E8u Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/9PmkK FURTHER READING "A lack of confidence is often put down to something we call shyness. But beneath shyness, there may lie something more surprising, pernicious and poignant. We suffer from a suspicion of ourselves that gives us a sense that other people will always have good reasons to dislike us, to think ill of us, to question our motives and to mock us. We then become scared of the world, speak in a small voice, don’t dare to show our face at gatherings and are frightened of social occasions because we fear that we are ideal targets for ridicule and disdain. Our shy manner is the pre-emptive stance we adopt in the face of the blows we feel that other people want to land on us. Our shyness is rooted in a sense of unworthiness..." 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Dal Park https://dalpark.net/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

A short film about what it feels like to spend too much of life alone - why loneliness feels painful, and how it can be handled. 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/D_53N Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/jCVpF FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3D0KUkV 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Tomás Pichardo-Espaillat http://www.tomatico.net/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

We don’t have to be religious to appreciate the beauty of Islamic gardens — nor the wisdom they’re designed to teach us. 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/3dgC7 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/9Po2- FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects on our blog here: https://bit.ly/39sp0Kw MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on HISTORY in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLhistory 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 Produced in collaboration with: Mike Booth https://www.youtube.com/c/somegreybloke Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

No one wants to fall mentally ill. Yet, paradoxically, our insistence on always maintaining perfect mental health may make us more susceptible to becoming unwell. 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/QgGTH Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/huIt_ 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/3kbGAbV “One of the great contributing factors to mental illness is the idea that we should at all costs and and all times be well. We suffer far more than we should because of how long it can take many of us until we allow ourselves to fall properly and usefully ill. For many years we may be able skilfully to evade our symptoms, pulling off an an accomplished impression of what counts – in our unobservant societies – as a healthy human. We may gain all the accoutrements of so-called success – love, a career, family, prestige – without anyone bothering to note the sickness behind our eyes. We may take care to fill our days with activity so that we can be guaranteed to have no time to address any of the sores that blister inside. We can rely on the extraordinary prestige of being busy to avoid the truly hard work of doing nothing – other than sit with our minds and their complicated sorrows. When pressures build, we may develop a raft of opaque physical ailments that baffle and excite the medical profession or we can acquire a paranoid world-view that identifies all our enemies with political and economic ideologies – rather than with anything psychological closer to home…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Eunju Ara Choi https://vimeo.com/arachoi Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

Few of us consider ourselves capable of hurting others. But everyone has the capacity to cause profound psychological damage - and we should keep this fact in mind when dealing with our fellow humans. 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/nROn7 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/jqWrR FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://www.theschooloflife.com/thebookoflife/how-we-can-hurt-without-thinking/ "A lot of evil is done in the world by people who can’t imagine that they have any power to hurt anyone. It’s their sense that nothing is at stake in their behaviour towards others that leads them to ignore the rules of politeness and humanity – and to kick people as if they were plated in armour. They are – in this respect – paying homage to childhood. Think of the situation of a young child, of perhaps six, who has fun mocking a parent’s double chin or the wrinkles around their eyes. To this child, the parent is still, in many ways, an invulnerable deity. They live in a remote, impressive world of work, credit cards, driving and the news. How could someone of such stature be hurt by a comment about their less than perfect physique by a tiny person who can’t spell properly?... " MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Natalia biegaj https://www.nb-animation.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

Loving others is not always easy; particularly since so many people behave in distinctly unloveable ways. The secret to a more loving attitude lies in remembering the essentially childlike aspects of their characters. 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/zqtDW Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/cT4Bi FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/38uxaS1 “Perhaps the finest way to develop a loving attitude towards other people is to recall, in the face of their difficulty, that we are, in the end, all children. The claim is an odd one. Adults are clearly not children. They have powers of reasoning that quite outstrip those of younger people, they have options and a sound grasp of right and wrong, they are capable of causing serious damage; they should know better…” 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/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Deanca Rensyta https://www.deancarensyta.com/about Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

‘Perfectionists’ are generally held in high-esteem: praised for their self-discipline and refusal to compromise. Yet in truth, the trait is a manifestation of self-hatred - and must be overcome if we are ever to feel truly fulfilled. 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/XRkXM Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/-sZ00 FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2Wbg74o “Part of our problem as a species is that we’re troublingly good at making things perfect. We can set our minds on an extraordinary goal and – with heroic sacrifice, thousands of hours of effort, many wrong turns and periods of intense despair – we can reach the target. We can pull off a masterwork, we can exceed all normal expectations, we can triumph and awe – and advance humankind…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Gemma Green-Hope http://www.gemmagreenhope.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

Those of us who aspire to work in a creative field often end up despairing that such roles seem so few and far between. Yet the search is less hopeless than it looks: we simply need to think more deeply about what ‘creativity’ really means. 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/S6iyW Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/pWdZ8 MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on WORK and CAPITALISM in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLcapitalism 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 Produced in collaboration with: Tomás Pichardo-Espaillat https://www.instagram.com/tomaspichardoespaillat/?hl=en Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

A particularly awful aspect of self-hatred is that we may not even be aware that we are suffering from it. Here is a list of questions to help us diagnose an absence of self-compassion. 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/e8pmC Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/kINp1 FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/37zixg0 “The temptation, with dealing with anxiety, is always and invariably to focus on the ostensible cause of our worry: the journey to the airport, the forthcoming speech, the letter one is waiting for, the presentation one has to hand in… But if we proceed more psychologically, we might begin in a different place. With great kindness and no disrespect, we may step past the objective content of anxiety and look instead at something else: how the anxious person feels about themselves…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Natalia Biegaj https://www.nb-animation.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

Learning to forgive is always difficult, but never more so than when the transgressor is ourselves. Here are some thoughts to help us begin to practice the neglected art of self-compassion. FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3jkOspQ 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Deanca Rensyta https://www.deancarensyta.com/about Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

The advent of medication to treat mental illness from the 1950s onwards has had untold benefits, enabling countless numbers of us to manage the symptoms of our unwellness. Yet pills can never ‘cure’ us on their own: they must be married with therapeutic treatments to be lastingly effective. 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/27M0k Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/3Csil 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/3iVTZmr “A standard strategy, when we are physically unwell, is to head to the doctor, take a pill and then expect, in a short while, to feel a lot better. This recourse is so established, so practical and generally so successful, it is only natural if we were to try to replicate it in the mental field. Here too, when we are feeling ill, we may want to visit a doctor, take a pill and wait for our symptoms to disperse…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Hannah O’Brien https://www.hanobrien.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

Developing a sane relationship to our own past is a crucial factor in enabling us to avoid the common mistakes of "bad parenting". 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/S4v1w Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/ZwJyQ FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3zfBDTS “Given how important it is to be properly loved by one’s parents in order to have an emotionally sane grown-up life, one may wonder with some urgency why – in cases that range from the regrettable to the truly tragic – the process can go so wrong. Why do some parents – who might in other areas be decent and thoughtful characters – fail so badly at being able to love the small people they have brought into the world?” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Tiaan Truter https://www.instagram.com/tiaantruter/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

It’s perfectly normal to feel weak, lost, and unable to cope. Here is a collection of thoughts to remind us of our inner reserves of resilience. 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/5CpP4 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/317n9 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/3wEO9uv “It’s only too easy to get discouraged. Here are a few things to keep in mind: Everyone fails sometimes; some people just hide it better than others. There is always a Plan B. Perfection was never on the cards. You’re allowed to cry uncontrollably sometimes. Some people will love you always - whatever. Those that matter don’t mind; those that mind don’t matter. You could always go and live on an island somewhere far away - truly. You have enough time to give this many more goes. A fear is not a fact. Every good life is a mess - in parts. 3 a.m. alone in bed is not the optimal moment at which to derive a true picture of reality. Wait - always - for the perspective of dawn. The only people we can think of as without regrets are those we don’t yet know very well. Going a bit mad for a time is a very common and ultimately very sane rite of passage. It sounds heartless to say: ‘you’ll get over it’. But you will. Most of what we think will kill us won’t.” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Drew Casson Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/ Music License FIQDMVI2CCEHXMAC

These days, a job needs to offer us more than financial security: we want them to provide us with status and meaning. But to feel truly satisfied with our careers, we may need to look elsewhere to find fulfillment. 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/TEdG8 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/1TzJv FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3yK9ggH “In a perfect world, when it came to choosing an occupation, we would have only two priorities in mind: – to find a job that we enjoyed – to find a job that paid us enough to cover reasonable material needs. But in order to think so freely, we would have to be emotionally balanced in a way that few of us are. In reality, when it comes to choosing an occupation, we tend to be haunted by three additional priorities. We need…” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on WORK and CAPITALISM in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLcapitalism 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 Produced in collaboration with: Dal Park https://dalpark.net/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

We celebrate Rembrandt as one of history’s greatest painters. But his troubled life story provides us with clues for interpreting the hidden, radical purpose of his art. 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/S8r5B Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/Xn9yb FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://www.theschooloflife.com/thebookoflife/rembrandt-as-a-guide-to-kindness/ "Born in 1606, Rembrandt became a hugely successful painter when he was still only in his twenties. He earned a fortune and lived a wildly extravagant life. But by his early fifties, he was all but bankrupt: he had to sell his house and all the beautiful objects he had accumulated. In the world of respectable, prudent Dutch merchants, his economic ruin was regarded as deeply shameful – and, self-evidently, it was entirely his own fault..." MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on ART/ARCHITECTURE in our playlist: https://bit.ly/2XTKFF5 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 Produced in collaboration with: Mike Booth https://twitter.com/somegreybloke Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

Throughout our lives, we are continually compelled to ‘grow up’. But a secure relationship offers us the chance for the opposite: to regress to a more vulnerable, childlike state. 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/BfiBZ Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/8Ps80 FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3gSY0ah "One of the most striking features of relationships is that, after a while, if things are going well, one or both partners will almost naturally start to refer to the other as ‘baby’. They might, alternatively or in addition, stick a diminutive on to the end of their name (‘-ie’), buy them a teddy (or show them their own from way back) and late at night speak to them in an unusually high pitched, soothing and sing-songy way…" MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Elaine Song https://songelaine.cargo.site/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

Those of us with a tendency to blush usually see it as a source of embarrassment. Yet blushing is a rather delightful habit: one that confirms our deep emotional sensitivity. 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/7EC8m Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/7HfjX FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3woErND "For anyone with a tendency to blush, the idea that there might be something positive about going uncontrollably red in front of others can sound absurd. But however uncomfortable it may be to blush, doing so indicates a range of admirable character traits we should honour in ourselves and welcome in others. Far from a disability, blushing is a sign of virtue…" 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Amanda Eliasson http://artofam.se/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

Our anxiety about the future - feeling that we’re destined for ruin and disgrace - may feel like a rational assessment of our present circumstances. But its roots most likely stretch far further back: to forgotten traumas we underwent in the past. 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/TXp0y Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/QRH4q FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3g5IFUP 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

Sadly, in most cases, mental illness is a chronic condition: not a one-off, but something that’s likely to recur in the future. Coping requires us to accept this - and put in place a strategy for managing our symptoms over the long-term. 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/XpKqr Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/CgaKz FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3uHrdKh "We would – of course – like any encounter with mental illness to be as brief as possible and, most importantly, to be isolated and singular. But the reality is that for many of us, the illness will threaten to return for visits throughout our lives, it will be a condition to which we will be permanently susceptible. So the challenge isn’t to learn to survive only a one-off crisis; it’s to set in place a framework that can help us to manage our fragility over the long-term. Some of the following moves, practical and psychological, suggest themselves:.." 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Mike Booth https://www.youtube.com/somegreybloke Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

Within couples, a dynamic often emerges during arguments where one person becomes very ‘emotional’ (much to the annoyance of their ‘reasonable’ partner). Yet the wisest response is not frustration, but compassion: to try to understand the source of their emotional distress. 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/FyoA1 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/mn7x4 FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3fKgysF "There are arguments in which one person will get so upset that they start to behave in ways that range far beyond the imagined norms of civilised conduct: they speak in a highly pitched voice, they exaggerate, they weep, they beg, their words become almost incoherent; they pull their own hair; they bite their own hand; they roll on the floor…” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Deanca Rensyta https://www.deancarensyta.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

A common symptom of mental unwellness is the desire to isolate ourselves from others. Yet far from marking us out as abnormal or repellant, our suffering is an opportunity to connect with the countless others who feel just as lost as we do. 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/_e-u- Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/SiS8a FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3ylnu8f “One of the cruellest aspects of mental illness is that it strips us of any ability to believe that other people might be suffering in the way we are. We aren’t being wilfully egocentric or arrogant; we are condemned by our illness to a feeling that we are uniquely pitiful, uniquely unacceptable, uniquely awful. The central legacy of mental illness, and a major contributor to our suicidal impulses, is a feeling of exceptionalism.” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Alexandra Sasha Balan https://www.behance.net/AlexandraSashaBalan Sound Design: Volkan Kiziltug, www.VolkanKiziltug.com Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

A growing body of research suggests that mental unwellness doesn’t just take a toll on our minds; it affects our physical selves as well. We need to listen to what our bodies are telling us - and care for them as diligently as we care for our thoughts. 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/cn-Hx Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/CqoG4 FURTHER READING You can read more on this here: https://bit.ly/3frHP3d 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Kim Alexander https://www.kimalexander.co.uk/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

Is it possible to spot the difference between a 'strong' couple whose relationships will last and a 'fragile' couple who are doomed to failure? Here are some signs to watch out for... 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/RhK_n Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/t7rvH FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3eQ2eyy 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Peter Caires https://www.petercaires.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

When it comes to choosing a career, we seem to face an inescapable choice between following our dreams and ‘selling out’. The reasons for this dilemma can be found in the ways the modern economy - and human psychology - work in practice. 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/9ahd2 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/ENU6- FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3gH9Qpz 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Kyle Griggs https://kylegriggs.biz/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

Many of us have a tendency to be very unkind towards ourselves; made all the more pernicious by the fact that we are not even aware of doing so. To practice greater self-compassion, we need to recognise the forms our self-hatred takes - and where their roots might lie. 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/8l8zc Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/R6Oeq FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3v6qpyZ “If there is one generalisation we can hazard of those who end up mentally unwell, we could say that they are masters at being very nasty to themselves without noticing they are even being so. Release from the grip of self-loathing therefore has to start with a growing awareness of what we are doing to ourselves – and what the alternatives might be. For example, we might start to notice that no sooner has something nice happened to us that we set about wondering when something awful will strike in revenge; that every success has to be ruined by a feeling of foreboding and guilt; that every potentially pleasant day ends up marred by panic or a sense of loss; and that we spontaneously imagine that everyone must hate us and that the worst things are being said about us the moment we leave any room.” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Natalia Biejag https://www.nb-animation.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

Though we live in supposedly enlightened times, many of us are still burdened with intense feelings of shame around our own sexuality and desires. Overcoming this requires us to face up to the scale of the problem - and find ways of discussing our innermost feelings more nakedly. 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/QTj4j Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/4sm7S FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3gb2Sc6 “We have collectively grown highly attuned to the problems associated with a lack of shame around sex: with a decadent culture in which it seems that everything goes, where the atmosphere is often overly explicit and where some people get badly hurt by the unwanted and aggressive attentions of others.It could seem – therefore – a little odd, even indulgent, to bring up the problem of sexual shame, that is, to discuss the intense mental suffering generated by embarrassment about our desires and bodies, by a feeling of not being physically acceptable and by a self-disgust and terror at the idea of our sexual thoughts being found out and judged. These can seem like issues that no one could sincerely have worried about since the waning of the age of top hats or at least the revolutions of the 1960s. The dangers around sex appear to lie squarely at the other, shame-less end of the spectrum…” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Josh Saunders https://joshphilipsaunders.co.uk/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

Nowadays, we know more and more about what it means to be mentally unwell - but what exactly constitutes mental 'health’? In this film, we’ll explore what characterises an optimally functioning mind. 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/3kq9l Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/7O6JU 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/3wzucqh “So efficient and hushed are our brains in their day to day operations, we are apt to miss what an extraordinary and complicated achievement it is to feel mentally well. A mind in a healthy state is, in the background, continually performing a near-miraculous set of manoeuvres that underpin our moods of clear-sightedness and purpose. To appreciate what mental health might be (and therefore what its opposite involves), we might take a moment to consider some of what will be going on in the folds of an optimally-functioning mind...” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Deanca Rensyta https://www.deancarensyta.com/about Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

We’re taught that love requires honesty, and that secrets are anathema to healthy relationships. But there may be very noble reasons for concealing things from our partner - and instances where it is far kinder to lie than reveal hurtful truths. 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/ltnQM Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/bDo9Y FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3m6Sd36 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Iris Abols https://irisabols.co.uk/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

Our sense of self-worth is dependent upon the love we were shown as children. The legacy of an unloving parent may be a lifetime of self-hatred, which we need to unpick in order to escape. 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/g8WsB Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/nTVEm FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2PrPh4H “A central fact about early childhood is that babies are born into the world entirely at the mercy of others. They have no native strength, intelligence or utility, they cannot fight or complain, walk away or argue their case, their survival depends solely on their capacity to look up from their cots with vast innocent beautiful eyes – and charm their parents into caring for them. It’s their power to attract love that ensures they will be fed and clothed, protected and kept alive. In exchange for this nurture, young children readily offer their parents or caregivers unconditional admiration. They naturally adore and are boundlessly impressed by those who pick them up and bathe them, warm their milk and change their sheets. They are in awe at these giant people who know how to turn on a washing machine and kick a ball over a tree. There is – at this stage – no innate desire whatever to question or doubt figures of authority…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Deanca Rensyta https://www.deancarensyta.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

Life constantly requires that we say thank you to people - for presents, favours and helpful actions. But expressing thanks is a far from straightforward business. To be properly skilled at it, we need to learn the art of getting specific. 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/vB20C Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/4wUdM FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/30OGxYP “Life continually requires that we write down a few words of thanks: for holidays, meals, presents or people’s place in our hearts. However, too often, our messages end up flat or somewhat unconvincing; we say that the dinner was ‘wonderful’, the present ‘brilliant’ and the holiday ‘the best ever’, all of which may be true while failing to get at what truly touched or moved us…” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on ART in our playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwxNMb28Xmpcp7jXVszdNruKUtHZ2zuZb 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 Produced in collaboration with: Ana Pérez López https://www.anaperezlopez.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

When deciding whether or not to have children, we should acknowledge that we aren’t choosing either a ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ answer - merely deciding which form of future suffering we are best suited for. 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/qMUUV Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/0XdQC FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/30wvpQc “Modern societies are pretty much in agreement on this score: having children is one of the most meaningful and delightful moves anyone can make. Couples who do not – for whatever reason – have children tend to be automatically almost universally pitied and are assumed to have been denied the chance to have offspring by biology. That one might freely choose not to have children, and yet be reasonably content with one’s choice, remains one of the most disturbing and unfathomed of all contemporary positions…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Nick Hilditch https://nickhilditch.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

Emotional neglect - the withholding of parental love during childhood - can have a psychological impact no less profound than other forms of abuse. Before we can start to recover, we first need to acknowledge the scale of its effects. 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/-_CfH Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/yQVrT FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3sJTyin “When we imagine the difficulties involved in a so-called ‘bad childhood’, we most readily think in terms of children who are physically harmed – beaten, underfed, sexually abused – or else treated with active contempt: screamed at, blamed, put down, mocked and tormented. Such harrowing images make it hard for us to picture that there might be another, in many ways more prevalent yet just as damaging form of injury to which children may be exposed. In this case, there is no physical violence, there is no taunting or shouting. It looks – at first glance – as if all must be well. But that would be to miss the particular kind of wound that can be inflicted through what psychologists term ‘emotional neglect.’...” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Gemma Green-Hope http://www.gemmagreenhope.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

Mental crises can seem to come out of the blue, but their roots probably reach back years, even decades. Recovery begins only when we begin to listen to what our pain is trying to tell us. 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/9QZGG Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/ifDMX 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/3bw2nW4 “For a long time, we may cope well enough. We make it to work every morning, we give pleasant summaries of our lives to friends, we smile over dinner. We aren’t totally balanced, but there’s little way of knowing how difficult things might be for other people, and what we have a right to expect in terms of contentment and peace of mind. We probably tell ourselves to stop being self-indulgent and redouble our efforts to feel worthy through achievement. We are probably world experts in not feeling sorry for ourselves…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Dal Park https://dalpark.net/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

We talk a lot about love without fully understanding exactly what it means. True love is less an appreciation of strength than a tolerance of (and kindness towards) what is weak and misshapen in another person. 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/mWtp1 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/fSCEy FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3b8WCxo "There is so much talk of love in our societies, it would be natural to think that we must by now know what it is and why it counts. Love is the excited feeling we get in the presence of someone of unusual accomplishment and talent – great intelligence or beauty for the most part – whom we hope will reciprocate our interest and whom we badly want to touch, caress and one day share our lives with. This definition sounds so plausible and enjoys such powerful cultural endorsement, we are apt to miss another vision of love altogether, this one focused not so much on the appreciation of strength as on a tolerance of, and kindness towards, what is weak and misshapen…" MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Eunju Ara Choi https://vimeo.com/arachoi Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

It can be surprisingly difficult for us to accept that a major cause of much of our mental distress may be nothing so dramatic as a lack of sleep. Getting better requires us to take our need for sleep seriously. 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/16ZKb Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/FbO5z FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3aQc8y6 “Part of the reason why many of us have a tangled and unhelpful relationship to sleep can be traced back to the way we first learnt about the subject many years ago. Parents of small children tend to be very careful about bedtimes. They favour early nights, they give their babies plenty of naps throughout the day, they think a lot about black-out curtains, they are quick to diagnose many instances of bad temper as stemming from a background deficit of rest and while they may be indulgent in some areas, they are likely to be entirely implacable in any negotiation over routines: seven p.m. lights out, no ifs ands or buts…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Hannah O’brien https://www.hanobrien.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

Even if we've never spelled them out, each of us carries within us a private list of 'reasons to live'. Mental illness can threaten these reasons: to heal, we may need to seek out new ones. 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/T7szM Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/kMSG9 If you are struggling with mental health there are lines where you can get professional support: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/stress-anxiety-depression/mental-health-helplines. 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/3cIgji9 “When we are feeling well in our minds, we hardly notice that we might be harbouring in ourselves anything as formal or as dramatic-sounding as ‘reasons to live.’ We simply assume that we like life itself and that it must be natural and inevitable to do so. And yet a broad appetite for life is, on close inspection, never simply that; our apparently general buoyancy must covertly rest on a range of specific elements that, while we may not bother to itemise them, have their own and distinct identities nevertheless…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Tracy Foster http://tj-tracyfoster.squarespace.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

Despite what we might think, there are no such things as ‘winners’ and ‘losers’ in life. Those who win in some areas will lose in others - and vice versa. The task lies in working out where our true successes and failures lie. 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/4YxK8 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/v4sDE FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3sZxPDY “Our societies have advanced tendencies to label certain people ‘winners’ and others – logically enough – ‘losers’. Aside from the evident meanness of this categorisation, the underlying problem with it is the suggestion that life might be a unitary, singular race, at the conclusion to which one could neatly rank all the competitors from highest to lowest…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Mike Booth https://www.youtube.com/user/somegreybloke Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

Though each individual is unique, deep down, everyone is searching for the same thing: reassurance - a gift that is within all of our power to give. 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/lnDWT Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/H_Mlr FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2XZbMPw “We’re often in situations of wanting to help and be kind to others, but of not knowing quite what they might be in need of. We’d like to deepen our connection to them and be of service, and yet lack a real grasp of what we could plausibly offer them; their minds seem impenetrable, their problems opaque. At such moments, we would do well to remember that we all possess a superpower, a capacity to give people something we can be sure they fundamentally require, founded on a primordial and basic insight into human nature: that all of us are in deep need of reassurance. Life is a more or less ongoing emergency for everyone. We are invariably haunted by doubts about our value, by concerns for our future, by shapeless anxiety and dread about things we’ve done, by feelings of guilt and embarrassment about ourselves. Everyday brings new threats to our integrity and except for very rare moments when we and the world feel solid, there is almost always a background throb of unwellness in our minds. It doesn’t matter whether they are old or young, accomplished or starting out, at the top of the tree or struggling to get by, we can count on one thing about anyone we meet: they’ll be beset by a sense of insecurity and, beneath some excellent camouflage, to a greater or lesser extent, of desperation…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Tom Kemp Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

It can be hard to know what we really need from a relationship. But the task becomes much simpler if we keep in mind that every relationship requires just three crucial ingredients to work. 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/ecH4C Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/HRtwg FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects on our blog, here: https://bit.ly/2XCj63C “Many people, after they’ve been in a couple for some time, will privately admit that they are – in many ways – frustrated and disappointed by the person they’ve chosen to share their lives with. If pressed for details, they will have no difficulty coming up with a list: their partner, they might complain:..” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships SOCIAL MEDIA Feel free to follow us at the links below: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theschooloflifelondon/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Gemma Green-Hope http://www.gemmagreenhope.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

Masochism is the belief that one is secretly deserving of punishment. Whilst sexual masochism can be fun, emotional masochism - which is much more common - often stems from unexamined trauma. 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/YPdGB Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/jTnaT FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3hMJ6T2 “The word Masochism derives, somewhat unfairly for him and his family, from the Austrian 19th century aristocrat and writer, Leopold von Sacher-Masoch. As a young man, Leopold made a conventional marriage to a fellow member of the nobility, Aurora von Rümelin, but he swiftly discovered that his sexual tastes could not be accommodated within the relationship. When he was contacted by an admiring reader, a Baroness Fanny Pistor, under the ostensible excuse of seeking help with her writing style, he was able to discover a whole new side to his sexual identity. What he wanted most of all was that Fanny would dress in a grand and imperious-looking fur coat, flog him, dominate him and treat him with haughty cruelty. He wanted Fanny to call him ‘Gregor’, at that time a popular servant’s name – and when they travelled, despite being far wealthier than her, insisted on being forced to sit in third class while she took her place in first…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Gemma Green-Hope http://www.gemmagreenhope.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

The fundamental idea behind psychotherapy is that we tend to grow mentally unwell because we haven’t been able to think with sufficient clarity about the difficulties in our past, typically in our distant childhoods. EMDR therapy is a fascinating tool that can help us process these difficulties, move past them and continue with our adult lives. 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/f8_Gd Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/2dJ0B 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/34VcFfY "The fundamental idea behind psychotherapy is that we tend to grow mentally unwell because we haven’t been able to think with sufficient clarity about the difficulties in our past, typically in our distant childhoods. Damaging incidents have been locked away, and continue to have an outsized impact on us, but we have no way of going back over them in order to liberate ourselves from their distorting influences. A sense that we are bad or disgusting, acquired in our fifth year, may ruin our chances of fulfilment in our fiftieth..." 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Noelle Smith Design http://www.noellesmithdesign.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

Those of us in relationships suffer from an ignorance of what other people’s relationships are really like. We should recognise that episodes of difficulty and ambivalence are not the exception, but the norm. 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/CMFlP Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/nHVMa FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2M1Ute6 “A question that rarely leaves us alone in love is: what exactly are other people’s relationships like? The question is far from disinterested sociological curiosity. What we urgently seek to know is: are other people in as much trouble as we are? After a furious row over nothing very much at eleven at night or after yet another month that has unfolded with almost no sex, we wonder how statistically normal our case might be – precisely because it threatens to feel like a unique curse…” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Lois De silva http://www.loisdesilva.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

Many of us are struggling with an intensely critical inner voice, one who relentlessly punishes us for failing to live up to an impossible standard. Taming this voice requires us to recognise where it is coming from and what may be driving its fury. 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/mQN5R Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/5kR8T 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/389sDUu “One of the tedious aspects of having problems with our minds is that we need to take more of an interest in how they work than untroubled people do: we have to become mind mechanics because something is hurting inside. A particularly noxious problem that afflicts many of us is that we are almost permanently anxious, self-critical, self-hating and afflicted by a sense that we don’t deserve to exist. We are definitely not good enough. Ever…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Deanca Rensyta Mihardja https://www.behance.net/deancarensa5a9 Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

No relationship is ever stable; each goes through a regular cycle of ‘rupture’ and ‘repair’. A healthy relationship is not one in which ruptures never occur, but one where both parties are willing and able to repair them. 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/YA41F Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/VEZxk FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/33VjHRr “Many tensions within relationships can usefully be looked at through the prism of a concept much used within psychotherapy: the idea of ‘rupture’ and ‘repair.’ For psychotherapists, every relationship is at risk of moments of frustration or as the term has it, of ‘rupture’, when we suffer a loss of trust in another person as someone in whom we can safely deposit our love, and whom we believe can be kind and understanding of our needs. The ruptures are often quite small, and to outside observers perhaps imperceptible: one person fails to respond warmly to another’s greeting; someone tries to explain an idea to their partner who shrugs and says off-handedly that they have no idea what they’re on about; in front of friends, a lover shares an anecdote which casts the partner in a less than flattering light. Or the rupture can be more serious: someone calls someone a stupid fool and breaks a door. A birthday is forgotten. An affair begins…” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: ArtRake Studio Animations https://www.artrake.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

Trauma is the result of our inability to process a distressing experience. It’s much more common than we might imagine...and requires a patient examination of our past to overcome. FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2JlfOye “ A trauma is not merely a terrible event, though it is very much that too. It is a terrible event that has not been adequately processed, understood and unpicked and that has – through neglect – been able to cast a very long and unwarranted shadow over huge areas of experience. Many of our greatest fears have nothing at all to do with actual dangers in the here and now; they are the legacy of traumas that we have lacked the wherewithal to be able to trace back to their origins, localise and neutralise…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Animation: Alexandra "Sasha" Balan, www.SashaAnimates.com Sound Design: Volkan Kiziltug, www.VolkanKiziltug.com Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

We're so used to conforming to the expectations of others that it can be hard to know what 'we' really want. Freedom requires a willingness, at times, to be 'bad'. 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/1ZGBw Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/9AGTQ FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/33fHZ8d “Some of the reason why adult life can be greyer and more miserable than it should be is that our earliest years are generally made up of a prolonged and highly formative encounter with the idea of obedience. Throughout childhood, there is little doubt that the path to maturity must involve doing a litany of substantially unpleasant things demanded of us by figures of authority whom we cannot question. No one asks if we would be particularly interested in learning about the angles of triangles or what a volt really is, but we obey in any case. We give over our days and much of our evenings and weekends to complying with an agenda elaborated for us by people whose concern with our happiness is at best highly abstract. We put on our blue or grey jumper and sit at a desk and study the plotline of Macbeth or the chemical properties of helium – and trust that our boredom and distaste must be substantially wrong…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: David Crisp https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCw_aHLPjDe4WaEQscWdGCbQ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

In moments of despair, we may be suffering not from a failure of spirit, but a failure of imagination. The way out lies in exercising our creative capacities. 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/cfnni Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/w8uJR FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2IvSflV “It may sound strange to locate the problem here, but some of our most despairing moods are caused by failures of the imagination. We are not merely ‘sad’; we cannot picture any better life than the agonised one we currently have. What we really mean by imagination is the power to summon up alternatives. When we are sad, we can’t imagine finding another job; we can’t imagine retraining or shifting profession. We can’t imagine not minding what the gossip says about us. We can’t imagine finding another partner and letting ourselves trust someone again. We can’t imagine getting by in a wheelchair. We can’t imagine living on a very modest budget or relocating to another country. We can’t imagine having to make a completely new set of friends…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Gabriella Marsh https://gabriellamarsh.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

To be considered ‘well-read’, one is expected to get through an endless number of books. Instead, like the Ancients, we should focus on the quality not the quantity of one’s reading. 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/Zy4CW Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/HjE4D FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/35fcAUV “The modern world firmly equates the intelligent person with the well-read person. Reading books, a lot of books, is the hallmark of brilliance as well as the supreme gateway to prestige and understanding. It’s hard to imagine anyone arriving at any insights of value without having worked their way through an enormous number of titles over the years. There is apparently no limit to how much we should read. We might – logically and ideally – be reading all the time and get ever cleverer with every moment we do so. The number of books we have managed to read by the day we die will tell us pretty much all we need to know about the complexity and maturity of our minds. This so-called maximalist philosophy of reading enjoys enormous cultural prestige. It is backed up by enormous publishing and journalistic industries that constantly parade new titles before us – and imply that we might be swiftly left behind and condemned to a narrow and provincial mindset if we did not rush to read four of this year’s major prize winning books as well as seven fascinating titles that have received ardent reviews in the Sunday supplements since March. As a result, our shelves are overburdened and our guilt at how far behind we are intense…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Deanca Rensyta Mihardja https://www.behance.net/deancarensa5a9 Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

Compulsive skin picking is a surprisingly common affliction. Understanding the psychology that underpins it is the first step towards learning how to heal. 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/Fwd_l Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/WYEZX FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2HTScQA “If we were to need any further evidence of the difficulties of being human, we need only study the poignant phenomenon that psychologists call dermatillomania – more commonly known as skin picking. Those who suffer from it will, by definition, be at the anxious end of the spectrum. Few days will be free of great worry, sometimes a specific concern that feels like it will be the end of us, or else a general eeriness and nameless dread…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Natalia Biegaj https://www.nb-animation.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

In an effort to please a new partner, it’s sometimes tempting to stretch the truth. But to avoid difficulties down the line, it would be better to be honest - even blunt - from the off. 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/lZ6iM Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/CU2r7 FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/31ME0zq “A powerful instinct when we meet someone we’re attracted to is to try to please them – and we naturally assume that the best way we might do this is to indicate repeatedly how aligned we are with their views and choices on all matters great and small. On an early date, when they happen to mention that they love dancing, we will therefore signal that of course we love clubs as well. Or when they explain how boring they find museums, we will hide that on a trip to Berlin last year, we spent a whole fascinating day in the galleries of the Altes Museum…” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Tracy Foster http://tj-tracyfoster.squarespace.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

We prefer people who are ‘straightforward’: who are direct and unambiguous about their desires and characters. Becoming more so involves untangling the self-deceptions we constructed when we were young. 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/_HzJJ Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/FS-ED FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3dIOlkN “A basic distinction in humans is between those who are simple and straightforward to deal with – and those who are – as we tend to be reminded when we interact with them – repeatedly tricky or complicated to handle. What makes straightforward people gratifying to be around isn’t so much that their positions and intentions are always inherently unproblematic, it’s that we happen to know exactly what the issues are from the start. There is therefore no need to guess, infer, decode, untangle, unscramble or translate. There are no sudden surprises or revolutions in perspective. If these straightforward types don’t want to do something, they will, politely and in good time, explain that it’s really not for them. If they’re unhappy with our behaviour, they won’t smile sweetly while developing noxious stores of envy or hatred in the recesses of their minds; they will immediately provide a gentle but accurate statement of how we are frustrating them. If they are worried a project is going awry, they won’t pretend that all is well until a catastrophe can no longer be denied. If they are attracted to someone, they will find charming, kind and inoffensive ways of making their feelings clear. And in bed, they may want to please, but they can also be honest and unashamed about what actually excites them.” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Noelle Smith Design http://www.noellesmithdesign.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

Most of what we find frustrating and difficult in other people’s characters can be captured by the term ‘immaturity’. Whatever its manifestations, immaturity has two fundamental causes. FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/33UrjEc 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: David Crisp http://www.mistercrisp.com/momeportfolio/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

Many of us feel ‘stuck’ - wishing we could escape a job or relationship, while being incapable of doing so. Coming unstuck involves examining unhelpful messages we internalised in childhood. 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/BI2Sn Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/hAkFq FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3iDqELt “Many of us spend a large a part of our lives, in one way or another, feeling stuck, that is in a state where a strong desire to move forward on an issue meets with an equally strong compulsion to stay fixed where one is. For example, we might at one level powerfully want to leave a job in finance in order to retrain in architecture – but at the same time, remain blocked by a range of doubts, hesitations, counter-arguments and guilty feelings. Or we might be impelled to leave our marriage – while simultaneously unable to imagine any realistic life outside it. To act feels horrific, but doing nothing is killing us as well. Every avenue appears shut off. And so one ruminates, turns over the question late at night, tries the patience of therapists – and watches life go by with mounting anxiety and self-disgust…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Julia Marchowska https://www.juliamarchowska.com/animation Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

The philosopher Spinoza shows us that our minds possess an under-appreciated ability to adopt a broader perspective, from which our anxieties appear vanishingly small - and eminently manageable. 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/eTyMq Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/1qhsJ FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2EIReVF “One of the most useful things about our minds is that they can in some moods allow us to step outside of ourselves – and consider our death from a wholly dispassionate perspective, as if it were someone else who would have to go through the event and as if we could understand it in the same way that a stranger four centuries from now might, in other words, as if it might not in the end be such a big deal at all, just an inevitable return to an atomic mulch from which our life was only ever a brief and unlikely spasm…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Natalia Ramos http://www.nataliarama.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

We long to reach a state where we can at last be happy and calm forever. But so long as we are alive, stability will always elude us for reasons we would do well to understand and accept with grace. We haven't failed if we can't reach a 'happily ever after'; we're simply very human. 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/CHN1Q Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/41aqH FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3kLam4J “What most of us long for above all else is ‘security’, the sense that we are – at last – safe on the earth. We pin our hopes for security on a shifting array of targets: a happy relationship, a house, children, a good profession, public respect, a certain sum of money… When these are ours, we fervently believe, we will finally be at peace. We may mock the term ‘happily ever after,’ synonymous as it is with naive children’s literature but in practice, we do indeed tend to live as if we could one day, somewhere over the horizon, reach a place of rest, satisfaction and safety…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Tomás Pichardo-Espaillat http://tomatico.net/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

Voltaire's phrase - you must cultivate your own garden - is one of the most famous statements in the world. But what did Voltaire mean by this - and what can we learn from it to help us live our lives today? Here is a recipe for how to survive our troubled times. 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/CoIeK Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/rdl4D FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3mtAWkg “It is crucial to note the subtitle of 18th century Europe’s most famous novel, written in three inspired days in 1759: ‘Candide – or Optimism’. If there was one central target that its author wanted satirically to destroy, it was the hope of his age, a hope that centered around science, love, technical progress and reason. Voltaire was enraged. Of course science wasn’t going to improve the world; it would merely give new power to tyrants. Of course philosophy would not be able to explain away the problem of evil; it would only show up our vanity. Of course love was an illusion; power a chimera, humans irredeemably wicked, and the future absurd. Of all this his readers were to be left in no doubt. Hope was a disease and it was Voltaire’s generous goal to try to cure us of it…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Gabriella marsh https://gabriellamarsh.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

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. 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/iXhV7 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/lsExK FURTHER READING You 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 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Andrei Verioti http://verioti.co/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

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. If 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/HqVSN Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/UmQD1 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/3jAhz6T “The purpose of language is to help us to get a better grip on reality; the more words there are in our vocabulary, the higher the chance we have of being able to describe what we want, what ails us, what is driving us mad – and then in turn, to summon the help we may badly need. It can help if the words we have to hand are pretty (and even have a long and distinguished history), but at heart, all we really require is that they should help us. Such is the case with one of the most useful terms in modern psychology: Complex PTSD…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Jesse Collett https://www.jessecollett.co.uk/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

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. 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/pe3ha Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/S4Hi5 FURTHER READING You 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 obvious that this is the bit that has to hurt. We fall asleep counting the weeks until the end. And then, finally, one day, slightly unexpectedly, the end arrives. Through slow and steady toil, we have achieved what we had been seeking for years: the book is done, the business is sold, the degree certificate is on the wall. People around us cheer and lay on a party; we might even take a holiday…" MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on WORK and CAPITALISM in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLcapitalism 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 Produced in collaboration with: Natalia Biegaj https://www.nb-animation.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

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. 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/lyKL4 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/n8p8q FURTHER READING You 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 des Martyrs, having just succumbed to a typhoid infection developed after a riding accident: he was 33 years old…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Alexandra Sasha Balan https://www.sashaanimates.com/ Sound Design: Volkan Kiziltug, www.VolkanKiziltug.com Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

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. 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/mfnBb Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/REZfD 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/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 who tell us we’re ‘bad’, people who say we should be ashamed of ourselves – or even be destroyed…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Gemma Green-Hope http://www.gemmagreenhope.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

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. 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/S5uf3 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/l8OMW FURTHER READING You 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 the earth was (4,000 years old), how many suns there were in the universe (one), how evolution had begun (by divine decree) and why rainbows existed (to remind us of God’s promise to Noah). But these lamentable attempts were finally put to an end when science was able to investigate reality with reason, asserted itself against obscurantist priests – and drove religion into the cobwebbed attic it presently resides in. Science didn’t so much replace religion (there was no need) as expunge the scourge altogether from human consciousness. As a result, we can now dwell without fear or meekness and enjoy the fruits of science and its constant, ever more astonishing technological innovations…” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on WORK and CAPITALISM in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLcapitalism 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 Produced in collaboration with: Deanca Rensyta Mihardja https://www.behance.net/deancarensa5a9 Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

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. 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/k_Zsn Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/kIJom FURTHER READING You 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 cities and suburbs, they would be amazed at our technology, impressed by our wealth, stunned by our medical advances – and shocked and disbelieving at the horrors we had managed to build. Societies that are, in most respects, hugely more advanced than those of the past have managed to construct urban environments more dispiriting, chaotic and distasteful than anything humanity has ever known…” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on CAPITALISM in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLcapitalism 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 Produced in collaboration with: Noelle Smith Design http://www.noellesmithdesign.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

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. 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/tqNFB Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/jSViE FURTHER READING You 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 together around a table, what a joy the home prepared food was and how welcoming the atmosphere seems to have been. Even the family horse might have been invited to join in…” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on HISTORY in our playlist: https://bit.ly/2V4YPCT You can submit translations and transcripts on all of our videos here: https://www.youtube.com/timedtext_cs_panel?c=UC7IcJI8PUf5Z3zKxnZvTBog&tab=2 Find out how more here: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6054623?hl=en-GB SOCIAL MEDIA Feel free to follow us at the links below: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theschooloflifelondon/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Mike Booth https://www.youtube.com/somegreybloke Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

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. FURTHER READING You 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 out often and date widely. It can take a very long time before we realise that – however much we might hope for this to be otherwise – this is not in fact us at all. For our part, we happen to get very worried before going to parties, we have felt close to death before giving speeches, any kind of social occasion perturbs us heavily, we’re left extremely jittery by encounters with news and social media, we start to feel sick if we haven’t had the chance to sit on our own and process our thoughts for a few hours every day, new places (especially bedrooms) worry us hugely, we’re very awkward about having to be responsible for anyone at work and we are extremely wary of jolliness or demonstrations of group fervour of any kind. We don’t actively hate hugs but our bodies do stiffen when someone rushes forward to embrace us (we may be working on this)...” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Damn fine media https://www.damnfinemedia.co.uk/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

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. Sign up to our mailing list to receive 10% off your first order with us: https://r1.dotdigital-pages.com/p/6TU0-63X/hellotsol If you want to keep working on your mental well-being and self-understanding, download our hugely helpful new app now: https://bit.ly/3uyXqG1 For information on The School of Life’s learning and wellbeing solutions for businesses, including workshops and talks, visit https://bit.ly/3ICqvGw Email [email protected] 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/join For books and more from The School of Life, visit our online shop: https://www.theschooloflife.com/shop/ Our website has therapy, articles and products to help you lead a more fulfilled life: https://www.theschooloflife.com/ FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects on our blog, here: https://bit.ly/2ZP0L45 "Strangely, and rather awkwardly, it seems no human being can ever really grow up sane unless it has been loved very deeply by someone for a number of years in its early life. But we’re still learning what parental love might actually involve. The word ‘love’ trips lightly off the tongue and few parents – even the most disagreeable ones – would ever resist a claim that they felt the emotion deeply, but that doesn’t mean that loving behaviour is any easier to understand in theory or practice in reality… " MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on SELF in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLself You can submit translations and transcripts on all of our videos here: https://www.youtube.com/timedtext_cs_panel?c=UC7IcJI8PUf5Z3zKxnZvTBog&tab=2 Find out how more here: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6054623?hl=en-GB SOCIAL MEDIA Feel free to follow us at the links below: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theschooloflifelondon/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Natalia Biegaj https://www.nb-animation.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

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. FURTHER 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 LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Elaine Song Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

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. 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/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-J FURTHER READING You 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 of modernity; every last hamlet and remote island has been touched by the outlook and ideology of a new era…” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on HISTORY in our playlist: https://bit.ly/2V4YPCT 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 Produced in collaboration with: Jesse Collett https://www.jessecollett.co.uk/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

Le Corbusier is perhaps the 20th century's most influential architect, responsible for persuading us of the merits of modern design on a grand scale. His work was at points hugely beautiful and accomplished, and at others, terrifying and extremely unhelpful. Our film explores Le Corbusier's mixed legacy, and what we might learn from it for the future. 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/qCFxo Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/Kvl-u FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2AzrR6J “If the idea of being a ‘modern’ person and leading a ‘modern’ life still has an exciting ring to it, it’s at least in part down to the influence of an extraordinary Swiss architect Le Corbusier, who in the first half of the twentieth century wrote books, put up buildings and designed bits of furniture that conveyed the excitement, sleekness and glamour of the modern technological world. Le Corbusier began his career by attacking the architecture of the Victorian age – and contrasting it with what he saw as the beauty and intelligence of engineering. ‘Our engineers are healthy and virile, active and useful, balanced and happy in their work,’ he exclaimed in his polemical book, Towards a New Architecture (1923), while ‘our architects are disillusioned and unemployed, boastful or peevish. This is because there will soon be nothing more for them to do. We no longer have the money to erect historical souvenirs. At the same time, everyone needs to wash! Our engineers provide for these things and so they will be our builders.’...” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on ART/ARCHITECTURE in our playlist: https://bit.ly/2XTKFF5 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 Produced in collaboration with: Mad Adam Films https://madadamfilms.co.uk/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

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. 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/SORML Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/klhUC FURTHER READING You 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 antics: their tantrums, their lack of reason, their unwillingness to compromise. Furthermore, it threatens to get a lot worse; we seem locked into a set of dynamics (political, technological, environmental) which promises an ever less patient, ever less serene and ever less forgiving future.But it may be rather more realistic, albeit odd sounding, to insist on the very opposite: that whatever the impression generated by a publically vocal angry cohort, the far more common yet (by nature) invisible problem is a contrary tendency, a widespread inability to get angry, a failure to know how rightly and effectively to mount a complaint, an inarticulate swallowing of frustration – and the bitterness, subterranean ‘acting out’ and low-level depression that follow from not allowing any of our rightful sorrows to find expression. For every one person who shouts too loudly, there are at least twenty who have unfairly lost their voice....” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on SELF in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLself You can submit translations and transcripts on all of our videos here: https://www.youtube.com/timedtext_cs_panel?c=UC7IcJI8PUf5Z3zKxnZvTBog&tab=2 Find out how more here: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6054623?hl=en-GB SOCIAL MEDIA Feel free to follow us at the links below: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theschooloflifelondon/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Nick Hilditch https://nickhilditch.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

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. 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/hjofp Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/EnyPQ FURTHER READING You 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 sufferings should be understood, our anxieties noticed and our sadness lent legitimacy. We don’t want others necessarily to agree with all our feelings, but what we crave is that they at least validate them. When we are furious, we want another person to say: I can see that you’ve been driven to distraction. It must feel very chaotic for you inside right now for you. When we are sad, we want someone to say: I know you’re unusually down and I understand the reasons why. And when we can’t take it all any more, we want someone gently to say: It’s been too much for you; I recognise that so well; of course it has…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Jesse Collett https://www.jessecollett.co.uk/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

Margaret Mead was a pioneering anthropologist who tried to understand many of the problems of modern America by comparing her society with less technologically advanced civilisations, where she spent many years doing fieldwork. She was especially interested in sexuality and in the ways in which modernity forces us into gender roles and identities that stifle our true needs. Her work remains highly useful in understanding some of our ongoing problems around sex. 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/V4CoH Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/enRcx FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2YdUDl8 “When we use ‘modern’ to describe something, it’s usually a positive. We are very appreciative and even a little smug about the miracles of modern science, the benefits of modern technology, and even the superiority of modern viewpoints. But what if, in speeding towards a new and ever-better future, we’ve left some important truths about ourselves behind? One of the people who best helped us explore this problem was Margaret Mead, perhaps the most famous anthropologist of the 20th century…” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on SOCIOLOGY in our playlist: https://bit.ly/30gyMw2 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 Produced in collaboration with: Mad Adam Films https://madadamfilms.co.uk/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

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. 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/tvuZ_ Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/q28wW FURTHER READING You 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 early figures of Modernism were united in their bitter opposition to any kind of ‘regionalism’, which they saw as reactionary, folkloric and plain mediocre. If bicycles, telephones and planes (all harbingers of the new age) weren’t going to be done up in a local style, why should buildings? Down with chalets, wigwams and gargoyles…” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on ART/ARCHITECTURE in our playlist: https://bit.ly/2XTKFF5 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 Produced in collaboration with: Khyan Mansley https://www.youtube.com/Khyan Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

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. 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/iXZBG Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/jhgxZ FURTHER READING You 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 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Deanca Rensyta Mihardja https://deancarensyta.brushd.com/about Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

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. 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/2ZPQO Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/zErzD FURTHER READING You 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 accurate and less pride-filled sense of their place in the world: they know they are extremely small beings in a hostile and unpredictable realm, that they can’t control much of what is happening around them, that their powers of understanding are limited and that there is a great deal to feel distressed, melancholy and confused about. Why not then, on a fairly regular basis, sometimes for only a few moments at a time, collapse into some highly salutary sobs at the sheer scale of the sorrow of being alive?...” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Gabriella Marsh https://gabriellamarsh.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

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. FURTHER READING You 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 thing: there have been empty days when we almost lost our minds. There was one trip that we took on our own years back that was, behind the scenes, a psychological catastrophe. We’re not really in a position to wave away the dangers of being left alone on our rock…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Tomas Espaillat http://www.tomatico.net/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

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. FURTHER READING You 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 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Mike Booth https://www.youtube.com/user/somegreybloke Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

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. 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/N6RgC Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/EABZ_ FURTHER READING You 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 dangerous. A good answer has the power to confirm and enhance the union; a bad one could blow it apart. As we try to make headway, we immediately recognise that we can’t simply say ‘everything’. We’re being asked to make choices – and our love will be deemed sincere to the extent that the choices feel accurate to their recipients…” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Noelle Smith Design http://www.noellesmithdesign.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

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. 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/MLdmi Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/FimyQ FURTHER READING You 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 of drums and flutes, organs and guitars, chants and cries, and move their arms and legs about in complicated and frenzied ways, losing themselves in the bewilderment of a dance. Dancing has a claim to be considered among the most essential and salutary activities we ever partake in. Not for nothing did Nietzsche, a painfully inhibited figure in day to day life, declare ‘I would believe only in a God who could dance’ (a comment that stands beside his equally apodictic pronouncement: ‘Without music, life would be a mistake.’)...” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Gemma Green Hope http://www.gemmagreenhope.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

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. 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/zhmnh Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/mbrbV FURTHER READING You 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 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Natalia Ramos https://www.instagram.com/natalia_ramas/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

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. 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/GQRnb Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/0fpiT FURTHER READING You 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 touching the hotel door, that all our savings might disappear in a random economic disaster and that our enemies could spread rumours that will forever disgrace and demean us…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Damn Fine Media https://www.damnfinemedia.co.uk/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

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.’ 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/RPixL Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/sbiaB FURTHER READING You can read more on this here: https://bit.ly/2xCcZ5C MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on Literature in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLliterature 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 Produced in collaboration with: Mike Booth https://www.youtube.com/somegreybloke Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

In exceptional circumstances, we need a philosophy that can help us hold on to our sanity and sense of perspective. Here is The School of Life's suggestions for how to survive the crisis emotionally. 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/tcSgt Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/rvQlk 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/3aszate “– ACCEPT: We are a miraculous, unlikely fragile species in a mysteriously oxygenated corner of the universe. We have never been and never will be complete masters of our circumstances, we remain invariably at the mercy of awesome uncontrollable forces to which we should submit with a measure of grace. – CONCEDE: Our impotence before events, the powerlessness of our mighty brains, the humbling inflicted on us by nature, our vulnerability to the absurdities of microbial life…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Matthew Hammett Knott https://www.curtisbrown.co.uk/client/matthew-hammett-knott#! Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

It's a nightmarish scenario of course, that we might never find the sort of love we long for. And yet, being prepared for such an eventuality lies at the heart of the art of living - for it is only once we are properly reconciled to the possibility of never finding love that we can be liberated from romantic ideals and can start to appreciate what remains beautiful and meaningful. 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/-FRCX Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/xMwZo FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/38ZXHEF “From the start of adulthood, we have been waiting. We understood love intuitively long before it was ever a practical possibility. We knew that it was bound up with a sense of being profoundly understood and finally able to say everything, without fear of judgement or censure. Love was a two-person conspiracy against everyone else too dumb or leaden to get ‘it’, the true nature of being alive. It had to do with fancying someone totally and the amazingness that they might fancy you back, to the extent that you could do anything with them, like rest a finger inside their mouth and ask them to bite it hard. We imagined from the first that love might be the best part of life – and we were not wrong. In the name of love, we put ourselves in extraordinary situations. We went out far more than we would have wanted. We bought fancy clothes, we thought about our hair and worried about our spots, we drank intensely coloured cocktails, we ended up at small hours in alien parts of town, in the bedrooms of people we knew weren’t right but that seemed at least in some way to be an advance on the cause. We accepted dates with people we knew were problematic because we wanted not to ossify or grow too peculiar. It wasn’t always right, in fact, it was mostly always wrong, but we kept our spirits up and told ourselves it would eventually be OK, as they kindly assured us it would be…” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Deanca Rensyta Mihardja https://www.behance.net/deancarensa5a9 Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

You can now become a channel member here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7IcJI8PUf5Z3zKxnZvTBog/join Emotional immaturity is hugely hard to spot - often lurking in people who, from the outside, look more or less their age. This is an indispensable guide to identifying the worst kinds of emotional immaturity, understanding where these come from and how we might handle them. Sign up to our mailing list to receive 10% off your first order with us: https://r1.dotdigital-pages.com/p/6TU0-63X/hellotsol If you want to keep working on your mental well-being and self-understanding, download our hugely helpful new app now: https://bit.ly/3uyXqG1 For information on The School of Life’s learning and wellbeing solutions for businesses, including workshops and talks, visit https://bit.ly/3ICqvGw Email [email protected] 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/join For gifts and more from The School of Life, visit our online shop: https://bit.ly/2TWtyAq Our website has therapy, articles and products to help you lead a more fulfilled life: https://bit.ly/2IxkSvk FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects on our blog, here: https://bit.ly/334m8zx “The best thing about physical maturity is that it’s very easy to spot; we can so easily tell when someone has another decade of growth to go – and can therefore set our expectations, and our levels of forbearance accordingly. But we have no such luxury when it comes to emotional maturity. Here we can be constantly surprised by whom we have on our hands. The most stunning forms of immaturity can coexist with all the trappings of adult life and a confident and knowledgeable manner. It may be a long time into a love affair or working relationship before we realise that we are unwittingly dealing with an emotional neophyte…” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Visit us in person at our London HQ: https://bit.ly/2vdUNhO Watch more films on SELF in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLself You can submit translations and transcripts on all of our videos here: https://www.youtube.com/timedtext_cs_panel?c=UC7IcJI8PUf5Z3zKxnZvTBog&tab=2 Find out how more here: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6054623?hl=en-GB SOCIAL MEDIA Feel free to follow us at the links below: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theschooloflifelondon/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Seed Sustainable Design https://creativeseed.co.za/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

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/vfM-P Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/HIXN7 FURTHER READING You can read more on this, here: https://bit.ly/2Tjy3Ga “We are, a lot of us, a great deal sadder, more anxious, more incomplete and more restless than we really need to be because of something very large that is missing from our lives. What’s worse, we don’t even know what this thing is and how much we crave it, because we don’t have the right concepts, experience or encouragement to help us locate it. What we long for and are slowly dying without is: community. They tell us that we are suffering for all sorts of reasons: because we’re afraid of intimacy or are low on serotonin, are beset by anxiety or trauma or are chronically dysfunctional around attachment or trust…” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Visit us in person at our London HQ: https://bit.ly/2VIp7Ms Watch more films on SELF in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLself You can submit translations and transcripts on all of our videos here: https://www.youtube.com/timedtext_cs_panel?c=UC7IcJI8PUf5Z3zKxnZvTBog&tab=2 Find out how more here: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6054623?hl=en-GB SOCIAL MEDIA Feel free to follow us at the links below: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theschooloflifelondon/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Zedem Media https://www.zedemanimations.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

Life is - it goes without saying - for the most part a tragic affair. But being clear-eyed about the horror shouldn't prevent us from taking great pleasure in the things that go right; we can laugh on our way to the gallows. 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/kMiZF Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/fAvPj 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/3c9iW9I “The arguments for approaching life in a grave, serious and unsmiling mood are overwhelming: we are clearly a profoundly wicked species, we continually perpetrate monstrous suffering on one another, our greed and viciousness know no bounds, our minds are fickle and largely out of control, no one gets through existence unscathed and everyday is bad until – eventually – the worst of all happens. The only people one could imagine smiling through this kind of horror show would be the still-too innocent or the actively deluded…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Mike Booth https://www.youtube.com/somegreybloke Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

Every life is in the end made up of a succession of moods - happy ones and sad ones, despairing ones and joyful ones. When we're in our better moods, we sometimes think we might be able to stabilise our moods completely in an optimal direction - and never shift into the more troublesome ones. But the art of living isn't to banish our moodiness, it's to learn to navigate it with wisdom and humour. 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/CWilI Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/h0w1y FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/37EQJUW “Far more than we are inclined to accept and sometimes even realise, we are creatures of mood: that is, our sense of our value as human beings is prone to extraordinary fluctuation. At times, we know how to tolerate ourselves, the future seems benevolent, we can bear who we are in the eyes of others and we can forgive ourselves for the desperate errors of the past. And then, at other points, the mood dips and we lament most of what we’ve ever done, we see ourselves as natural targets for contempt, we feel undeserving, guilty, weak and headed for retribution and disaster…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Gemma Hope Rose http://www.gemmagreenhope.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

Some of us live in such dread of ending a relationship, we'd rather sacrifice our chances of long-term happiness rather than endure a tricky few hours. But the discomfort of endings can be overcome once we understand that ending a relationship doesn't have to mean ruining things for a partner, it can actually mean saving their lives. 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/1eNyT Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/ig9C7 FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/31NTB0d “Let us imagine that we know what we want – to leave a relationship – but that we are suffering from a problem which inhibits us from acting on our wishes: we can’t bear to cause another person pain, especially another person towards whom we feel a sense of loyalty, who has been kind to us, who looks up to us for their safety and their future, who has expectations of us and with whom we might have been planning a trip to another continent in a few months. Perhaps we have come near to telling them on a dozen occasions, but always pulled back at the last moment. We tell ourselves that we’ll get around to it ‘after the holidays’, ‘once their birthday party is over’, ‘next year’, ‘in the morning’, and yet the deadlines roll by and we are still here…” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Natalia Biegaj https://www.nb-animation.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

Our schools teach us about trigonometry, the 100 years war and the properties of atoms - but they too often forget to address the one topic we really need to understand in order to make sense of our lives: ourselves. 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/A99Ov Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/TnEor FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3baWa0R "There is perhaps no greater priority in childhood than to acquire an education: it’s in the early years that we have to push ourselves with special vigour to learn the lessons, and acquire the experience, that will help us successfully manoeuvre around the pitfalls of adult life. By studying hard and intelligently, we’ll have the best chance of avoiding a middle-age of confusion and resignation, regret and sorrow. The clue to a successful adult life – we’re repeatedly told – lies in childhood education…" 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Gabriella Marsh https://www.gabriellamarsh.com/About Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

There's nothing more common and yet more peculiar than our habit, in certain moods, of feeling nostalgic for lovers whom we spent a good deal of time trying to escape from. What is this feeling and can it be trusted? 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/_ksao Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/Fj5Us FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/3aRhdWc “After considerable agony, we’ve left a relationship. We’re on our own now – and, when we can bear to be honest, it’s a little harder than we expected. We aren’t going on many dates; the central heating broke down last week; the shopping is proving a hurdle. In idle moments, we find ourselves daydreaming, returning fondly to certain occasions in the concluded relationship. There was that wintry weekend by the sea: they looked adorable walking on the beach in their thick scarf. We fed the seagulls and drank cheap white wine from paper cups on the seafront and felt connected and happy. Then there was a moment on honeymoon, when we discovered the little Vietnamese restaurant hidden away in a side street in Paris and became friends with the owner and her husband. Or we recall how, at a large party, we both realised we didn’t particularly like the other guests – it was a special, conspiratorial moment: the two of us, shoulder to shoulder, talking over just what was wrong with everyone else. We’re newly conscious of the charm of so many things that seemed ordinary at the time – coming out of the supermarket, putting everything away in the fridge and the cupboards; making soup and toasted cheese and watching television on the sofa…” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Noelle Smith Design http://www.noellesmithdesign.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

We often imagine that the best way to endear ourselves to others is never to bother to them - and always to fit in with their plans. But that's to miss out on a great yet hidden truth of social life: in certain circumstances, people quite like to be asked for help; friendship builds when we can make ourselves vulnerable enough to show our need. 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/_Q3QX Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/bdm-Z FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2G9zD6m “We tend to operate with the view that the best way to please people is not to bother them too much. We keep many of our dilemmas and confusions away from those we like, for fear of irritating or inconveniencing them and so spoiling the relationship. We may well have a voice echoing in our minds from childhood: ‘Don’t bother your mother, can’t you see she’s exhausted from her trip? Don’t bother your father, he works hard for us and he’s busy right now…’ There are powerful reasons why we equate making others happy with burdening them as little as possible. But our analysis is missing a key detail of human psychology: we like to be bothered. Not at all time and over all things, nor at the expense of our own critical needs, but fundamentally, we have a powerful urge to feel helpful. We need to be needed. All of us suffer from a fear of superfluity, which the requirements of others has a critical capacity to appease. However nice presents may be for our friends, the real gift we can offer them is an insight into our problems…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Tracy Foster http://tj-tracyfoster.squarespace.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

We're often held back by a crippling fear that we can't possibly do certain things because other people will judge us. But for those of us hemmed in by self-consciousness of this kind, there is very good news on the horizon. Amazingly, partly depressingly and partly redemptively, in reality, no one much cares... 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/p349p Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/2D0-1 FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/38cou0B “We tend to begin our lives with a deeply unrepresentative experience: that of being surrounded by people who care to an extraordinary extent about us. We look up from the dreams and confusions of early infancy and may find a smiling face or two observing us with the utmost tenderness and concern. They watch us as a rivulet of saliva leaks slowly from the corner of our mouth and rush to wipe it away as if dabbing at a precious canvas, then indulgently stroke the fine soft hairs on our delicate scalps. They declare us close to supernatural when, at last, we succeed in pulling our first smile. The applause rings for days when we take our initial steps, giggle, totter, fall, and bravely try to resume our progress. There is astonishment and beatific praise when we arduously manage to form the letters of our own name. Throughout the early years, the big people intelligently coax us into eating broccoli or peas; they make sure we put on our rubber boots when it’s raining; they dance around with us to our favourite songs, they tuck us up and sing to us when we’re feeling sad or unwell. When we’re anxious, they try very sensitively to find out what might be the matter…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Deanca Rensyta Mihardja https://www.behance.net/deancarensa5a9 Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

For too long, some of us are silent, afraid of voicing what we really want and telling others the important things that they need to hear. It isn't a good policy and with great care and compassion for ourselves, we deserve slowly to learn to discover our own voice. 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/boapr Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/FDXb3 FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2QCmgSl “Despite a lot of encouragement, despite political freedoms and psychological exhortations, we suffer, still, most of us, in silence. We don’t say quite say – until it is way too late – what is wrong, what we want, how we are angry, what we’re ashamed of and the way we would like things to be…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Peter Caires https://www.petercaires.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

We often make some very peculiar and regrettable choices on the basis of a hidden and unmentioned fear: that of being alone. But once we realise that there isn't, in fact, anything to fear about being on our own, we'll be liberated to make some far healthier decisions. 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/J6oOf Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/6FQDF FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2tEYiMX “It’s not hard to understand the fear of being alone: the empty apartment after work, the eerieness of Sunday afternoons, the sense of exclusion during the holidays… We know the agonies of being on our own very well. What is far less well understood, and less eloquently or frequently described, is the enormously high price exacted on the other side of the equation. The fear, or more often simply the phobia, of being alone is perhaps responsible for more unhappy relationships, more throttling of psychological development, more claustrophobia and more pent up misery than almost any other: it is – by any reckoning – one of the single greatest contributors to human misery and the driver of some of our weightiest and most unfortunate decisions. If only we were able to get the costs of what is for the most part a simple misapprehension clear in our minds, we might save ourselves a substantial portion of our lives…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Natalia Ramos http://www.nataliarama.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

The reason we may feel more anxious than we should lies in an unusual place: Self-hatred. If we think of ourselves as 'bad', then surely bad things must happen to bad people. One of the ways of calming down is to learn to unpack the origins of our self-suspicion and lay the ground for a more self-loving and compassionate future. 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/7lAI4 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/83vEf 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/35QicD7 "The temptation, with dealing with anxiety, is always and invariably to focus on the ostensible cause of our worry: the journey to the airport, the forthcoming speech, the letter one is waiting for, the presentation one has to hand in… But if we proceed more psychologically, we might begin in a different place. With great kindness and no disrespect, we may step past the objective content of anxiety and look instead at something else: how the anxious person feels about themselves…" 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

People tend to assume that if they're going to be in a relationship, it has to be a monogamous, long-term kind. Though that might have been true in many places for many years, there are an array of other options to consider. 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/V70-D Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/k68Dx FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2EqjRDh “To a greater extent than we perhaps realise, when it comes to what sort of relationships we are allowed to have, our societies present us with a menu with only a single option on it: The Monogamous, Cohabiting Romantic Relationship, usually served with a Side Order of Children. To be considered remotely normal, we are meant to develop overwhelming emotional and sexual feelings for one very special person, who will then become a combination of our best friend, sole sexual partner, co-parent, business associate, therapist, travel companion, property co-manager, kindergarten teacher and soulmate – and with whom we will live exclusively in one house, in one bed, for many decades, in substantial harmony and with an active tolerance for each other’s foibles and ongoing desire for their evolving appearance, till death do us part…” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: David Crisp http://www.mistercrisp.com/momeportfolio/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

Dating is always a slightly daunting process, involving the need to gather our courage to reveal that we like someone - and that they may not like us... But we're not all the same in our levels of anxiety around the dating game. For some of us, dating is especially arduous for one particular reason that we may not have considered in enough depth: our childhoods... Sign up to our new newsletter and get 10% off your first online order of a book, product or class: https://bit.ly/2LayJ9F For gifts and more from The School of Life, visit our online shop: https://bit.ly/38rH2Lc Our website has therapy, articles and products to help you lead a more fulfilled life: https://bit.ly/2PCosqT FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2sdN69s “In the course of any adult life, there will be periods when we’ll end up involved in that slightly odd, slightly unrepresentative and invariably slightly challenging activity: looking. Most people around us won’t be any the wiser, but with greater or lesser subtlety, we will be scanning: suggesting coffees and lunches, accepting every invitation, giving out our email addresses and thinking with unusual care about where to sit on train journeys. Sometimes the rigmarole will be joyful; at times, a bore. But for a portion of us, as many as one in four, it will count as one of the hardest things we ever have to do. Fun won’t remotely come into it. This will be closer to trauma. And it will be so for a reason that can feel more humiliating still: because, a long time ago now, we had a very bad childhood – one whose impact and legacy we still haven’t yet wholly mastered. It may not look like it, but babies are also looking out for love. They’re not going out in party smocks or slipping strangers’ their phone numbers. They are lying more or less immobile in cribs and are capable of little besides the occasional devastating cute smile. But they too are looking out for someone’s arms to feel safe in; for someone who can soothe them, someone who can stroke their head, tell them it will all be OK when things feel desperate and lend them a breast to suck on. They are looking – as the psychologists call it – to get attached…” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Natalia Biegaj https://www.nb-animation.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

We're often in a position of deeply hoping that someone on whom we depend might change: become (perhaps) less defensive or less angry, kinder or more thoughtful... A lot of our energy can be spent trying to prompt them to evolve. But can people in fact ever change? And how come we've ended up in a position of wanting them to change so badly? 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/rO4oT Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/UxjSh FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/363o8bB “‘Can people change?’ The question may sound somewhat abstract and disinterested, as if one were asking for a friend or for the universe, but it is likely to be a good deal more personally – and painfully – motivated than that. We ask, typically and acutely, when we’re in a relationship with someone who is inflicting a great deal of pain on us: someone who is refusing to open their hearts or can never stop lying, someone who is aggressive or detached, someone who is harming themselves or managing to devastate us. We ask too because the one immediately obvious response to frustration isn’t in this case open to us: we’re not able to simply get up and go, we are too emotionally or practically invested to give up, something roots us to the spot. And so, with the example of one troublesome human in mind, we start to wonder outwards about human nature in general, what it might be made of and how malleable it could turn out to be...” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Deanca Rensyta Mihardja https://www.behance.net/deancarensa5a9 Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

Many of us are walking around with an enormous secret burden: we deeply hate ourselves. That makes us very suspicious of anyone who likes us - and prone to staying in unfortunate romantic and professional situations that offer us far less than we deserve. We need to learn the art of becoming a better friend to ourselves. 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/jrKqR Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/E-biD 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/2QWdtv0 “There is one particularly salient question we should ask in order to measure our levels of emotional well-being: do you broadly feel that you have the right to exist and are, on balance, a good enough human being? Or, whatever your outward circumstances and achievements, do you generally feel you are a piece of excrement, who has only got through life by deluding others (who would quickly abandon you if they knew even a fraction of the truth about you) and, because you are a liar, are only ever one or two steps away from deserved humiliation and catastrophe?...” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Noelle Smith Design http://www.noellesmithdesign.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

The problem with anxious moods is that they often hide from us what it is we're actually concerned about. It feels like we're worrying about this or that, when in reality, the origin of our anxiety actually lies elsewhere. Here is a wonderfully simple tool to learn what is really on our mind - in order that we can start to address it and be liberated from 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/M4d3o Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/bVcqR FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2OtxbeB “One of the most difficult features of anxiety is that it tends to be all-consuming. It squats in the middle of our minds and refuses to let anything else in or through. Though the anxiety causes us great pain, it denies any attempts to be questioned, analysed, probed or reconfigured. We are both terrified and unable to think beyond our terror. Our thoughts become low, relentless, repetitive, stymied things: returning again and again to the issue of whether the door is locked, the accounts were signed off or the social media account is not under attack. Anxiety dominates over and excludes any other form of mental activity; all that will be in our minds is terror. Impregnable and bullying, anxiety in effect shuts down our central faculties…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Zedem Animations https://www.zedemanimations.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

Knowing how emotionally mature someone is can be the most important thing to know about them; but this knowledge may take (painful) years to acquire. This is why we've devised a very quick and very reliable test that can - in a few minutes - help us to ascertain our own and other people's level of emotional maturity. It all has to do with how one responds to 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/ms9ky Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/Z3u_8 FURTHER READING “One of the more puzzling aspects of the way we’re built is that our emotional development does not necessarily or automatically keep pace with our physical growth. We can be fifty-five on the outside and four and a half in terms of our impulses and habitual manner of communicating – just as we can be on the threshold of adulthood physically while an emotional sage within. In order to assess our own and others’ emotional development, we can make use of a single deceptively simple question that quickly gets to the core of our underlying emotional ‘age’. When someone on whom we depend emotionally lets us down, disappoints us, or leaves us hanging and uncertain, what is our characteristic way of responding?...” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Elaine Song http://www.songelaine.com Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

This is a film about being stuck in a relationship - neither happily being able to stay nor freely being able to move on. Why do we find it so hard to move forward? Where does the feeling of being stuck come from, and what might we do to overcome 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/ChK6X Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/d7vgP FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2WMpl3D “This is for those among us who are, secretly, very stuck – that is, who are entirely committed to staying, wholly tempted to leave – and entirely unable to resolve their dilemma one way or the other. We, the stuck ones, alternate between periods in which we manage to convince ourselves that it might after all be bearable and recurring crises when we acknowledge that we are – by remaining – well on the way to ruining the one life we will ever be granted. Torn between intense shame and untenable claustrophobia, weak in the face of our conundrum, we may start to fantasise that someone or something else – a parent, the government, a war, an illness, a divine command – might magically resolve the problem for us; like desperate children, we hope against hope that something might just show up...” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Gemma Green-Hope http://www.gemmagreenhope.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

We're usually taught that being loyal to people through difficulty is always the right way. But in fact, at points, a good life requires us to do something that may feel highly strange, but also highly liberating: give up on one or two people, with whom we have already tried too hard for our own good. 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/aVEQ8 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/OyfM9 FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/34afV4a “For noble and very understandable reasons, we’ve come to associate maturity and kindness with a capacity not to give up on people. Our heroes and heroines keep faith with those they love. They don’t throw in the towel when trouble rears its head. They put up with the hardships and friction. Running away is disloyalty. Many things are dispensable: people shouldn’t be…” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Creative seed https://creativeseed.co.za/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

Stoicism, Daoism, Machiavelli, Nietzsche, Existentialism, and the basics of Plato explained in a short and sweet 5-minute run. Who could tackle such a thing? Popular Toronto-based content creator AzzyLand will give us a whistlestop tour of Philosophy’s most important theories. Love learning on YouTube? Check out YouTube's new and improved learning hub (youtube.com/learning) for everything from well-being to history to how tos and all of the things in between. You'll also find more great YouTube Originals content full of your favourite YouTube Creators.

To put it differently, is acting on impulse, blinded by love, really the cleverest way of choosing the person we will be with forever? Adam Saleh, best known for his hip-hop music videos and online pranks, is a member of the dating app generation. But, as a native New Yorker of Yemeni heritage, everyone else in his family has had an arranged marriage. Now, aged 25, Adam finds out if it’s time to wave goodbye to the lure of physical attraction and short-term excitement, and open the door to logic by having an arranged marriage himself. 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/w_5Xu Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/JdbwC

No...Actually, it needs a closer look. In this episode, we look at Capitalism and Socialism by running rival cupcake stands in a downtown market in Los Angeles. There, good friends Hannah Stocking and Anwar Jibawi, two LA-based YouTube Creators best known for their comedy skits, will become rival cupcake-stand competitors. Using different economic principles, they will prove or disprove whether greed is good. Tough sell. 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/tGtla Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/3LWHS

Democracy is the most perfect system of government ever invented. It’s also delivered some of the worst decisions ever made. In this episode British rapper and YouTube creator Lady Leshurr launches a bid for power at a school in London. She will run an election campaign against experienced teachers who have the best interests of the children at heart, with a manifesto based on false hopes and empty promises. Promise this will be an invaluable lesson for all. 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/Dyefa Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/qAI-O

Technological advances in artificial intelligence (AI) are pushing the boundaries of the characteristics that define a machine. One of those characteristics is something that we once believed to be a strictly-human attribute: the ability to make art. Luzu, originally from Spain but who now lives in LA, established his global reputation on YouTube playing video games. Luzu will meet an AI that creates art and will face a test to see if he can identify art created by this machine when it’s up against art created by humans. 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/sF9F5 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/pPWHl 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/

Anxiety has replaced depression as the number one mental health issue amongst teens. In this timely episode, we will explore the best ways to stop being anxious about being anxious. How? By following the journey of actual teenagers experiencing anxiety as they go discover how to deal with this ailment. Meet Spanish twins Emilio and Ivan Martinez (The Martinez Twins) who moved away from home to live in LA, where they built a fanbase of over four million subscribers with their content. Without family support, barely speaking any English, and the pressure to create content pushed these young creators into overwhelming feelings of anxiety. 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/CIUWI Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/-uuph

This is the BIG one, the question that has been searched for as long as humans have traveled the earth. Perspective on this matter is everything. One such perspective comes from British YouTube creator Jessica Kellgren-Fozard, who suffers from two rare nerve disorders as well as having impaired hearing, vision and mobility. In this episode, she shares her Seven Secrets of Happiness. 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/i5iOP Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/MTZ9D 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/

Emotional Education is at the core of what we need to lead a fulfilled life - and is what The School of Life teaches online and in physical branches around the world. In this film, founder of The School, Alain de Botton discusses what emotional education is - and why we so badly need it. This lecture was recorded at the Cliveden Literary Festival on the 28th of September, 2019. For more on this festival, see here: http://clivedenliteraryfestival.org/ 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/Khkwl Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/LLEAl 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 Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

We are - most of us - incredibly bad at choosing partners who will make us happy and who will be warm and supportive. It may look like bad luck but it is far worse than this: it is an unconscious strategy to frustrate ourselves that we need to understand in order to overcome it once and for all. 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/MuLfw Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/IoTx6 FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2nPnmy6 “The fastest, easiest and most inadvertent technique for messing up one’s life remains that of getting into a serious relationship with the wrong person: with very little effort, and without any innate taste for catastrophe, one can end up – by middle age or earlier – contemplating wholesale financial ruin, loss of parental rights, social opprobrium, homelessness, nervous exhaustion and shattered esteem, to begin a lengthy list of harrowing side-effects…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Damn Fine Media https://www.damnfinemedia.co.uk/about Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

Launching 8th of October, The School of.. will air for 3 weeks over 7 episodes. The School of… is the new series that tackles life’s eternal, moral and ethical issues with the simplicity and wit that only The School of Life can bring. Follow as YouTube Creators go on a quest for answers to some of life’s biggest questions. Featuring The Martinez Twins, Adam Saleh, Lady Leshurr, Luzu, Jessica Kellgren-Fozard, Hannah Stocking, Anwar Jibawi and Azzyland.

This is a film for those moments when we (again) hit rock bottom, when we're back in that old familiar place where nothing feels right, we hate ourselves and the future looks bleak. It's so easy to be sad - but maybe there could be another option? Maybe we could learn to make friends with despair and move beyond it... FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2mrQzhy “Maybe you’ve crashed again – and you’re in the dark familiar place. As ever, one mess-up reminds you of all the fiascos you’ve generated in the past and, more broadly, of your fundamental idiocy and – beyond that – the doubtful nature of your entire existence. The next steps from here are well known: retreat, despair, flagellation, feeling yet smaller, ever greater doubt and deeper self-loathing. You have mined this cavern expertly over the years. Maybe – before this latest mini catastrophe – you’d been feeling a bit stronger, you’d come to expect a little more of life. As if! This is a return to reality; you are back now where you assume you belong, the sad subterranean place from which you should have never have sought to escape…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Noelle Smith Design http://www.noellesmithdesign.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

The weird thing about relationships is that the more we get to know someone, the harder it can be to desire them - and vice versa. What explains the curious way in which love and desire often split apart? Why can it be so hard to desire a person once one lives with them and cares deeply for them? 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/q6-RW Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/h2MpB 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/2lPCP07 “One of the frequent and painful paradoxes of romantic life is that the more we get to know and love someone, the harder it can be to summon up any sincere wish to sleep with them. Intimacy and closeness, far from fostering deeper sexual desire, can be the very ingredients that destroy excitement – whereas having only just recently met a person and not feeling too much for them can set up awkward yet ideal preconditions for wanting very badly to take them to bed…” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Daniel Stankler http://danstan.co.uk/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

We're taught to think very badly of selfishness but in truth, completely obliterating ourselves and living only for others and their wants (as it can be so easy to do) may be a fast route to depression and inner numbness. We may need - on occasion - to do something that sounds rather surprising: relearn how to be beautifully and intelligently selfish. 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/Zr2yb Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/hJ8Wh FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2k6fl6a “From a young age, we are taught that one of the greatest risks to our integrity and flourishing is our own selfishness. We must – wherever possible – learn to think more of other people, keep in mind how often we fail to see things from their point of view, and be aware of the small and large ways in which we disadvantage and ignore collective interests. Being good means, at its most basic, putting other people more squarely at the center of our lives. But for some of us, the problem isn’t so much that we are heedless to this advice, rather that we take it far too closely and remorselessly to heart. So mindful are we of the risks of selfishness, we run into an opposite danger: an abnegation of the self, a modesty that borders on self-erasure, an automatic impulse to give everything over to competing parties, a shyness about pressing oneself forward and a manic inability to say ‘no’ or cause the slightest frustration to others.” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Gabriella Marsh https://gabriellamarsh.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

We have published a new book, a collection of our very best writings. This film is released to coincide with the publication of our landmark new book The School of Life: An Emotional Education, an anthology of our most important writing of the last decade. 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/6bxON Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/Nro46 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 Produced in collaboration with: Zedem Animation https://www.zedemanimations.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

We live in a culture that hugely values activity and 'hard work'. But - paradoxically - the hardest work we can sometimes do is to stop rushing around and, for once, sit with our thoughts, analyse our feelings, take stock of where we are and understand ourselves better. From the outside, it might look as though we're being lazy. But we're in fact doing the hard work of processing our emotions, in a way that can be hugely helpful to our mental well-being and, in its way, remarkably difficult. 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/RxuvV Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/n5Z_D FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2Uh2sUu “At times, perhaps without quite knowing why, we slip into a resolutely ‘lazy’ mood. We’re simply not able to write anything new or can’t face setting up more meetings. We don’t want to clean the fridge or go out to befriend prospective clients. All we have an appetite for, it seems, is to loll on the sofa and maybe dip randomly into a book, wander down to the shops and buy a packet of biscuits or spend an hour or so soaking in the bath. We might, at an extreme, merely want to sit by the window and stare at the clouds. For a long time.” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Andrei Verioti http://verioti.co/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

Though one might imagine that it's the available ones who charm us, the curious truth is that very often it's the elusive, not-returning-our-calls ones that really develop a power over us. This is a film that seeks to explain the curious hold that unavailable people have over our psyches. 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/YvWZH Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/uJ__A FURTHER READING You can read more on this here: https://bit.ly/2Nq6mJz MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships You can submit translations and transcripts on all of our videos here: https://www.youtube.com/timedtext_cs_panel?c=UC7IcJI8PUf5Z3zKxnZvTBog&tab=2 Find out how more here: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6054623?hl=en-GB 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 Produced in collaboration with: Zedem Animations https://www.zedemanimations.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

What many of us long for more than anything else is a simpler life; we feel overwhelmed by our responsibilities, schedules, commitments and obligations. This is a film about how to create the simpler life we deserve. 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/pAGFa Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/VA5eJ 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 here: https://bit.ly/30m0nJ6 “It is well understood by good parents that life should only ever get so exciting for a baby: after friends have come around and brought presents and made animated faces, after there has been some cake and some cuddles, after there have been a lot of bright lights and perhaps some songs too, enough is enough. The baby will start to look stern and then burst into tears and the wise parent knows that nothing is particularly wrong (though the baby may by now be wailing): it is just time for a nap. The brain needs to process, digest and divide up the welter of experiences that have been ingested, and so the curtains are drawn, baby is laid down next to the soft toys and soon it is asleep and calm descends. Everyone knows that life is going to be a lot more manageable again in an hour.” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Gemma Hope-Green http://www.gemmagreenhope.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

We are collectively obsessed with the idea that an attractive person is, first and foremost, someone who looks terrific. But that's to ignore the widespread phenomenon of the objectively good looking individual who nevertheless fails to hold much appeal - and vice versa. Here is a guide to the psychology of that too seldom earnestly-studied issue: hotness. 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/pSQeI Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/t2utm FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2KDkrQG “Understandably enough, our societies pay vast attention to the idea of ‘sexiness’; far more questionably, they tempt us to believe that it might be easy to understand what this quality consists of. The leading suggestion takes its starting point from the biological sciences: we learn that sex aims at successful reproduction and genetic fitness in the coming generation. Therefore ‘sexiness’ must logically comprise a host of semi-conscious signals of fertility and of resistance to disease: bilateral facial symmetry, large bright pupils, full lips, youthful skin and melanin-rich hair…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Creative Seed https://creativeseed.co.za/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

The hardest people to break up with are those who tell us they love us while, simultaneously, not in fact behaving in a loving way towards us. They force us to eject them from our lives while denying us the sense that we have any right to do so. They say the right words without ever doing the right things. They play dangerously with our minds. Here is a short guide to extricating ourselves and saving our sanity. 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/I5Omk Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/k2Y4b FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2YJvxsq “Break-ups are almost invariably difficult, but that isn’t to say there aren’t different degrees of complexity at stake in different constellations. Nor does it preclude the existence of a cataclysmically painful but too-little known type whom we can call the hardest person in the world to break up with. A relationship with them begins like this: you’re very drawn to them. Perhaps they very much attract you physically and their personality is compelling as well. You admire them and, in areas, feel a lot of sympathy for them too; there’s probably something in their past which really interests and touches you. You have no desire to break up, and in fact, you’d love this to last till the end.” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Artrake Studio Animations https://www.artrake.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

We're often hugely ambitious about our plans for happiness, picturing the years of joy we want to set in motion. However, at points, we should realise the greater wisdom of learning to enjoy the day already in hand, and drawing satisfaction from that most precious and most neglected of units of time; the present moment. 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/YvWZH Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/uJ__A FURTHER READING You can read more here: https://bit.ly/2K50Ate MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Visit us in person at our London HQ: https://bit.ly/2LPDVV5 Watch more films on SELF in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLself You can submit translations and transcripts on all of our videos here: https://www.youtube.com/timedtext_cs_panel?c=UC7IcJI8PUf5Z3zKxnZvTBog&tab=2 Find out how more here: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6054623?hl=en-GB 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 Produced in collaboration with: Natalia Biegaj https://www.nb-animation.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

Many of us walk the earth with a feeling that, in order to acceptable, we need to be something very special indeed. It could sound like ambition, but it's closer to neurosis - and a source of constant and unnecessary pain. Here are some tips to unwind the affliction. 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/9NFtN Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/CqXmo FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2ZaayQv “It’s a rather simple question that quickly gets to the core of someone’s sense of well-being and legitimacy: did your childhood leave you feeling that you were – on balance – OK as you were? Or did you somewhere along the way derive an impression that you needed to be extraordinary in order to deserve a place on the earth? And, to raise an associated question: are you therefore now relaxed about your status in life? Or have you become either a manic overachiever or filled with shame at your so-called mediocrity?” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Noelle Smith Design http://www.noellesmithdesign.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

Despite appearances to the contrary, many of us adults are still - secretly - at school. It isn't that we actually go to school, just that we inhabit the mindsets that schools love to inculcate and that involve a high degree of passivity, resignation and unhelpful compliance. To honour our potential, it may - finally - be time to leave school! 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/xWnpU Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/d45xM FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2Y7UG3G “Technically, most of us leave school at 18 – an event that tends to be vividly etched in memory and surrounded by considerable ceremony and emotion. And yet, rather oddly, despite appearances, many of us in fact don’t manage to leave school at that point at all. In a deep part of our minds, we may still be there, deep into adulthood, not sitting in a classroom precisely, but in terms of how our minds work, as much stuck within the confines of a school-based world-view as if we were showing up for assembly every day – generating immense and unnecessary degrees of unhappiness and compromise for ourselves in the process…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Deanca Rensyta Mihardja https://www.behance.net/deancarensa5a9 Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

One of the greatest sources of anxiety and despair is the feeling that there can only be one answer to major problems we face: one ideal job, one ideal lover, one ideal way of life... But we should consider the extent to which there is always, just below the surface, a Plan B available. Flexing our mental Plan B muscle hugely expands our sense of safety and spontaneity. 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/vOrpY Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/2nVZl FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2XU0VYF “We grow up – inevitably – with a strong attachment to a plan A, that is, an idea of how our lives will go and what we need to do to achieve our particular set of well-defined goals. For example, we’ll do four years of law school, then move out west, buy a house and start a family. Or, we’ll go to medical school for 7 years, then go to another country and train in our speciality of interest and hope to retire by fifty. Or we’ll get married and raise two children with an emphasis on the outdoors and doing good in the world…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Natalia Ramas http://www.nataliarama.com @natalia_ramas Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

Depression doesn't have to ruin our lives. The most urgent thing we need to do is understand the ways in which depression is unlike sadness - and why self-understanding is the primary route to a cure. 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/ft0IG Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/F3xUQ 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/2NtQKq0 “Almost half of us will suffer from depression at some point in our lives, but the condition remains badly misunderstood and therefore often poorly treated. At the heart of our collective difficulty with depression is a confusion about what it actually is – and in particular, how it can be distinguished from a state all of us know very well and with which it is has a distracting number of similarities, namely sadness. It’s because we unwittingly tend to apply to cases of depression a number of assumptions drawn from, and better suited to, an understanding of sadness that we end up suffering far more than we should…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Nick Hilditch https://nickhilditch.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

Panic Attacks - feelings of overwhelming worry - are a hugely normal and highly survivable feature of being an ordinary human being. What we need is simply a few rules as to how to handle them when they wash over us. 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/mk82a Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/QI1r8 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/2X7sDlm “During a panic attack, the pervasive worry that we normally carry within us and that is typically content merely gently to corrode away our lives promptly changes tack and decides it might be better to try to kill us off instead – preferably very soon.We’re meant to give an hour-long speech in a couple of minutes but we stand petrified in the wings of the theatre, our mouth entirely dry, our heart racing and our mind unable to remember so much as the first letters of the alphabet, let alone what our name is.” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Julia Marchowska https://julia-marchowska.format.com/my-gallery Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

It sounds peculiar but many of us are, beneath the surface, surprisingly scared of the one thing we all say we want: happiness. We can be remarkably skilled at dodging an emotion that is scary because it feels so unfamiliar and so illegal (for us). We should - of course - learn to outgrow our inhibition and give happiness the place it deserves in our lives. 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/YTVGN Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/5BZtp FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2Kpo3br “Given how much we all long to be happy, we might presume that accepting the possibility of happiness in our lives would be an uncomplicated, serene and automatic process. But for many of us, however theoretically attached we might be to the notion of being happy, the possibility of actually being so is liable to trigger deep ambivalence and fear. We would – it appears – often prefer to be worried and sad rather than attempt take on the risks surreptitiously connected in our minds with positive moods. We may – however paradoxical it sounds – be nothing less than afraid to be happy…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: David Crisp http://www.mistercrisp.com/momeportfolio/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

We spend an inordinate amount of time worrying 'what other people think.' But for some of us, there may come a time when we need to step beyond living for our reputation in the eyes of others - and have to learn how to cope without the warm blanket of social status. Here is a guide. 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/ALYf4 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/p0LCT FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2XAac53 “Reputation might be defined as the claim that one can make on the goodwill of strangers; it is what your name will mean to those who don’t know you, who spend almost no time thinking of you. It’s what you will get reduced to when you aren’t illuminated by love. How your reputation is assessed depends on the extent to which you have fulfilled, or violated, the ideals and aspirations of your society. Most of us are properly known to, and liked by, five to ten people. When it comes to everyone else, reputation is what will decide what we have been worth...” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on Work and Capitalism in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLcapitalism 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 Produced in collaboration with: Danny Moran http://madadamfilms.co.uk/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

One of the hardest things in the universe to understand is the interior of our own minds: we can have spent decades on the earth before we've grasped even very basic things about who we are and how we function. It's not for nothing that the Ancient Greeks felt philosophy had only one command: Know yourself! But however arduous, the journey can be facilitated by a few well-aimed bits of advice… 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/5PEog Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/-xgih FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://www.theschooloflife.com/thebookoflife/knowing-who-one-is/ “In Ancient Greece, the philosopher Socrates famously declared that the unexamined life was not worth living. Asked to sum up what all philosophical commandments could be reduced to, he replied: ‘Know yourself.’ Knowing yourself has extraordinary prestige in our culture. It has been framed as quite literally the meaning of life.” 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/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Creative Seed https://creativeseed.co.za/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

A great many of us have - in one way or another - been traumatised somewhere in our past. Not only have we suffered greatly, we are likely not to have been able properly to process and digest what we have gone through. A key feature of a good life is a capacity to look our trauma in the eye; and ensure that the future can be a whole lot more hopeful than the past. 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/mEznD Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/ADyXC 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/2JJXPQm “Psychological trauma can be defined as a negative event so overwhelming that we cannot properly understand, process or move on from it – but, and this is the devilish aspect to it, nor can we properly remember it or reflect upon its nature and its effects on us. It is lodged within us but remains hidden from us, making its presence known only via symptoms and pains, altering our sense of reality without alerting us to its devilish subterranean operations.” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Sophia Pashaei https://www.sofiapashaei.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

However old we might be, none of us is ever quite emotionally mature - but having a list to hand of what maturity consists of might be a way of keeping score and nudging ourselves in the right direction. Here is a comprehensive list of what maturity might comprise. 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/BIDTc Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/jjFEx FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2YIRLuO “1. You realise that most of the bad behaviour of other people really comes down to fear and anxiety – rather than, as it is generally easier to presume, nastiness or idiocy. You loosen your hold on self-righteousness and stop thinking of the world as populated by either monsters or fools. It makes things less black and white at first, but in time, a great deal more interesting. 2. You learn that what is in your head can’t automatically be understood by other people. You realise that, unfortunately, you will have to articulate your intentions and feelings with the use of words – and can’t fairly blame others for not getting what you mean until you’ve spoken calmly and clearly.” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Sophie Olga De Jong http://www.sophieolga.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

It can be painfully scary to ask a partner if they still love us. So at points when we feel insecure, we may be tempted to go in for a very understandable but very counter--productive strategy: attention-seeking, that is irritating or nagging them to notice us, rather than making ourselves sufficiently vulnerable to ask them for the reassurance we crave. 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/hLl6e Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/i1W2m FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2WEhvrZ “One of the most obvious but in practice very hardest things to ask a partner, even one we name in our will and whose life is entirely entwined with ours, is: ‘Do you still love me?’ There would be so many reasons why they might not do so any more: we might have driven them to the limit with our admittedly at points really rather challenging behaviour. We’re not getting any younger. There are a lot of other people – especially at work and in the invisible parts of their life – who would have great things to offer them. It’s hard to trust anyone, given what can happen. Furthermore, the signs aren’t necessarily very good at the moment. They spend a lot of time on their phones. They’re a bit distracted. Their thoughts seem elsewhere.” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Gemma Green-Hope http://www.gemmagreenhope.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

A lot of people are - rightly - very sceptical of what goes on under the word 'spirituality.' But might there be something of value nevertheless in aspects of what people call the spiritual? A short guide to what a highly rational mind might learn to appreciate within the concept of 'the spiritual.' 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/F4mSg Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/4xX_R FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2VWAl0o “The word spirituality has a capacity to divide people like few others. For some, it’s an innately beautiful touchstone, the designator of a special kind of experience that is so valuable, it is best left reverentially unexplored and pure, lest one disturb its ethereal mysteries with the cold hand of reason. For others, it’s nonsensical bunkum of appeal only to adolescent dreamers, the underemployed and the weak minded. But precisely because ‘spiritual experiences’ are so often either worshiped or derided, it pays to try to submit them to dispassionate and sober examination, not in order a priori to crush them or honour them, but so as to make them more intelligible, to friend and foe alike. Whatever our suspicions, spiritual moments are capable of being pinned down, split into their constituent elements and assessed with due regard. One should – and can – get respectfully rational about spirituality.” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Natalia Biegaj https://www.nb-animation.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

Many of us are prone to feelings of intense anxiety - and at the same time, experience immense shame for doing so. Yet there is nothing remotely embarrassing about being highly susceptible to anxiety. We need to understand the origins of our moods and learn to talk about them with an open heart and a resolute mind. 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/y53fm Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/3d_AF FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2GIVT6M “Every human worries on occasion, but for some of us, the suffering is on a quite different and more life-destroying scale: we are, without wishing to be ungrateful or absurd, more or less permanently anxious.What makes matters so hard for us, the anxious, is that we are unable to maintain a distinction between what objectively deserves terror and what automatically and unthinkingly provokes terror. The quintessential calming question – ‘Is there actually anything to be scared of here?’ – can’t even enter consciousness: there’s no sense that a benign response could even be possible.” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Peter Caires https://www.petercaires.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

One of the most intimidating things we're ever called to do is to introduce ourselves to a stranger in a social context. Knowing how to pull this off isn't a small question of etiquette, it goes right to the heart of knowing how to feel we deserve to exist and need not feel crippled by shame. 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/t7BHp Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/eXQFA FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2GrKgRB “A party at the house of a friend, eleven o’clock, on a still-warm evening. A metre away from you, a group of people are chatting animatedly. Someone is telling an anecdote, it might be something about a train ride they took or the mishaps on someone’s bicycle, and their companions break in occasionally with rich laughter and stories of their own. The group as a whole seem confident and attractive and the main narrator especially so. But there may as well be a high solid brick wall or a lamprey-filled moat between you and they. There is resolutely no way you could ever move in to say hello. You smile your characteristic weak, loser’s smile, pretend to study the bookshelf – and leave the gathering ten minutes later.” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Alexandra Balan https://www.sashaanimates.com/about Sound Design: Volkan Kiziltug, www.VolkanKiziltug.com Music: "Chill Wave" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/ #SchoolOfLife #HowTo #Socialize

Regularly exchanging a kiss with one's partner may seem a trivial matter, but in truth, it creates a vital point of connection which might help to save a relationship over the long term. We should take our kisses seriously. 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/ib-6N Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/7h06- FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2IBGQOP “One of the constantly surprising aspects of relationships is just how much reassurance we need to believe that we are actively wanted – and, equally, how easy it is to forget this awkward fact both about ourselves and the other person. The standard narrative of love tells us that insecurity about being wanted is going to be at its height at the start of the dating period, when we are acutely – and rather sweetly – conscious of the many ways in which our partner might not be keen on taking things further. But, we assume, once a relationship has started, once there might be children, a home and an established pattern of life, then surely the fear of being unwanted should disappear...” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Deanca Rensyta Mihardja https://www.behance.net/deancarensa5a9 Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/ #SchoolOfLife #Relationships #Kiss

Maslow's Hierarchy, (or Pyramid), of Needs is one of the central ideas in modern economics and sociology. The work of a once little-known American psychologist, it has grown into an indispensable guide to understanding the modern world. This film explains who Maslow was, what his pyramid is, and why it matters so much. 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/Cpyku Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/SNwEg 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 here: https://bit.ly/2WQcz2G MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Visit us in person at our London HQ: https://bit.ly/2UoJAGt Watch more films on Work and Capitalism in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLcapitalism You can submit translations and transcripts on all of our videos here: https://www.youtube.com/timedtext_cs_panel?c=UC7IcJI8PUf5Z3zKxnZvTBog&tab=2 Find out how more here: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6054623?hl=en-GB 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 Produced in collaboration with: Mike Booth https://www.youtube.com/somegreybloke Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

Expecting that a romantic partner could answer all of our needs might sound very beautiful; but such idealism is in reality rather counter-productive, rendering us impatient, angry and ultimately bitter. We'd be advised to do something slightly unusual in order to love someone properly: expect a bit less of them. 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/1HjKO Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/QiLac FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2U9LnPA “It can feel very weird, and a bit threatening, to talk about taking the pressure off a relationship. Our collective, inherited Romantic culture likes to imagine functioning couples doing more or less everything together and being the centre of each other’s lives. The good couple is, we are told, one in which two people mean more or less everything to one another.” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Gemma Green-Hope http://www.gemmagreenhope.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

Many things go wrong in a childhood and so, understandably, we might want to try (as adults) to have a conversation with our parents about what happened when we were small. But a lot of the time, we'll draw a blank: if they were capable of understanding our complaint, they would probably not have frustrated us in the first place. 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/bpAZF Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/Mofr7 FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2urcMgH 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Khyan Mansley https://www.twitter.com/khyan?lang=en-gb

Our partners are usually the sources of encouragement and development, but there are times when - for a variety of their reasons - they would prefer for us not to grow, not to develop, not to change. We should explore the fears that lead them to stop us becoming who we are. 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/3R_uY Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/1xZBJ FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2HS92ww MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Nick Hilditch http://nickhilditch.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

Part of the reason it's so hard to get over a crush is because we have no idea who our beloved really is: we idealise them because we have such a basic idea of who they really are. The best cure for love is therefore simple in structure: get to know them better… 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/h0uFJ Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/Xi9b0 FURTHER READING You can read more on this here: https://bit.ly/2TJOBJp MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships You can submit translations and transcripts on all of our videos here: https://www.youtube.com/timedtext_cs_panel?c=UC7IcJI8PUf5Z3zKxnZvTBog&tab=2 Find out how more here: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6054623?hl=en-GB SOCIAL MEDIA Feel free to follow us at the links below: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theschooloflifelondon/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Khyan Mansley https://mobile.twitter.com/khyan?lang=en

The pain that follows the end of any relationship can be hugely aggravated by our sense that the reason they ended it was because they discovered the truth about us: that we are miserable, awful, ugly wretches. But that's highly unlikely to be true - and says more about our psyches than it does about reality. The pain of the end of love can be mitigated by exploring how we feel about ourselves. 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/JV899 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/7l5w1 FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2JiwWDO “They’ve gone – and what we need most of all to understand is why? What is striking is that, despite what friends and well-meaning acquaintances tell us, we already know. It is us. We firmly and naturally assume that the explanation is primarily to do with us and our miserable failings. They’ve gone because we weren’t good enough. They got to know us better than almost anyone has ever done – and then, inevitably, felt horrified by the truth. It’s not the relationship that failed: we failed.” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Josh Saunders https://www.joshphilipsaunders.co.uk/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

Honesty is normally a very good thing; but is it always and at all points valuable within a relationship? Are there any things better left unsaid? 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/0rKXO Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/p5f_W FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2NVFcbw MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Khyan Mansley https://mobile.twitter.com/khyan?lang=en

We might assume that people are either interesting or boring by nature. Far from it, being boring to others is a very avoidable mistake; and it is open to all of us to learn the art of proving interesting. 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/yE_yy Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/ItOnX FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2EQ6xIc “Some of the reason why we end up being inadvertently rude to people is that they are so polite with us, a politeness which gives us precious little indication of the ways in which we may be gravely offending, inconveniencing or boring them.” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Reflective Films http://www.reflectivefilms.co.uk/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

We all tend to say that we want to get together with a nice person; but in reality, 'nice people' can be very challenging to be in a relationship with - especially if we're not convinced of our own loveability. 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/8-YYE Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/4NL33 FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2tKJQjy MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Khyan Mansley https://twitter.com/khyan

Even the most normally eloquent and chatty people have a habit of falling silent with embarrassment on a date; here is a complete guide to the very best topics to discuss in order to make a date feel natural and, most importantly, effective. 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/GDxfM Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/liweQ FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2HetY0F “Our initial impulse might be to pick up on a current event, some detail of the environment or a few impressive things about our careers. But if a date is at heart an audition for the emotional capacities required for the success of a long-term relationship, the real purpose of conversation must be to try to understand the deep self of the other person.” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Direction, design and editing: Kim Alexander Animation: Kim Alexander, Anna Fyda, Ana García Sebastiá, Olga Makarchuk Background art: Kim Alexander, Toby Alexander Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

At dark moments when it seems our partner just doesn't care at all about us and barely remembers we exist, there is one sure fire way of attracting their attention once more: reminding them that we have choices, that we could be with someone else... MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Khyan Mansley https://twitter.com/khyan Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

We'd perhaps all like to be the sort of person that our friends feel they can confide in when they have difficulties and sorrows. But in reality, being seen as a trustworthy ally one can turn to at dark moments is a bit of an art. Here are the secrets of being a good confidant. 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/uYgtm Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/cRrGi FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2RUTTfu “It is a mark of character to be thought of as someone that others can safely confide in; there is a high degree of empathy, generosity and open-mindedness implied in being the person that friends instinctively turn to when everything has gone dark. But we may come to realise that, despite our best intentions, often others do not quite see us in this way. If we ask them directly what the matter is, they try to look cheerful and insist that everything is fine. We know it can’t be but nor do they seem inclined to open up to us. We end up lonely and a little helpless.” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Natalia Biegaj https://www.nb-animation.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

It's easy to feel, when we are in a couple, that it might be a lot more fun to be single: and - of course - vice versa. Which of these stories is true though? 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/iKGqp Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/4AF8s MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIP in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationship 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 Produced in collaboration with: Khyan Mansley https://twitter.com/khyan

There's a particular kind of argument that can take place in a relationship when one person starts to be - provocatively - too 'rational' and logical. It sounds like this might be a clever and good move, but excessive logic can constitute a kind of obtuseness all of its own. 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/KSyx8 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/aeDSg FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2DwEVqF “It seems odd at first to imagine that we might get angry, even maddened, by a partner because they were, in the course of a discussion, proving to be too reasonable and too logical. We are used to thinking highly of reason and logic. We are not normally enemies of evidence and rationality. How then could these ingredients become problematic in the course of love? But from close up, considered with sufficient imagination, our suspicion can make a lot of sense. When we are in difficulties what we may primarily be seeking from our partners is a sense that they understand what we are going through. We are not looking for answers (the problems may be too large for there to be any obvious ones) so much as comfort, reassurance and fellow-feeling. In the circumstances, the deployment of an overly logical stance may come across not as an act of kindness, but as a species of disguised impatience.” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Creative Seed https://creativeseed.co.za/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

Polyamory sounds like a fantastic idea: all the joys of exploration and all the security of a solid relationship. But can the reality really measure up? 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/DRLK5 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/5Wmws MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Khyan Mansley https://twitter.com/khyan

Coming soon: a new series - Know Yourself - by the School of Life takes a look at modern relationships - and their joys and sorrows. 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/Fgse8 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/rfsCM FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2SQwhxb MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Khyan Mansley https://twitter.com/khyan Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

There's a special kind of argument that can arise in a couple when, for a range of reasons, there hasn't been enough sex. Unfortunately, couples tend to feel too ashamed to mention what the argument is really about - and so squabble about essentially unrelated things. Even worse, the fact there are arguments makes it ever less likely that sex will actually take place in the future. The couple is stuck in a cycle that needs to be understood - and then broken. 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/mKUOb Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/M1j-8 FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2Dy0R4U “It could, on the surface, be an argument about almost anything: what time to leave for the airport, who forgot to post the tax form, where to send the children to school… But, in reality, in disguise, unmentioned and unmentionable, it is typically the very same argument, the no-sex argument…” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: David Crisp http://www.mistercrisp.com/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

Many of us want a job that is 'creative', but the reality of the jobs market can seriously challenge our hopes. Why are there not more creative positions? What do we really want when we use this word 'creative'? Using this film to understand the economy in greater depth can help us see our options and understand our pains. 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/F9TCF Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/--7fE FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2GnacPR “For many of us, our strongest and at the same time vaguest desire is to be more creative. And when we think about what it would mean to be creative, we arrive at a dauntingly fixed range of jobs. We might be visually creative: and so identify that we want to be a painter, photographer, film-maker, designer or architect. We might be intellectually creative: and so want to be a novelist, journalist or academic. We might be musically creative: and so want to start a band. Or we might be sensorily creative: and so want to start a restaurant. The problem is that securing any of these jobs is – statistically speaking – almost impossible. We end up blocked, sure of what we want to be, yet also unable to break into our chosen field.” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on WORK and CAPITALISM in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLcapitalism 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 Produced in collaboration with: Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/ Title animation produced in collaboration with: Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

It sounds odd but there are times when we deliberately want to make our partner sad, not because we are evil, but because their cheeriness leaves us feeling abandoned and isolated. The dynamic isn't mature, but it's certainly worthy of analysis - and a little education. 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/3j4Lz Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/KFj3p FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2SohZUe “There is a kind of argument that begins with one partner deliberately – and for no immediately obvious reason – attempting to spoil the good mood and high spirits of the other. The cheerful partner may be cooking a cake for their visiting nephew or whistling a tune while they rearrange the kitchen. They may be making plans for the weekend or discussing what fun it will be to see an old school friend again soon. Or they may be expressing unusual optimism about their professional future and financial prospects.” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Peter Caires @peterlikesthis www.petercaires.com Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

We're generally taught nowadays to think very well of ourselves - and look with horror at religions' suggestions that we conceive of ourselves as 'sinners'. Yet, paradoxically, thinking of yourself as by nature a little sinful can lie at the origins of some very fine and noble traits of character. 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/oYy1u Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/RU-18 FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2sWtMdL “One of the strangest ideas bequeathed to us by religion is the notion that it might be wise and socially beneficial to think of ourselves as being, every one of us, sinners. This seems, at first glance, both patently untrue – and deeply unhelpful. The vast majority of us have committed no particularly egregious crime and might feel understandably targeted and shamed to have to carry such a dark and archaic title. Furthermore, a burden of non-specific guilt seems like a sure route to damaged morale and a hounded personality.” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/ Title animation produced in collaboration with Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

Many of us struggle to cope with partners who are by their nature emotionally avoidant. Part of the solution comes from recognising the challenges involved, having sympathy for what makes people avoidant and learning to apply some well-tested new patterns of behaviour. 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/nS7en Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/pVSiJ FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2CT2kSK “There are, for many of us, few people as attractive as the avoidant; the sort that are permanently a little mysterious; who don’t speak so much; around whom one never quite knows where one is; in whose eyes there is a faraway look, and perhaps a certain melancholy too; in whose hearts we intuit a sadness we long to, but never quite can, touch; people who seem to promise us intimacy and connection, and yet who remain – however long we have been with them – mesmerisingly unreassuring.” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Lottie Kingslake https://lottiekingslake.co.uk/work Title animation produced in collaboration with: Vale Productions https://www.valeproductions.co.uk/

Without quite knowing we do this, we often behave as if other people should understand what we want and feel by magic, without us putting things into words. It's a relic from childhood which we should outgrow, doing the world the favour of expressing our moods cogently, rather than hoping others can guess at them. They can't, even the very nice ones! FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2T5RRdF “It sounds absurd when stated baldly, but we do not always – at some deep level – understand that we need to speak to those whom we so badly wish would understand us. We long for our intentions to be known, for our moods to be honoured, for our states of mind to be read – but we do not for that matter want to speak or particularly see an urgent need to do so. We want to be guessed at, intuited, read by a kind of magic we don’t realise we believe in. We want people to know what we have not bothered to tell them. We may even, in certain moods, suspect that they know full well what we think and want – but are deliberately frustrating us in order to score points and humiliate us. The only explanations for them not having guessed already is rudeness, a lack of love or extreme stupidity.” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Animation by Martin Stacey http://www.martinstacey.co.uk & Neil Evan http://www.neilevan.com

We should give due recognition to the truly grave hurt that can unfold, within established relationships, when there is almost no touch left between the parties, when one partner repeatedly moves to hold the other’s hand - and nothing much happens in response. 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/-Cr9M Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/nCxez FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2MpbWJw “We live in an age increasingly prepared to see hurtful aspects lurking within many apparently so-called minor situations, and ready to lend greater public acknowledgement to what had previously been merely private pains. It is in this context that we should give due recognition to a truly grave hurt that can unfold, within established relationships, when there is almost no touch left between the parties, when one partner repeatedly moves to hold the other’s hand, or perhaps caress their shoulder or waist – and receives no response at all, or a subtle turn away and withdrawal.” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Hend and Lamiaa http://hendandlamiaa.com/ Directed & Designed by: Hend Esmat and Lamiaa Diab Animation by: Hend Esmat Lamiaa Diab Mona Diab Noura Kamal

It could sound rather brutal to hear that we'll never find the right person, but it's in fact the most generous and optimistic sentiment, because only once we give up on the absurd dream of finding the Right Person (who doesn't exist for anyone), can we start to make it work with that far more realistic and likely partner: the good enough person. 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/2fUwU Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/h5FZz FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2TOuyVO “Your fears are right: you won’t. It seems harsh to say it just now but the right partner for you doesn’t really exist: there are just different varieties and degrees of wrongness. It’s not your fault or theirs. Anyone, however lovely they seem at first, will turn out to be maddening, difficult and deeply disappointing in a few – but to you very important – ways.” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Tomás Pichardo-Espaillat https://vimeo.com/tomatico http://hola.tomatico.net/

Choosing what to eat on a date might sound like a very trivial and inconsequential move but if a date is an audition for love, then food can play a subtle and significant role in communicating who we are and why we might be a suitable match. 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/C-S0y Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/Kp4mq FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2Fu9tg2 “Restaurants have traditionally enjoyed a crucial and privileged place in the history of dating, providing us with enough privacy to get to know one another and enough public scrutiny to help us feel safe as we do so. The food has largely been an excuse. But what we decide to eat and drink together isn’t merely incidental to the real task of mutual understanding. It too is rich in psychological clues, communicating messages about who we are and what we might be like over a lifetime. How we order can in a minor key belong to the task of winning someone else over to our cause.” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Noelle Smith Design http://www.noellesmithdesign.com/

What often holds us back from taking the initiative is the sense that other people out there must know better than we do. But in a great many cases, there is a more exciting, slightly scary and at heart thrilling idea to discover: that no one really knows. By this we mean that, in unexpected areas, there is no high up authority that can tell us for sure what is going to work or not, what is good or bad, why things are the way they are. Recognition of this can liberate us: we can work it out for ourselves; we can take take our own steps towards making sense of things, we can be original. 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/PbF3g Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/MDljD FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2CX1S7A 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Alex Morris https://vimeo.com/user880140/

Being good guest doesn't - ultimately - have to do with not being a nuisance and laughing along with your hosts. It means having a character, which may mean daring to be oneself. 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/qvSw7 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/wJz3S FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2seakJ8 “It’s normal to want to be a good guest; an intense wish to please tends to guide us when we accept a dinner invitation or spend a weekend with friends. And we generally fulfil this ambition by following a leading theory of what satisfies other humans: we mimic our hosts. We follow their lead in the conversation, we discuss what they want to discuss, we eat when they want to eat. We are malleable, we adjust; we laugh at pretty much anything they find funny. It sounds extremely generous and deeply well-intentioned but there’s a strange aspect to this theory: the mimetic person is not, in practice, especially pleasing. They may not be offensive, but nor are they particularly memorable, interesting or even likeable.” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Nick Hilditch http://nickhilditch.com/

Strangers have an odd habit of seeming a lot more attractive to us than long-established and well-known partners. That's not necessarily because they really are superior, simply that we know them a lot less well. 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/kLCtI Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/JV9ne FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2QOOPxe “The Incumbent Problem refers to the vast, but often overlooked and unfair advantage that all new people, cities and jobs have over existing – or, as we put it, incumbent – ones. The beautiful person glimpsed briefly in the street as we step off the bus, the city visited for a few days of holiday, the job we read about in a few tantalising paragraphs of a magazine; these have unwise tendencies to seem immediately and definitively superior to our current partner, our long-established home and our committed workplace and can inspire us to sudden and (in retrospect sometimes) regrettable divorces, relocations and resignations…” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Alice Dunseath http://www.alicedunseath.com/

If we are single, we tend to assume that the problem must lie with us not having found 'the right person'. But perhaps reality is a little more complicated: we might be single because we are, in certain ways we need to understand, difficult to love. 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/ti2aE Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/GDpwA FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2RjkSoQ “The idea that one is in many ways an extremely difficult person to be in a relationship with may sound rather improbable and even at points offensive. Yet fully understanding and readily and graciously admitting to this possibility might be the surest way of making sure one is an endurable proposition over the long-term. There are few people more deeply insufferable than those who don’t, at regular intervals, suspect they might be so…” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Zedem media https://www.zedemanimations.com/en/home

The stories we like to tell children about life tend to be sunny, sweet and optimistic. But such stories are not always either necessarily true or very wise. Here is a darker story from the School of Life, a story you probably shouldn't show children, but that might help them - and you - if you did. 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/dtB6F Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/FWTDt FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2BATjxa 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Nadav Nachmany https://vimeo.com/nadavnach

Even people who are normally very nice tend to be, from close up within relationships, rather difficult and complicated. This shouldn't surprise us. There's simply nothing harder than trying to live alongside another human for the long-term. We should dare to understand the ways in which love makes us a little monstrous... 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/gc_vw Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/_CziA MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Avi Ofer https://www.aviofer.com/

Believing that many of the big things in our lives come down to luck is, in a way, a rather insulting thought. We put so much effort into controlling our own destinies. Nevertheless, a wise life is one in which we accept how much lies outside of our control, for good and ill - and where we make a gracious accommodation with the terrifying power of Luck. 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/ckyEl Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/m705H FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2B51Nwo ”We don’t anymore nowadays much believe in Luck – or what was, in earlier ages, known as Fortune. We would think it extremely suspicious if someone explained that they had been sacked, but added that this was simply the result of ‘bad luck’. And we would think it equally strange if someone said they had made a fortune, but ascribed their triumph to mere ‘good luck’. We resist the notion that luck can play a significant role as much in our failures as in our successes. Luck is a substantial offence against modern ideals of control, strategy and foresight. We understand ourselves to be – for better and for worse – the authors of our own destinies.” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Avi Ofer https://www.aviofer.com/

Some of the most difficult relationships are those between people who can be categorised as 'avoidant' and others who are labelled 'anxious.' Learn to know which of these two you might be - and how better to handle the tensions that arise in a pairing with your counterpart. 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/f4opr Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/Rvyud 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 here: https://bit.ly/2zwmdOT “There are so many ways to be unhappy in love, but one kind which modern psychology has given particular attention to are relationships, very high in number, in which one of the parties is defined as avoidant in their attachment patterns – and the other as anxious. Attachment Theory is the term given to a set of ideas about how we love and the role of childhood therein originally developed by the English psychologist John Bowlby in the 50s and 60s. It divides up humanity into three categories according to our varying capacity to behave with confidence and trust in relationships.” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships You can submit translations and transcripts on all of our videos here: https://www.youtube.com/timedtext_cs_panel?c=UC7IcJI8PUf5Z3zKxnZvTBog&tab=2 Find out how more here: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6054623?hl=en-GB SOCIAL MEDIA Feel free to follow us at the links below: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theschooloflifelondon/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Amanda Eliasson https://vimeo.com/artofam

Arguments in relationships are always tricky but given that they are also inevitable, the skill we need to learn is how to fight well rather than not fight at all. By 'well' we mean, with charity, compassion, understanding, humour, intelligence and good will. Here is a guide to the best sorts of arguments in relationships. 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/IzUPX Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/HU011 FURTHER READING You can read more on this here: https://bit.ly/2zB2bCO “There are couples that seem never to argue. Their relationships are marked by enormous outward politeness; they say thank you a lot; they make each other cups of tea; they can look rather horrified when there’s a mention of a squabble in someone else’s life. It’s understandable if they’re privately a little pleased with themselves. But surface harmony isn’t, in reality, any reliable sign of health in love because it’s impossible to try to merge two lives without regularly encountering deep sources of incompatibility. A lack of arguments is more likely to be a sign that we have given up caring than a superhuman achievement of maturity.” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships You can submit translations and transcripts on all of our videos here: https://www.youtube.com/timedtext_cs_panel?c=UC7IcJI8PUf5Z3zKxnZvTBog&tab=2 Find out how more here: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6054623?hl=en-GB SOCIAL MEDIA Feel free to follow us at the links below: 2reyMJU/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theschooloflifelondon/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Lois de Silva http://www.loisdesilva.com/

A lot of dating advice suggests that, to be attractive, we should focus on our looks, our clothes and our ability to choose a good venue. But the true secret to proving attractive is to know how to reveal our vulnerability, our maturity and our degree of self-knowledge. 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/rf0rc Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/GaGaQ FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2KyzSZW “The goal can be stated simply enough: the overwhelming priority, when on a date with someone we like, is to persuade them to like us back. But the simplicity of the mission masks the complexity required to achieve it. Typically, the advice focuses on externals: what to wear, when to unfurl a napkin, what to order… But such counsel, however well-meaning, is at odds with what we ourselves know about attraction: that it is profoundly focused on psychology.” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Illustrated by Natalia Ramos nataliarama.com Animated by Alexa Ledesma www.alexaledesma.com

One of the reasons many of us find social encounters difficult is that they force into that particular conversational byway called small-talk - where we have to pay a lot of attention to the weather and the upcoming holidays. But what is small talk, why does it exist and how can we learn to navigate it more fruitfully? 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/ycHpf Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/7AZnB FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2r6Gtlp “A lot of discomfort about going to social engagements is rooted in what can sound like a rather high-minded concern: a hatred of small talk. We can develop a dread of parties because we know how likely we are to end up wedged into conversations about the weather, parking, traffic or the way we plan to spend the forthcoming holidays – when there would be so many deeper and more dignified topics to address: the future of humanity, the fate of the nation, or the melancholy state of our hearts. We resent parties for holding up an ideal of community and dialogue while trapping us in unproductive and insincere banter; for making us more lonely than we ever would be in our own homes.” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Gemma Green-Hope http://www.gemmagreenhope.com/

There's no more common response to a partner's remarks than to find oneself in a 'defensive' mood. It's hugely understandable, but at points unfruitful. What follows is a short guide to reversing out of defensive moods for the sake of healthier communication. 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/wW-rq Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/7lhpJ FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2BhJtkP “We often operate in romantic life under the mistaken view – unconsciously imported from law courts and school debating traditions – that the person who is ‘right’ or has the stronger case should, legitimately, ‘win’ any argument. But this is fundamentally to misunderstand what the point of relationships might be. It is not to defeat an opponent (there are no prizes for ‘winning’ other than self-satisfied loneliness) so much as to try to help each other to evolve into the best versions of ourselves.” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships SOCIAL MEDIA Feel free to follow us at the links below: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theschooloflifelondon/ Xr: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Deanca Rensyta Mihardja https://deancarensyta.brushd.com/work/23840/show-reel #TheSchoolOfLife #Relationships #Arguments

At first glance, nothing immediately seems to connect the business of dating with the European philosophical movement of Existentialism. However, on closer inspection, the thoughts of Existential philosophers contain a number of insights that serve to illuminate aspects of the dating world. 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/4sGcU Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/k_EYw FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2QXvPZu “Dating brings us close to a particular strand of philosophy that, the rest of the time, might not seem particularly relevant to our lives: existentialism. One of the movement’s major proponents – Jean-Paul Sartre – developed a set of ideas that help explain, and give dignity to, the anxiety, excitement and at points vertigo we may experience as we go through the dating ritual. A key concept of Existentialism is expressed in Sartre’s somewhat obscure but useful phrase: “Being precedes essence”. What Sartre meant by ‘being’ are the bits of our life that we are free to choose for ourselves: how we live, what job we do, how we conceive of what happens to us. And by ‘essence’, he refers to things that lie outside our command: our biological nature, the flow of history, the position of the stars…” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Andrew Lees https://www.damnfinemedia.co.uk/ #TheSchoolOfLife #Existentialism #JeanPaulSartre

A lot of our melodrama and self-pity comes from seeing ourselves, as a species, as standing at the center of the cosmos. We take ourselves far too seriously and would benefit from dethroning ourselves graciously. 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/WYeyj Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/Woc6n FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2DHPw4T "The modern age is inherently anthropocentric in outlook (from anthropos, greek for human), that is, it places human beings and their experience and concerns at the centre of the hierarchy, above the claims of nature, animals, gods or the universe more broadly. We are now, in every way, in our own eyes, the centre of the show." 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Kate Balchin http://www.katebalchin.com/

We spend an inordinate amount of time concentrating on the question of whether or not we are liked. It would be a great deal wiser to put our energy into actually proving likeable and persuading our audience of our affection for them. 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/fCl3f Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/RN31Y FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2JXaFrX “One of the most acute questions we ask ourselves in relation to new friends and acquaintances is whether or not they like us. The question feels so significant because, depending on how we answer it in our minds, we will either take steps to deepen the friendship or, as is often the case, immediately make moves to withdraw from it so as to spare ourselves humiliation and embarrassment.” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Nick Hilditch https://nickhilditch.com/

For some of us, having to eat alone in public in a restaurant is a major challenge - for reasons that go deep into our psyche and our past. 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/u-apB Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/r-cgf FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2F4kcyt “We’re spending a few days on business in a town where we know no one. It’s dinner time and, feeling claustrophobic in our hotel room, we wander the main streets looking for a place to eat. The bars and restaurants are filled with loving couples and animated groups of friends. We gingerly enter a diner but, as we take in the warmth and convivial atmosphere, are struck by acute self-consciousness. We blush crimson and clumsily turn to leave before an approaching waiter has had the chance to offer us a seat. We eventually find a dried-out sandwich at the station kiosk, which we eat furtively on a park bench near some loitering pigeons.” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Mike Booth https://www.youtube.com/somegreybloke

The issue of who shows an interest in having a physical relationship in a couple might be mistaken for rather trivial; after all, what counts is that it happens, not that one or the other party initiates. But in truth, the question of who first displays their enthusiasm is vital to the well-being of a couple. 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/1Ucjv Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/7eTGU FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2PMtIL2 “It can seem a highly trivial subject to get so upset about – being rightly no more significant than who should open the door first, or open a new jam jar first. And yet, judging from the heartache it tends to generate, it appears to matter very much indeed. It’s at the root of many affairs, it is the catalyst for vicious arguments and bitterness, the long-term future of small children can be decided by it – and couples routinely end up in therapy or (more often) the divorce courts because of it. At the heart of the drama are all the complexities involved when, late at night, in the darkness, one person’s hand moves over to tentatively touch the other’s body in a way that signals a desire to initiate either lovemaking or a cuddle – and nothing much happens in return...” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Diyala Muir http://diyalamuir.com/

Find out more about our arrival and read about the 22nd-24th February 2019 event here: https://bit.ly/2P5AV97 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/XOBRS Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/JZNJv 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/ Tumblr: http://schooloflifechannel.tumblr.com CREDITS Produced in collaboration with Reflective Films http://www.reflectivefilms.co.uk/

We all know how lovely friendship can be, but we seldom focus properly on what a good friend should actually be like. As a result, we miss out on opportunities to become precisely that sort of friend - and enrich the social lives of all those we meet. A short masterclass in the art of friendship. 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/shhtO Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/7d9IB FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2AApZYo “Some of the reason why we aren’t, collectively, so good at friendship, is that we don’t have a clear idea of what a really good friend might be like. It may therefore be worth trying to draw up a list of an ideal candidate, so as to focus our desires and spur us on to acquire the sort of character we would want to find in others…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Peter Caires https://vimeo.com/peterlikesthis #TheSchoolOfLife #Self #Friendship

We know that some of the difference between success and failure in dating comes down to having the right sort of chat up lines. Here is a selection of some of the finest, most effective ones we know. However, crucially, these aren't lines you say to a prospective partner; these are lines you need to say to yourself. 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/gdbbU Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/h-15g FURTHER READING You can read more on this here: https://bit.ly/2DcJSYe MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships You can submit translations and transcripts on all of our videos here: https://www.youtube.com/timedtext_cs_panel?c=UC7IcJI8PUf5Z3zKxnZvTBog&tab=2 Find out how more here: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6054623?hl=en-GB SOCIAL MEDIA Feel free to follow us at the links below: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theschooloflifelondon/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Natalia Biegaj https://www.nb-animation.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife #Relationships #ChatUpLines

We are nowadays sold the story that we can, with a bit of luck, all have relatively pain and error free lives. But in fact, life is fundamentally catastrophic and tragic in structure. None of us will get through this life without some grave and searing reversals. It is not that we've been cursed. We're just human - and we need to be prepared and have plenty of compassion for ourselves and others. 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/WzHP9 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/xjrer FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2AnquFd “We may not think of it in quite such naive terms, but we are liable to start out – somewhere in the semi-conscious mind – with a script of how our lives might go. First will come education, with its deep friendships, moments of intoxicating self-discovery, tender first loves and at points, sheer riotous good fun. Then will come a career, something that pays, but won’t be done merely for money. We’ll be competent, respectable and fairly honoured for the intensity of our efforts.” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Andrew Benincasa http://www.andrewbenincasa.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife #HowToCope

Being polite is a wonderful and hugely necessary quality; but there can - in love - be moments when politeness becomes an impediment to sincere feeling. We may at points need to give free rein to our resentments and annoyances and say it like it is - if we're later to feel properly loving and spontaneous. Good relationships are filled with respect, but they also know moments of proper frankness. There are moments when we need to put extreme politeness to one side. 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/qSO3N Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/8yUre FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2paArzo “It’s natural to imagine that the highest virtue in love would be kindness and, a close second, politeness. But there is an odd danger lurking here: a relationship where we are overly polite, where there is not enough directness, where things go wrong not because of a lack of tenderness or serenity but because of a stifling excess of manners, because there aren’t enough raised voices, insults, legitimate furies and moments where both partners feel free to call each other idiots and much worse...” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Angie Phillips https://www.angiephillips.co/

The death of a loved one is pretty much the saddest thing that can befall us. The French 16th century philosopher Montaigne once wrote: 'To philosophise is to learn to die.' Here are a set of the School of Life's darkest but most consoling thoughts on death. 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/rvHbW Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/fKuny FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2yLbCya “Someone we loved so much has died. It can be hard to know where to turn. For religions, dying was regarded as an essential, immensely important, part of existence; it was supposed to happen at a time appointed by God or by fate. It was not an embarrassing or despair-inducing end point, it was a transformation: the soul would continue its life in another form or in another place. Those who died had only ‘departed’ and lived on elsewhere. Perhaps after our own death, our souls would be reunited with theirs.” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on SELFin our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLself 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 Produced in collaboration with: Tomás Pichardo-Espaillat http://hola.tomatico.net/ #TheSchoolOfLife #Loss #CopingWithDeath

To get tickets for the event with Alain and Esther in London on the 4th December 2018, please click here: https://bit.ly/2PDF5lb Esther Perel is one of the world's great psychotherapists, with a particular genius at helping people with love and relationships. She was at the School of Life in June and returns this December - where she'll be talking on stage with Alain de Botton. You may also want to subscribe to Esther Perel’s YouTube Channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4eN7PS9mi8__4EYxy6VpFw 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/AR19v Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/KER7y MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Tim Butcher https://www.timbutcher.co.uk/

From our earliest days, all of us are set on a path towards physical growth and maturity. What is less well known is that there are forces within us that - in comparable ways - push us towards emotional growth and maturity. Throughout our lives, sometimes at considerable cost to our short term peace of mind, we're engaged on a journey of emotional development that we should learn to understand, recognise and honour. 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/ciU_0 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/x1Hhz FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2C4lqa5 “We know well enough that we are equipped with an innate drive for physical growth; that the human animal is geared to keep developing towards its outward mature form, adding muscle and bone and fatty tissue, in a spontaneous process of development that begins in our earliest days in the womb and ends around our sixteenth year…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Nick Hilditch http://nickhilditch.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife #EmotionalGrowth #Self

We tend to be told, from a young age, that the very worst thing to do when we like someone is to seem too direct or keen. Showing our interest is, apparently, fatal to the chances of a relationship. But is playing it cool always so necessary? And are spontaneous desire and enthusiasm always so taboo? The School of Life puts forward an original theory of how to play things wisely at the start. 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/QJqX0 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/vuZUp FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2RvsXnk “One of the paradoxes of the dating game is that we know that by coming across as enthusiastic at an early stage – if we ring them the next day, if we are open about how attractive we find them, if we suggest meeting them again very soon – we are putting ourselves at a high risk of disgusting the very person we would so like to get to know better...” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Gemma Green-Hope http://www.gemmagreenhope.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife #Relationships #Love

When we've been left for someone else, we'll be devastated of course, but it's easy to up the torture further by thinking that a) the rival is so much better than us b) our ex will be so much happier with them than they ever were with us. Both ideas are profoundly flawed, as our film shows. Sign up to our new newsletter and get 10% off your first online order of a book, product or class: https://bit.ly/2LayJ9F For gifts and more from The School of Life, visit our online shop: https://bit.ly/2P0nxPO Our website has classes, articles and products to help you think and grow: https://bit.ly/2OqscgO 2zLZe2V FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects on our blog, here: https://bit.ly/2y4RR4j “Sometimes, we are not only left in love; we are left for someone else – a rival who comes to assume a large, indeed monstrous position in our imaginations. The torture comes down to one essential question which pursues us into the early hours: What do they have that we do not? Part of the agony rests on a basic feature of human psychology; we know ourselves from the inside, in great and dispiriting detail, whereas we can know others only from the outside, from what they choose to reveal, which may be almost nothing, aside from an attractive face and a charming manner.” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Visit us in person at our London HQ: https://bit.ly/2O0IL3H Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships You can submit translations and transcripts on all of our videos here: https://www.youtube.com/timedtext_cs_panel?c=UC7IcJI8PUf5Z3zKxnZvTBog&tab=2 Find out how more here: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6054623?hl=en-GB SOCIAL MEDIA Feel free to follow us at the links below: 2zLZe2V Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theschooloflifelondon/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Lois de Silva http://www.loisdesilva.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife #BreakUps #Relationships

Fractious couples are often made up of one party who is 'avoidant' (hiding their intimacy needs) and one who is 'anxious' (nagging and pressuring counter productively for their intimacy needs to be met). These couples go through cycles that run from cosiness to fury to sulk to blow up to cosiness. Why do these cycles happen and why are they so hard to break? What might be a better way forward? 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/tDqTy Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/OC-yy FURTHER READING You can read more on this here: https://bit.ly/2zLuEXc “There is a certain sort of relationship that is alternately passionate, fiery and painfully unfulfilling – and that tends to puzzle both outsiders and its participants; a relationship between one person who is, as psychologists put it, anxiously attached and another who is avoidantly attached. There is, in such couplings, a constant game of push and pull. The anxiously attached party typically complains – more or less loudly – that their partner is not responsive enough: they accuse them of being emotionally distant, withholding, cold and perhaps physically uninterested too. The avoidant lover, for their part, stays relatively quiet but in their more fed-up moments, complains that the anxious party is far too demanding, possibly ‘mad’ and, as they put it pejoratively, ‘needy’. One person seems to want far too much, the other far too little.” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Direction & Illustration- Natalia Ramos http://www.nataliarama.com #TheSchoolOfLife #AttachmentStyles #Relationships

The way we date nowadays has a history that it pays to try to understand as we navigate the ups and downs of the dating game. Never before in history have we had such high expectations of dating - and rarely have we been more confused. 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/Q8TLH Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/gBSWC FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2Q4UKtd “Our present dating habits can feel like a natural part of existence, but in reality, they’ve only been around for a very short time and, we predict, won’t continue for too much longer in their current form. Dating has a history, which it pays to try to understand as we navigate the ritual’s paradoxical and often confusing priorities. Let’s take a selective look backwards – as well as a peak forwards – at the history and future of dating...” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on HISTORY in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLhistory 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 Produced in collaboration with: Mike Booth https://www.youtube.com/somegreybloke #TheSchoolOfLife #HistoryOf #Dating

We often look to our phones to help us resolve the tensions of our love lives: they promise us distraction, new friends and glorious escape. We can forgive ourselves our deep attachment to them - while nevertheless being a bit sceptical as to their ultimate effects on our chances of forming good relationships. 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/ZJr7Y Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/qShEj FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2QX3yms “It would be most of our first choices to have relationships in the real world; but for many of us, it is a great deal more plausible to pursue them with, and via, our phones. Phones provide exemplary compensation for the frustrations of living with actual people. Unlike them, they are always responsive to the touch and their malleability provides the perfect excuse for disengagement from the trickier aspects of true connections.” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Natalia Biegaj https://www.nb-animation.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife #Relationships #Technology

Attachment theory refers to a set of ideas formulated by psychologists in the 1960s that gives us an exceptionally useful guide to how we behave in relationships. Knowing whether we are secure, anxious or avoidant in our attachment patterns gives us a vocabulary with which to get on top of some very tricky dynamics and helps us grow into more predictable and more joyful companions in love. 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/dlCF4 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/qQa9X FURTHER READING “One of the greatest questionnaires in the history of 20th-century psychology had a modest start in the pages of a local Colorado newspaper The Rocky Mountain News in July 1985. The work of two University of Denver psychologists Cindy Hazan and Phillip Shaver, the questionnaire asked readers to identify which of three statements most closely reflected who they were in love.” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Julia Marchowska https://marchowskajulia.wixsite.com/mysite

Reading the Comments sections beneath films and articles can leave one feeling certain that humanity must have gone mad - or is inherently vicious and unkind. The truth is a good deal less tragic: it's just that we've never been taught how to comment or how to spot the connection between our own unhappiness and alienation - and our desire to take vengeance in the anonymous digital world. 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/bbXc5 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/LliNO FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2xiZswD “Comment sections online should be the beautiful public squares of our democracies: places we navigate to for frank and thoughtful exchanges of ideas; places where we learn to understand each other’s point of view and where serious discussions evolve over time. But, of course, they are havens of the grossest abuse, verbal violence and cruelty. It’s understandable if we sometimes conclude, after time reading comments, that humanity has lost its way…” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on Work and Capitalism in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLcapitalism 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 Produced in collaboration with: Damn Fine Media https://www.damnfinemedia.co.uk/

It's tough of course not to have been loved much by one's parents; but there's a real challenge too in having been loved too much, or rather, admired in a stifling unreal way that lies at the core of what we call 'the golden child syndrome.' Golden children aren't - despite appearances - privileged at all; they suffer from the enormous burden of expectation placed on their too-young shoulders by over-eager parents. 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/JmWcO Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/W9Rb1 FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2NAt6Hj “We are used to thinking of many of the psychological problems of adulthood as stemming from a lack of adequate love in our early years. We grow mentally unwell – prey to underconfidence, anxiety, paranoia and shame – because, somewhere in the past, we were denied the necessary warmth, care and sympathy. But there is another, more curious, and more subtle problem that may arise from childhood years: what we can term the Golden Child syndrome.” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on SELFin our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLself 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 Produced in collaboration with: Gemma Green-Hope http://www.gemmagreenhope.com/ #TheSchoolofLife #GoldenChildSyndrome

Breaking up will always be something of a mess, but that's not to overlook the far better or distinctively worse ways we might do it. One of the nicest moves is to stop trying to be 'nice' and to concentrate instead on the key ingredients of the good break up: directness, explanation, clarity and a lack of ambiguity. Sign up to our new newsletter and get 10% off your first online order of a book, product or class: https://bit.ly/2LayJ9F For gifts and more from The School of Life, visit our online shop: https://bit.ly/2wVN0CI Our website has classes, articles and products to help you think and grow: https://bit.ly/2MYamSy 2MgaF5Q FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects on our blog, here: https://bit.ly/2CAlCiZ “The intensity and suffering exacted by a heartbreak depends not only on the core fact that we’ve been left; it also decisively depends on how we’ve been left. Our hurt can be hugely intensified when we’ve been left badly – just as it may be rendered a great deal more bearable when we are fortunate enough to have landed on a lover who has learnt the psychologically-rich art of mature break-ups.” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Visit us in person at our London HQ: https://bit.ly/2wZRSG6 Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships You can submit translations and transcripts on all of our videos here: https://www.youtube.com/timedtext_cs_panel?c=UC7IcJI8PUf5Z3zKxnZvTBog&tab=2 Find out how more here: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6054623?hl=en-GB SOCIAL MEDIA Feel free to follow us at the links below: 2MgaF5Q Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theschooloflifelondon/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Seed Sustainable Design studio https://creativeseed.co.za/ #TheSchoolofLife #HowToBreakUp #Relationships

One of the dangers of emotional life is that we find that we don't feel 'in the moment': we're at a funeral, but we don't feel sad. We're making love, but our minds are elsewhere. It's our birthday, but we're not jolly. Why is it sometimes so hard for our true inner feelings to keep pace with events in the outer world? An investigation into the psychology of feeling in the moment - or to the left or right of 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/LxGzI Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/p99dN FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2wCr52I “Life is full of moments where we are meant to feel certain things. The demand starts in early childhood: it’s our birthday – and we are meant to feel happy. Dad is going away for two weeks – and we should feel sad. Our school has won at team sports – and we should want to join in with a celebratory song. Adulthood continues the injunctions: we should feel devastated at funerals, touched and hopeful at weddings, enthused and moved by our families, carefree on holiday – and, in bed with someone we like, exclusively focused on the act and its pleasures.” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Deanca Rensyta Mihardja

Most of us think we know what love is; we may just be looking for the right person to lavish our love on. But it's no insult, and indeed it might even be helpful to imagine, that we don't have much of a clue what love really is, not because we are deficient, but because our culture never investigates the subject as it should. Here is a list of seven ingredients that the School of Life suggests lie at the heart of a proper understanding of love. 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/83noo Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/u-Trb FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2wCtwCn “The world is sick for a surprisingly modest-sounding reason: we don’t understand love – and yet we are rather convinced that we do. We talk a lot of love of course, but generally in terms of a dizzying rapture lasting a few months focused on someone’s beauty, intelligence and strength. The most convincing discussion of love in the West came from Jesus of Nazareth, which has been unfortunate, given how easy it is to overlook everything he had to say once you don’t ‘believe’.” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on WORK and CAPITALISM in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLcapitalism 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 Produced in collaboration with: Ada Wikdal https://cargocollective.com/adawikdahl

The key to being heard by our partners is to accept that we have to become strategic about the way we talk to them. We cannot simply explode or nag or give speeches whenever and however it most pleases us. We have to get interested in what works, not what feels 'right'. What follows are a number of techniques to ensure that what frustrates us most can properly enter the minds of those we rely on and cherish. 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/nQlQj Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/LSTt5 FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2LyVyEa MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Ana Mouyis https://anamouyis.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife #Relationships

Hypervigilance is a term psychologists use to refer to those among us who are locked into a state of almost continuous wariness, rumination and compulsive anxiety. By understanding more about the condition, we can take steps to mitigate its worst effects, gradually moving ourselves from hyper to more ordinary varieties of vigilance. 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/aF35j Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/nJaQ6 FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2wopA89 “We would not have been able to survive so long if we were not able, at points, to get very worried indeed; if we didn’t possess a native genius for flooding our minds, at astonishing speed, with a cocktail of the most intense and panicky hormones our bodies can secrete...” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Tomás Pichardo-Espaillat http://tomatico.net/

The trick to lengthening your life isn't to eat more kale or jog more: it's to lengthen how long time feels, which can be done chiefly by introducing new experiences and routines, and opening your eyes fully to the multiple wonders of existence. 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/FBFxR Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/i3aeQ FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2o1NUZN “The normal way we set about trying to extend our lives is by striving to add more years to them – usually by eating more couscous and broccoli, going to bed early and running in the rain. But this approach may turn out to be quixotic, not only because Death can’t reliably be warded off with kale, but at a deeper level, because the best way to lengthen a life is not by attempting to stick more years on to its tail.” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Damn Fine Media https://www.damnfinemedia.co.uk/

Most of us are aware that, around certain topics, we're uncomfortably easily 'triggered', that is, we react with far too much emotion to situations that don't call for it. Learning not to be so swiftly triggered means looking back into our past to understand the origins of our behaviour - and being confident that what now feels 'automatic' is in fact very changeable once we grasp where it comes from. 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/M5Q-C Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/1cq3E FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2N0NcXn “If we were totally sane, we would respond to the present only on its own terms; we would worry or be angered or give way to anxiety only as much as the circumstances before us actually dictated. But we are not – of course – most of us quite sane, as evidenced by the way that we respond with such disproportion to certain events in the here and now. We have occasional tendencies to get wildly more worried, angry and anxious than we should, if we were simply following the facts in front of us.” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Nick Hilditch http://nickhilditch.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife #Psychology #triggerwarning

Couples Therapy can be a very helpful place to go when it feels very hard to get through to our partners, when we are arguing too much, or are feeling isolated and lonely within a couple. 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/5OX75 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/l0I6j 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/2OxLn4y “Like many things that help our relationships, couples therapy has a habit of sounding appallingly unromantic, involving patience, gruelling work and a host of embarrassing conversations about matters it would be much nicer never to have to think about – let alone discuss with a partner and a trained stranger. Our culture teaches us to trust and follow our feelings. But couples therapy knows this is to be a disaster, for our feelings are for the most part errant and encoded with primitive responses from a troubled past. So instead, it encourages a far wiser response: standing well back from our first impulses, neutralising them through understanding and where possible rerouting them in less self-punishing and more trusting directions.” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Marcie laCerte http://marslizard.net/

Some of us feel most at home not in obviously beautiful or homely places, but in desolate, melancholy ones, places that are vast, barren, bleak or isolated. These places speak to our souls and deserve to be celebrated as our true homes. 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/vFNZ6 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/VDeZH FURTHER READING ”When we imagine where in the world we’d be happiest, we’re often prompted to imagine places filled with people; a cosy home with family, a party with friends, a busy office or bar, well-lit streets teaming with cheerful faces… But defining happy places in these terms misses out what can be the deep appeal of far less publicised and distinguished sorts of environment: locations that are starkly downbeat, empty, melancholic, architecturally compromised and isolated – but where we nevertheless experience a deep pull, coming to feel, perhaps, that we belong here far more than in the gaiety, elegance and colour of familiar vistas.” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2wc01XZ 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Jeremy Riggall, Sketch films http://sketchfilms.co.uk/

Underlying so many of our emotional problems lies one phenomenon above any other; shame. Feeling misguidedly and disproportionately ashamed of who we are is at the root of an extraordinary amount of disturbance, rendering us harmful to ourselves and to the world. 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/eV1Bw Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/FRlT9 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 “One of the great problems in the world is also one of the most invisible, because – by its nature – it asks to be hidden and saps our ability to spot its symptoms. But, to generalise grossly, few things so undermine human well-being as the sickness of shame.” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2vqDbfF 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Nina Cosford http://www.ninacosford.com

We tend to think we know why people have affairs: the answer is simple, unambiguous and morally utterly black and white. That's a huge part of the problem - which this film gently aims to help 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/iMEyr Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/Fb1c2 FURTHER READING “Too often, affairs are seen as the outcome of random horniness – or just plain old nastiness. That’s very rarely the case. When it comes to affairs, we spend far too long being incensed or secretive, and far too little time trying to understand. In truth, affairs stem from a very fiddly aspect of our romantic psychology.” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2vFV9K3 MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Matthew Knott https://www.curtisbrown.co.uk/client/matthew-hammett-knott

We're sometimes taught that feeling proud of one's country is always suspect; but actually, it's very important to be able to have and express pride in collective life. The trick is to ensure that we have countries that deserve our pride. In this film, we design the ideal country to be proud of. 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/5LDN- Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/vpORo FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2v0jbA7 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Mike Brookes http://mikebrookes.tv/ #TheSchoolOfLife #Nationalism #Patriotism

A lot of our adult problems come down to varieties of emotional neglect suffered in childhood. In this film, we look at one of the most famous experiments in the history of psychology, The Still Face Experiment, devised by Professor Ed Tronick - which gives us an insight into the vulnerability of, and need for love in young children. 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/0J_iR Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/5ow_g 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 “Many of us are wandering the world bearing a lot of emotional damage. We may be depressed, anxious or very difficult around sex and relationships. We might in certain moods ask ourselves where the difficulties came from. It’s a continually weird, provocative and yet – in The School of Life’s view – extremely accurate answer that the damage comes, almost always, from childhood, especially early childhood.” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2LvbX1a 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Matt Knott https://www.curtisbrown.co.uk/client/matthew-hammett-knott #TheSchoolOfLife #Psychology #Love

We sometimes imagine, especially when we're young, that happiness is made up of huge things, like lots of money, fame, amazing love stories. But with time, we may come to realise that small pleasures are at the root of keeping on going with life; we're ready to feel grateful for the little things. 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/lRGK_ Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/n6yoJ FURTHER READING “The standard habit of the mind is to take careful note what’s not right in our lives and obsess about all that is missing. But in a new mood, perhaps after a lot of longing and turmoil, we pause and notice some of what has – remarkably – not gone wrong. The house is looking beautiful at the moment. We’re in pretty good health, all things considered. The afternoon sun is deeply reassuring. Sometimes the children are kind. Our partner is – at points – very generous. It’s been quite mild lately. Yesterday, we were happy all evening. We’re quite enjoying our work at the moment.” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2LvW21S 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: James Carbutt https://vimeo.com/jamescarbutt #TheLittleThings #TheSchoolOfLife

Feeling mentally unwell remains a huge taboo - that we would nevertheless be wise to try to discuss without shame. The more we can connect with others, the less in danger we will be. 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/sGCoq Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/gl59I 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/2Lldw1W 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Matt Knott https://www.curtisbrown.co.uk/client/matthew-hammett-knott #MentalHealth #TheSchoolOfLife

Stoicism is a philosophy worked out in Ancient Greece and Rome thousands of years ago, but it remains hugely relevant to our own times: it offers us ways of learning how to cope with anxiety, fear and the dread of losing money, status and love. 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/D3-JI Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/FEacE FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/Nt1mDw 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Mike Booth https://www.youtube.com/somegreybloke #TheSchoolOfLife

Some of us find it deeply romantic and attractive to imagine helping, or indeed 'rescuing' someone else; we have what are called 'rescue fantasies'. These fantasies are often mocked or ridiculed in society at large, but they are deeply fascinating phenomena that deserve our attention and analysis. 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/tL-SV Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/04yUq FURTHER READING “Of the many desires we might harbour in relationships, few attract as much mockery or suspicion as ‘the rescue fantasy.’ According to this longing, a lover – normally a man – becomes unnaturally concerned with finding a partner – normally a woman – who is suffering and unhappy. While ostensibly interested in assuaging her grief, the lover is in reality more concerned with exploiting her vulnerability – for what are assumed to be nefarious ends. He is excited, perhaps even sexually, by her sadness and far from rescuing her, uses her sorrow to aggrandize himself. Even before mentioning the horse on which the rescuer might ride into town, this is all meant to – and does indeed – sound properly ridiculous, if not outright sinister.” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/eQNMJM MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Zedem Media https://www.zedemanimations.com/en/portfolio #TheSchoolOfLife

It sounds very improbable of course: Me? Die? How could something so unexpected happen to someone like me! And yet - naturally - we're all in the process of dying, some of us faster than others. We would be wise to face up to the prospect as early and as regularly as we can. 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/zkklR Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/797K8 FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/7f9f5i 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Josh Saunders http://joshphilipsaunders.co.uk/filter/Animation #TheSchoolOfLife

There are two big reasons why many of us remain single far longer than we might like: we love ourselves far too little. Or we love ourselves far too much. 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/LIZHf Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/VazNu FURTHER READING “The common-sense explanation for long-term singlehood directs the blame firmly outwards, it isolates the problem to one of mechanics: one is still single because one hasn’t, perhaps on account of having moved to a vast and anonymous new city, been invited to enough parties, or because the constant requirement to fly to the Singapore office leaves no time for the right sort of socializing, or because one is holed up in a remote village high in the mountains connected to the more densely populated lowlands only by an irregular bus service. These may be solid enough reasons, but when the problems persist over an extended period, their power to explain our situation weakens. Without anything remotely persecutory or unkind being intended by this, one is forced to cast around for psychological rather than procedural explanations. The problem must lie in our minds rather than in the world.” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/iKTxNh MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: David Crisp https://vimeo.com/mistercrisp #TheSchoolOfLife

Psychotherapy holds out the promise of being able to help us with many of the problems that ruin our lives: anxiety, self-hatred, shame and confusion... But how exactly does it work? On what basis can it help us? 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/TbI05 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/dlPBA 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 one is in a bad place in one’s head, the modern world offers three main sources of solace: psychiatric medication, CBT and psychotherapy. Each has its own advantages and drawbacks. Medication can be exemplary in a crisis, at points when the mind is so under siege from fear, anxiety or despair that thinking things through cannot be an option. Correctly administered, without requiring any conscious cooperation from us, pills play around with our brain chemistry in a way that helps us get through to the next day – and the one after. We may get very sleepy, a bit nauseous or rather foggy in the process, but at least we’re still around – and functioning, more or less.” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/JG4y1M 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Directed and illustrated Natalia Ramas http://www.nataliarama.com @natalia_ramas Animated by Daniel García https://www.dan-mograph.com @dan.elpulpo #TheSchoolOfLife

When we think of a privileged childhood, we often think of swimming pools, nannies and expensive education. In fact, of course, the only childhoods that properly deserve the word 'privileged' are those in which there was an abundance of love. 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/yI3IL Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/9Z8-x FURTHER READING “It isn’t difficult to imagine a privileged childhood: we associate the term with a swimming pool in the garden, holidays abroad, lavish presents and outsize birthday parties – and maybe someone deferential picking up the clothes from the bedroom floor during school hours. Our ideas are plainly focused on money. The idea has enough truth in it to convince the cynical parts of us, but the number of breakdowns and mental illnesses gnawing at the upper middle classes should be enough to force us to concede that money cannot on its own be the reliable guarantor of ‘privilege’ that it would, in a way, be simpler to imagine it was.” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/uudMQW 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Matt King http://www.mattjking.co.uk/ #TheSchoolOfLife

Unrequited love is always going to be the poor relative of the requited kind, but that is no reason to ignore or denigrate it. We're all fated to spend a part of our lives deeply enraptured by people who won't feel the same about us: this is a structural inevitability. We should learn, in our less distraught moments, to recognise and honour the claims of unrequited love. 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/qhobu Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/rtw1k FURTHER READING “We are a practical species, and when we think of love, it is normal to focus on the sort that goes places, that is mutual, that leads people to form couples and perhaps one day households. But the more peculiar reality is that the greatest share of humanity’s love stories have unfolded in a directionless form in the recesses of the mind of only one party. It seems that we are – in aggregate at least – committed first and foremost to the unrequited version of love.” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/Y3KhCU MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Mad Adam Films http://madadamfilms.co.uk/index.html #TheSchoolOfLife

Pure OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) is an unfortunate state of mind, which a surprising number of us may suffer from, where certain deeply distressing, intrusive and shocking thoughts refuse to leave us alone. The suggested solution doesn't target the thoughts themselves, but rather their underlying cause: shame and self-contempt. 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/SB34J Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/y7uZB 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 “Few mental afflictions are as humbling or as terrifying as what is known as ‘Pure’ OCD or, more colloquially, Intrusive Thoughts. In standard Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, a person is haunted by a worry that compels them to repeat an often counterproductive or fruitless action with manic intensity: handwashing, turning off gas pipes, checking their pulse and so on. But in ‘pure’ OCD, there is no outward, physical action; the problem unfolds – hence the name – purely in the mind, yet it is, if anything, an even more distressing condition.” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/nuwi3X 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Creative Seed http://creativeseed.co.za/ Music and Sound Design: Sean Ross https://www.instagram.com/missu2missu/ #TheSchoolOfLife

One of the least understood but quietly significant distinctions of grammar is between a semicolon and a colon; this short films explains: when we should use each construction, why it matters that we do so correctly and what we can hope to achieve with one or the other in our sentences. 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/VYaXr Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/U10IN FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2sNWzSt 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Illustrations by Nina Cosford www.ninacosford.com Animation by Ali Graham www.grarg.com #TheSchoolOfLife

It's obviously a great idea to try to understand ourselves, but one of the further distinctions we need to make is between knowing ourselves intellectually and knowing ourselves emotionally. The latter variety of knowledge is rather harder but a good deal more valuable as well. 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/YpvZ4 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/bGV6a FURTHER READING “Knowing our own minds is difficult at the best of times. It is extraordinarily hard to secure even basic insights into our characters and motivations – of a kind that we hope can free us from some of the neuroses and compulsions that spoil so much of our lives. It is therefore especially humbling and at moments truly dispiriting to realise that dispelling ignorance of our psyches with knowledge isn’t going to be enough by itself. Or rather, we stand to realise that there is going to need to be a further and yet more arduous distinction to observe between knowing something about ourselves intellectually and knowing about it emotionally…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/nCRoLY 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Nick Hilditch http://nickhilditch.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife

We're encouraged to read so many books by other people; but the book we deep down really long to read is the one that could explain ourselves to ourselves. We want to read 'the book of me', a volume that could finally disclose who we are, what our direction should be, and why we feel as we do. 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/-5Bgq Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/zU8Y6 FURTHER READING “At any point in time, we’re continuously being encouraged to pick up some novel or other. Reviews, the recommendations of friends and the windows of bookstores edge us towards certain titles that, we’re promised, will definitively answer the deepest needs that we bring to literature…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/B3hC7y 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Nina Cosford http://www.ninacosford.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife

It can be deeply painful to be the child of snobs. That is, to be someone who received a kind of love in our formative years that was heavily dependent on our performance, not on our essence. It can be enough to make a mess of our lives, unless we realise - and get on top of - the dynamics. 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/3kMFZ Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/J8ZD1 FURTHER READING “Given how pejorative the term is, we’re understandably keen to locate snobs somewhere far from us. They are the people in the newspaper, or the ones who live in the other part of town or went to the school we didn’t go to – but it’s nice not to imagine them too near to home. Yet that’s to deny an obvious eventuality: snobs may lie closer to us. Snobs form couples; they have children. And we might be among them. However painful the unvarnished thought, we might be the children of snobs. It’s a situation it can be therapeutic to face up to and to try to make sense of…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/cgQRoM MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on WORK and CAPITALISM in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLcapitalism 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 Produced in collaboration with: Kate Balchin http://www.katebalchin.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife

It can be deeply tempting to split people into two camps, those of the 'good' and those of the 'evil'. But in truth, no one - not even the worst sinner or purest saint - is ever either totally good or bad. We're all a perplexing mixture of the two. Maturity means resisting the urge either to denigrate or to worship excessively. 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/3vZon Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/j1iXr FURTHER READING “If there is one generalisation to hazard about maturity, it is that it involves neither profoundly idealising, nor denigrating other people. But let’s begin with babies. The pioneering mid-20th century Viennese psychoanalyst Melanie Klein famously drew attention to something very dramatic that happens in the minds of babies during feeding sessions with their mothers…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/kcZQw7 MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Deanca Rensyta Mihardja http://deancarensyta.brushd.com/work/23840/show-reel #TheSchoolOfLife

It is, in a sense, a delightful development that so many people nowadays want to be writers. But there is also a darker backdrop to this desire: a huge rise in loneliness. 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/tIUUl Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/exd0r FURTHER READING “In no other age can so many people have harboured such intense ambitions to become writers. The longing one day to turn out a book – probably a novel or, less likely, an autobiography – lies close to the center of contemporary aspirations. This is – at one level – a hugely welcome development, a consequence of widespread literacy, higher educational standards and a proper focus on the power of books to change lives. But looked at from another angle, it may also, in private, be the result of something rather more desultory: an epidemic of isolation and loneliness. The army of literary agents, scouts, editors and writing coaches testifies not only to our love of literature, but also, less intentionally, to an unaddressed groundswell of painful solitude…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/BCvmvk 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Creative Seed https://creativeseed.co.za/ #TheSchoolOfLife

For more information on the event and tickets click here: https://www.theschooloflife.com/shop/us/the-school-of-life-conference/ 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: Mike Booth https://www.youtube.com/somegreybloke #TheSchoolOfLife

One of the most vital of all life skills is soothing; the art of calming oneself down, restoring perspective and remembering to be kind to oneself. Too often, because we were never properly soothed by others as children, we have no idea how to soothe ourselves as adults. We need to learn the significance of soothing. 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/0XjPG Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/sc6-W FURTHER READING “It’s the middle of the night, let’s imagine, and we’ve been on the earth for about three months. A lot is still very unclear. We are profoundly helpless, barely able to move our own head and utterly at the mercy of others. The sources of our suffering and joy lie far outside our understanding. Hugely powerful needs pass through us at regular intervals and we have no way of making sense of them to ourselves – let alone of communicating them reliably to others…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/vScbsL 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Caitlin McCarthy http://c8l.in/ #TheSchoolOfLife

Many of us suffer enormous anxieties about what might happen if the worst came to the worst. Well-meaning friends often reassure us that things might go really well, but there is often great relief to be found in imagining the darkest scenarios and being able to see that we could, ultimately, survive them. FURTHER READING “In the background, many of us are terrified of so much – disgrace, illness, sacking, our mortality, the suffering and death of loved ones… When these fears come up, we are often encouraged, out of kindness, to think of the best-case scenarios. It’s a well-meaning move, but it also – unintentionally – leaves our fears to fester; they fill us with unnamed dread and sometimes loom far larger than they should. So an opposite move – displayed here – involves looking our anxieties directly in the eye, refusing to be cowed by them and examining them in exhaustive detail so as to drain them of their debilitating power. Doing so is liable to bring us to an important realisation: we could cope – even if the worst came to the worst…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2s4OZRU 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Mad Adam Films http://madadamfilms.co.uk/ Illustration from 'The Magic Pudding' by Norman Lindsay (1918) Copyright © H, C and A Glad.' Images and Music from: Brazil 1985 Citizen Kane 1941 The Singing Detective 1986 Rogue One 2016 A Christmas Carol 2009 Clouds of Sils Maria 2014 The Wind in the Willows 1995 Nosferatu 1922 Pan's Labyrinth 2006 BBC Cunk on Britain 2018 Moonrise Kingdom 2012 Another Year 2010 The Horse's Mouth 1958 BBC Life on Earth 1979 The Moon and the Sledgehammer 1971 American Honey 2016 Phantom Thread 2017 The Kid with the Bike 2011 Almost Famous 2000 Only Lovers Left Alive 2013 #TheSchoolOfLife

Achieving a lot sounds like a wonderful idea, but we should pause before envying over-achievers too much: they are likely to have been driven not just by enthusiasm and intrinsic interest, but also by a more desperate and poignant need to prove themselves to people (usually way back in childhood) whose love was painfully conditional. 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/8B0Ga Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/L5477 FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2LkfwDG 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Natalia Biegaj https://www.nb-animation.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife

No one is ever quite normal or sane: however, what we can aim for is 'sane insanity', a non-defensive, self-aware state where we know how and where we are 'broken' and are able to let the world know without anger, undue secrecy or bitterness. 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/hNpWp Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/R0zPw FURTHER READING “It does not lie within any of our remits to be entirely sane. There are so many powerful reasons why we must lack an entirely even keel. We have complex histories, we are heading towards the ultimate catastrophe, we are vulnerable to devastating losses; love will never go wholly well, the gap between our hopes and our realities will be cavernous…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/TdbMeV 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Matt King http://www.mattjking.co.uk/ #TheSchoolOfLife

Without anyone meaning for this to happen, we've all come through childhood bearing a distinctive range of emotional scars. The task is to understand what these are, counteract their worst effects on our moods and actions - and explain them in a good natured and patient way to people close to us. 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/hTnab Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/y-LXd FURTHER READING “No one intends for this to happen, of course, but somewhere in our childhood, our trajectory towards emotional maturity will almost certainly be impeded. Even if we are sensitively cared for and lovingly handled, we can be counted upon not to pass through our young years without sustaining some kind of deep psychological injury – what we can term a Primal Wound…” You can read more on this here: https://goo.gl/rbHgNk MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on SELF in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLself You can submit translations and transcripts on all of our videos here: https://www.youtube.com/timedtext_cs_panel?c=UC7IcJI8PUf5Z3zKxnZvTBog&tab=2 Find out how more here: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6054623?hl=en-GB SOCIAL MEDIA Feel free to follow us at the links below: 4npVrq Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theschooloflifelondon/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Tom Kemp http://www.tomkkemp.biz/ #TheSchoolOfLife

One of our greatest demands in love is that our partner should love us 'for who we really are'. It sounds Romantic enough, but in truth, none of us should ever expect another person to admire and adore us in our totality, with all our flaws and questionable sides. True love means being generous towards what is broken in ourselves and others - but not, for that matter, being expected to admire it all. 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/BnujI Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/Oc5kD FURTHER READING "There are – when you start adding incidents up – rather a lot of things about you that your partner seems keen to change. They notice how you put off ringing your mother. They want you to be more adventurous in how you dress. Three times recently they said they want you to get a grip on your finances. They’ve also hinted they’d like you to take more of an interest in the children’s homework and to help to host more dinner parties. It doesn’t feel very pleasant. But, then again, they’re not alone: if you are honest with yourself, there is plenty about them that you would – ideally – like to change as well..." You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/xsQufg MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Josh Saunders http://joshphilipsaunders.co.uk/ #TheSchoolOfLife

It's easy to blame ourselves for not feeling 100% in our minds, but some of the causes of mental unwellness have to do with large systemic problems in our societies, among these, an emphasis on individualism, a manic faith in Romantic love and a cult of meritocracy. 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/q-0jI Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/PUsUg FURTHER READING You can read more here: https://goo.gl/7Xurry MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on WORK and CAPITALISM in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLcapitalism You can submit translations and transcripts on all of our videos here: https://www.youtube.com/timedtext_cs_panel?c=UC7IcJI8PUf5Z3zKxnZvTBog&tab=2 Find out how more here: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6054623?hl=en-GB 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 Produced in collaboration with: Damn Fine Media https://www.damnfinemedia.co.uk/ #TheSchoolOfLife

The clue to a healthy, adequate adult life lies somewhere we often don't look: in our childhoods. It's in childhood that, if things go more or less right, we learn the most important lessons about life at the hands of those who love us. Being given love isn't simply pleasant, it quite literally saves and educates us. 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/HgRaA Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/NshT2 FURTHER READING “If we’re alive and more or less functioning, if we’re capable of taking joy in things occasionally, if we can be kind and grateful to others, if we’re not addicted or very drawn to killing ourselves, then it’s likely that someone somewhere, early on, loved us very much. They may live quite far away from us now, they might share none of our interests and could in many ways be a little boring to spend time with – and yet we will continue to be deeply loyal to them and know in our hearts that we owe them everything… ” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/vFroz6 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Creative Seed http://creativeseed.co.za/ #TheSchoolOfLife

Our societies promise us that a good relationship is a mixture of two things: a great friendship and amazing sex. But the reality is - of course - a good deal more complicated for reasons we deserve to understand and feel compassionate about from the moment we get together with anyone. 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/W1y7A Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/9a_NP FURTHER READING “Everyone knows that at the beginning it happens all the time…and then, as relationships get longer, it doesn’t really any more. We say it’s because we’re too busy, or tired, or just not in the mood. But why does this important ‘mood’ disappear?... ” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/E759jM MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Sasha Balan https://www.sashaanimates.com #TheSchoolOfLife

Getting married is a hugely significant and solemn step: for centuries, we did it under the guidance of religion, but nowadays, for many of us, faith no longer convinces. At the same time, we want to mark marriage with some kind of ritual and appropriate grandeur. That's why the School of Life has redesigned the wedding ceremony, to bring it in line with modern ideals and the best insights of psychology. 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/qKjpm Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/OCBvK FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/Lnb9GZ MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Khyan Mansley https://twitter.com/khyan https://vimeo.com/khyan https://www.youtube.com/user/Khyan1 #TheSchoolOfLife

The first 500 people to click this link will get a 2 month free trial of Skillshare: http://skl.sh/tsol4 Eastern philosophy has all the same goals as Western philosophy: it too seeks to make us wiser and more serene. However, the way it goes about its task shows a great deal more variety and imagination: in the East, there are lessons to be learnt in tea ceremonies, in flower arranging, in the repair of vases and in the ritual contemplation of rivers. An introduction to six of the most fascinating concepts of Eastern philosophy. 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/iFe-- Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/I4lIM FURTHER READING “Eastern Philosophy has always had a very similar goal to Western philosophy: that of making us wiser, less agitated, more thoughtful and readier to appreciate our lives. However, the way it has gone about this has been intriguingly different. In the East, Philosophy has taught its lessons via tea drinking ceremonies, walks in bamboo forests, contemplations of rivers and ritualised flower arranging sessions. Here are a few ideas to offer us the distinctive wisdom of a continent and enrich our notions of what philosophy might really be…” You can read more on this here: https://goo.gl/mKAjp5 MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on SELF in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLphilosophy You can submit translations and transcripts on all of our videos here: https://www.youtube.com/timedtext_cs_panel?c=UC7IcJI8PUf5Z3zKxnZvTBog&tab=2 Find out how more here: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6054623?hl=en-GB SOCIAL MEDIA Feel free to follow us at the links below: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theschooloflifelondon/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Mad Adam http://madadamfilms.co.uk/work.html #TheSchoolOfLife

A good life is one in which we can dare to show our True Self and do not mind too much occasionally having to wear the mask of a False Self. But for this to be possible, we need a certain sort of childhood - as the masterful British psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott helped to explain in his theory of the true and the false self, outlined here. 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/WBr_n Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/fRltk 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 “One of the most surprising but powerful explanations for why we may, as adults, be in trouble mentally is that we were, in our earliest years, denied the opportunity to be fully ourselves, that is, we were not allowed to be wilful and difficult, we could not be as demanding, aggressive, intolerant, and unrestrictedly selfish as we needed to be. Because our caregivers were preoccupied or fragile, we had to be preternaturally attuned to their demands, sensing that we had to comply in order to be loved and tolerated; we had to be false before we had the chance to feel properly alive. And as a result, many years later, without quite understanding the process, we risk feeling unanchored, inwardly dead and somehow not entirely present…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2qEJiJZ 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Katherine Blanchin https://vimeo.com/katebalchin #TheSchoolOfLife

Being criticised is never pleasant - but when you've also suffered an unsupportive childhood, it cuts especially deep. In order to bolster our capacity to withstand attacks, we need to unpick the legacy of unhelpful nurture in our early years. 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/3zGTS Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/mKW7_ FURTHER READING “Criticism is never easy. To learn that others judge us to be foolish, perverse, ugly or unpleasant is one of the most challenging aspects of any life. However, the impact of criticism is hugely variable – and depends ultimately on a rather unexpected detail: what sort of childhood we have had. The clue to whether criticism will be experienced as merely unpleasant or wholly catastrophic lies in what happened to us many decades ago in the hands of our earliest caregivers…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://bit.ly/2qDCFs5 MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films in our playlist: https://bit.ly/2g0YFKq 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 Produced in collaboration with: Andrei Verioti http://andreiverioti.com/ Sound Design Marian Popescu #TheSchoolOfLife

The first 500 people to click this link will get a 2 month free trial of Skillshare: https://skl.sh/tsol3 People-pleasing behavior, while ostensibly pleasant, causes enormous difficulties for us, especially in relationships and in love. We need to grow better able to disappoint others, and to stop fearing calamity when we do so. 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/YvWZH Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/uJ__A FURTHER READING You can read more on this here: https://bit.ly/2JDQ0sh MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on SELF in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLself You can submit translations and transcripts on all of our videos here: https://www.youtube.com/timedtext_cs_panel?c=UC7IcJI8PUf5Z3zKxnZvTBog&tab=2 Find out how more here: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6054623?hl=en-GB 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 Produced in collaboration with: Marcie LaCerte http://marslizard.net/ #TheSchoolOfLife

Having a nervous breakdown could seem like the ultimate calamity. Far from it. Handled correctly, it can be a unique opportunity to learn - and to get properly well. 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/Sh4lH Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/BWxJd FURTHER READING “One of the great problems of human beings is that we’re far too good at keeping going. We’re experts at surrendering to the demands of the external world, living up to what is expected of us and getting on with the priorities as others around us define them. We keep showing up and being an excellent boy or girl – and we can pull this magical feat off for up to decades at a time, without so much as an outward twitch or crack...” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/we9Rvx 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Gemma Green-Hope http://www.gemmagreenhope.com #TheSchoolOfLife

The great sayings of Western Philosophy capture some of the most daring and helpful thoughts humans have ever exchanged. Here is a list of our favourites, which reflect the adventure and wisdom of philosophical history. 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/e7Bn3 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/7C6Ra FURTHER READING “‘What need is there to weep over parts of life? The whole of it calls for tears.’ The Roman philosopher Seneca used to comfort his friends – and himself – with this darkly humourous remark which gets to the heart of Stoicism, the school of philosophy which Seneca helped to found and which dominated the West for two hundred years. We get weepy and furious, says Stoicism, not simply because our plans have failed, but because they have failed and we strongly expected them not to. Therefore, thought Seneca, the task of philosophy is to disappoint us gently before life has a chance to do so violently. The less we expect, the less we will suffer. Through the help of a consoling pessimism, we should strive to turn our rage and our tears into that far less volatile compound: sadness. Seneca was not trying to depress us, just to spare us the kind of hope that, when it fails, inspires bitterness and intemperate shouting.…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/CX4zsr MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on PHILOSOPHY in our playlist: https://goo.gl/AVtBYq 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 Produced in collaboration with: Mad Adam Films http://madadamfilms.co.uk/ #TheSchoolOfLife

Our sex lives can be ruined by a pressure to find sex obvious, un-daunting and simple. It may be none of those things. We should dare to be honest with our partners and ourselves about our real feelings. 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/5hece Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/i8Vu2 FURTHER READING “We are repeatedly given messages that we live in sexually enlightened times, that we belong to a liberated age. And therefore the implication is that we ought by now to be finding sex a straightforward and untroubling matter. We are not – after all – Victorians or prudes. The standard narrative of our release from past inhibitions goes something like this: for thousands of years across the globe, due to a devilish combination of religious bigotry and pedantic social custom, people were afflicted by a gratuitous sense of confusion and guilt around sex. They thought their hands would fall off if they masturbated. They believed they might be burned in a vat of oil because they had ogled someone’s ankle. They had no clue about erections or clitorises. They were ridiculous…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/RWRxBh MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Matthew Hammett Knott https://www.curtisbrown.co.uk/client/matthew-hammett-knott #TheSchoolOfLife

The Consolation of Philosophy is the name of one of the greatest and most useful books ever written, the work of the Roman statesman and philosopher Boethius, who wrote it in prison as a way to ward of despair and regret. The lessons of the book remain hugely applicable to our own times - and deserve to be known to all of us in the face uncertain times. FURTHER READING “For some 400 years across the European Middle Ages, one philosophy book was prized above any other. Present in every educated person’s library, it was titled in Latin De Consolatione Philosophiae or, as we know it in English today, The Consolation of Philosophy. Editions appeared in all the large European languages, Chaucer translated it into English, as did Sir Thomas More and Elizabeth I – and Dante made it a centerpiece of the intellectual scaffolding of his Divine Comedy…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/UYQ19t MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on PHILOSOPHY in our playlist: https://goo.gl/AVtBYq 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 Produced in collaboration with: Mad Adam Films http://madadamfilms.co.uk/ #TheSchoolOfLife

We can often be left feeling that there is something wrong with us if we need regularly to spend a lot of time alone. But the impulse to be alone is, in fact, a sign of taking other people very seriously - and is, therefore, a symptom of being properly, rather than superficially, sociable. 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/4cgFZ Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/US9dF FURTHER READING “Because our culture places such a high value on sociability, it can be deeply awkward to have to explain how much – at certain points – we need to be alone. We may try to pass off our desire as something work-related: people generally understand a need to finish off a project. But in truth, it’s a far less respectable and more profound desire that is driving us on: unless we are alone, we are at risk of forgetting who we are...” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/CM42Mh MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Tom Fisher www.tomffisher.co.uk Catherine Prowse www.catherineprowse.com #TheSchoolOfLife

The modern age equates a good life with being extraordinary and distinguished. But the truth is likely to be quite different: learning to cherish and appreciate an ordinary life belongs to wisdom and the art of living. FURTHER READING “We live in an age with a high regard for extraordinary lives – that is, lives that the vast majority of us will never lead. Our heroes have made outsized fortunes, appeared on gigantic screens and demonstrated unique virtue and talent. Their achievements are both dazzling and continuously, in the background, humiliating…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/EwazUX MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on CAPITALISM in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLcapitalism 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 Produced in collaboration with: Mike Booth https://www.youtube.com/somegreybloke #TheSchoolOfLife

It's a humbling situation, but much about who we are as adults can be traced back to things that happened to us before our 12th birthday. Part of learning to be an adulthood means making sense of the events of our childhood. We need to spot how our past might be trying to interfere with our chances in the present. 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/Lds0p Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/1TZjH FURTHER READING “We are, all of us, beautifully crazy or, to put it in gentler terms, fascinatingly unbalanced. Our childhoods, even the apparently benign ones, leave us no option but to be anything else. As a result of these childhoods, we tend, over most issues, to list – like a sailing yacht in high wind – far too much in one direction or another. We are too timid, or too assertive; too rigid or too accommodating; too focused on material success or excessively lackadaisical. We are obsessively eager around sex or painfully wary and nervous in the face of our own erotic impulses. We are dreamily naive or sourly down to earth; we recoil from risk or embrace it recklessly; we have emerged into adult life determined never to rely on anyone or as desperate for another to complete us; we are overly intellectual or unduly resistant to ideas. The encyclopedia of emotional imbalances is a volume without end. What is certain is that these imbalances come at a huge cost, rendering us less able to exploit our talents and opportunities, less able to lead satisfying lives and a great deal less fun to be around…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/6ubziU 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Directed by: Hannah & Martha Design: Hannah McNally Animation Team: Flora Caulton, Emily Downe, Martha Halliday, Hannah McNally, Kathrin Steinbacher www.hannahandmartha.com www.floracaulton.co.uk www.emilydowne.co.uk www.kathrinsteinbacher.com #TheSchoolOfLife

Many of us have had such difficult starts in life, we are unable to find the serenity and security we need to approach every new day with a reasonable degree of confidence. A short film to boost our sense that things can and will be OK. FURTHER READING “It’s not an illustrious category to belong to of course, but there are plenty of us at least. We worry about work, money, being left, illness, disappointing, over-promising, madness and disgrace, just to start the list. We worry in the early hours, we worry on holiday, we worry at parties and we worry all the time while we’re trying to smile and seem normal to good people who depend on us. It can feel pretty unbearable, at moments.…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/z3uXBc 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Natalia Ramos Direction & Illustration- Natalia Ramos http://www.nataliarama.com Animation- Jesus Daniel G. https://www.dan-mograph.com Animation- Alexa Ledesma https://www.behance.net/alexaledesma #TheSchoolOfLife

Many of us are far tougher on ourselves than we ever deserve to be, the result of difficult upbringings which deny us an internal voice of love with which to speak to ourselves. We need to learn that most necessary of arts: that of befriending ourselves. 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/r_pnI Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/kfE9p FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/ksSpLU 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Amanda Eliasson http://artofam.se/ http://vimeo.com/artofam #TheSchoolOfLife

The art of diplomacy is vital if we are to get better at managing our relationships, our friendships and our working lives. None of us are born knowing how to be diplomatic, but the skill can be learnt - and should be to make life more gracious and efficient. 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/xluJy Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/nJmtV FURTHER READING “Diplomacy is an art that evolved initially to deal with problems in the relationships between countries. The leaders of neighbouring states might be touchy on points of personal pride and quickly roused to anger; if they met head on, they might be liable to infuriate each other and start a disastrous war. Instead, they learnt to send emissaries, people who could state things in less inflammatory ways, who wouldn’t take the issues so personally, who could be more patient and emollient. Diplomacy was a way of avoiding the dangers that come from decisions taken in the heat of the moment. In their own palaces, two kings might be thumping the table and calling their rivals by abusive names; but in the quiet negotiating halls, the diplomat would say: ‘my master is slightly disconcerted…’…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/gV4Dsj 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Ana Mouyis https://anamouyis.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife

We're used to thinking of the state of friendship as hugely inferior compared with that of being in a relationship. But comparing how most people behave in a couple, compared with how they are in a friendship, should perhaps lead us to reconsider our choices. 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/o168B Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/piwsT FURTHER READING “One of the most subtly hurtful and quietly damning of all remarks, perhaps quietly and sweetly delivered on the doorstep at the end of a long evening, with the taxi still hovering somewhere just out of sight, is the suggestion that we should in the end probably remain ‘just good friends’ We know exactly what to understand by this. The path towards a tender future is being gently but firmly closed off. We are, with a smile, being shunted into the category of the failed, the ignored and the lightly despised. The other must in some way have worked out the despicable truths about us – all the ones that we tried so hard to disguise and even to believe didn’t exist – and has logically decided to take their leave. We return crushed to an apartment which we had left with butterflies and elevated hopes only a few hours before…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/fsfwuD MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Nick Hilditch http://nickhilditch.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife

We're used to thinking of 'being a teacher' as a specialised job, but in fact, teaching is a skill required of us in a huge range of contexts, from the home to the workplace. 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/ZTLqH Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/a5FP- FURTHER READING “A discussion of how to be a good teacher sounds a little narrow – and probably not very relevant to most of us. Few of us want to be a school teacher, instructing children in some narrow academic subject or other, which is what we overwhelmingly associate with the word ‘teacher’, the person in a rather frayed jacket in front of the class, the type who bored us rigid for long stretches of our early years. However, teaching is far from being something that we only need to learn if we’re contemplating a career in education. Considered properly, teaching – by which we mean, the vital business of getting an important idea from one mind into another – is one of the most crucial life skills that any of us ever require. Every one of us, whatever our occupation, needs to become a good teacher, for our lives constantly require us to deliver crucial information with grace and effectiveness into the deep minds of others…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/KX59kb 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Nick Hilditch http://nickhilditch.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife

We hear a lot about parenthood. The expense, the bother and the trials of bringing up children. But not the miracle of it all. When all is said and done, bringing up a child is also undeniably one of the most amazing thing you'll ever do… 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/RsAi3 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/nUAIl FURTHER READING “Most of our lives are spent in situations of numbing sterility. There is usually no option but to conform and obey impersonal rules. We don’t in our work generally create anything of particular wonder or interest. We don’t know how to paint or play Chopin’s Scherzo No. 2 in B flat minor. We can’t personally manufacture an iphone; we don’t don’t know how to extract oil from the ground…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/ibuw8n 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: ScubaBoy Inc http://www.scubaboyinc.co.uk/ #TheSchoolOfLife

Our age has a high esteem for parties. Yet some of us have a particular fear of them - which we're made to feel very bad about, as if this was a sure sign of being an anti-social and unfriendly person. Far from it. As this film argues, truly sociable people tend to hate parties a lot. 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/bS_3q Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/r38TS FURTHER READING “The idea of being a sociable person is nowadays heavily associated with finding enjoyment in going to, and in all likelihood also in giving, parties. To be sociable means welcoming the idea of being in a room replete with an above-average number of other guests, many of whom will be unknown, most of whom will be holding a glass of alcohol, bantering, with lights lower than they normally would be, and music somewhat higher than required in order faithfully to catch the details of another’s voice…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/xBRy6B 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Jenny Jokela http://jennyjokela.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife

When we need help it can be easy to feel that no one in the world really cares about us. The truth is more complicated: people are generally able to care a lot, but they need to hear a clear sign of distress first - something we're often too inhibited or modest to give. We should learn to (as it were) scream when we're really in trouble. People will generally come running. 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/zGExj Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/0XMya FURTHER READING “It can, at points, seem horrifically clear that simply no one really cares. They barely notice our presence, they hardly stick around to listen to what we have to say, they catch none of our hints – and they are overwhelmingly preoccupied with their own projects and day-to-day concerns. On the basis of such evidence, it is easy for us to fall into a large, damning and dangerously heart-breaking conclusion about our situation: that we are profoundly alone – far beyond any possibility of connection or empathy…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/Bn3URu 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Zedem Media https://www.zedemanimations.com/en/home #TheSchoolOfLife

Discussions of Jesus often miss that he was, quite aside from anything else, remarkably wise, one of the great philosophers of his time. An area of particular genius was his understanding of why people grow self-righteous. His work is rich in recommendations of how we might grow more kindly and empathetic. 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/yZTCU Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/tYIj- FURTHER READING “We are so used to thinking of Jesus as a divinity whom we accept or reject on the basis of faith that we are apt to miss a far more relevant detail: that he was an extremely acute philosopher, whose rules on human conduct maintain a deep and ongoing applicability. One of the most salient of his lessons comes in chapter eight of the Gospel of Saint John. Jesus has recently come down from Galilee to Jerusalem when some Pharisees, members of a sect focused on precise adherence to Jewish tradition and law, present him with a married woman whom they have caught having sex with someone other than her husband. ‘Teacher,’ they ask him, ‘this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. In our law, Moses commanded that such a woman must be stoned to death. Now what do you say?’…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/XAf59G 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Mike Booth https://www.youtube.com/somegreybloke #TheSchoolOfLife

A lot of the way we see reality has been influenced, and often distorted, by our past. Our childhoods, which went on a long time, have shaped how we assess other people, ourselves and our prospects. Knowing about our innate biases allows us to liberate ourselves from certain settled but unhelpful habits of the mind. 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/vSDE6 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/69Ipj FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/8nLW9E 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Zedem Media https://www.zedemanimations.com/en/home #TheSchoolOfLife

#parents #mother #theschooloflife As a boy grows into a man, there's a lot of pressure to deny mother - and all she stands for: tenderness, vulnerability and need. But maybe these aspects of oneself are best integrated rather than renounced; maybe there's value in being at once dignified, competent and solid - and a mummy's boy... 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/s7vPC Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/WyKiZ FURTHER READING “One of the most basic features of being a boy, so well-entrenched that we forget to notice its strangeness, is that after a certain point, mothers become embarrassing and need to be surrendered and denied, not just mothers, but all that mothers tend to stand for in a boy’s life: tenderness, vulnerability and need. To become a man is to grow into the creature who says ‘not now’ to his mother – and doesn’t look back as he walks towards his friends in the school yard…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/jAJnne MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Natalia Ramos Directed and illustrated by Natalia Ramas http://www.nataliarama.com @natalia_ramas Animated by Daniel García https://vimeo.com/user34644294 @dan.elpulpo Sound by Hulestudio #TheSchoolOfLife

One of our most basic psychological needs is to create a home, that is a space that is decorated in such a way as to reflect our values back to us. That's why we can legitimately get so excited (or distressed) by matters of home decoration - and why, after too long on the road, we long to get back to our own place. 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/jXZWO Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/WJ2FT FURTHER READING “One of the most meaningful activities we are ever engaged in is the creation of a home. Over a number of years, typically with a lot of thought and considerable dedication, we assemble furniture, crockery, pictures, rugs, cushions, vases, sideboards, taps, door handles and so on into a distinctive constellation we anoint with the word home. As we create our rooms, we engage passionately with culture in a way we seldom do in the supposedly higher realms of museums or galleries. We reflect profoundly on the atmosphere of a picture, we ponder the relationship between colours on a wall, we notice how consequential the shape of the back of a sofa can be and ask with care what books really deserve our ongoing attention…” You can read more on this here: https://goo.gl/8NCrU7 MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Visit us in person at our London HQ: https://goo.gl/1CnN7q Watch more films on SELF in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLself You can submit translations and transcripts on all of our videos here: https://www.youtube.com/timedtext_cs_panel?c=UC7IcJI8PUf5Z3zKxnZvTBog&tab=2 Find out how more here: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6054623?hl=en-GB SOCIAL MEDIA Feel free to follow us at the links below: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theschooloflifelondon/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Reece Wykes http://reecewykes.com/ Henry Richardson cargocollective.com/henryrichardson #TheSchoolOfLife

We have nowadays learnt a lot about what children need in order to flourish and feel secure. That's a huge advance, but we'll have made proper progress when we learn how to take some of the lessons about care, sympathy and patience we picked up in relation to children and apply them to our relationships with other adults. 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/GgZRo Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/JMrLa FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/PoHfTj MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Khyan Mansley https://twitter.com/khyan https://www.youtube.com/user/Khyan1 #TheSchoolOfLife

In theory, we're nowadays allowed to get together with pretty much anyone we like. And yet, at a psychological level, we aren't free to love just any suitable person. We have a type - and strangely and awkwardly, these types are often not those who stand a chance of making us maximally happy. 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/m0DiQ Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/Gp6LI FURTHER READING “Theoretically we are free to select the kind of person we love. We might have chosen someone else. We’re not being forced into this by social convention or match-making aunts or dynastic imperatives. But in reality our choice is probably a lot less free than we imagine. Some very real constraints around whom we can love and feel properly attracted to come from a place we might not think to look: our childhoods. Our psychological history strongly predisposes us to fall for only certain types of people…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/g7D7CP MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships SOCIAL MEDIA Feel free to follow us at the links below: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theschooloflifelondon/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Alexandra Balan https://www.sashaanimates.com/ https://vimeo.com/sashaanimates #TheSchoolOfLife

We all go through moods when we feel exceptionally ugly. We tend to blame our faces and our clothes, but the cause of the feeling is almost always internal. We feel ugly because things have gone wrong at a psychological level, not a physical one. 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/4ZXID Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/RuWJd FURTHER READING “We unexpectedly catch sight of ourselves in a mirror and, in an instant, are thrown into despair: the odd nose, the unsatisfactory hair, the sickening skin tone, but most of all, the only too familiar, deeply gormless needy expression. It feels at such moments as if every worst fear about us must be true. All our efforts to run away from our monster-self have failed. A hideous spectre is, for our brief time on the planet, truly whom we are fated to be…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/ntEmhR 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Lois de Silva http://www.loisdesilva.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife

We're taught to think that 'bias' is automatically a bad thing, but everything depends on what sort of bias it is. There might be bias towards wisdom, self-understanding, tolerance and kindness - in other words, bias worth valuing. 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/XTpes Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/K_m_3 FURTHER READING “A presumption among many thoughtful people is that the great enemy of a good life and a decent world is something called ‘bias’. By bias, people have come to understand a twisting of the facts towards dark and entirely nefarious ends. According to this interpretation, bias is invariably and necessarily bad. In some quarters, the word has simply grown synonymous with evil…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/3AUrD2 MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on WORK in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLwork 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 Produced in collaboration with: Rivulet Studio https://rivulet.studio/ #TheSchoolOfLife

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. 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/jMtdp Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/HTFxO FURTHER 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 neck before turning a page. We can hear our partner very lightly breathing…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/xZ1LNt MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Giulia Martinelli https://www.behance.net/martinellid03a #TheSchoolOfLife

We know how many adult problems come down to issues from childhood - but what exactly is that wondrous, hugely desirable thing, an emotionally-healthy childhood? This film identifies the central themes of the sort of childhood that can leave us balanced, happy and sane. 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/d4zOh Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/jXqjP FURTHER READING “We can sometimes be so modest about our power to know what might be good for others or ourselves, we forget it might be possible to hazard a few generalisations about what constitutes an emotionally healthy childhood. It can’t be pure idiosyncracy or good luck; there are distinct themes and goals to identify. With a map of optimal development in mind, we could more clearly appreciate where dislocation begins, what we have to be grateful for and what there is to regret. At a collective level, we would have more of a sense of what we need to achieve to generate a more emotionally-privileged – and therefore slightly saner – world…” You can read more on this and other subjects on our blog, here: https://goo.gl/XdyKfT 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Gemma Green-Hope http://www.gemmagreenhope.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife

We are holding a three-day conference in San Francisco from the 23-25 March 2018. We'll be covering the most important ideas we teach as well as building friendship and a sense of community. It'll be fun and educational. MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on The School of Life in our playlist: http://bit.ly/2g0YFKq 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 Produced in collaboration with: Reflective Films http://www.reflectivefilms.co.uk/ #TheSchoolOfLife

Friedrich Nietzsche had a particular fondness for a concept called (in Latin) 'amor fati', a Stoic acceptance of one's fate and a commitment to embrace reality, in all its beauty and pain. 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/9vmq3 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/5ZNrD FURTHER READING “One of the strangest yet most intriguing aspects of Friedrich Nietzsche’s ideas is his repeated enthusiasm for a concept that he called amor fati (translated from Latin as ‘a love of one’s fate’, or as we might put it, a resolute, enthusiastic acceptance of everything that has happened in one’s life). The person of amor fati doesn’t seek to erase anything of their past, but rather accepts what has occurred, the good and the bad, the mistaken and the wise, with strength and an all-embracing gratitude that borders on a kind of enthusiastic affection…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/cDu7st MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on CURRICULUM in our playlist: http://bit.ly/2bVcNyy 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 Produced in collaboration with: Mike Booth https://www.youtube.com/somegreybloke #TheSchoolOfLife

We are often taught that the best way to prove attractive is to smile. The idea feels logical and for the most part highly appropriate, but it shouldn't sideline the particular appeal of visible sadness and melancholy. An essay on the charm and depth of sad faces. 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/O_F_v Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/XdBbS FURTHER READING “We are often taught that the best way to prove attractive is to smile. The idea feels logical and for the most part highly appropriate, but it shouldn’t blind us to the occasional claims of a contrary minority approach, this one founded on an awareness that friendship between people is ultimately based not on boosterish accounts of recent triumphs, but on the possibility of shared grief, sadness and melancholy…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/8c98Qr MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Matthew Hammett Knott https://www.curtisbrown.co.uk/client/matthew-hammett-knott #TheSchoolOfLife

We're often encouraged to be dismissive of the idea of self-help books, but reading in order to grow emotionally is one of the most serious and important of all literary tasks. 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/9tnij Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/KS8Ei FURTHER READING “There is no more ridiculed genre than the self-help book. Intellectually-minded people universally scorn the idea of them. Self-help books don’t appear on reading lists at any prestigious university, they’re not reviewed by highbrow journals and it’s inconceivable that a major literary prize could ever be awarded to one of their authors. This concerted attack on the entire genre of self help is a symptom of a Romantic prejudice against the idea of Emotional Education. Offering explicit Emotional Education is regarded as beneath the dignity of any serious writer. We should – if we are at all intelligent – know how to live already…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/5NhGkW 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Nina Cosford http://www.ninacosford.com/ Animation by Ali Graham http://www.grarg.com #TheSchoolOfLife

Making resolutions to be a better person is a hugely important activity - even if we can't always stick to every last one. Here is a list of suggested moves for how to be a slightly nicer person to live around in the new year. 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/vhpd4 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/wquda FURTHER READING “Why does being ‘a good person’ have such a bad name? In the modern world, the idea of trying to be good or kind conjures up all sorts of negative associations: of piety, solemnity, bloodlessness and sexual renunciation. It’s telling that ‘wicked’ has even become a term of praise. And yet the project of being good is as vital, or even more important, for the individual and society as is the project of being healthy. Yet while we have no problem with going to the gym to get fitter, it sounds deeply weird, even creepy, to suggest that one might ‘work’ at being better or nicer…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/17DqjX MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Our website has classes, articles and products to help you think and grow: https://goo.gl/b461ah Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships You can submit translations and transcripts on all of our videos here: https://www.youtube.com/timedtext_cs_panel?c=UC7IcJI8PUf5Z3zKxnZvTBog&tab=2 Find out how more here: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6054623?hl=en-GB SOCIAL MEDIA Feel free to follow us at the links below: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theschooloflifelondon/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Khyan Mansley https://www.youtube.com/user/Khyan1 https://twitter.com/khyan?lang=en #TheSchoolOfLife

We tend to fear being an idiot as a terrible, remote possibility. This keeps us anxious and unsettled. Far better to accept head on, and with good grace, that we are - all of us - idiots. And that may just be OK. 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/XYzpG Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/Gc7Pr FURTHER READING “‘The Inner Idiot’ is a bracing term used to describe a substantial, hugely influential and strenuously concealed part of everyone. An Idiot is what we deeply fear being, it is what we suspect in our darkest hours that we might be – and it is what we should simply accept, with humour and good grace, that we often truly are. A decent life isn’t one in which we foolishly believe we can slay or evade The Inner Idiot; it’s one in which we practice the only art available to us: sensible cohabitation…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/LREk7f 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Gemma Green Hope http://www.gemmagreenhope.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife

We spend a little too much time worrying about how we must appear in the minds of others. However, the poignant, useful truth is that almost everyone doesn't care at all about who we are, what we're doing and how we've messed up. 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/r_xF8 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/v7_IC FURTHER READING “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus is a large painting from the 1560s that hangs in Belgium’s largest museum, the Musée des Beaux Arts – and is held to be a meticulous copy of an original (now lost) work by the Flemish artist Pieter Bruegel the Elder. It shows a superficially bucolic scene: ships are taking sail, a shepherd is tending to his flock, distant cities look prosperous and ordered…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/nmm9yW 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Mike Booth https://www.youtube.com/somegreybloke #TheSchoolOfLife

There are dangers associated both with thinking too much - and thinking too little. The trick is to use our minds to access our most sincere, authentic and original thoughts. For gifts and more from The School of Life, visit our online shop: https://goo.gl/CpAojF Join our mailing list: http://bit.ly/2e0TQNJ Or visit us in person at our London HQ: https://goo.gl/UyKuUJ hRoYJp FURTHER READING “Thinking about ourselves – our feelings, our past, our desires and our hopes – is a hugely tricky task that most of spend a good deal of effort trying very hard to avoid. We keep away from ourselves because so much of what we could discover threatens to be painful. We might find that we were, in the background, deeply furious with, and resentful about, certain people we were only meant to love. We might discover how much ground there was to feel inadequate and guilty on account of the many errors and misjudgements we have made. We might find that though we wanted to be decent, law-abiding people, we harboured fantasies that went in appallingly deviant and aberrant directions. We might recognise how much was nauseatingly compromised and needed to be changed about our relationships and careers…” You can read more on this and other subjects on our blog, here: https://goo.gl/VpUm37 MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Our website has classes, articles and products to help you think and grow: https://goo.gl/LMTbxi Watch more films on SELF in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLself You can submit translations and transcripts on all of our videos here: https://www.youtube.com/timedtext_cs_panel?c=UC7IcJI8PUf5Z3zKxnZvTBog&tab=2 Find out how more here: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6054623?hl=en-GB SOCIAL MEDIA Feel free to follow us at the links below: hRoYJp Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theschooloflifelondon/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Campbell Hartley https://vimeo.com/user40145348 #TheSchoolOfLife

We're always being told that the sign of a good and intelligent person is someone who keeps up with the news. But this addiction to the latest events may be a kind of illness that cuts us off from the real insights and information we need to lead good lives. 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/Y6xH5 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/iKIkJ FURTHER READING “We know that we must, to lay claim to any respectability or competence, keep up with the news. That’s why we’ve ringed the earth with satellites, crisscrossed it with fiber optic cables, and created networks of bureaus that inform us with maniacal urgency of pretty much any event to have unfolded anywhere on the planet in the last few moments. We are, furthermore, equipped with tiny devices that we keep very close to hand, and which we tend to check at intervals of between one and five minutes (rarely longer) so as to monitor all unfolding stories in close to real time. We have been granted a ringside seat on the second by second flow of history…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/86eCLM MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on WORK and CAPITALISM in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLcapitalism 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 Produced in collaboration with: Kathrin Steinbacher https://www.kathrinsteinbacher.com/ https://www.instagram.com/kathrin_steinbacher/ Sound Design and Music by Matias Torress #TheSchoolOfLife

Sunday evenings have a particular atmosphere, where nostalgia mixes with dread. A lot of the emotion is at heart about a background sense that we haven’t found the meaning of our lives – and that time is running out for us. 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/nuahH Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/Q38Nq FURTHER READING “It descends, normally, between around 5pm and 7.30pm and can be at its height at six, especially when the weather is turning and the last of the daylight has burnished the sky a shade of crimson pink. The Sunday evening feeling is ordinarily associated with work, and the idea of going back to an office after a pleasant break. But this doesn’t quite cover the complexity of what is going on: it isn’t just that we have some sort of work to do that is dragging down our mood, but that we are going back to the wrong sort of work even while we are in dire ignorance of what the right sort of work might actually be…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/ga4BSm MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Our website has classes, articles and products to help you think and grow: https://goo.gl/GpkFLq Watch more films on WORK and CAPITALISM in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLcapitalism 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 Produced in collaboration with: Cub Animation http://cubanimation.com #TheSchoolOfLife

Thank you for all your support. Entries will close at 0000 GMT, Midnight, on Sunday 24th December 2017. 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/MYMVM Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/NPZIt FURTHER READING The School of Life films featured in this video: How to Meet Like Minded People: https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=MAkTldt6myA Higher Consciousness: https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=vqCOss4hqnE How Not to Be Boring: https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=M9i2HAE-ZSw Why Socrates Hated Democracy: https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=fLJBzhcSWTk Why Germans Can Say Things No One Else Can: https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=dH1SvGMY4Qs MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on The School Of Life in our playlist: http://bit.ly/2g0YFKq 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/ #TheSchoolOfLife

It's miserable to be unhappy in your teenage years - but it is also profoundly important. It's hard to imagine adulthood going well if there haven't been quite a few tears at 15. 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/n5HXU Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/68c3S FURTHER READING “Being unhappy is never wholly to be recommended, but if there is any period of life in which if the mood may be justified and in certain ways important, then it is roughly between the ages of 13 and 20. It is hard to imagine going on to have a successful or even somewhat contented next six decades if one has not been the beneficiary of a good deal of agonising introspection and intense dislocation in this span...” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/YRRnDx 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Wiep Teeuwisse http://www.wiepteeuwisse.nl/ #TheSchoolOfLife

We sometimes assume that good thinking happens in quiet rooms at large desks with views. But really, for a variety of fascinating reasons, it happens most often in the shower. 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/rp8rJ Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/WK_zU FURTHER READING “We might suppose that the best place to think would be a large room with a big desk, plenty of natural light and a window with a view – perhaps onto water or a park. This is the premise behind the layout of most offices. The nearer one gets to the top, the closer one’s workstation will approximate to this supposed ideal: in tribute to the quality of thinking that, ideally, one would do there. Bosses tend to have big desks and even larger views. But these assumptions are not – in fact – really true to the way our minds work…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/i8EKFn 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Perrie Murphy https://vimeo.com/perriemurphy #TheSchoolOfLife

The idea of ‘atonement’ sounds very old-fashioned and is deeply rooted in religious tradition. To atone means, in essence, to acknowledge one’s capacity for wrongness and one’s readiness for apology and desire for change. It’s a concept that every society needs at its center. 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/2-Rjr Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/MJ7xZ FURTHER READING “‘Atonement’ is a slightly unfamiliar, old-fashioned and alien word. It means, according to the dictionary, the action of making amends for a wrong or injury and, especially in religious contexts, reparation or expiation for sin. The modern world chiefly believes that the rightful way to amend for a wrong is either to pay a fine or go to prison. These are, in certain circumstances, surely the best moves – but they fail to deal with what is, in the end, the far largest category of wrongs that humans commit: instances of everyday nastiness, error, foolishness, lack of empathy and shortsightedness. Fining or imprisoning on a mass scale is not realistic here and yet, leaving the wrongs unaddressed seems not quite right either. We need a procedure for atonement that is both real and functions outside of the judicial system…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/D9bsxV MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Mike Booth https://www.youtube.com/somegreybloke #TheSchoolOfLife

It sounds like a hugely arrogant and self-serving suggestion to imply that cleverness might lead you to loneliness. But if you define cleverness in a selective (and modest) way, there may truly be an aspect whereby it can lead to a certain isolation. 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/fUkjF Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/JRZ40 FURTHER READING You can read more on this here: https://goo.gl/zrSj1X MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Our website has classes, articles and products to help you think and grow: https://goo.gl/W1TZoj Watch more films on SELF in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLself You can submit translations and transcripts on all of our videos here: https://www.youtube.com/timedtext_cs_panel?c=UC7IcJI8PUf5Z3zKxnZvTBog&tab=2 Find out how more here: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6054623?hl=en-GB SOCIAL MEDIA Feel free to follow us at the links below: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theschooloflifelondon/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Luca Bowles http://www.lucabowles.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife

We cannot change the parents we had – but there is always an option, in later life, to learn to care for ourselves in new and perhaps better ways. In other words, there are opportunities to learn how to reparent ourselves. 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/Fp68K Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/l0J3F FURTHER READING “All of us were parented. For many of us, it went well. We were loved, our views were respected, our needs were tended to. It helped to make us the more or less sane people we are now. For others among us, things went really rather badly wrong. Perhaps there was unreliability, anger, humiliation, violence or worse…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/G6BqsT 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Oliver Trace http://sentiospace.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife

We’re often encouraged to think that the secret to starting is a business is to have a bold and entirely original idea. But the suggestion here is that all we really need is to LOVE something a little more than most other people do: that will be enough to help us stand out from the competition. 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/jGa-6 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/NGps9 FURTHER READING “Many of us want to start our own businesses. Public space is filled with reports of new ventures. But the reporting on entrepreneurship is heavily skewed in one particular direction: towards people who have started new kinds of businesses, pioneers who have pushed the boundaries of commerce by creating a wholly original offering, usually through the help of an innovative piece of technology...” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/P73YWU MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on WORK and CAPITALISM in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLcapitalism 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 Produced in collaboration with: Alan Jennings http://alanjennings.net/ #TheSchoolOfLife

Most modern parents say that all they want for their kids in the world of work is that they be ‘happy’. But it’s often a good deal more complicated than that, and parents are frequently hard at work shaping what their kids think of as good and bad careers. 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/Jhmf0 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/LSOFv FURTHER READING “For most of human history, what we did for a living was decided for us by our families. We would either directly copy what our parents did, or else we would reverentially accept their suggestions for what we might do. Only for around the last 200 years have we been choosing jobs for ourselves – and we’re still at the dawn of learning some of the complexities involved…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/AXVxbu MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on WORK and CAPITALISM in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLcapitalism 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 Produced in collaboration with: Peter Caires https://www.twitter.com/peterlikesthis http://www.petercaires.com #TheSchoolOfLife

Emotional health is defined by four markers: our degree of self-love, of openness, of communication and of trust. Watch our film to interrogate your level of emotional health. 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/meaBM Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/Aqygs FURTHER READING “One way to start assessing how badly we have been knocked by our early years – and where we might therefore need to direct most of our repair work and attention – is to identify a range of markers of emotional health and imagine how we fare in relation to them. At least four central ones suggest themselves…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/dqZi6r 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/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Natalia Biegaj https://www.nb-animation.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife

The best encounters with friends are those where we can talk honestly about what's going on in our lives, sharing triumphs, joys, fears and longings - without the usual shyness or reserve. We made the Confessions Game to get a group of friends into some of the very best sorts of conversations. 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/GAFIV Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/Tmq-E FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/3wLRgj 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 Produced in collaboration with: Khyan Mansley https://twitter.com/khyan #TheSchoolOfLife

Advertising beautifully alerts us to the desirability lots of things we probably don't need that much of in our lives. For its part, art also alerts us to the beauty and charm of bits of the world: but it tends to be the bits that we really do need for a fulfilled life. 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/JMtJQ Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/2HWg4 FURTHER READING “At the centre of our societies is a hugely inventive force dedicated to nudging us towards a heightened appreciation of certain aspects of the world. With enormous skill, it throws into relief the very best sides of particular places and objects. It uses wordsmiths and image makers of near genius, who can create deeply inspiring and beguiling associations and position works close to our eyelines at most moments of the day. Advertising is the most compelling agent of mass appreciation we have ever known…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/cYGT3M MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on CAPITALISM in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLcapitalism 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 Produced in collaboration with: Lois de Silva http://www.loisdesilva.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife

We all have people in our lives that we’d never start a friendship with today if we met them for the first time – but that nevertheless matter immensely to us. An essay on the importance of old friends. 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/EDtvO Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/v1f01 FURTHER READING “There are people we are friends with for one major but often maligned or overlooked reason: because we were friends with them some time back. At one stage, it might be decades ago now, we had a lot in common: we were both good at maths but bad at French at school and had a shared liking for table tennis; or we had adjacent rooms at college and used to help each other with assignments and commiserate in the bar about failed dates or maddening parents; or maybe we were interns in the same big firm with the same (as we thought at the time) bizarre and intemperate boss…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/TaUjPd MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Jenny Jokela https://vimeo.com/jennyjokela #TheSchoolOfLife

#language #diminutives #theschooloflife A diminutive is something you stick on the end of a word to make the thing it describes sound smaller. ie. Dog goes to Doggy. Every language has them, but some have more than others. Why are we drawn to diminutives? And why is English particularly resistant to them, compared to Spanish, for example? 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/ybZe2 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/6JdKe FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/gCb3nz 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Vale Productions http://www.valeproductions.co.uk/ #TheSchoolOfLife

It's easy to feel that anxiety attacks are freakish, illogical outbursts with no place in a sane life. But given the state of the world, and all the many properly worrying things in it, might they not, in fact, be difficult but logical markers of the utmost sanity? 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/op4An Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/AlvCL 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’re on a plane on the tarmac and it’s time to shut the doors. Suddenly, the insanity strikes you. You’ll be in a highly explosive sealed aluminum tube, breathing recycled kerosene-infused air, for the next six-and-a-half hours, with no way of getting off or out. The pilot may be exhausted or inwardly distressed. Air traffic control at any of the 40 waymarks along the journey may get momentarily distracted. You’ll be streaming 5 miles above the surface of the planet. No one else seems remotely sensitive to what any of this implies – they’re chatting and reading magazines – but for you, it’s the beginning of a kind of hell. You are on the verge of giving way to what we currently know as a panic attack…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/dd1dCY 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Dave Anderson http://bloodsausage.co.uk/animation/ #TheSchoolOfLife

Life constantly forces us to make very big and often very painful decisions. When we are next facing such a choice, here is a small exercise that could help us to know our own minds more clearly. 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/8ZjDM Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/IikW8 FURTHER READING “A good life is the fruit of a succession of good decisions, especially around love and work. However, we seldom accord the business of decision-making the kind of careful attention it requires. When faced with a large decision, we lack rituals and procedures. We typically procrastinate, lean on the nearest person or rush headlong into an unexamined solution. Fortunately, decision-making is a skill and – like any other – it can be taught. The chief enemy of good decisions is a lack of sufficient perspectives on a problem. We should systematically think through any issue from six distinct angles: through the eyes of – variously – our Enemy, our Gut, Death, Caution, Courage and our Parents. As we try out, juggle with and then synthesise these oblique perspectives, we will feel our sense of possibility expand – and a tolerable way forward gradually emerge from the present confusion…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/MizVUb 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Diyala Muir http://diyalamuir.com https://vimeo.com/diymuir #TheSchoolOfLife

We are often encouraged to believe that the goal of our lives should be happiness. But unfortunately the word happiness is misleading, in that it suggests that it might be possible to have a good life and not go through a lot of pain. We might be better off defining our purpose in terms of another word – this one drawn from Ancient Greek: EUDAIMONIA. FURTHER READING “Eudaimonia is an Ancient Greek word, particularly emphasised by the philosophers Plato and Aristotle, that deserves wider currency because it corrects the shortfalls in one of the most central, governing but insufficient terms in our contemporary idiom: happiness. When we nowadays try to articulate the purpose of our lives, it is to the word happiness we commonly have recourse. We tell ourselves and others that the ultimate rationale for our jobs, our relationships and the conduct of our day to day lives is the pursuit of happiness. It sounds like an innocent enough idea, but excessive reliance on the term means that we are frequently unfairly tempted to exit or at least heavily question a great many testing but worthwhile situations…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/bEfZ7d 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: Download our App: https://www.theschooloflife.com/london/app/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theschooloflifelondon/ X: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Eirini Vianelli https://www.eirinivianelli.com/animation/ https://vimeo.com/eirinivianelli #TheSchoolOfLife

Nagging is one of the most understandable but counterproductive patterns of behaviour – that kicks in when we have failed to teach someone what we want and are feeling tired and bruised emotionally. But if we really want others to change, there is no alternative but to gather our strengths and try to convey information in a way that can be understood by someone else. 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/iQDLh Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/Qpplr FURTHER READING “Nagging is the dispiriting, unpleasant, counter-productive but wholly understandable and poignant version of a hugely noble ambition: the desire to change other people. There is so much we might fairly want to change about them. We’re an entirely imperfect lot. And so we want them to be more self-aware, punctual, generous, reliable, introspective, resilient, communicative, profound… At home, we want them to focus more on the sink, the children, the bins, the money and the need to put the phone down and look up. At a macro dimension, we want them to think more about the suffering of encaged animals, the destruction of our habitat and the iniquities of capitalism. We are, most of us, very far from our ideal selves – and at the level of the species, come close to an evolutionary error. The desire to change people is no pathology; it’s a clear-sighted recognition of human wickedness…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/9gqCd6 MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Steve Kirby https://stevekirby.co.uk/ https://vimeo.com/stevekirby #TheSchoolOfLife

The first time humans saw the whole earth from space was thanks to a photograph taken by astronaut Bill Anders on the 24th December 1968, during the Apollo 8 mission. The photo, known as 'Earthrise' for the first time showed us what our planet looks like from space. Its vulnerability and beauty gave rise to a new global consciousness. We should take care to pin it to the fridge and apply its lessons to our lives. 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/xWXmi Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/i35KJ FURTHER READING “It is perhaps the most famous photograph ever taken. It came into being almost by accident, when on the morning of Christmas Eve 1968 one of the astronauts aboard the Apollo 8 spacecraft, Bill Anders, turned the camera from the supposed object of their mission – the moon – towards a spherical, brightly glowing, blue object rising above the lunar horizon. This was Earth, our irreplaceable planetary home. Suddenly humankind was able to view its habitat with a gaze hitherto reserved for the entity we have termed God…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/p8P8dN MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on CAPITALISM in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLcapitalism 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 Produced in collaboration with: Mad Adam Films http://madadamfilms.co.uk/ #TheSchoolOfLife

Above and beyond having a job, what we really need to power our professional future is a sense of mission. A film that discusses what a mission is, and how we might find our own. 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/VtAKQ Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/PHhVU FURTHER READING “Missions are things we tend to associate with astronauts. If someone at a party asked you what you did, and you said you were involved on a mission of some kind, people would look at you sort of strangely. But in truth, we’d all benefit from focusing in on the purpose of our lives so that we can refer to them as missions of one kind or another…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/Vme9Mr MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on WORK and CAPITALISM in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLcapitalism 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 Produced in collaboration with: Madadam films http://madadamfilms.co.uk/ #TheSchoolOfLife

The question of whether we are fundamentally free or determined in our thoughts and actions has been in the middle of philosophical debate for many centuries. This is our take on the subject. 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/dehm5 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/rhId4 FURTHER READING “The history of philosophy has been dominated by competing arguments around the ideas of Free Will and Determinism. Simply stated, the issue hangs on whether human beings should be thought of as fundamentally free to choose their actions and mould their lives – or whether they should be deemed as being at heart determined by forces beyond their control, be they fate, biology, politics or class…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/gT4K7w 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Rachel Lillie http://www.rachel-lillie.co.uk/ #TheSchoolOfLife

We are liars of genius when it comes to hiding uncomfortable facts from ourselves. But there’s real wisdom in understanding how we manage to deceive ourselves – and real utility in learning to be a little bit more honest with ourselves. 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/6rru0 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/9LIIW FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/jTpdUS 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Khyan Mansley https://www.youtube.com/user/Khyan1 https://twitter.com/khyan #TheSchoolOfLife

A good way to divide advanced societies is to ask: which are the good ones if you’re doing well, and which are the good ones if you’re doing badly? Interestingly, the results are very different. An associated fact is that most of us do not, financially at least, end up winners. That should give us pause for thought. FURTHER READING “We all, naturally, want to be winners. And so, consequently, a great many countries are designed to reward winners. These are the countries that pay a good deal of attention to optimising the conditions of life available to people who win. In such lands, if one is a winner and falls ill, the hospitals are outstanding…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/xcEiXc MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on CAPITALISM in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLcapitalism 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 Produced in collaboration with: Damn Fine Media Andrew Lees http://www.damnfinemedia.co.uk/ #TheSchoolOfLife

We feel lonely and odd because we mistakenly assume that the kind of thoughts and fears we have will have no echo in other people. They do; it’s just we haven’t found a way to speak to one another honestly about who we are. FURTHER READING “There are few more shameful confessions to make than that we are lonely. The basic assumption is that no respectable person could ever feel isolated – unless they had just moved country or been widowed. Yet in truth, a high degree of loneliness is an inexorable part of being a sensitive, intelligent human. It’s a built-in feature of a complex existence. There are several big reasons for this…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/wkDn3J MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Alexandra Sasha Balan http://www.sashaanimates.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife

Our tendencies, when we’ve been slighted by our partner, is to wound them back immediately. We would have far calmer relationships and kinder ones too, if we could just reveal our hurt – rather than inflict it back. 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/hKM9s Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/OFWr3 FURTHER READING “Arguments in relationships are typically so regrettable and often so bitter, it’s natural to hope we might – with greater maturity – overcome them once and for all. But given what human nature is like, it would be unwise to make this our goal: the hope can’t be to eliminate arguments altogether, it should be to try to find our way to a better kind of argument. Arguments tend to start when we are confronted – usually rather suddenly – by what appears to us to be the radical selfishness, intransigence or sheer nastiness of the partner…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/XQ2C1b MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Khyan Mansley https://www.youtube.com/user/Khyan1 https://twitter.com/khyan #TheSchoolOfLife

Our era of sexual liberation encourages us to have sex; but at the same time, hugely stigmatises those who don’t have it, from choice or circumstances. It’s time to liberate the idea of lingering or ongoing virginity from the shame it’s currently surrounded by. 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/fFVN4 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/cXOf8 FURTHER READING “When the sexual revolution began in the 1960s, there was a standard understanding of what should happen: ‘sexual liberation’ would mean that people would be freed to have more of the sort of sex they really liked, that is, with more partners and with less embarrassment…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/nKPNxe MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: James Carbutt https://vimeo.com/jamescarbutt #TheSchoolOfLife

We often imagine that what will win us friends and esteem is strength. But surprisingly, it’s vulnerability that’s at the core of friendship and likeability. This is an invitation to make friends with one’s own weaknesses. 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/zthQp Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/TQ1ES FURTHER READING “The desire to fit in is deeply engrained in our nature. We’re social creatures with a long evolutionary history that stressed the importance of not standing out in the group. The oddball would be the last to get their share of mammoth meat. We are the descendants of those who conformed – and got fed…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/vggYdF 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: James Carbutt http://www.jamescarbutt.co.uk #TheSchoolOfLife

We tend to feel very alone with the challenges of our own sex lives – but thereby miss a general truth: there isn’t anyone on the planet for whom sex hasn’t been, either now or at some point, an acutely difficult subject. We shouldn’t compound our miseries by imagining we are alone in having them. 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/55zvq Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/40fsC FURTHER READING “We are repeatedly given messages that we live in sexually enlightened times, that we belong to a liberated age. And therefore the implication is that we ought by now to be finding sex a straightforward and untroubling matter. We are not – after all – Victorians or prudes. The standard narrative of our release from past inhibitions goes something like this: for thousands of years across the globe, due to a devilish combination of religious bigotry and pedantic social custom, people were afflicted by a gratuitous sense of confusion and guilt around sex. They thought their hands would fall off if they masturbated. They believed they might be burned in a vat of oil because they had ogled someone’s ankle. They had no clue about erections or clitorises. They were ridiculous…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/hFe5G2 MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Matthew Hamilton-Knott https://www.curtisbrown.co.uk/client/matthew-hammett-knott #TheSchoolOfLife

We’re hugely invested in the idea that the cause of obesity lies with diet – and that we should therefore solve the problem with kale and apple soup (and other such products). But the real cause of obesity has nothing to do with food. It lies in our emotional under-nourishment. We will start to eat less when we feel more connected, more understood and more in touch with our feelings. 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/87XV_ Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/8Vffq FURTHER READING “It’s clear that a great many of us eat too much. And in response, a huge industry has grown up which advises us to consume more quinoa, pomegranate and fennel salad and, as often as we can, kale and apple soup. But this is entirely to misunderstand why we start eating excessive amounts. It has nothing to do food, and therefore trying to change our diet isn’t the most logical place to focus our efforts. We eat too much because what we’re really hungry for isn’t available…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/r2R7wz 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Thomas O’meara http://www.thomasharnettomeara.com/ https://vimeo.com/thomasharnettomeara #TheSchoolOfLife

They are hugely useful of course but in many ways, we buy the advantages our phones give us at a subtly high price we don’t entirely recognise. Some reflections on how to live well around phones. 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/PKZuq Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/ZyQJm FURTHER READING “The dark truth is that it’s become very hard to find anyone (and certainly anything) more interesting than one’s smartphone. This perplexing and troubling realisation has for most of us had huge consequences for our love stories, family lives, work, leisure time and health. There is almost no relationship in which the presence of the phone has not had a profound impact. The genuine beauty and interest of our phones wouldn’t be a matter of such concern if we didn’t suspect, somewhere in our minds, that this machine has both opened some doors and is in danger of grievously closing others. This essay knows we love our phones and would never want us to give them up, but it is also gently aware that these delightful gadgets bear a hidden cost. This is a text that aims to bring a little sanity to our closest, most intense and possibly most danger-laden technological relationship…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/PukLgZ 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Tom Kemp https://vimeo.com/user26596912 #TheSchoolOfLife

In order to be calm and at ease with ourselves, we need regular periods where we do something rather strange-sounding: process our emotions. Here is a guide to this essential psychological move. 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/euxso Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/7qkB9 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 “It is a quirk of our minds that not every emotion we carry is fully acknowledged, understood or even truly felt. There are feelings that exist in an ‘unprocessed’ form within us. A great many worries may, for example, remain disavowed and uninterpreted and manifest themselves as powerful directionless anxiety. Under their sway, we may feel a compulsive need to remain busy, fear spending any time on our own or cling to activities that ensure we don’t meet what scares us head on (these might include internet pornography, tracking the news or exercising compulsively). A similar kind of disavowal can go on around hurt. Someone may have abused our trust, made us doubt their kindness or violated our self-esteem but we are driven to flee a frank recognition of an appalling degree of exposure and vulnerability. The hurt is somewhere inside, but on the surface, we adopt a brittle good cheer (jolliness being sadness that doesn’t know itself), we numb ourselves chemically or else adopt a carefully non-specific tone of cynicism, which masks the specific wound that has been inflicted on us…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/FxY6e6 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Vale Productions http://www.valeproductions.co.uk/ #TheSchoolOfLife

Psychotherapy offers one of the most reliable ways to understand yourself and widen your options around work and love. It can also lessen feelings of isolation, guilt, and anxiety. In this film, The School of Life founder Alain de Botton discusses therapy with The School’s head therapist, Charlotte Fox-Weber. Charlotte explains what therapy is, what happens when you go there and why it might be an idea for you one day to visit a therapist. 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 “In almost all countries and communities around the world, there is one central (usually unvoiced) suspicion that arises whenever someone lets slip that they are ‘having therapy’: they are crazy. Getting therapeutic help should – ideally – be an ordinary and wholly unsurprising thing, like getting a haircut or going to the dentist, but it remains a very peculiar and frowned-upon recourse. Partly, that’s because the therapeutic industry currently looks deeply unimpressive. Some rather awkward people are employed in it, operating from shabby basement offices, often with dodgy credentials. A rag bag of questionable services gets labeled with this catch-all term. An industry that should be as dominant and financially significant as Audi or Nike struggles for basic recognition. There is plenty of good work being done, but it isn’t overly visible…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/BszzN6 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 Produced in collaboration with: Matthew Hamilton-Knott https://www.curtisbrown.co.uk/client/matthew-hammett-knott #TheSchoolOfLife

Many of us are regularly thrown off course by what we might term ‘crisis of meaning’; periods when what we are up to seems not to connect up with anything purposeful or properly dignified. It’s at such moments that we need to lean on a bigger theory of what meaning is, where it comes from, and how our lives relate to 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/7wWt9 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/r1PZL 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://goo.gl/RsqLEQ 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Mike Booth https://www.youtube.com/user/somegreybloke #TheSchoolOfLife

Did you know we have a branch in São Paulo, Brazil? Discover our The School of Life branch in São Paulo (and other cities around the world). 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/tdckb Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/oI-J3 SOCIAL MEDIA Feel free to follow us at the links below: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theschooloflifelondon/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/

The modern world firmly equates how much we earn with how good, noble, wise and worthy of honour we are. This is a brutal misunderstanding of how salaries are determined. We need to operate with a far more nuanced view of what the money we earn says about us. 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/VbPQJ Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/NWoD- FURTHER READING “A fundamental belief of the modern world, which explains a lot of our anxiety around failure, is that we are what we earn. When we say this, we mean something very particular: not just that it’s nice to have a lot of money but that our income is the source of information, crucial, decisive information, about our character, our intelligence, our moral fibre: in short, money is the key indicator of our worth in human and not just financial terms. The more money we make, the more we deserve to exist…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/Q4YRMi MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on CAPITALISM in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLcapitalism 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 Produced in collaboration with: Tomás Pichardo-Espaillat https://vimeo.com/tomatico http://animations.tomatico.net/ #TheSchoolOfLife

Many of our relationship problems stem from the emptiness of our vocabulary around our affectionate emotion. We have only the minimal word 'love'. Luckily, the Ancient Greeks had a more nuanced and complicated vocabulary that we can usefully borrow from. 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/i21Hv Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/FN5Mf FURTHER READING “Love is our highest value, what we all crave and what we believe makes us fundamentally human, but it is also the source of considerable anxiety. Chiefly, we worry whether we are entirely normal because it frequently feels as if we are not experiencing love the way we should be…” You can read more here: https://goo.gl/8smXPi MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships You can submit translations and transcripts on all of our videos here: https://www.youtube.com/timedtext_cs_panel?c=UC7IcJI8PUf5Z3zKxnZvTBog&tab=2 Find out how more here: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6054623?hl=en-GB SOCIAL MEDIA Feel free to follow us at the links below: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theschooloflifelondon/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Vale Productions http://www.valeproductions.co.uk/ #TheSchoolOfLife

We’re used to thinking of going traveling as the easy and fun bit of life, but in fact, it’s a process fraught with hidden complications and seldom mentioned anxieties. We consider why travel is often not quite what we expect it to be – and how we might learn to become, in the psychological sense, better travelers. If you like our films, take a look at our shop (we ship worldwide): https://goo.gl/7S7oB2 Join our mailing list: http://bit.ly/2e0TQNJ Or visit us in person at our London HQ https://goo.gl/EWTFbH FURTHER READING “Lying in bed late at night or waiting at the platform for the commuter train home, we often daydream about where it would be so much nicer to be: perhaps the beaches of Goa on India’s west coast, a little restaurant by a quiet canal in Venice, the highway near Big Sur in California or maybe the Faroe islands, far to the north of Scotland…” You can read more on this and other subjects on our blog, here: https://goo.gl/3pSFZj MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Our website has classes, articles and products to help you think and grow: https://goo.gl/n95HPB Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships You can submit translations and transcripts on all of our videos here: https://www.youtube.com/timedtext_cs_panel?c=UC7IcJI8PUf5Z3zKxnZvTBog&tab=2 Find out how more here: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6054623?hl=en-GB SOCIAL MEDIA Feel free to follow us at the links below: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theschooloflifelondon/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: David Horsburgh http://www.davidtheanimator.com/ https://vimeo.com/davidtheanimator #TheSchoolOfLife

Many of humanity’s greatest problems stem not from a shortfall of technical or financial intelligence, but what we term emotional intelligence. It is through the acquisition of Emotional Intelligence that we stand to become better lovers, workers, friends and citizens. We are rarely systematically taught Emotional Intelligence and pay a heavy price for this gap in learning. 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/YvWZH Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/uJ__A FURTHER READING You can read more on this here: https://goo.gl/uKtkXK MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Our website has classes, articles and products to help you think and grow: https://goo.gl/ZCNGqX Watch more films on SELF in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLself You can submit translations and transcripts on all of our videos here: https://www.youtube.com/timedtext_cs_panel?c=UC7IcJI8PUf5Z3zKxnZvTBog&tab=2 Find out how more here: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6054623?hl=en-GB 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 Produced in collaboration with: Tracy Foster​ http://www.tracyfoster.co.uk Directed & Produced by Tracy Foster Sound Design by Howard Sinden #TheSchoolOfLife

The secret of good seduction is not to idealise the person we are trying to get together with. They are – ultimately – still just another human being, whom we would in time get very irritated with if the seduction worked as well as we want. That is a thought to lend us confidence. 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/PxDj4 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/p29wy FURTHER READING “We are never as shy and gauche as we are when attempting to seduce someone we deeply like. The thought of someone this perfect coming to take an interest in us seems at once tantalizing and entirely implausible. We develop vertigo and, too often, fall. Behind our insecurity lie two conjoined fears: that we are exceptionally awful. And that the beloved is exceptionally perfect. Both ideas are hugely destructive – and false…” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Jesse Collett http://www.jessecollett.co.uk/ #TheSchoolOfLife

Transference is a psychological phenomenon whereby we ‘transfer’ a way of behaving from childhood into adulthood – in situations which don’t really warrant it. It’s a big cause of trouble in relationships. 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/pNRfF Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/W9GJO 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’re flicking through a fashion magazine and playfully suggest that your partner might want to make a few experiments with their wardrobe. How about a different pair of jeans or a new T-shirt, a duffle coat or platform heels? But at the mention of this possibility, your partner gets very agitated indeed: they scornfully declare that money is tight, they haven’t got any time, they have too many clothes already and why are you deliberately annoying them by making vapid proposals like this?…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/NuyVgn MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Khyan Mansley https://www.youtube.com/user/Khyan1 https://twitter.com/khyan #TheSchoolOfLife

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. 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/K3Syr Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/ykyVX 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/

On October 20th, we're gathering in Lisbon, Portugal for a big conference centered around all the themes on this channel, including love, wisdom and fulfillment. It'll be a chance to meet fellow followers of the channel, to learn great new things and to make friends. 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/FUzA8 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/M1_TZ 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/ #theschooloflife CREDITS Brought to you by http://www.theschooloflife.com

You’ll know you’ve truly become socially adept when you finally manage to make small talk with that most challenging and unforgiving of characters: a small child you hardly know. 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/7DmMD Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/2u3UN FURTHER READING “It can be easy to imagine we possess reasonable social skills, because we know how to maintain a conversation with strangers and – every now and then – manage to make a whole table laugh. But there’s a test far sterner than this, surprising in its ability to trip us up: the challenge of having a pleasant time with a child we don’t know. Theoretically speaking, this should be so easy. We were all once kids. We know a great deal more than they do and – as far as they’re concerned – hold all the cards: if we felt like it, we could buy 26 packets of biscuits and go to bed whenever we wanted…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/9APsau MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Martin Pickles http://martinpickles.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife

The route to our best, most genius-like thoughts is not to be afraid of our stranger-sounding insights and hunches. 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/AiqOb Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/OjeAm FURTHER READING “We hear a lot about genius. We are taught to admire the minds of those infinite, baffling but astonishing geniuses like Einstein, Tolstoy or Picasso. Quite what genius might actually be is left a little vague. It’s a codeword for ‘brilliant but perhaps too other-worldly ever really to fathom.’ We are invited to stand in awe at the achievements of geniuses but also to feel that their thought processes might be quasi-magical and that it is ultimately simply mysterious how they were ever able to come up with the ideas they have had…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/AV1fgk 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Tom Fisher www.tomffisher.co.uk Catherine Prowse www.catherineprowse.com Hannah Quinn www.itshannahquinn.com Ada Wikdahl cargocollective.com/adawikdahl #TheSchoolOfLife

Social life couldn’t continue if we didn’t have some capacity for forgiveness. We need to flex our forgiveness muscles more regularly though – and the best way to do so is to remember how much we’ve needed others to forgive us in the past. 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/5ifx1 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/nzIQl FURTHER READING “It can be so hard to forgive because – so often – we simply are in the right and the scale of the folly, thoughtlessness and meanness of others seems utterly beyond our own measure. But there are two inviolable ideas which should nevertheless, in the face of the grossest behaviour, be kept in mind to increase our chances of cutting others a little slack…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/srWUgY MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Daniela Sherer https://vimeo.com/danielasherer #TheSchoolOfLife

The route to greater resilience is to explore how well we would cope if so much of what we think we need were to be taken away from us. We would, almost certainly, manage far better than we think in our timid moments. 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/pdnt1 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/R9bcw 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 “One of the characteristic flaws of our minds is to exaggerate how fragile we might be; to assume that life would be impossible far earlier than it, in fact, would be. We imagine that we could not live without a certain kind of income or status or health; that it would be a disaster not to have a certain kind of relationship, house or job. This natural tendency of the mind is constantly stoked by life in commercial society, which adds to our sense of the number of things that should be considered Necessities rather than Luxuries. This kind of society goes to extraordinary lengths to get us to feel that we really do need to go skiing once a year, to have heated car seats, to fly in Business, to own the same kind of watch as a famous conductor and a jumbo-sized fridge, and to lay claim to lots of friends, perfectly muscular health and a loving, kind, sex-filled relationship…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/LaLUPr MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on WORK and CAPITALISM in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLcapitalism 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 Produced in collaboration with: Peter Caires https://www.twitter.com/peterlikesthis http://www.petercaires.com #TheSchoolOfLife

We tend to imagine that we can only become addicted to a few sorts of things. But real addiction is about using something, anything, to keep our real emotions, fears and hopes at bay. There are many more addicts among us than we think. 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/JJXLE Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/T8mae FURTHER READING “We operate with some stock images of the addict: a person with a heroin needle in a park, or who nurses a bottle of gin in a paper bag at nine in the morning or who sneaks off at every opportunity to light up another cylinder of marijuana. However dramatic and tragic such cases of addiction might be, they are simultaneously hugely reassuring to most of us – because they locate the addict far from ordinary experience, somewhere off-stage, in the land of semi-criminality and outright breakdown…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/q3yUyJ 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Yan Dan Wong http://yandanwong.com/ https://vimeo.com/yandanwong #TheSchoolOfLife

Often love can disappear between two people not because the relationship is doomed, but because the right sort of conversations haven’t been happening. Here are seven topics of conversation that can be guaranteed to rekindle emotion. 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/-YLn2 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/bHdFE FURTHER READING “Occasionally, our relationships need to get re-started. We love one another but a lot has accumulated that we haven’t properly dealt with. Certain things haven’t been said, resentments may have built up, playfulness has been neglected and there is a lot we should – but haven’t found the words – to express. So we’ve drawn up a set of some of the most important questions that a couple might discuss together in order to reopen channels of feeling and communication…” You can read more on this here: https://goo.gl/NwDEKz MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships You can submit translations and transcripts on all of our videos here: https://www.youtube.com/timedtext_cs_panel?c=UC7IcJI8PUf5Z3zKxnZvTBog&tab=2 Find out how more here: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6054623?hl=en-GB SOCIAL MEDIA Feel free to follow us at the links below: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theschooloflifelondon/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Khyan Mansley https://www.youtube.com/user/Khyan1 https://twitter.com/khyan #TheSchoolOfLife

We may associate pessimism with bad things, but at a political level, the world’s best societies are all experts at pessimism. 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/4YZ68 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/7_NN0 FURTHER READING “It might be normal to imagine that a good society would be one in which a majority of people held optimistic views about themselves, their fellow citizens and their prospects for their collective futures. But, in fact, quite the opposite appears to be true: deep pessimism seems a key ingredient for the maintenance of any good society…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/o8cnwf MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on CAPITALISM in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLcapitalism 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 Produced in collaboration with: Phil Tibb https://www.philltibb.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife

The real cruelty of unrequited love is that we don’t get to know our beloveds well enough to find out their flaws – and therefore to lose interest in them gradually. The best cure for love is in essence: get to know them better. 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/iWdtx Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/P6FFo FURTHER READING “For intense periods of our lives, we suffer the agony of unrequited love. Our sorrow is accompanied by a certainty that if only the elusive being would return our smiles, come for dinner or marry us, we would know bliss. Epochal happiness seems tantalisingly close, wholly real and yet maddeningly out of reach. At such moments, we are often counselled to try to forget the beloved. We should – given their lack of interest – try to think of something or someone else. Yet this kindness is deeply misguided. The cure for love does not lie in ceasing to think of the fugitive lover, but in learning to think more intensely and constructively about who they might really be…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/NVxJUw MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Andrew Foerster http://www.rewfoe.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife

Our education system is based on the idea that we can learn things once, and that they’ll then stay in our minds throughout our lives. That’s far too optimistic. Our brains are like sieves. If anything is going to remain in them, we need regular reminders of what really matters. Fascinatingly, religions always understood that. 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/O38fE Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/XowF3 FURTHER READING “One of the most obvious but striking things about a modern education is that you go through it only once. You show up every day for a number of years, get filled up with knowledge and then, once you’re twenty-one or so, you stop – and begin the rest of your life…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/FShCJg 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Matt King http://www.mattjking.co.uk/ #TheSchoolOfLife

It’s sometimes assumed that talking too much about ourselves is rude; and asking questions of others is polite and charming. But the distinction is not quite so simple. There are far better and worse ways of speaking about ourselves. We end up charming when we dare to reveal our vulnerabilities to others. 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/IfCRV Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/1_Ad1 FURTHER READING “Polite people have it instilled in them from an early age that they should not talk too much about themselves. A few comments aside, they should – to prove appealing – always ask the other about their lives or stick to impersonal topics found in newspapers, lest they be accused of that heinous charge: self-absorption. But this rule fails to distinguish between different ways of talking about oneself. There are, as well-mannered people sometimes forget, better and worse ways to share details of one’s life. It is not the amount that one talks that should determine the issue; only how one does so…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/eNzT6a MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Andrew Foerster http://www.rewfoe.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife

We aim for perfection without a correct idea of what perfection might demand from us. To strengthen our resolve, we need to improve our picture of what sacrifices any achievement will demand. 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/j1TkX Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/W6_ni FURTHER READING “Perfectionism is the unreasonable and self-defeating ambition of getting something absolutely right – which makes us difficult to be around and punishing to live within. The origins of perfectionism lie in the imagination, in the ease with which we can conjure up a picture of an ideal state of affairs, compared with the monstrous difficulty of bringing such a state into being by ourselves. The sickness of perfectionism gestates in the fertile gap between our noble visions and our mediocre reality…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/gtPMbC 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Avi Ofer https://www.aviofer.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife

We are – almost all of us – deeply attracted to the idea of being normal. But what if our idea of ‘normal’ isn’t normal? A plea for a broader definition of an important term. 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/ibZBh Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/_tNtH FURTHER READING “It really matters what we think of as ‘being normal,’ because we are collective creatures. We’re acutely receptive to group dynamics and sensitive to where we fit in – or the ways in which we don’t. No matter how much we praise individualism and see ourselves as unique we are, in fact, deeply influenced by our picture of what is ‘normal’ in our society…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/Uw3ULy 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Tomás Pichardo-Espaillat https://vimeo.com/tomatico #TheSchoolOfLife

Being clumsy is one of the most humiliating of scenarios. We need to learn to make friends with our ‘inner idiot’. 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/raxT7 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/iQ9y6 FURTHER READING “Our clumsiness can feel like one of the most shameful things about us. We spill, fall over, drop, smash… Clumsiness violates our self-image as a competent grown-up. It introduces us to a figure we may for a long time have been very keen to escape from: the Inner Idiot. We are liable to hate our Inner Idiot from afar, with a grim face, and to try to deny its reality. But in our clumsy moments, we’re reminded that the Idiot is still there, prompting us to drop the phone in the toilet bowl and forget important people’s names at a party…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/hpqVuF 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Luiz Stockler https://www.luizstockler.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife

Being a victim of infidelity is one of the worst things that can befall us in love. One of the ways to come back from the harrowing experience is to ask what the real meaning of the infidelity might be. 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/hxMAk Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/JH3l0 FURTHER READING “Infidelity is commonly interpreted as close to the greatest tragedy that could befall any relationship – and as the natural, inevitable prelude to the break-up of a union. It is viewed in such dark terms because, under the philosophy of Romanticism which has dominated our understanding of love since the middle of the eighteenth century, sex is understood to be, not principally a physical act, but the summation and central symbol of love. Before Romanticism, people had sex and fell in love but they did not always see these two acts as inextricably linked: one might love someone and not sleep with them. Or sleep with them and not love them. It was this dislocation that Romanticism refused to countenance. Sex was simply the crowning moment of love, the superlative way of expressing one’s devotion to someone, the ultimate proof of one’s sincerity…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/ipAbnG MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Ben Clarkson http://www.thebenclarkson.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife

John Maynard Keynes was arguably the greatest economist of the 20th century. He discovered the idea that governments should stimulate demand during economic downturns – and was the creator of both the IMF and the World Bank. His ideas continue to underpin a lot of the modern economic system. 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/JrTBb Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/-vpFH FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/4vY9Wo MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on POLITICAL THEORY in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLpoliticaltheory 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 Produced in collaboration with: Mike Booth https://www.youtube.com/somegreybloke Dr Chris Grocott http://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/management/people/chris-grocott https://leicester.academia.edu/ChrisGrocott #TheSchoolOfLife

The difference between despair and hope often boils down to different ways of telling stories from the same set of facts. Some of the art of living means learning how to tell the story of our lives back to ourselves. 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/d3GjN Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/mtvkk FURTHER READING “At moments of sorrow and exhaustion, it is only too easy to look back over the years and feel that our lives have, in essence, been meaningless. We take stock of just how much has gone wrong: how many errors there have been; how many unfulfilled plans and frustrated dreams we’ve had...” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/Dw7f1t 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Mad Adam Films https://vimeo.com/madadamfilms/ http://madadamfilms.co.uk/ #TheSchoolOfLife

Latin is a language beautifully suited to expressing certain ideas with concision and grace. Here are seven phrases that sound better in the original Latin than in any other language. If you like our films, take a look at our shop (we ship worldwide): https://goo.gl/QQrhuD Join our mailing list: http://bit.ly/2e0TQNJ Or visit us in person at our London HQ https://goo.gl/JnLsm4 FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects on our blog, here: https://goo.gl/VinSq7 MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Our website has classes, articles and products to help you think and grow: https://goo.gl/8YYhFe Watch more films on SELF in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLself You can submit translations and transcripts on all of our videos here: https://www.youtube.com/timedtext_cs_panel?c=UC7IcJI8PUf5Z3zKxnZvTBog&tab=2 Find out how more here: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6054623?hl=en-GB SOCIAL MEDIA Feel free to follow us at the links below: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theschooloflifelondon/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Vale Creative Ltd http://www.valeproductions.co.uk/ #TheSchoolOfLife

The Seven Deadly Sins were a list of psychological flaws first identified by Christianity in the 4th century. Christianity was wise in spotting the errors, but rather ungenerous in explaining why they existed. Given that we are all, in a sense, ‘sinners’, we need to find better explanations for our bad behaviour. 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/IlXZV Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/R4kax FURTHER READING “Christianity has, traditionally, spoken a lot about sinners. In the fourth century, the Church identified ‘seven deadly sins’: failings of character that were to be particularly condemned and avoided by all righteous people. They were...” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/TMR7E1 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Directed and Animated by: Andrew Benincasa http://www.andrewbenincasa.com ig: andrewbenincasa Music by: Ilusha Tsinadze Listen to the music from the video here: http://ilusha.com/sins/ http://www.ilusha.com #TheSchoolOfLife

Listening is something we’re very reluctant to do, not because we’re lazy, but because we have never actually been taught how to do it properly, in a way that can be interesting and rewarding for us. 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/hWI5U Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/rs9Ak FURTHER READING “Many of us probably have a nagging feeling that we don’t listen enough to other people. Here we’re not going to make the guilt worse by telling you that listening is a good thing, worthy but in fact rather dull. We’re going to show you that listening to others is first and foremost an interesting thing to do, something that could be as pleasurable for you as it is for your speaking companion....” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Tracy Foster https://vimeo.com/user1519267 http://tj-tracyfoster.squarespace.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife

Political correctness aims for some very nice results, but its means have a habit of upsetting a lot of people. Might there be an alternative to it? We think there is, and it’s called Politeness. 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/KUTZM Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/c2obn FURTHER READING “Political Correctness is, in many ways, an extraordinary and admirable achievement of our age. It involves an acute sensitivity to the suffering of minority groups traditionally overlooked by the dominant forces in society – and a commitment to teasing out examples of adversity in the large but also the small moments of daily life. Its aim is to spread empathy, justice and fairness...” You can read more on this here: https://goo.gl/WQst5l MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on CAPITALISM in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLcapitalism You can submit translations and transcripts on all of our videos here: https://www.youtube.com/timedtext_cs_panel?c=UC7IcJI8PUf5Z3zKxnZvTBog&tab=2 Find out how more here: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6054623?hl=en-GB SOCIAL MEDIA Feel free to follow us at the links below: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theschooloflifelondon/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Nick Hilditch http://nickhilditch.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife

Emil Cioran is Romania’s most famous thinker: his darkly pessimistic philosophy is a perfect antidote to the sentimental cheeriness of our times. 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/rjTHz Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/eBhp3 FURTHER READING “Towards the end of the twentieth century, a celebrated Romanian-French philosopher and aphorist was invited to speak in Zurich. He was introduced with rhetorical pomp and flattering comparisons to the likes of Kierkegaard and Schopenhauer. The speaker smiled, and immediately confounded his German interpreter by beginning his presentation with the words: ‘Mais je ne suis qu’un déconneur’ / ‘But I’m just a joker’. A few of his critics might agree, but they would be wrong. For Emil Mihai Cioran is very much worthy of inclusion in the line of the great French and European moral philosophers and writers of maxims stretching back to Montaigne, Chamfort, Pascal and La Rochefoucauld...” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/mKs6TZ MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on PHILOSOPHY in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLphilosophy 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 Produced in collaboration with: Contributing writer - Dr David McCallam Mike Booth https://www.youtube.com/user/somegreybloke #TheSchoolOfLife

When we next catch ourselves going on a bit too long on a topic – or, to put it bluntly ‘ranting’ – we should dare to ask ourselves where our behaviour is coming from. 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/lZqPo Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/MYgQw FURTHER READING “One of the risks of social life is that we will in the course of an evening or in the kitchen at a party end up trapped with a person of excessive conviction or, to put it more colloquially, a bore. Bores can be found harbouring any manner of obsessions: they may be deeply concerned...” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/hCCbyl 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Direction and animation: Lee Arkapaw and Tessa Chong Sound Design: Alister Mew #TheSchoolOfLife

We’re used to thinking rather badly of flattery; but in fact, it’s one of the moves that can help people to develop and grow into better versions of themselves. 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/XDsm8 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/yQP_O FURTHER READING “Flattery has a bad name. It’s associated with saying something upbeat but untrue in order to hoodwink its unsuspecting target for low personal gain. In Aesop’s famous fable, The Fox and the Crow, an ugly crow has found a piece of cheese and retired to a branch to eat it. A sly fox, wanting it for himself, flatters the crow, calling it beautiful and wondering whether its voice will be as sweet as its appearance. The crow lets out a horrific screeching sound and the cheese drops straight into the fox’s gaping expectant mocking jaw. But there’s another form of flattery with more valuable and ethical ambitions. Parents of small children invariably discover its uses – which deserve to be better known and practiced around all age groups. Let’s imagine that a child isn’t yet entirely kind to their brother, or good at drawing, or a perfect cook or helpful around the house – but the parent declares that they are so as to encourage and make more concrete what is as yet only tentative and fragile in their ambivalent nature. The child is being helped to end up as some of the things he has already been described as being...” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/Mn9GJp 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Ana Stefaniak http://www.anastefaniak.co.uk/ https://vimeo.com/sirmagpie #TheSchoolOfLife

The solutions to many of life’s largest problems begin with a beautifully downbeat and simple matter: the need to get an early night. There are a host of reasons why taking to bed early should be a glamorous proposition. 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/0gUiO Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/j1Yie FURTHER READING “To a surprising, and almost humiliating extent, some of the gravest problems we face during a day can be traced back to a brutally simple fact: that we have not had enough sleep the night before...” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/2nqM6O 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Avi Ofer https://www.aviofer.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife

It isn’t realistic to aim never to argue with our partners; far better to learn how to argue fruitfully and well. This has a lot to do with allowing ourselves to be vulnerable. 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/zU8SG Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/jPwF0 FURTHER READING “Arguments in relationships are typically so regrettable and often so bitter, it’s natural to hope we might – with greater maturity – overcome them once and for all. But given what human nature is like, it would be unwise to make this our goal: the hope can’t be to eliminate arguments altogether, it should be to try to find our way to a better kind of argument. Arguments tend to start when we are confronted – usually rather suddenly – by what appears to us to be the radical selfishness, intransigence or sheer nastiness of the partner...” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/tPDECA MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: David Horsburgh http://www.davidtheanimator.com/ https://vimeo.com/davidtheanimator #TheSchoolOfLife

Good children don’t cause problems; they always do what others expect. They seem to be on track. But there are real problems with people who never have a chance to be a little bad. 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/pbaML Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/E0juu FURTHER READING “They do their homework on time; their writing is neat; they keep their bedroom tidy; they are often a little shy; they want to help their parents; they use their brakes when cycling down a hill. Because they don’t pose many immediate problems, we tend to assume all is well with good children. They aren’t the target for particular concern; that goes to the kids who are graffitiing the underpass. People imagine the good children are fine; because they do everything that’s expected of them...” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/LDyqzB 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Alex Morris https://vimeo.com/user880140 #TheSchoolOfLife

We spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about, and in various ways ‘styling’ our hair. It’s not entirely silly; we’re trying to tell the world – through the language of keratin strands – about who we are. 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/k2Fij Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/DCXKq FURTHER READING “It could seem bizarre quite how long we spend on those strands of stringy keratin that sprout – unreliably – from our scalps. We will, over a lifetime, devote thousands of hours and even more money on hairdressers’ careful attempts to coax and sculpt our coiffure into exactly the right colour, shape and dimension. There are days when our entire mood will be supported by a sense that our hair is cooperating and others when our spirits will be just as powerfully ruined by an unfortunate glimpse of our disobedient locks in an elevator mirror...” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/0Z1sGj 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Joe Bichard http://www.joebichard.com/ https://vimeo.com/joebichard Additional Sounds by Skillbard http://www.skillbard.com #TheSchoolOfLife

Animals have a lot to teach us about wisdom if we are ready to take their quietly-delivered lessons on board. 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/UgSrn Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/yrUbt FURTHER READING “Animals don’t set out to teach us anything at all – but we all have a lot to learn from our interactions with them nevertheless. Imagine that we come back from work unusually late. It’s been a tricky day: a threatened resignation, an enraged supplier, a lost document, two delayed trains… But none of the mayhem is of any concern to one friend waiting by the door uncomplicatedly pleased to see us: Pippi, a two-year-old Border Terrier with a continuous appetite for catching a deflated football in her jaws. She wants to play in the usual way, even if it’s past nine o’clock now, with us in the chair and her sliding around the kitchen, and, unexpectedly, so do we. We’re not offended by her lack of overall interest in us. It’s at the root of our delight. Here, at last, is someone wholly indifferent to almost everything about us except for our dexterity at ball-throwing, someone who doesn’t care about the Brussels meeting, who will forgive us for not warning the finance department in time about the tax rebates and for whom the Lisbon conference is beyond imagining...” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/iA0ZaB 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Artrake Studios http://www.artrake.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife

Frequently the flashpoints in our relationships come not around large themes, but strangely and almost humiliatingly small issues, like crumbs near the breadboard. We shouldn’t feel bad; ‘small things’ are generally the carriers of very big ideas. We have to get better at seeing what is really at stake beneath our pettier struggles. 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/I639w Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/RjCKd FURTHER READING “Lovers who’ve been together awhile tend almost universally to get maddened by what look (on the surface) like certain absurdly small matters. An otherwise quite reasonable and decent person might admit to a range of acute sensitivities around some of their partner’s rather minor habits – and a tendency swiftly to lose their temper on encountering them: they press far too hard on the chopping board; they don’t put their seat belt on until after the car is started; in their handwriting ‘b’ and ‘h’ are practically indistinguishable; they squeeze the toothpaste tube the wrong way (pressing at the neck rather than the bottom); they use the word the word ‘tragic’ to mean ‘sad’; they leave drawers fractionally open; when they drink a glass of water they never drink it right down to the end but always tip out the last few drops into the kitchen sink...” You can read more on this here: https://goo.gl/JWub6V MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Our website has classes, articles and products to help you think and grow: https://goo.gl/NdGqUY Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships You can submit translations and transcripts on all of our videos here: https://www.youtube.com/timedtext_cs_panel?c=UC7IcJI8PUf5Z3zKxnZvTBog&tab=2 Find out how more here: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6054623?hl=en-GB SOCIAL MEDIA Feel free to follow us at the links below: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theschooloflifelondon/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Ana Mouyis http://www.anamouyis.com/ https://vimeo.com/anamouyis #TheSchoolOfLife

We too often imagine that ‘good conversations’ are things we fall into out of luck. Far from it, knowing how to have a good conversation is a skill that can be learnt – and here are the beginning of the rules. 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/BCf3y Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/pNP5_ FURTHER READING “Having a decent conversation is something most of us imagine we can do without any problem – and certainly without much thought. These things just happen naturally. Don’t they? But in truth, truly good conversations come along very rarely; largely because our societies fall for the Romantic myth that knowing how to talk to other people is something we are born knowing how to do, rather than an art dependent on a little planning and a few skills. We rightly accept that total improvisation in preparing a meal is unlikely to yield good outcomes; but we show no such caution or modesty when it comes to how we might talk over the food once it has been made. Finding oneself in a good conversation can feel as haphazard and random as stumbling on a beautiful square in a foreign city at night ­– and realising one won’t reliably know how to get back there in daytime.” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/dSuY1L MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Khyan Mansley https://www.youtube.com/user/Khyan1 https://twitter.com/khyan #TheSchoolOfLife

There is such pressure on us to be cheerful. And yet in order properly to be content, we need to learn, sometimes, the art of being constructively in touch with our sadder, more melancholy feelings. 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/JHFm9 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/31YfY 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://goo.gl/pYh3ZN 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Gemma Hope-Rose http://www.gemmagreenhope.com/ Sound Design: Consterdine Music: 'Dependent' Artists: Consterdine #TheSchoolOfLife

We often believe that compromise in love is the enemy of good relationships. In fact, it is only via compromise that we can ever have any kind of relationship at all. The art of romantic compromise deserves to be rediscovered and - in its own way - celebrated. FURTHER READING “We reserve some of our deepest scorn for couples who stay together out of compromise; those who are making a show of unanimity, but whom we know are, deep down, not fully happy. Maybe they’re primarily together because of the children; maybe they’re sticking around because they’re scared of being lonely or maybe they’re just worried that anyone else they found wouldn’t be much better.” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/lF3c8i MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Tessa Chong and Lee Arkapaw http://tessachong.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife

Samuel Beckett is perhaps the greatest playwright of the 20th century, and the author of the masterpiece, Waiting for Godot. It’s hard to understand the modern world without his perspective. 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/Ym-gn Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/RPnWH FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/IUf5UE MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on LITERATURE in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLliterature 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 Written by: Professor Ronan McDonald https://hal.arts.unsw.edu.au/about-us/people/ronan-mcdonald/ Produced by: Mike Booth https://www.youtube.com/user/somegreybloke #TheSchoolOfLife

Narcissism is the word we routinely use to describe someone self-satisfied and arrogant. But what do we really mean by the word – and are we applying it correctly? 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/JCAtC Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/xvNtL FURTHER READING “Accusing someone of narcissism has become one of the great and tempting insults of our age. It is what we are inclined to label anyone who appears overweening, boastful, entitled or excessively pleased with their own existence. But it’s possible to wonder whether the word really fits the conceited and bombastic types we’ve grown used to applying it to – and, a larger point, whether we’re really understanding, and therefore correctly addressing, the origins of the regrettable behaviour to which it refers…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/gGUuhu 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Avi Ofer https://www.aviofer.com/ https://vimeo.com/user5366769 #TheSchoolOfLife

The clue to good seduction is signalling a realistic yet loving assessment of the other; and a modest, intelligent relationship with one’s own flaws. 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/CGZpW Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/Pq3V2 FURTHER READING “On a first date with someone we like, we really want – of course – for the evening to go well. There are many, varied bits of advice in circulation: don’t do all the talking; be funny and light; ask them about themselves; don’t pry; select a small, perhaps Italian restaurant; leave a generous tip; wear nice shoes…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/xhB2YK MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Natalia Biegaj https://www.nb-animation.com/ https://vimeo.com/nataliabiegaj #TheSchoolOfLife

We’re used to being rather mean about people who have ‘daddy issues’. We should be more careful and more kind. Daddy issues can lead to the worst kind of political situations – and need to be understood as psychological phenomena. 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/3efcs Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/NBpNV FURTHER READING “To say that someone has ‘daddy issues’ is a somewhat rude and humiliating way of alluding to a very understandable longing: for a father who is strong and wise, who is judicious, kind, perhaps at points tough, but always fair – and ultimately, always on our side. It would be so understandable if we were to feel we wanted someone like this in our lives, especially at moments of confusion and chaos…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/5vqJDQ 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Sentio Space http://sentiospace.com/ https://twitter.com/SentioSpace #TheSchoolOfLife

We often equate true love with being accepted 'for who we really are'. But given how many flaws we all have, true love has to include a process of mutual education we would be wise to accept with good grace. 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/zLI6L Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/4U_ez FURTHER READING “One of the most delightful and thrilling aspects of the early days of a love affair is the sense that our lover likes us not only for our obvious qualities – perhaps our looks, or our professional accomplishments – but also, and far more touchingly, for our less impressive sides: our vulnerabilities, our hesitations, our flaws. Perhaps they are particularly taken by the gap between our two front teeth which, while it wouldn’t impress an orthodontist, charms them distinctly. Or perhaps they are taken by our shyness at busy parties or are powerfully drawn to that old pair of pyjamas with the bear prints which we put on on cold winter nights and which would win no fashion award…” You can read more on this here: https://goo.gl/b44pYT MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Our website has classes, articles and products to help you think and grow: https://goo.gl/59H6J9 Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLreltionships You can submit translations and transcripts on all of our videos here: https://www.youtube.com/timedtext_cs_panel?c=UC7IcJI8PUf5Z3zKxnZvTBog&tab=2 Find out how more here: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6054623?hl=en-GB SOCIAL MEDIA Feel free to follow us at the links below: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theschooloflifelondon/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Brett Underhill https://vimeo.com/porkchopbob http://www.porkchopbob.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife

The idea of manliness has grown indelibly associated with the idea of being cool. We’d be wiser to shift the masculine ideal towards a new idea: warmth. 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/1o-VR Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/LZ_Vp FURTHER READING “For approximately 80 years, the notion of what a man should be like has been heavily influenced by the idea of ‘cool’. The cool man doesn’t try too hard, you don’t see them floundering about in a panic – but they succeed anyway. They are physically confident, they can scale a mountain or saunter down a deserted street in the middle of the night; if they have to kill someone they will do it neatly with minimal fuss; they don’t worry, they are self-contained and sure of themselves; their trousers are always a perfect fit; they express themselves briefly – but their words are always to the point; they’re not meek in the face of authority; but they don’t crave power themselves: they are independent...” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/lwEWL7 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Peter Caires http://www.twitter.com/peterlikesthis http://www.petercaires.com #TheSchoolOfLife

We frequently ask ourselves to be not merely good, but perfection. Our perfectionism makes us sick. We need to learn to accept the virtue of being ‘good enough’. 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/mVE3h Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/Z1yfS FURTHER READING “High ambitions are noble and important, but there can also come a point when they become the sources of terrible trouble and unnecessary panic. One way of undercutting our more reckless ideals and perfectionism was pioneered by a British psychoanalyst called Donald Winnicott in the 1950s. Winnicott specialised in relationships between parents and children. In his clinical practice, he often met with parents who felt like failures: perhaps because their children hadn’t got into the best schools, or because there were sometimes arguments around the dinner table or the house wasn’t always completely tidy…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/NL43NR 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Daniela Scherer https://vimeo.com/danielasherer http://www.danielasherer.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife

We have a very close sense of the stages of development of small children. But what about adults? How do we keep developing once we are ‘grown up’? And what are the key stages of development? 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/1XHlL Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/aws2A FURTHER READING “The business of growing up is something we normally think comes to a close when we get to 16 or so – and finally turn into those fully finished products: adults. Up until then, our growth is the subject of quite a lot of collective fascination. Twentieth-century psychology, beginning with the work of the Swiss clinician Jean Piaget, pioneered an approach to child development that meticulously identified and labelled every principal stage an average infant might go through on the developmental journey of its earliest years...” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/CcJQka 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Alice Dunseath https://vimeo.com/user2681788 http://www.alicedunseath.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife

In the privacy of our own minds, we sometimes imagine the strangest, ghastliest things happening to those we love. We’re not insane, simply up against the complexity of all close human relationships. 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/LuC6S Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/nf2j5 FURTHER READING “It feels very shameful – terrifying – to admit but there are times when we may find ourselves daydreaming about a terrible thing happening to someone close to us. Deep in the privacy of our minds, we may feel it would be a huge relief if a partner or family member could just vanish from the face of the earth. They might be run over at a crossing; their plane might go down; they could contract a rare and quickly fatal illness (it wouldn’t hurt at all)...” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/8cLLfM MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Sara Nesteruk https://vimeo.com/saranesteruk http://www.saranesteruk.co.uk/ #TheSchoolOfLife

The School of Life has opened a branch in Germany, in Berlin. 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/OG0zt Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/3U9LK 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 Film narrated in imperfect German (apologies) by Alain de Botton. Produced in collaboration with: Tomás Pichardo-Espaillat https://vimeo.com/tomatico #TheSchoolOfLife

To make a relationship work, it’s vital to try to understand how your partner wants you to behave when they are sad and down. Surprisingly, all of us want to be comforted in quite different ways. 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/TR81g Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/Py7qC FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/2RUrzk MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Khyan Mansley Http://www.youtube.com/user/khyan1 https://twitter.com/khyan #TheSchoolOfLife

It can be easy, in certain moods, to suspect that we can trust no one and to feel the temptation of conspiracy theories. But we’d be wiser learning the art of an intelligent form of scepticism. 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/W4IuH Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/Er7Di FURTHER READING “We live in conspiratorial times. Deeply sinister motives appear to be at work everywhere beneath the surface. No one, however high their reputation, is entirely beyond suspicion. Every institution, even the most venerable, may be at it. Whatever may publically be said, something a whole lot ghastlier is probably going on in private. Taking anything on good faith seems a sure route to naivety and disillusion. It’s never been a more tempting moment to become a conspiracy theorist...” You can read more on this and other subjects here: http://bit.ly/2o4wLfn MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on CAPITALISM in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLcapitalism 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 Produced in collaboration with: Zedem Media http://www.zedemanimations.com/en/home #TheSchoolOfLife

Behind many of our moods of depression lies something surprising: anger. Anger that hasn’t had the chance to know and express itself frequently curdles into depression – something we should bear in mind when trying to dig ourselves out of our saddest states of mind. 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/rWdRl Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/v2phL FURTHER READING “We are sometimes swept away by a mood of sadness that seems to have no cause. We wake up dispirited and listless. We lack energy and direction. Everything loses its taste and the smallest challenges feel unfeasibly heavy. We struggle to see the point of almost anything. We are – as the doctors tell us – in a state of severe depression...” You can read more on this and other subjects on our blog, here: https://goo.gl/4zAqVx MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Our website has classes, articles and products to help you think and grow: https://goo.gl/B8TQqS Watch more films on SELF in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLself You can submit translations and transcripts on all of our videos here: https://goo.gl/y7HAqG Find out how more here: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6054623?hl=en-GB SOCIAL MEDIA Feel free to follow us at the links below: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theschooloflifelondon/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Lois de Silva https://www.instagram.com/loishhh #TheSchoolOfLife

We all want to change our partners in one way or another – but the best way to do this isn’t generally through long and serious speeches. It’s through well-targeted, warmly delivered jokes. 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/KGj_B Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/Yv625 FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/hF3ATg MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Khyan Mansley Http://www.youtube.com/user/khyan1 https://twitter.com/khyan #TheSchoolOfLife

Partners who break up frequently think that the nicest thing to do is to try to remain good friends. But this nice-sounding gesture frequently brings with it unexpected consequences. 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/G7Uq6 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/KaXvd FURTHER READING “There are some very strong and socially-endorsed reasons why partners breaking up generally try to remain friends.To the person being – however nicely – rejected, the promise of friendship can feel like an emotionally-reassuring consolation prize. We may no longer be allowed to share their bed, have children with them or end our days in their company, but at least something can be rescued from the ashes: we will continue to be able to call them when we like, share our fears and go to the movies together...” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/GR45p2 MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Animation by Martin Stacey http://www.martinstacey.co.uk & Neil Evan http://www.neilevan.com #TheSchoolOfLife

There remains a huge amount of stigma around depression, but if we look at what an average human is up against, feelings of depression are entirely normal, indeed, to be expected. We don’t need to compound our misery through a sense that it’s either unusual or unwarranted. I 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/L8tl7 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/oCaXz FURTHER READING “We’re not talking about the extreme, most paralysing, regions of despair – where external medical help is vital. Our target is rather the times when we feel – as indicated by Henry David Thoreau’s phrase – mired in moods of ‘quiet desperation’: a large, grey hinterland in which beneath an outward surface of endurance, we feel exhausted, close to tears, beyond the sympathetic understanding of others, easily irritated and daunted by the simplest tasks...” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/6WyB4m 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Dave Anderson http://bloodsausage.co.uk/ https://twitter.com/DaveAndersonBS #TheSchoolOfLife

There’s a lot constantly going in the fantasy part of our minds that sounds pretty strange and at times, frankly, shocking. But coming to terms with our fantasies – and realising they are not our reality – belongs to the art of knowing how to live more easily with ourselves. 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/4bvm7 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/zMkYn FURTHER READING “Every day, each one of us entertains, in the caverns of our minds, a host of secretly very enjoyable but deeply taboo ideas and scenarios. We fantasise about the downfall of rivals, sudden wealth and fame, reversing and accelerating time, eliminating colleagues, anticipating the stock market, the death of various people (even a few we’re meant to love) – and of course, of having sex with a huge variety of entirely inappropriate people in a plethora of highly forbidden or just pretty non-standard ways…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/8gl7fb 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Emma Ehrling http://www.emmaehrling.co.uk/ #TheSchoolOfLife

We are used to thinking very badly of selfishness. But knowing how – at points – to put ourselves first can be the precondition for our later generosity and true helpfulness to others. Being selfish has a role to play in later selflessness. 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/59t5i Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/ILarW FURTHER READING “We’re highly attuned to the notion that being selfish is one of the worst character traits we might possess, a way of behaving associated with greed, entitlement and cruelty. And yet some of the reason we fail to have the lives we should springs from an excess of the very opposite trait: from an overweaning modesty, an over-hasty deference to the wishes of others, a dangerous and counter-productive lack of selfishness...” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/Hm3EFc 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Tom Kemp https://vimeo.com/user26596912 #TheSchoolOfLife

A good life will always have to involve complaining about how some people behave around us. But the act of complaining can go better or worse, depending on our our approach. Knowing how to complain properly is one of life’s key skills. 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/7WuD- Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/bKolb FURTHER READING “Almost every day, with slightly dispiriting inevitability, someone in our vicinity will hurt us in some way: it could be a friend, a colleague, a child or, most likely, a partner. They’ll be neglectful about something that matters immensely to us, they’ll be – to a greater or lesser extent – unkind, thoughtless, offensive or brusque...” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/o02121 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Peter Caires http://www.twitter.com/peterlikesthis http://www.petercaires.com #TheSchoolOfLife

We miss out on the finest opportunities of our lives because of an underlying terror of a very short word. We should overcome the fear. 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/lzYU3 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/9vYut FURTHER READING “There are many things we want to ask of other people. We want to ask for a job, for money, a chance to collaborate, a kiss. But we often don’t ask because of The Terror of a ‘No’. Why should a ‘no’ – such a small and innocuous word – prove quite so painful, so hard to hear, so much something we’d rather die in penury, ignored and unfulfilled than ever encounter? It’s because it’s not a case of trying not to hear a ‘no’. What we are trying to do is avoid hearing something quite different: that we’re disgusting…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/QTFQ48 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Tracy Foster​ http://www.tracyfoster.co.uk Co-directed & produced by Tracy Foster & Simon Biggs Animation by Simon Biggs Sound Design by Howard Sinden #TheSchoolOfLife

The clothes we choose to wear constitute some of our most crucial and carefully chosen lines of autobiography. 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/MlSNr Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/Jz90J FURTHER READING "Once, we were all dressed by someone else. Parents picked out a T-shirt; the school dictated what colour our trousers should be. But at some point, we were granted the opportunity to discover who we might be in the world of clothes. We had to decide for ourselves about collars and necklines, fit, colours, patterns, textures and what goes (or doesn’t) with what. We learnt to speak about ourselves in the language of garments. Despite the potential silliness and exaggeration of sections of the fashion industry, assembling a wardrobe is a serious and meaningful exercise." You can read more on this and other subjects on our blog, here: https://goo.gl/l4eHTH MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Our website has classes, articles and products to help you think and grow: https://goo.gl/lqFJ16 Watch more films on SELF in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLself You can submit translations and transcripts on all of our videos here: https://goo.gl/JxUuod SOCIAL MEDIA Feel free to follow us at the links below: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theschooloflifelondon/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Gemma Rose Green-Hope http://www.gemmagreenhope.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife

One of the key requirements for having a good chance of finding the right partner is not to mind too much being single. 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/CSHEq Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/p66Lg FURTHER READING “One of the most important principles for choosing a lover sensibly is not to feel in any hurry to make a choice. Being satisfied with being single is a precondition of satisfactory coupledom. We cannot choose wisely when remaining single feels unbearable. We have to be utterly at peace with the prospect of many years of solitude in order to have any chance of forming a good relationship. Or we’ll love no longer being single rather more than we love the partner who spared us being so…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/9l4QhR MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Sashko Danylenko http://sashkodanylenko.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife

We’re given very little guidance on how to choose our partners and tend to leave it to that mysterious force we know as ‘instinct’. However, it truly pays to be a little more rational in this area and work out how our instincts operate and why they push us towards some people and away from others. 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/84CGe Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/qMbgP FURTHER READING “How do we choose the people we fall in love with? The Romantic answer is that our instincts naturally guide us to individuals who are kind and good for us. Love is a sort of ecstasy that descends when we feel ourselves in the presence of a benign and nourishing soul, who will answer our emotional needs, understand our sadness and strengthen us for the hard tasks of our lives. In order to locate our lover, we must let our instincts carry us along, taking care never to impede them through pedantic psychological analysis and introspection or else considerations of status, wealth or lineage. Our feelings will tell us clearly enough when we have reached our destiny. To ask someone with any degree of rigour why exactly they have chosen a particular partner is – in the Romantic world-view – simply an unnecessary and offensive misunderstanding of love: true love is an instinct that accurately and naturally settles on those with a capacity to make us happy.…” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Zedem media http://www.zedemanimations.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife

Many of us find our work rather boring and when we do, we tend to blame ourselves. But there are very large-scale reasons, rooted in history and economics, why certain sorts of modern work are both more lucrative and rather more boring than they might have been in the past. 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/DdQFI Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/AFpa7 FURTHER READING “One of the overriding reasons why modern work is so boring is that we keep having to do more or less the same thing every day. We have to be specialists, whereas we would – deep in our hearts – surely be so much more fulfilled if we could be wide-ranging, endlessly curious generalists…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/6ynfx5 MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on CAPITALISM in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLcapitalism 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 Produced in collaboration with: GM films http://gmfilm.co.uk/ Martin Pickles http://martinpickles.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife

What is the best way to make a country rich? Should you adopt a policy of free trade? Or is protectionism and economic nationalism the better way? We explore the history and theory of one of the central questions of economics and politics. 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/TtvDF Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/sDebY FURTHER READING “One of the most pressing choices facing modern economies is whether to adopt a policy of free trade or of protectionism, that is, whether to encourage foreign goods into the country with minimum tariffs and allow industries to relocate abroad; or whether to make it hard for foreign firms to sell their goods internally and discourage domestic producers tempted by cheaper wages in other lands…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/3EQAUQ MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on CAPITALISM in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLcapitalism 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 Produced in collaboration with: Mike Booth https://twitter.com/somegreybloke?lang=en http://www.youtube.com/somegreybloke #TheSchoolOfLife

The person we may find it hardest to be kind and sympathetic to is, surprisingly, ourselves. Yet being a friend to ourselves provides the only viable basis for living an emotionally fulfilled life. 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/CzJMl Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/3BjMl FURTHER READING “Polite people have it instilled in them from an early age that they should not talk too much about themselves. A few comments aside, they should – to prove appealing – always ask the other about their lives or stick to impersonal topics found in newspapers, lest they be accused of that heinous charge: self-absorption…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/9hTxYK 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Ana Mouyis http://www.anamouyis.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife

The secret to overcoming shyness is to remember that others are, beneath the differences, always substantially the same as we are. 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/20E8u Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/9PmkK FURTHER READING “Because shyness can grip us in such powerful ways, it’s tempting to think of it as an immutable part of our emotional make-up, with roots that extend far into our personality and perhaps biology – and that we would be incapable of ever extirpating. But in truth, shyness is based on a set of ideas about the world that are eminently amenable to change through a process of reason because they are founded on some touchingly malleable errors of thought.…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/nPYbc2 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: David Horsburgh http://www.davidtheanimator.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife

Our feelings are often waiting for the right words to help us to experience them properly. 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/O5c-e Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/qv-eQ FURTHER READING “You’re in a part of town you used to live in as a teenager. You walk past the house of the girlfriend you knew when you were sixteen. You look up to what used to be her bedroom window. From the outside, everything still looks the same, though somebody else lives there now. Her parents are retired, she’s married with two small kids in another city. You feel a searing nostalgia for everything that was and no longer is. It’s not so much her you miss, more what you had, who you both were, how things looked then. It’s hard to explain what the feeling is, though it is confounding in its intensity. At that moment, your phone rings. It’s a friend – who asks how you are. You’re at a loss, you don’t quite know how to convey your emotions and after a few attempts, move on to other subjects…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/wW9AI9 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: https://antoniovicentini.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife

Some of what makes our working lives especially difficult are those unavoidable features of most offices: colleagues… 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/Fj0x4 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/zC3Q3 FURTHER READING “One of the most frightening aspects of working life is that we will, unless we are the beneficiaries of extreme good fortune, be required to have colleagues. The colleague is a creature who, endured over any length of time in situations of high stress and procedural complexity, presents one of the greatest threats to calm, composure and soundness of mind.…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: http://bit.ly/2lKCc70 MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on CAPITALISM in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLcapitalism 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 Produced in collaboration with: Sentio Space http://www.sentiospace.com #TheSchoolOfLife

It’s remarkably hard to imagine what it might be like inside our minds. But doing so helps us to see that the real task of thinking should involve throwing a spotlight on our elusive vague thoughts. 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/uu5xK Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/otaCs 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 "The most striking feature of our minds is how little we understand them. Though we inhabit ourselves, we seldom manage to make sense of more than a fraction of who we are. It can be easier to master the dynamics of another planet than it can be to grasp what is at play in the folds of our own brains." 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Mike Booth https://www.youtube.com/user/somegreybloke #TheSchoolOfLife

We so often complain that others around us aren’t changing in this way or that. But one of the best ways of encouraging them to change is to change ourselves, something we’re often surprisingly reluctant to do. 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/PLrX4 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/HKwdq FURTHER READING “We spend a lot of time trying to change other people. There is, after all, so much wrong with them: they’re selfish, arrogant, bullying, weak, cold, needy and so on. So we try to point this out – and often meet with resistance, denial or sheer indifference. This can be very agitating and hence renders us cross and severe. Why won’t people take our lessons board?…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/ynsBsz 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Gemma Green-Hope http://www.gemmagreenhope.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife

Some of the trouble of long-term relationships comes from the vows we say at the beginning. We should learn to reformulate what we say when we enter marriages. 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/9kHa2 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/Bog8x FURTHER READING “Modern societies are deeply invested in the idea of big, glamorous weddings. We have evolved highly-detailed collective ideas about what a proper wedding is supposed to be like, down to the specialised floral arrangements, seat covers, presents for bridesmaids and the correct order of the speeches.…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/0BWnFc MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Hannah Jacobs https://www.hellohannahjacobs.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife

We have a very unhelpful tendency – when in relationships – to idealise what it was like being single. We should learn how to bear proper witness to our single days. FURTHER READING “One of the haunting thoughts that can make us especially snappy and bitter in relationships is the idea that if only we were single, we would be a lot happier. In love, we are so conscious of the troubles of our present lives, we are naturally drawn to look back and remember the nicer aspects of solitude. We remember being able to get up whenever we wanted; we recall not having to fret about where we threw things. We remember how inoffensive our own bad habits were when we were the only ones to witness them. We recall not having to justify our meal choices, however eccentric; we could go out somewhere and never tell anyone; we could (when we felt like it) work through till 2 a.m. without being accused of being obsessive or cold. We could have hope for a better future…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/JvoacN MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Alexandra Balan http://www.sashaanimates.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife

We’re used to being very down on so-called ‘needy’ people. But perhaps – in many situations – the problem doesn’t lie so much with the apparently ‘needy’ party, but with the person describing their lover as such. 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/SYB-D Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/XDI7K FURTHER READING “The ‘needy’ person is a stock figure of caricature: they call too much, they cry when you leave to get a glass of water, they feel put out when you check your phone, they were upset when you watched a film without them. We hate needy people a lot. But let’s look at this another way. There are, of course, a few pathologically dependent people at large, but a lot of the time, far more than is generally accepted, the person who has the problem isn’t the ‘needy’ person at all, it is us; the ones who are doing the accusing…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/7wa7or MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Julia Veldman http://www.juliaveldmanc.nl/ #TheSchoolOfLife

Our relationships are often not quite as warm and perfect as they should be. That’s perhaps because we’re comparing them with a relationship in the past to which they shouldn’t – in fairness – ever be compared. 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/uw3YQ Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/Jxhrp FURTHER READING “One way to get a sense of why love should matter so much, why it might be considered close to the meaning of life, is to look at the challenges of loneliness. Too often, we leave the topic of loneliness unmentioned: those without anyone to hold feel shame; those with someone (a background degree of) guilt. But the pains of loneliness are an unembarrassing and universal possibility. We shouldn’t – on top of it all – feel lonely about being lonely. Unwittingly, loneliness gives us the most eloquent insights into why love should matter so much. There are few greater experts on the importance of love than those who are bereft of anyone to love. It is hard to know quite what all the fuss around love might be about until and unless one has, somewhere along the way, spent some bitter unwanted passages in one’s own company…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/qUBg9W MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Co-directed by Lynn Yun, Mikyung Kim and Annalotta Pauly Lead animation: Lynn Yun (www.lynnyun.co.uk) Producer and animation: Mikyung Kim (http://www.mikyung-kim.com/) Additional animation: Annalotta Pauly (http://www.apauly.com/) Ivyy Yu Ying Chen (www.yuyingchen.com/) #TheSchoolOfLife

Paradoxically, but also rather troublingly, there are certain lies that preserve the underlying truth about our feelings somewhat more effectively than the literal truth. An essay on the implications and background idea of the white lie. 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/Kjqc1 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/RyZLq FURTHER READING “Truly good people are always ready and even, at times, highly enthusiastic about telling lies. This sounds odd only because we are in the grip of a heroic but indiscriminate and delusional addiction to truth-telling…” You can read more on this and other topics here: https://goo.gl/kpklsI 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Alex Morris http://www.pinvin.com #TheSchoolOfLife

We often feel as if we might have run out of time to change career. That’s because we usually have a wrong understanding of time. 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/Qum_1 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/w9WBJ FURTHER READING “Nowadays, there is a lot of prestige around sticking to your guns. If we change our views, we risk looking weak, indecisive and lacking in character. We’re collectively slightly in love with the idea of a person who stands firm and digs in their intellectual heels. But really it is very unlikely – given how complex the world is and how imperfect our fragile minds are – that all of our current convictions could really be right. We couldn’t say in advance which ones might turn out to be flawed. But we’d have to admit as a principle ahead of time that a portion of them logically simply have to be a bit awry…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/DohkgY 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Diyala Muir http://diyalamuir.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife

Love has many very dark sides. It is best to whisper them very quietly to ourselves – and those who are ready to listen. 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/6RGkh Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/0lOoT MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Directed by Kathrin Steinbacher Animation and storyboard by Kathrin Steinbacher, Emily Downe, Flora Caulton and Hannah McNally Sound by Tom Rosenthal and Hannah McNally http://www.kathrinsteinbacher.com https://vimeo.com/user15871241 http://www.emilydowne.co.uk http://www.hannahmcnally.co.uk http://www.floracaulton.com #TheSchoolOfLife

Nice guys too often finish last; they need to read the advice of one of the wisest and most realistic thinkers in the history of philosophy: Niccolo Machiavelli. For books from The School of Life, visit our online shop: https://goo.gl/4wNfTn Join our mailing list: http://bit.ly/2e0TQNJ FURTHER READING “Our assessment of politicians is torn between hope and disappointment. On the one hand, we have an idealistic idea that a politician should be an upright hero, a man or woman who can breathe new moral life into the corrupt workings of the state. However, we are also regularly catapulted into cynicism when we realise the number of backroom deals and the extent of the lying that politicians go in for. We seem torn between our idealistic hopes and our pessimistic fears about the evil underbelly of politics...” You can read more on this and other topics on our blog TheBookofLife.org at this link: https://goo.gl/vJB8nU MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Our website has classes, articles and products to help you think and grow: https://goo.gl/UznbgP Watch more films on POLITICAL THEORY in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLpoliticaltheory Do you speak a different language to English? Did you know you can submit Subtitles on all of our videos on YouTube? For instructions how to do this click here: https://goo.gl/EorUw4 SOCIAL MEDIA Feel free to follow us at the links below: jMh4MJ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theschooloflifelondon/ X: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Mike Booth https://www.youtube.com/somegreybloke https://twitter.com/somegreybloke #TheSchoolOfLife

The fastest route to confidence is to stop being so attached to one’s dignity and seriousness; and plainly admit that one is – of course – an idiot. We all are. 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/fVoVx Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/ogkey 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 “The topic of confidence is too often neglected by serious people: we spend so much time acquiring technical skills, so little time practising the one virtue that will make those skills effective in the world...” You can read more on this and other topics here: https://goo.gl/35CfLG 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Steve West http://www.lazychief.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife

The real reason we may destroy ourselves isn’t really to do with politics or economics or even warfare. It has to do with our minds. 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/I8x8c Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/Y_oUW FURTHER READING “One day, if human civilisation ever wipes itself out, aliens or one of our successors will cast an eye on our ruined planet and ask themselves what ever happened to homo sapiens. Their answer might look a little like this. The root cause won’t be the specific catastrophe, conflict or devastation that eradicates us; the problem will begin with the architecture of the human brain....” You can read more on this and other topics here: https://goo.gl/clEJ1y MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on CAPITALISM in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLcapitalism 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 Produced in collaboration with: Nick Hilditch http://nickhilditch.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife

Violent criminals are strangely compelling and consoling to read or hear about on the news. The reason is specific but unmentioned: they make us feel so normal. And so good. 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/1dZIZ Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/VznyV FURTHER READING “Californian chef David Viens and his wife Dawn were having problems in their marriage. He became controlling; whenever Dawn went out he wanted to know exactly where she had been. Dawn started putting money aside, to get out of the relationship. David found out. Thousands of couples go through rough patches all the time...” You can read more on this and other topics here: https://goo.gl/xhm71s 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Reflective Films http://www.reflectivefilms.co.uk/ #TheSchoolOfLife

German is a wonderfully inventive and bold language, full of gloriously long compound words for emotions and ideas that most languages struggle to allow us to express. 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/umoyV Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/iwb0u FURTHER READING “We’re hugely dependent on language to help us express what we really think and feel. But some languages are better than others at crisply naming important sensations. Germans have been geniuses at inventing long – or what get called ‘compound’ – words that elegantly put a finger on emotions that we all know, but that other languages require whole clumsy sentences or paragraphs to express…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Martin Stacey http://www.martinstacey.co.uk/ #TheSchoolOfLife

No one is ever boring: we just seem boring when we haven’t learnt the surprisingly easy art of being honest about our vulnerabilities. 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/geNqK Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/ZPE8M FURTHER READING “One of our great fears – which haunts us when we go into the world and socialise with others – is that we may, in our hearts, be really rather boring. But the good news, and a fundamental truth too, is that no one is ever truly boring. They are only in danger of coming across as such when they either fail to understand their deeper selves or don’t dare (or know how) to communicate them to others…” 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Ana Stefaniak http://www.anastefaniak.co.uk/ #TheSchoolOfLife

Henry David Thoreau not only wrote Walden; he is also responsible for a small pamphlet titled Civil Disobedience, which recommends that – when a US president is taking a wrong turn – good citizens have a duty to protest. 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/seqZ2 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/HGIh2 FURTHER READING “In March 1845, the United States acquired a new president – James K. Polk – a forceful, aggressive political outsider intent on strengthening his country and asserting its pre-eminence in front of other world powers, especially Mexico and Great Britain. Within a year of his inauguration, he had declared full-scale war on Mexico because of squabbles over the Texan border, and was soon rattling his saber at Britain over the ownership of Oregon. To complete the picture, Polk was a vigorous defender of slavery, who dismissed the arguments of abolitionists as naive and sentimental...” You can read more on this and other topics here: https://goo.gl/5Lnos4 MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on Politics/Curriculum in our playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwxNMb28XmpeuwUhM0OT338_T5XTtJJok 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 Produced in collaboration with: Mike Booth https://www.youtube.com/somegreybloke #TheSchoolOfLife

The worry that we are too materialistic is an inevitable one in modern consumer society. The answer, surprisingly, is that there are better and worse versions of materialism. 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/NBU0c Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/6Oxl9 FURTHER READING “It doesn’t seem to make sense to suggest that there might be such a thing as ‘good materialism’: after all, surely materialism is just plain bad? When people want to pinpoint the root cause of corruption in our age, they generally only need to point the finger at our attachment to material things. We’re apparently sick because we’re so materialistic…” You can read more on this and other topics here: https://goo.gl/vHBnaz MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on Capitalism in our playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwxNMb28XmpehnfQOa4c0E7j3GIj4qFEj 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 Produced in collaboration with: Ana Stefaniak http://www.anastefaniak.co.uk/ #TheSchoolOfLife

Friendliness is a great virtue. Over-friendliness can be an unexpected problem. 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/tNyod Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/xa6lc FURTHER READING “There is a particularly poignant way to be a social disaster: through over-friendliness, a pattern of behaviour driven by the very best of motives which ends up feeling as irritating as outright rudeness. We meet the over-friendly at the office, laughing at the jokes of the senior management; behind the desk at the hotel, wishing Sir or Madam a highly enjoyable stay and across the table on a first date, lavishly endorsing their would-be partner’s every opinion about recent books and films…” You can read more on this and other topics here: https://goo.gl/jfPQtO 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Lois de Silva http://www.loisdesilva.com #TheSchoolOfLife

The German philosopher Hegel helps us to understand that progress in societies is never linear, and that these societies may have to go through a variety of reversals before advancing, a process he termed ‘the dialectic.’ 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/tSIpM Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/2Vxpb FURTHER READING “There have been places and periods of history when only a congenital optimist could have had any hope for the future of our species. Think of the end of Athens’s golden age, the fall of the Roman Empire, the petering out of the Renaissance, the close of the Enlightenment, the rise of fascism…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/J5uWr0 MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on Political Theory/Curriculum in our playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwxNMb28XmpeypJMHfNbJ4RAFkRtmAN3P 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 Produced in collaboration with: Mike Booth #TheSchoolOfLife

The cause of certain kinds of impotence lies in a curious and poignant area: with excessive respect. 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/mtvZ- Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/sXMFE FURTHER READING “A man is with his female partner, foreplay is going well, it’s time for more, but suddenly, a problem occurs. She looks at him expecting him to increase his efforts, but nothing happens. He has suffered what the French writer Stendhal termed ‘a fiasco’. He feels ashamed and desperate. He sees himself as a laughing stock, not quite a man, not fit for a relationship. His partner is worried too. She suspects he doesn’t find her attractive anymore, never really loved her or is perhaps deep down gay. If it happens repeatedly she might start to wonder if they should even be together…” You can read more on this and other topics here: https://goo.gl/5au3Sy MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Marc Coustley https://artartbillycart.carbonmade.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife

It’s deeply tempting to get into sulks in relationships. We should, however, always strive to explain, rather than silently act out, our rage. 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/SgsDe Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/08OLT FURTHER READING “One of the most exciting aspects of the early days of a relationship can be the sense that a lover understands us without us needing to speak too much…” You can read more on this and other topics here: https://goo.gl/m1H9AM MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Khyan Mansley https://vimeo.com/khyan https://twitter.com/Khyan https://www.youtube.com/user/Khyan1 #TheSchoolOfLife

The Mind-Body problem is one of the greatest conundrums of philosophy and of our everyday lives too. 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/wMlDd Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/TIv2z FURTHER READING “The so-called Mind-Body problem is one of the greatest and most quietly painful conundrums in philosophy – and more importantly, in everyday life. The problem is rooted in the fact that in the eyes of other people, all of us are automatically and stubbornly associated with our bodies (which includes, of course, our faces). The way we look is the overwhelming factor that dictates how others assess our natures and our characters. Whatever lip service we might pay to less punitive ideologies, in the practical world, who ‘we’ are is taken to be how we look…” You can read more on this and other topics here: https://goo.gl/pGgVYl 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Ivy Yu Ying Chen #TheSchoolOfLife

Flirting is an art that deserves to be far more widely known and far more often practiced. Here is a short guide. 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/e8YIW Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/7ljOz FURTHER READING Flirting has a bad name. Too often, it seems a supreme form of duplicity, a sly attempt to excite another person and derive gratification from their interest without any corresponding wish to go to bed with them. It looks like a manipulative promise of sexual affection that, at the last moment, leaves its targets confused and humiliated. In our sadness, back home alone after the nightclub or the party, we may rail against the flirt for ‘only’ flirting, when it had appeared there would be so much more. But this kind of pattern represents only one, unedifying and regrettable possibility around flirting. At its best, flirting can be a vital social process that generously lends us reassurance and freely redistributes confidence and self-esteem. The task is not to stop flirting, but to learn how better to practice its most honourable versions. MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Nina Cosford http://www.ninacosford.com/ Animation by Ali Graham http://www.grarg.com #TheSchoolOfLife

Our desire to build good and lasting friendships is often undermined by a lack of focus on what friendship should really be about. Getting clear about what friendship is for isn’t cynical; it provides the foundation for genuine bonds. 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/h0kkb Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/B3ECK FURTHER READING “Friendship should be one of the high points of existence, and yet it’s also the most routinely disappointing reality. Too often, you’re at supper at someone’s house: there’s an impressive spread and the hosts have evidently gone to a lot of trouble. But the conversation is meandering and devoid of real interest. It flits from an over-long description of the failings of the inflight service on a particular airline to a strangely heated discussion about the tax code. The intentions of the hosts are hugely touching, but (as so often) we go home wondering what on earth the whole performance was about…” You can read more on this and other topics here: https://goo.gl/26Tzfx MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Rosa Fisher http://www.rosafisher.co.uk/ #TheSchoolOfLife

There is a huge emphasis on having new experiences; but very little emphasis on revisiting them in memory. We would be wiser (and happier) if we learnt to travel more concertedly around the good memories we already have. 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/LolVC Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/FswqK FURTHER READING “Throughout our lives, we spend a lot of time and even more money engineering pleasant experiences. We book airline tickets, visit beaches, admire glaciers, say hello to penguins, watch elephants drinking and so on…” You can read more on this and other topics here: https://goo.gl/15zNR7 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Tomas Pichardo Espaillat https://vimeo.com/tomatico #TheSchoolOfLife

We’re used to thinking about love as a kind of admiration for perfection. But there’s another side to what love should mean: tolerance for, and imagination about, the less than perfect sides of others. 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/6XVAF Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/29mLM FURTHER READING “Modern ideas of love are strongly associated with admiration. To fall in love with someone is typically assumed to involve an awe at a person’s physical and psychological virtues. We may speak of having fallen in love with particular wit or intelligence, bravery or beauty. We think of ourselves as in love when we reflect on a rare creature who seems in a myriad of ways stronger and more accomplished than we are; our love seems founded on admiration…” You can read more on this and other topics here: https://goo.gl/sWPPIY MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Khyan Mansley https://vimeo.com/khyan https://twitter.com/Khyan https://www.youtube.com/user/Khyan1/ #TheSchoolOfLife

We are masters at knowing how to lie to ourselves. We pay a heavy price for this self-deception. 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/6rru0 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/9LIIW FURTHER READING “Truly good people are always ready and even, at times, highly enthusiastic about telling lies. This sounds odd only because we are in the grip of a heroic but indiscriminate and delusional addiction to truth-telling…” You can read more on this and other topics here: https://goo.gl/NKnY0I 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Nick Hilditch http://nickhilditch.com/wordpress/ #TheSchoolOfLife

Though it looks like the world is set in its ways, it is in fact eminently open to change by those who dare to swim into the stream of history. 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/xSDtC Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/0cAAU FURTHER READING “One of the things that separates confident from diffident people is their sense of how feasible it might be to change the status quo. Broadly-speaking, the unconfident believe that history is over; the confident trust that it is still in the process of being made – one day possibly by themselves…” You can read more on this and other topics here: https://goo.gl/hmFMPL MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on CAPITALISM in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLcapitalism 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 Produced in collaboration with: Natalia Biegaj http://www.nataliabiegaj.com #TheSchoolOfLife

At the root of some of our angriest moods lies a surprising emotion: optimism. 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/5z9gF Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/llOMt 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 “Angry people sound like gloomy types. We certainly don’t usually think of them as optimists – and yet, beneath their gruff surface, they truly are, much to their cost…” You can read more on this here: https://goo.gl/uLMl60 MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on SELF in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLself Do you speak a different language to English? Did you know you can submit Subtitles on all of our videos on YouTube? For instructions how to do this click here: https://goo.gl/XpwC9a SOCIAL MEDIA Feel free to follow us at the links below: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theschooloflifelondon/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Jocie Juritz http://www.jociejuritz.co.uk/ https://vimeo.com/jociejuritz #TheSchoolOfLife

Getting over someone begins with the need to realise that there are curious pleasures available from NOT getting over them. 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/5XI2U Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/mwNbd FURTHER READING “We tend to be generous towards people who can’t get over someone. It sounds Romantic, if a little sad. The love affair happened a year ago now, but still the ex’s thoughts remain loyal to every detail of the story. Maybe they’ve moved to another country, perhaps they’ve married someone else, maybe they’re dead…” You can read more on this and other topics here: https://goo.gl/AfNVlx MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Zedem Media http://www.zedemanimations.com/ https://vimeo.com/zedem https://www.facebook.com/zedemmedia/ #TheSchoolOfLife

The modern world associates love with finding one very special person in whom to pour all one's affection. But what if a deeper understanding of love amounted to something else: a far more generous universal sort of love? 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/mi7zq Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/OKkNJ FURTHER READING “Irrespective of whether you consider Jesus a popular itinerant preacher or the Son of God, there’s a very odd thing about his views on love. He not only spoke a great deal about love: he went on to advocate that we love some highly surprising people…” You can read more on this and other topics on our blog TheBookofLife.org at this link: https://goo.gl/xvCigl MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Our website has classes, articles and products to help you think and grow: https://goo.gl/tvReQE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships Do you speak a different language to English? Did you know you can submit Subtitles on all of our videos on YouTube? For instructions how to do this click here: https://goo.gl/Q0K3ck SOCIAL MEDIA Feel free to follow us at the links below: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theschooloflifelondon/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Peter Caires http://www.twitter.com/peterlikesthis http://www.petercaires.com #TheSchoolOfLife

Being polite isn't enough to win one friends. We also need to learn the art of being warm: this begins with having the right sort of relationship to our own weaknesses and foibles. 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/pNbFV Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/NO7CX FURTHER READING “While politeness is of course always preferable to rudeness, there are ways of being polite that badly miss the mark and can leave us feeling oddly detached and dissatisfied. Picture the person who ends up, despite their best efforts, seeming what we can call coldly polite. They may be extremely keen to please those they are seeing, they obey all the rules of etiquette, offer their guests drinks, ask them questions about their journey, suggest they might want a little more gravy, remark on the interest of a recent prize-winning novel – and yet never manage to make their hospitality feel either engaging or memorable. It may be a long time before another meeting with them is suggested…” You can read more on this and other topics here: https://goo.gl/qC2fsK MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Ignatz Higham Johnson http://www.ignatzjohnson.com/ https://vimeo.com/user9691810 #TheSchoolOfLife

Marriage brings with it a lot of problems; are there some alternatives? 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/i-EoC Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/RLjge FURTHER READING “In so many areas, we’re used nowadays to questioning the status quo – and exploring alternatives. It would be odd, therefore, not to try to perform the same exercise around marriage. Here seem to be our main options for how to arrange our personal lives:…” You can read more on this and other topics here: https://goo.gl/9MgeSR MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: David Horsburgh http://www.davidtheanimator.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife

Going cold on our partners is often a sign not that we have stopped caring, but that we are - somewhere deep down - furious or hurt. 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/ho0r2 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/sIgLc FURTHER READING “The story of the path to coldness in love is well known. We start off full of affection for one another and then – with time – feelings fade. We start prioritising work; we check our phones while they’re speaking; we don’t especially want to hear how their day went…” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Produced in collaboration with Tomás Pichardo-Espaillat http://tomatico.net/ #TheSchoolOfLife

Given how difficult the world can often be, should we cry – or might we still laugh? 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/ywlXL Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/c6xdG FURTHER READING “Seen in one way, being alive is a remarkable, wondrous thing. In Act II of Hamlet, Shakespeare voices a feeling of awe at the dignity of the human condition: What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty! In form and moving how express and admirable! In action how like an Angel! In apprehension how like a god! The beauty of the world! The paragon of animals!...” You can read more on this and other topics here: https://goo.gl/uKgknG 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Diyala Muir http://diyalamuir.com/ https://vimeo.com/user15710781 #TheSchoolOfLife

We don’t end up with maddening partners by mistake. We’re driven towards them by quirks of our psychology we should learn to understand better. 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/0T4oY Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/rwfgp FURTHER READING “We should feel sympathy for ourselves. The challenges of how we might find love are highly complex, seldom systematically explored and – relatively – brand new. We’ve been looking for love the way we do now for, at best, only 260 years. We’re still at the dawn of determining how to get into good relationships. Signs of our missteps are all around us…” You can read more on this and other topics here: https://goo.gl/lySpkh MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Kathrin Steinbacher http://www.kathrinsteinbacher.com #TheSchoolOfLife

Knowing how to tease and be teased affectionately is a secret to knowing how to get on well with others. 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/WrQXd Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/55duc FURTHER READING “It may not seem like it, but teasing done with affection and skill is a profound human accomplishment. There’s nasty teasing, of course – in which we pick away at a sore spot in someone’s life. But we’re talking here of the affectionate version, something generous and loving – which feels good to be on the receiving end of…” You can read more on this and other topics here: https://goo.gl/dMzD1t MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Wiep Teeuwisse http://www.wiepteeuwisse.nl/ https://vimeo.com/wiepteeuwisse #TheSchoolOfLife

Knowing how to derive satisfaction from small pleasures is key to a good life. Here is a short guide. 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/0UU0I Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/ZoYws FURTHER READING “We’re surrounded by some powerful ideas about the sort of things that will make us happy. We think that really to deliver satisfaction, the pleasures we should aim for need to be…” You can read more on this and other topics here: https://goo.gl/MAQ9GZ MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on CAPITALISM in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLcapitalism 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 Produced in collaboration with: Gemma Green-Hope http://www.gemmagreenhope.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife

What lies behind the pessimism and witty bitterness of the cynic? As always: a lot of pain… 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/VJBUc Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/jZLjQ FURTHER READING “Cynicism has, in certain quarters, a distinct kind of glamour. It sounds tough not to have too many hopes – and to claim to see through the dreams of others. Cynics will tell you that everyone is selfish and weak; that ‘the system’ is rigged and driven by greed; that you can never succeed so it’s pointless (and contemptible) to try; that all ideals are ridiculous and that ‘do gooders’ are only out to show off their own (supposed) virtues…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/ufBOSt 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Avi Ofer http://www.aviofer.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife

Being ‘nice’ sounds a bit eerie and strange. It shouldn’t really. 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/0M4b7 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/fR90y FURTHER READING “Setting out to try to become a nicer person sounds like a deeply colourless and dispiriting ambition. In theory, we love niceness of course, but in practice, there appears to be something embarrassingly anodyne, meek, tedious and even sexless about the concept. A nice person sounds like something we would try to be only once every other more arduous and more rewarding alternative had failed...” You can read more on this here: https://goo.gl/AH3mv1 MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on Self in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLself Do you speak a different language to English? Did you know you can submit Subtitles on all of our videos on YouTube? For instructions how to do this click here: https://goo.gl/4upNd5 SOCIAL MEDIA Feel free to follow us at the links below: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theschooloflifelondon/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Mad Adam Films http://madadamfilms.co.uk/ Feature Films: The Truman Show (1998) Barely Lethal (2015) Bridget Jones' Diary (2001) Monsters Inc (2001) 10 Things I Hate About You (1999) Trainwreck (2015) The Life of Brian (1979) Muppets' Christmas Carol (1992) It's a Wonderful Life (1946) The Hudsucker Proxy (1994) Wuthering Heights (2010) Starter for 10 (2006) Jane Eyre (2011) American Honey (2016) A Room With a View (1985) The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) The Social Network (2010) Office Space (1999) Dr. No (1962) The Duke of Burgundy (2014) Fargo (1996) Alfie (1966) 50 Shades of Grey (2015) Honeytrap (2014) Brave (2012) About a Boy (2002) Conan the Barbarian (1982) The Breakfast Club (1986) Paddington (2015) TV Series': Friends The Simpsons Luther The American Office Mad Men #TheSchoolOfLife

We’re used to thinking hugely well of democracy. But interestingly, one of the wisest people who ever lived, Socrates, had deep suspicions of 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/1KSRO Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/7c9tA FURTHER READING “We are used to thinking very highly of democracy – and by extension, of Ancient Athens, the civilisation that gave rise to it. The Parthenon has become almost a byword for democratic values, which is why so many leaders of democracies like to be photographed among its ruins…” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on Philosophy in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLphilosophy Do you speak a different language to English? Did you know you can submit Subtitles on all of our videos on YouTube? For instructions how to do this click here: https://goo.gl/wE1wvm SOCIAL MEDIA Feel free to follow us at the links below: Download our App: https://goo.gl/hjJSjx Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theschooloflifelondon/ X: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Mike Booth http://www.youtube.com/somegreybloke #TheSchoolOfLife

George Orwell is the most famous English language writer of the 20th century, the author of Animal Farm and 1984. What was he trying to tell us and what is his genius? If you like our films, take a look at our shop (we ship worldwide): https://goo.gl/vSiVRh 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/9Eggm Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/dt-DW FURTHER READING You can read more here: https://goo.gl/Ne28ro MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on Literature and our Curriculum in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLcapitalism Do you speak a different language to English? Did you know you can submit Subtitles on all of our videos on YouTube? For instructions how to do this click here: https://goo.gl/rU7lhw 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 Produced in collaboration with: Mike Booth http://www.youtube.com/somegreybloke #TheSchoolOfLife

The existence of snobbery explains why we work so hard and are so worried about our reputations. We are all terrified of humiliation and disrespect. If you like our films, take a look at our shop (we ship worldwide): https://goo.gl/ReltQR 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/5kFQl Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/13XkI FURTHER READING “Why are we so worried about our careers? Why do we care so much about our reputations? Partly it’s to do with money of course, but there’s another, more psychological aspect to our fears as well…” You can read more on Relationships here: https://goo.gl/SXQ2Ps MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on CAPITALISM in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLcapitalism Do you speak a different language to English? Did you know you can submit Subtitles on all of our videos on YouTube? For instructions how to do this click here: https://goo.gl/5EyoXr SOCIAL MEDIA Feel free to follow us at the links below: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theschooloflifelondon/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Perrie Murphy https://vimeo.com/perriemurphy #TheSchoolOfLife

Children’s relationships with soft toys is neither superficial nor unimportant to psychological development. If you like our films, take a look at our shop (we ship worldwide): https://goo.gl/bbNOLH 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/bfKhG Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/k7PPm FURTHER READING "Sometimes you can catch important things about human nature in apparent incidentals. It’s well observed that between the ages of around one and twelve, many children manifest a deep attachment to a stuffed soft object, normally shaped into a bear, a rabbit or – less often – a penguin. The depth of the relationship can be extraordinary. The child sleeps with it, talks to it, cries in front of it and tells it things it would never tell anyone else. What’s truly remarkable is that the animal looks after its owner, addressing him in a tone of unusual maturity and kindness. It might, in a crisis, urge the child not to worry and to look forward to better times in the future. But naturally, the animal’s character is entirely made up. The animal is simply something invented, or brought to life by one part of the child, in order to look after the other." More on this and other topics here: https://goo.gl/Z0Zk5b MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Our website has classes, articles and products to help you think and grow: https://goo.gl/P0DPzb Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships Do you speak a different language to English? Did you know you can submit Subtitles on all of our videos on YouTube? For instructions how to do this click here: https://goo.gl/ZPGmkH SOCIAL MEDIA Feel free to follow us at the links below: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theschooloflifelondon/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Julia Veldman http://www.juliaveldmanc.nl/ #TheSchoolOfLife

One of the lesser known skills of relationships is the ability to translate what a lover says to reveal its deeper meaning. 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/HnJ15 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/7Pnl1 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 “Listening to a lover is a vital skill in relationships. But there is an associated, and perhaps less well-recognised talent we may also need to nurture: that of sometimes not quite listening to what a lover is saying in favour of deftly imagining what they might really mean – which could be a different thing altogether. Though taking someone at face value is rightly seen as a supreme symbol of respect, within love, it may at points be more accurate, as well as a great deal kinder, to dig beneath the surface meaning of words in search of a partner’s real but more bashful, complex or hesitant underlying emotional intention.…” You can read more on this and other topics here: https://goo.gl/NchXWr MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Zedem films http://www.zedemanimations.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife

At the School of Life, we’ve pioneered a new form of Meditation we call Philosophical Meditation, designed to help with anxiety, sadness and a lack of direction. 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/IhBM7 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/3ZbMm FURTHER READING “Even though our minds ostensibly belong to us, we don’t always control or know what is in them. There are always some ideas, bang in the middle of consciousness, that are thoroughly and immediately clear to us: for example, that we love our children. Or that we have to be out of the house by 7.40am. Or, that we are keen to have something salty to eat right now. These thoughts feel obvious without burdening us with uncertainty or any requirement that we reflect harder on them…” You can read more on this and other topics here: https://goo.gl/tYRYqK 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Reflective films/Steve Whittle http://www.reflectivefilms.co.uk/ #TheSchoolOfLife

Cultural Mining is the term given to the extraction of valuable ideas from the raw ore of culture. It’s what we do every day at The School of Life. 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/ZfZxT Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/c0WQw FURTHER READING “Cultural mining describes the process by which the most valuable parts of culture – by which we mean the arts, humanities and philosophy – are recovered and made useful for our own times. In cultural mining, the refined and practical essence of culture is carefully extracted, cleaned, blasted and remoulded – and then used to manufacture the utensils and mental resources that will help us navigate contemporary life; work, relationships, family, self-knowledge and so on…” You can read more on this and other topics here: https://goo.gl/84V7jt MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on The School Of Life in our playlist: http://bit.ly/2g0YFKq 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 Produced in collaboration with: Wednesday Collective http://www.wearewednesday.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife

We are not living in an age of unusual folly. We’re simply rediscovering how rare good government has ever been – and how much there was to appreciate. 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/7VE6e Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/Oe2EH FURTHER READING “It is an enormous and very rare privilege to have lived in the days of good government. Across nations and centuries, few people have ever done so. By a rare bit of luck, certain groups in a few corners of the globe tasted decades of this remarkable, anomalous blessing. They might even, foolishly (especially if they travelled little, seldom read history books or had a very high estimation of their own populations) have started to assume it was a natural or god-given norm. Yet the default state of almost all nations is quite other, it is authoritarianism, bullying, demagoguery, corruption, monopoly, racial segregation and state sponsored aggression and murder. We will not now, it seems, be living in dramatically unusual times; it was the years before that will be remembered as unusual: a daring bet against the facts of our nature. We aren’t sliding into a new age of darkness, we are reverting to a mean. Civilization was always, simply, an unlikely concept…” You can read more on this and other topics here: https://goo.gl/JwpQ85 MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on CAPITALISM in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLcapitalism 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/ MUSIC By Kathleen Ferrier, singing Bach's Erbarme Dich, St Matthew Passion https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDDyHigHQao CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Matthew Hammett Knott https://www.curtisbrown.co.uk/client/matthew-hammett-knott #TheSchoolOfLife

At the very darkest points of individual and national life, we need – more than ever – to practice the art of resilience. 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/2flx8 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/kkRQI 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 “It can be humbling to realise just how many great achievements haven’t been the result of superior talent or technical know-how, merely that strange buoyancy of the soul we call confidence…” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/J6meGJ MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on CAPITALISM in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLcapitalism 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 Produced in collaboration with: James Morr https://www.youtube.com/user/SpastikChuwawa with Tommy Williamson http://youtube.com/bricknerdtv #TheSchoolOfLife

Most of our mistakes come down to one crucial error: our failure to understand ourselves well enough. That’s why we need to learn the art of introspection. 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/0Z6AB Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/29pmd 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 “One of the hardest things to describe or to be properly aware of is what it feels like to be inside our own minds: the second-by-second flow of images, words, feelings and sounds inside our heads that philosophers call our ‘consciousness’…” You can read more on this and other topics here: https://goo.gl/UqYE5h 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Tom Kemp http://www.tomkkemp.biz/ #TheSchoolOfLife

There’s an appalling possibility that we are – or might be becoming – sleazy. The film offers a checklist of whether this might really be a danger. 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/K_TaW Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/_lm8I FURTHER READING “You are queuing to go through to Departures; one of the guards at security has lovely, almost turquoise eyes. You are intrigued by the way they’re frisking the occasional passenger. There’s a charming, sceptical smile hovering over their lips. You’re hoping they might pick you. One side of your mind is, without authority, racing ahead with scenarios that have no place in a busy, sensible life…” You can read more on this and other topics here: https://goo.gl/bRxs0C MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Matthew Hammett-Knott https://www.curtisbrown.co.uk/client/matthew-hammett-knott #TheSchoolOfLife

We all love films, but often don’t think hard enough about the role of cinema in our lives and in society more generally. 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/E34Gc Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/_53Zd FURTHER READING “Cinema is the most prestigious cultural activity in the modern world. It is for us what theatre was in the age of Shakespeare or painting was in the days of Leonardo da Vinci: the art form with the biggest impact, the largest budgets, the most widespread audiences…” You can read more on this and other topics here: https://goo.gl/NSctZD The Film clips in this film are: Lawrence of Arabia (1962) Cinema Paradiso (1988) 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) Hail Caesar (2016) Amelie (2001) Withnail and I (1987) Do the Right Thing (1989) Hairspray (1988) Bridesmaids (2011) The Virgin Suicides (1999) Morvern Callar (2002) American Psycho (2000) The Babadook (2014) Bend it Like Beckham (2002) Life is Sweet (1990) Barry Lyndon (1975) The Riot Club (2014) Sex & the City 2 (2010) Samsara (2011) BBC Panorama: Inside North Korea (2013) The First Movie (2009) Lessons of Darkness (1992) Wadjda (2012) From Russia with Love (1963) The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) Meek's Cutoff (2010) Selma (2014) Brave (2012) Moana (2016) Tale of Tales (2015) A Matter of Life and Death (1946) Two Days One Night (2014) Leviathan (2014) The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) A Clockwork Orange (1971) Ed Wood (1994) Final Segment: The First Movie (2009) MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on POP CULTURE in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLpopculture 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 Produced in collaboration with: Madadam https://madadamfilms.co.uk/ #TheSchoolOfLife

Loneliness shouldn’t be seen as a strange aberration; it’s a basic feature of life we should make our peace with in good time. If you like our films, take a look at our shop (we ship worldwide): https://goo.gl/S0FBYd Join our exclusive mailing list: http://bit.ly/2e0TQNJ Or visit us in person at our London HQ https://goo.gl/bw5Zth FURTHER READING “There are few more shameful confessions to make than that we are lonely. The basic assumption is that no respectable person could ever feel isolated – unless they had just moved country or been widowed. Yet in truth, a high degree of loneliness is an inexorable part of being a sensitive, intelligent human. It’s a built-in feature of a complex existence…” You can read more on this and other topics on our blog TheBookofLife.org at this link: https://goo.gl/4f21eg MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Our website has classes, articles and products to help you think and grow: https://goo.gl/Db1N1m Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships Do you speak a different language to English? Did you know you can submit Subtitles on all of our videos on YouTube? For instructions how to do this click here: https://goo.gl/f166Ql SOCIAL MEDIA Feel free to follow us at the links below: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theschooloflifelondon/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Jesse Collett http://www.jessecollett.co.uk/ #TheSchoolOfLife

It can be very hard to detect just how much our judgement is constantly affected by our feelings. We should – at points – take care to be very skeptical of our first impulses. 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/OUcmm Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/OIn4o FURTHER READING “It’s easy to grow up with a benign sense that our minds broadly offer us a reliable impression of ourselves, the people around us and the world at large. What we see, think and feel can be counted upon to amount to a more or less accurate picture of reality. We can call this optimistic thesis the ‘clear pane’ theory of the mind, implying that we are able to look out onto the world pretty much as if through an undistorted and blemish-free pane of glass…” You can read more here: https://goo.gl/Klnmzg MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on SELF in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLself Do you speak a different language to English? Did you know you can submit Subtitles on all of our videos on YouTube? For instructions how to do this click here: https://goo.gl/Cl2ao0 SOCIAL MEDIA Feel free to follow us at the links below: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theschooloflifelondon/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Tracy Foster​ http://www.tracyfoster.co.uk Directed by Tracy Foster Animation by Simon Biggs Storyboard & Production Design by Tracy Foster Sound Design by Howard Sinden Moon Flower font by Denise Bentulan Background texture by Fundooz Dubmash #TheSchoolOfLife

It seems like the height of patronising behaviour to look at an adult as if they were a child. But it can also be deeply sympathetic and generous. 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/QqJkZ Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/fJSmV FURTHER READING "Small children sometimes behave in stunningly unfair and shocking ways: they scream at the person who is looking after them, angrily push away a bowl of animal pasta, throw away something you have just fetched for them. But we rarely feel personally agitated or wounded by their behaviour. And the reason is that we don’t assign a negative motive or mean intention to a small person. We reach around for the most benevolent interpretations. We don’t think they are doing it in order to upset us. We probably think that they are getting a bit tired, or their gums are sore or they are upset by the arrival of a younger sibling. We’ve got a large repertoire of alternative explanations ready in our heads – and none of these lead us to panic or get terribly agitated..." You can read more on this and other topics here: https://goo.gl/AfYtia MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Alex Morris http://pinvin.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife

The origins of nastiness in other people can be deeply hard to fathom, especially if we have done nothing to them. The answer is strangely and consolingly simple… 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/QX2e8 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/DX8sj FURTHER READING “It happens pretty much all the time: a small jabbing comment, a joke at our expense amidst a group of old friends, a line of sarcasm, a sneering assessment, a provocative comment on the internet. These things hurt a lot – more than we’re ever allowed to admit. In the privacy of our minds, we search for explanations, but anything satisfying and soothing is usually hard to come by. We’re just left to puzzle at the casual inhumanity that circulates all around us – and suspect that perhaps it’s we who are, somewhere deep down, to blame for falling victim to it.” You can read more on this and other topics here: https://goo.gl/LXU37S 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Patrick Smith https://vimeo.com/blendfilms #TheSchoolOfLife

Sexual rejection can spark off intensely powerful and destructive emotions. We should learn to tame them before they get out of control. 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/dGhvp Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/WWlDK FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other topics here: https://goo.gl/pysRws MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Zedem Media http://www.zedemanimations.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife

We get into sulks for reasons we should strive to understand and – gently – 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/Y6SPS Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/jUyoS FURTHER READING “Sulking is a highly distinctive phenomenon within the psychology of love. Crucially, we don’t just sulk with anyone. We reserve our sulks for people we believe should understand us but happen on a given occasion not to. We could explain what is wrong to them of course, but if we did so, it would mean that they had failed to understand us intuitively and therefore, that they were not worthy of love. A sulk is one of the odder gifts of love…” You can read more on this and other topics here: https://goo.gl/zEBCmQ 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Andrew Foerster http://www.rewfoe.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife

The love stories we read and see are often hugely unhelpful to our chances of having satisfying relationships, for the expectations they raise are as naïve as they are cruel. 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/K473b Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/vLXwg FURTHER READING “It sounds strange to ask what a novel might be for. We tend not to wonder too much what role made-up stories should have in our lives. Generally we suppose we just read them for entertainment…” You can read more on this and other topics here: https://goo.gl/YTD00H MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Mad Adam http://www.madadamfilms.co.uk/ #TheSchoolOfLife

Though we long for certain people to like us, an odd thing can happen once they do. What is the origin of our strange coolness towards those who show enthusiasm for us? 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/l5xvu Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/NstEP FURTHER READING "Ostensibly we all want love – but oddly, one of the hardest things to do is not to hold it against someone when they do actually turn around and reciprocate our feelings. It can be immensely hard not to feel that those who offer us love are in some way weak, mistaken, needy, craven or defective – and to be left a little queasy by their warmth, repulsed by their wish to hold us and to caress our necks; by their tender words and their capacity to find minor things about us endearing..." You can read more on this and other topics here: https://goo.gl/vMTskP MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Ignatz Johnson Higham http://www.ignatzjohnson.com https://vimeo.com/user9691810 #TheSchoolOfLife

We live in an age that thinks highly of frankness and directness. But there are – nevertheless – a few reasons why politeness remains a hugely important quality. 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/Jhcgt Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/lzt2A FURTHER READING “For most of human history, the idea of being ‘polite’ has been central to our sense of what is required to count as a good and civilised person. But more recently, politeness has come under suspicion. While we may not outright reject it, it’s not a word we now instinctively reach for when we want to explain why we like or admire someone. ‘Politeness’ can sometimes even carry almost the opposite of its traditional connotations, suggesting an offensive or insolent degree of insincerity and inauthenticity. A ‘polite’ person may come to be judged as a bit of a fake – and in their own way, really rather rude...” You can read more on this and other topics here: https://goo.gl/Qz2hgC MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Steve Whittle/Reflective Films http://www.reflectivefilms.co.uk/ #TheSchoolOfLife

David Hume is one of Scotland’s greatest philosophers (Adam Smith is another, about whom we also have a film https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejJRhn53X2M). His claim to greatness lies in his appreciation of ordinary experience, his descriptions of consciousness and his humane, tolerant approach to religious disputes. 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/k_B8W Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/DbvcT FURTHER READING “The 18th-century writer David Hume is one of the world’s great philosophical voices because he hit upon a key fact about human nature: that we are more influenced by our feelings than by reason. This is, at one level, possibly a great insult to our self-image, but Hume thought that if we could learn to deal well with this surprising fact, we could be (both individually and collectively) a great deal calmer and happier than if we denied it...” You can read more on this and other topics here: https://goo.gl/SuwPBi MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on PHILOSOPHY + CURRICULUM in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLphilosophy 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 Produced in collaboration with: Mad Adam https://madadamfilms.co.uk/ #TheSchoolOfLife

It’s only very recently in history that we’ve been able to buy more than the bare necessities. Can the history of consumption guide us to a wiser future? 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/a-Zw7 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/ZBufr FURTHER READING “Society takes the business of making money very seriously indeed. Much of our education system is geared towards giving people the skills to get a good job and a steady income. By contrast, very little attention is given to how to spend money well – by which we mean, in ways that stand a chance of properly increasing our sense of well-being and therefore justifying the sacrifices that went into earning the cash. The very subject sounds slightly absurd. Surely there is no challenge here, other than making sure we have enough (by which we mean, ever more) in our wallets....” You can read more on this and other topics here: https://goo.gl/RIjF6W MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on CAPITALISM in our playlist: http://bit.ly/2dmGWsp 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 Produced in collaboration with: Mike Booth http://www.youtube.com/somegreybloke #TheSchoolOfLife

It can be very hard to keep admitting to yourself and the world that you like someone – when it seems they may not like you. 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/HOyDl Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/3iSat FURTHER READING “An enormous amount of trouble in the world – especially at work and in relationships – is caused by a peculiar phenomenon of our minds: a tendency to grow, as we put it, out of touch with our feelings. When we first meet this idea, it sounds strange, and even a bit insulting. How could we not know what we are feeling? We look from the outside like unified beings: we carry one name and sit in a compact physical container. The distances between different parts of us aren’t so great. How then could we be so multiple as to have secrets from ourselves?...” You can read more on this and other topics here: https://goo.gl/4KLWKJ MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Nick Hilditch http://nickhilditch.com #TheSchoolOfLife

Adverts know us well and therefore tease us with promises of love, friendship, calm and success – but then go on merely to sell us things we don’t particularly need: like bars of chocolate or sports cars. 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/66nqi Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/0UcvI FURTHER READING “Patek Philippe is one of the giants of the global watchmaking industry, with revenues last year of just short of 750 million euros. For years now, they have been running a very distinctive series of adverts featuring parents and children. You’re sure to have glimpsed one somewhere....” You can read more on this and other topics here: https://goo.gl/CNpD1q MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on CAPITALISM in our playlist: http://bit.ly/2bvXBwj 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 Produced in collaboration with: Stephen Whittle/Reflective films http://www.reflectivefilms.co.uk/ #TheSchoolOfLife

We might believe that a true lover shouldn’t try to teach us to change in any way – but in fact, an acceptance of a legitimate role for education in love is key to the success of relationships. 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/VDY0R Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/jl6NF FURTHER READING “One of the most delightful and thrilling aspects of the early days of a love affair is the sense that our lover likes us not only for our obvious qualities – perhaps our looks, or our professional accomplishments – but also, and far more touchingly, for our less impressive sides: our vulnerabilities, our hesitations, our flaws. Perhaps they are particularly taken by the gap between our two front teeth which, while it wouldn’t impress an orthodontist, charms them distinctly. Or perhaps they are taken by our shyness at busy parties or are powerfully drawn to that old pair of pyjamas with the bear prints which we put on on cold winter nights and which would win no fashion award...” You can read more on this and other topics here: http://bit.ly/2dnGDgv MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/20DqEgb 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 Produced in collaboration with: Zedem Media http://www.zedemanimations.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife

We’re used to splitting voters into right and left camps, but might there be a more fruitful division between ‘classical’ and ‘romantic’ voters? Which one are you? 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/yHERy Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/_srjB FURTHER READING “We’re used to dividing how people vote in elections according to the categories of right-wing and left-wing. But there might be another way of labelling an electorate that taps into something broader and deeper in human personality. We might apportion people into the camps of Romantic and Classical voters. Which might you be?...” You can read more on this and other topics here: http://bit.ly/2d6wTtB MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on CAPITALISM in our playlist: http://bit.ly/2bvXBwj 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 Produced in collaboration with: Noelle Smith Design http://www.noellesmithdesign.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife

Pitying yourself has terrible connotations, but it belongs to what it means to be a friend to oneself. 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/9xffl Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/7DQuX FURTHER READING “It was a sunny Sunday afternoon; you were nine years old. Your parents wouldn’t let you have any ice cream if you didn’t do your maths homework. It was achingly unfair. Every other child in the world was playing football or watching television. No one else has such a mean mother. It was just awful. We learned self-pity when we were young. We’re all – in theory – dead against it. Self-pity is deeply unattractive because it reveals egoism in its most basic form, a failure to put our own suffering into proper perspective against the larger backdrop of human history. It shows how easily our own stubbed toe might matter more than a million dead in a far-off land….” You can read more on this and other topics here: http://bit.ly/2cHj8PI MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on SELF in our playlist: http://bit.ly/290imOt 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 Produced in collaboration with: Gemma Green Hope http://www.gemmagreenhope.com/ https://vimeo.com/gemmagreenhope https://twitter.com/gemmagreenhope #TheSchoolOfLife

Music may be the finest therapy humanity has ever invented. 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/T0tby Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/ZPeTJ FURTHER READING “One of the most calming things that societies have ever devised is the lullaby. In almost every culture there has ever been, mothers have rocked and sung their babies to sleep. A humbling point that a lullaby reveals is that it’s not necessarily the words of a song that make us feel more tranquil. The baby doesn’t understand what’s being said but the sound has its effect all the same. The baby is showing us that we are all tonal creatures long before we are creatures of understanding. As adults, we grasp the significance of words of course, but there remains a sensory level which cuts through and affects far more than an argument or an idea ever could. The musician can, at points, trump anything the philosopher might tell us….” You can read more on this and other topics here: http://bit.ly/2cmEGSM MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on POP CULTURE in our playlist: http://bit.ly/29Ak0pd 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 Produced in collaboration with: MadAdam https://madadamfilms.co.uk/ #TheSchoolOfLife

We associate being dutiful with being safe – that’s how it worked at school. But once we are in the big world, too much of a concern for duty can be our downfall. 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/6Juko Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/cuPdA FURTHER READING “We start off in life being very interested in pleasure and fun. In our earliest years, we do little but hunt out situations that will amuse us, pursuing our hedonistic goals with the help of puddles, crayons, balls, teddies, computers and bits and pieces we find in the kitchen drawers. As soon as anything gets frustrating or boring, we simply give up and go in search of new sources of enjoyment – and no one appears to mind very much. Then, all of a sudden at the age of 5 or 6, we are introduced to a terrifying new reality: the Rule of Duty. This states that there are some things, indeed many things, that we must do not because we like or see the point of them, but because other people, very intimidating authoritative people who may be almost three times our size, expect us to do them – in order, so the big people sternly explain, that we’ll be able to earn money, buy a house and go on holiday about 30 years from now. It sounds pretty important – sort of….” You can read more on this and other topics here: http://bit.ly/2d3ANVK MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on CAPITALISM in our playlist: http://bit.ly/2bvXBwj 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 Produced in collaboration with the following: Directed by Katy Wang Animation by Katy Wang and Yu Ying Chen Storyboard by Katy Wang and Yu Ying Chen Sound design by Yi Ting Chang http://www.katywang.co.uk https://vimeo.com/user5826437 #TheSchoolOfLife

Loving someone isn’t enough to guarantee we will know how to care for them. For this, we need to learn to understand the distinctive way in which they need our love to manifest itself in order for it to feel real to them. 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/e23kf Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/HN_Vm You can read more here: https://www.theschooloflife.com/articles//?/ Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/20DqEgb Do you speak a different language to English? Did you know you can submit Subtitles on all of our videos on YouTube? For instructions how to do this click here: http://bit.ly/2cNB2Us SOCIAL MEDIA Feel free to follow us at the links below: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theschooloflifelondon/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with Avi Ofer http://www.aviofer.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife

The decline in belief in the Biblical 10 commandments doesn’t mean that all rules of conduct are necessarily superfluous. Here is our attempt to reimagine a set of rules for how to behave around others. 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/-8qzS Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/0O-Sr FURTHER READING "The Ten Commandments (which appear in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5) maintain an extraordinary hold on our imaginations even though many of them can sound – in the context of our own times – really rather peculiar, bound up with injunctions not to covet a neighbour’s livestock or carve images of god-like figures..." You can read more on this and other topics here: http://bit.ly/2cmcEtp MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on CAPITALISM in our playlist: http://bit.ly/2bvXBwj 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 Produced in collaboration with Peter Caires http://www.twitter.com/peterlikesthis http://www.petercaires.com #TheSchoolOfLife

One of the greatest obstacles to a good life is the expectation of perfection. 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/NxDlC Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/UhGrI 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 "We typically aim for a particular career because we have been deeply impressed by the exploits of the most accomplished practitioners in the field. We formulate our ambitions by admiring the beautiful structures of the architect tasked with designing the city’s new airport, or by following the intrepid trades of the wealthiest Wall Street fund manager, by reading the analyses of the acclaimed literary novelist or sampling the piquant meals in the restaurant of a prize-winning chef. We form our career plans on the basis of perfection. Then, inspired by the masters, we take our own first steps and trouble begins. What we have managed to design, or make in our first month of trading, or write in an early short story, or cook for the family is markedly and absurdly, beneath the standard that first sparked our ambitions. We who are so aware of excellence end up the least able to tolerate mediocrity – which in this case, happens to be our own...." You can read more on this article and other topics here: http://bit.ly/2clTD85 MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on CAPITALISM in our playlist: http://bit.ly/2bvXBwj 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 Produced in collaboration with Ana Stefaniak: http://www.anastefaniak.co.uk/ #TheSchoolOfLife

The period of time we find hardest to inhabit is the present; for a range of powerful reasons we should take on board. 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/MaqBD Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/K9vKk FURTHER READING "Very many of us suffer from a peculiar-sounding problem: an inability to properly inhabit the stretch of time we call ‘the present’. Maybe we’re on a beautiful beach on a sunny day, the sky is azure and the palm trees slender and implausibly delicate, but most of ‘us’ isn’t actually here at all, it’s somewhere at work or in imaginary discussion with a rival or plotting a new enterprise...." You can read more on this article and other topics here: http://bit.ly/2cb3YSy MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on SELF in our playlist: http://bit.ly/290imOt 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 Produced in collaboration with Tomas Pichardo Espaillat http://tomatico.net/ #TheSchoolOfLife

The stream of consciousness refers to the passage of many thousands of images and ideas through our minds every day, very few of which we manage to arrest and examine in any detail. Accurate self-knowledge depends on patiently sitting on the bank of the stream of consciousness - identifying and extracting insights. 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/kzdGv Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/xFdEw FURTHER READING “One of the hardest things to describe or to be properly aware of is what it feels like to be inside our own minds: the second-by-second flow of images, words, feelings and sounds inside our heads that philosophers call our ‘consciousness’…” You can read more about this and other topics here: http://bit.ly/2c795ld MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on SELF in our playlist: http://bit.ly/290imOt 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 Produced in collaboration with Reflective Films http://www.reflectivefilms.co.uk/ #TheSchoolOfLife

One of the most vital ingredients to keep a relationship going is a capacity for humour. 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/bPLvc Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/-PWOr FURTHER READING “We know by instinct that humour is pretty important in relationships. But the reasons are often left a little vague. It isn’t that we crudely want entertainment – there are enough comedians on TV. We don’t just want a laugh. We want to find a way to be annoyed with, and criticise one another’s most maddening sides without eliciting a drama, with lightness and a special kind of diplomatic immunity…” You can read more about this and other subjects here: http://bit.ly/2bXUpGC MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/20DqEgb 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 Ana Tortos http://www.anatortos.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife

Jacques Derrida was a key philosopher of modern times who made pioneering explorations into the subtexts of our key concepts. 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/HTXbD Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/w23Wg MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on CURRICULUM in our playlist: http://bit.ly/2bVcNyy FURTHER READING You can read more on this and other topics here: http://bit.ly/2cehPqD 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 Produced in collaboration with Mike Booth http://youtube.com/somegreybloke #TheSchoolOfLife

One of the oddest things we need in order to love is a vital ingredient known as self-love. 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/p5bLL Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/GTVkf 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 “One of the great and slightly strange dangers of falling in love with someone is how we may respond the day they start to love us back. Some of the reasons we fall in love with people is because we long to escape from ourselves into the embrace of a person who appears as beautiful perfect and accomplished as we feel ourselves to be flawed, dumb and mediocre. But what if such a being were one day turn around and love us back? Nothing could discredit them faster. How could they be as divine as we had hoped when they have the bad taste to approve of someone like us? …” You can read more about this and other topics here: http://bit.ly/2bBfolf MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/20DqEgb 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 Artrake studios http://www.artrake.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife

From many points of view, marriage is a costly hassle that makes no sense. Why, then, might there still be good reasons to get married? 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/zC1Ss Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/HRZKB Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/20DqEgb Do you speak a different language to English? Did you know you can submit Subtitles on all of our videos on YouTube? For instructions how to do this click here: http://bit.ly/2aXYb6v FURTHER READING "It’s tempting to think of marriage as old fashioned. Why not just live with someone and be done with it? What need for a public ceremony? Why the weird traditions that people normally keep away from: all those churches, temples, hymns, vows and prayers? Marriage must be a silly relic from the religious childhood of humankind, not designed for the more logical modern world..." You can read more about this here: http://bit.ly/2bV78L1 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 Vale Productions http://www.valeproductions.co.uk #TheSchoolOfLife

There are books that seem to know us better than we know ourselves: those are the books we love. 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/_GRrY Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/UTGf4 FURTHER READING You can read more about this and other topics here: http://bit.ly/2aY5PYR MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on SELF in our playlist: http://bit.ly/290imOt 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 Produced in collaboration with Reflective Films http://www.reflectivefilms.co.uk/ #TheSchoolOfLife

Art museums have never been more popular but the question of what they’re really for remains pertinent. 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/TdD9n Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/uzT2a FURTHER READING “Things seem to be going really well with the institution of the art museum. All the big cities have one, new ones are popping up constantly and the lines to get into blockbuster shows can snake around the block. But despite the buzz, museums are arguably not doing as much for us as they might; their whole purpose and function in modern society has been left oddly rather unexplored. Many of us show up at these museums more out of guilt than genuine pleasure. The prestige of art – as opposed to any spontaneous enthusiasm – is what seems to keep a sizeable share of people coming through the doors. And a lot of the more recent art on display can be deeply puzzling to behold – even if we don’t generally reveal our confusion for fear of seeming foolish...” You can read more about this and other topics here: http://bit.ly/2bkPcKA MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on CAPITALISM in our playlist: http://bit.ly/2bvXBwj 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 Mad Adam http://madadamfilms.co.uk/ #TheSchoolOfLife

#24hours #adayinmylife #theschooloflife Continuing our series on working lives around the world, a film about the life of one of Istanbul's most resourceful taxi drivers. 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/FmsLA Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/Y7p_a 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 Sila Unlu https://vimeo.com/silaunlu #TheSchoolOfLife

#24hours #adayinmylife #theschooloflife Continuing our series of working lives from around the world, a baker from Mali lets us into his place of work. 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/BgOUT Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/PIVRl 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 Jeremy Riggall http://www.sketchfilms.co.uk #TheSchoolOfLife

Continuing our series on films about working life around the world: a dressmaker from Ghana allows us into her shop. 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/UejAW Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/Rv5Q4 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 Jeremy Riggall http://www.sketchfilms.co.uk #TheSchoolOfLife

It’s remarkably easy to fall out of touch with a key bit of oneself: one’s feelings. A short guide to recovering contact. 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/uMhd4 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/QmkKf FURTHER READING “An enormous amount of trouble in the world – especially at work and in relationships – is caused by a peculiar phenomenon of our minds: a tendency to be, as we put it, out of touch with our feelings. When we first meet this idea, it sounds strange, and even a bit insulting. How could we not know what we are feeling?...” You can read more about this and other subjects here: http://bit.ly/2bvM2Cm MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on SELF in our playlist: http://bit.ly/290imOt 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 Produced in collaboration with Tracy Foster​ Animation and Direction by Tracy Foster http://www.tracyfoster.co.uk Character Rigging by Simon Biggs Motion Graphics Assistance ​by ​ Gordon Howie Sound Design by Howard Sinden False 3d Font by Galdino Otten Background texture by Fundooz Dubmash #TheSchoolOfLife

Being disliked by others is one of the most unavoidable but unpleasant realities: learning to cope without panic belongs at the core of wisdom. 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/WjL6d Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/KgfnW FURTHER READING “Learning that someone hates us deeply, even though we have done nothing ostensibly to provoke them, can be one of the most alarming situations we face. Because of technology, it is also liable to happen to us more and more. In the past, our enemies were restricted to the vicinity; now they lie scattered around the digital planet. In the past, we might once have unwisely read about ourselves in another’s diary. Now we can fall prey to a repeated temptation to google our own name – and must suffer the full baleful consequences...” You can read more about this and other topics here: http://bit.ly/2aXPnx4 MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on SELF in our playlist: http://bit.ly/290imOt 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 Luiz Stockler http://www.luizstockler.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife

One of the great challenges of the modern world is how to keep calm in the face of bureaucracy. A small film for anyone who has ever wanted to shout at the airline counter or the operator. 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/4-NOB Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/Q-HxP FURTHER READING "Most of us grow up at the centre of a very responsive world. Parents re-organise their lives so as to accommodate the needs of their off-spring. They spend a good deal of time selecting just the right presents at birthdays and blame themselves if the gifts fail to delight. Careful account is taken of a child’s mood and physical state: if they’re tired, we’ll go home; if they’re hungry, we’ll eat… One of the ambiguous achievements of good parenting is that the child comes to assume that other people really can be alert to their needs; that our genuine requirements, properly stated, will meet with recognition and understanding." You can read more about this and other topics here: http://bit.ly/2be7z0E MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on CAPITALISM in our playlist: http://bit.ly/2bvXBwj 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 Produced in collaboration with Reflective films http://www.reflectivefilms.co.uk/ #TheSchoolOfLife

Having a partner far away is normally seen as a curse. It’s time to acknowledge the many advantages of the arrangement as well. 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/1_qmd Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/SrbvL FURTHER READING “When we hear that a couple live 11 time zones apart and can afford to come together only once in a long while, it’s natural to offer sympathy for the pain. We should more fairly envy them for their luck. Whatever our longings may indicate, it is simply a lot easier to love someone who isn’t there. Far from an unfortunate necessity, living apart should be recognised for what it truly is: an advantage...” You can read more about this and other topics here: http://bit.ly/2aE5OIR MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with Martin Stacey http://www.martinstacey.co.uk/ & Neil Evan http://www.neilevan.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife

We don’t need our lovers to be perfect. We need them to warn us of their quirks in good time. We need them to give us an instruction manual to themselves. 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/a6-gx Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/CHoD2 FURTHER READING “Most machines of any degree of complexity are offered to us with an instruction manual, a guide to how an unfamiliar technology works, what we can expect from it, how to get the best out of it and how to interpret its signals – the assumption being that it will be so much easier and less enraging to deal with the machine when we have taken some time systematically and patiently to learn how it operates. Yet one area where we tend not to have manuals to read is when it comes to other people and their functioning...” You can read more about this and other topics here: http://bit.ly/2aN4HaF MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with Nick Hilditch http://nickhilditch.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife

It isn’t macabre or nihilistic to think of death. It’s the start of a proper, braver engagement with the possibilities of life. 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/EEeL3 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/lDYHg FURTHER READING "For centuries, artists produced ‘memento mori’, works of art that would remind their viewers of death and usually featured a skull or an hourglass. The point of these works wasn’t to make people despair, but to help them use the thought of death to focus on the real priorities. Vivid reminders of mortality and the transient nature of life put our prosaic obsessions into question. When measured against the finality of death, the true insignificance of some of our worries is emphasised and we’re given an opportunity to feel a little braver about what we really want and feel...." You can read more about this and other topics here: http://bit.ly/2aLSd69 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with Lois de Silva http://www.loisdesilva.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife

James Joyce deserves our ongoing interest for his momentous discovery of the Stream of Consciousness. 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/2TKlu Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/k2BBs FURTHER READING You can read more about this and other subjects: http://bit.ly/2aFW5T6 MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on LITERATURE in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLliterature 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 Produced in collaboration with Mike Booth https://www.youtube.com/somegreybloke #theschooloflife SCRIPT: The script for this film was written by Professor Eric Bulson for the School of Life: http://www.cgu.edu/pages/10241.asp

We tend to look patronisingly at people convinced they might win the lottery. But we often harbour equally misguided hopes for our romantic and professional lives. 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/5EvdV Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/zysrl MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on WORK & CAPITALISM in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLcapitalism 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 Produced in collaboration with Avi Ofer http://www.aviofer.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife

What holds us back from being more confident at work is often a sense that we are fundamentally different from those who succeed. We suffer – needlessly – from The Impostor Syndrome. 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/LBTsq Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/SgJdV 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 MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on WORK & CAPITALISM in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLcapitalism FURTHER READING You can read more about this and other topics here: http://bit.ly/2aIPTPl 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 Produced in collaboration with Zedem Media http://www.zedemanimations.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife

The ideology of Romanticism has been fatal to our chances of long-term happiness in modern relationships. Here, School of Life founder Alain de Botton delivers a lecture at the Sydney Opera House charting a wiser course for love. With deepest thanks to the team at the Opera House. 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/wRKpo Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/XuxZl CREDITS Brought to you by http://www.theschooloflife.com Produced in collaboration with The Sydney Opera House. #TheSchoolOfLife

We’re used to thinking of pessimism as the enemy of good things, but when it comes to relationships, it can be a vital ingredient in keeping a couple together. 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/KeGun Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/RvKs_ FURTHER READING You can read more about this and other topics here: http://bit.ly/2ah2Dgi MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with Zedem Media http://www.zedemanimations.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife

We pride ourselves on living in a sexually liberated age. But we haven't in fact begun to know how to face up to, or discuss, our true sexual natures. 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/uEFUs Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/RWTKu MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships FURTHER READING You can read more about this and other topics here: http://bit.ly/2atBg0r 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 Produced in collaboration with Jesse Collett http://www.jessecollett.co.uk/ #TheSchoolOfLife

It can seem as if we are living in deeply, uncommonly troubled and crazy times. We should take a measure of consolation from the example of history, that teaches us that humans have always been cruel and mad – but that civilisation has progressed nevertheless. 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/RozQA Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/AU-8l FURTHER READING You can read more about this and other topics here: http://bit.ly/2aog2Th MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on WORK & CAPITALISM in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLcapitalism 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 Produced in collaboration with Reflective Films http://www.reflectivefilms.co.uk #TheSchoolOfLife

Getting close to another human isn’t the trouble free process we might imagine. It’s worth understanding just how frightening closeness can be. 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/uuFK8 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/1Qpws FURTHER READING You can read more about this and other topics here: http://bit.ly/29vkvOI MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with Zedem Media http://www.zedemanimations.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife

One of the most maddening sides of modern life is that the media always under-reports the crucial stories, while hyping nonsense. We could get enraged and pious; but we’re better off understanding how human nature works. Getting stern isn’t going to help. 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/v6mcR Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/XnnJj FURTHER READING Read more on this and other subjects here: http://bit.ly/2bf63MS MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on POP CULTURE in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLpopculture SOCIAL MEDIA Feel free to follow us at the links below: Facebook: https://facebook.com/theschooloflifelondon/ X: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with Mad Adam https://madadamfilms.co.uk #TheSchoolOfLife

Many people who do brilliantly at school turn out not to do so well at life. Why? 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/rfG0A Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/g1mhe MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on SELF in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLself FURTHER READING "We want to do well at school for an obvious reason: because – as we’re often told – it’s the primary route to doing well at life. Few of us are in love with the A grades themselves – we want them because we’re understandably interested in one day having a fulfilling career, a pleasant house and the respect of others. But, sometimes, more often than seems entirely reassuring, something confusing occurs: we come across people who triumphed at school – but flunked at life. And vice versa…” You can read more about this an other topics here: http://bit.ly/29wouwJ 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 Produced in collaboration with Perrie Murphy https://vimeo.com/perriemurphy #TheSchoolOfLife

We’re used to thinking that charity just means giving poorer people money. In fact, it’s about extending sympathy to another human being – who may be us. 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/16JXB Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/kc4Vr FURTHER READING "It is one of the seven virtues of Christianity. It used to have a central place in Roman ethics and Judaism as well. Today, we remain deeply impressed by the idea of charity, but often from a distance, without probing the concept too deeply, with little attempt to practise it systematically. It’s something we might have recourse to when we’re moved by a documentary on the TV or have some loose change left over after the holidays...." You can read more about this and other topics here: http://bit.ly/29OXFUn 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 Produced in collaboration with Mike Booth http://www.youtube.com/somegreybloke #TheSchoolOfLife

We are so busy and so obsessed with our phones, we rarely take a break to do that vital and rather philosophical thing: stare out of the window. 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/RmJch Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/FOjHF MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on SELF in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLself FURTHER READING "We tend to reproach ourselves for staring out of the window. You are supposed to be working, or studying, or ticking off things on your to-do list. It can seem almost the definition of wasted time. It seems to produce nothing, to serve no purpose. We equate it with boredom, distraction, futility. The act of cupping your chin in your hands near a pane of glass and letting your eyes drift in the middle distance does not normally enjoy high prestige. We don’t go around saying: ‘I had a great day: the high point was staring out of the window’. But maybe in a better society, that’s just the sort of thing people would say to one another......" You can read more about this and other topics here: http://bit.ly/29wiCSh 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 Produced in collaboration with Felix Massie http://felixmassie.co.uk/ #TheSchoolOfLife

Apologising doesn’t generally come easily – but it always tends to pay off beautifully. 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/64iMU Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/67cV8 FURTHER READING You can read more about this and other topics here: http://bit.ly/29sqp2G MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/20DqEgb SOCIAL MEDIA Feel free to follow us at the links below: Facebook: https://facebook.com/theschooloflifelondon/ X: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with Mad Adam Films and Hayley Warren http://madadamfilms.co.uk http://hayleywarren.co.uk #TheSchoolOfLife

The leading theorist of modern right-wing political movements was an Austrian economist called Friedrich Hayek. FURTHER READING "Friedrich August von Hayek (1899-1992) was a political economist who had a tremendous influence upon how people in capitalist societies understand the concept of liberty. Controversially, for Hayek ‘liberty’ did not mean democracy or a commitment to a set of ‘liberal’ ideals. Rather, Hayek believed that liberty was ‘a policy which deliberately adopts competition, markets and prices as its ordering principles’......" You can read more about this and other subjects here: http://bit.ly/29ov8pg MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on PHILOSOPHY in our playlist: http://bit.ly/1gfQCEu 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 Written by Chris Grocott http://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/management/people/chris-grocott https://www.leicester.academia.edu/chrisgrocott Produced in collaboration with Reflective Films http://www.reflectivefilms.co.uk/ #TheSchoolOfLife

People often speak of going through an ‘existential crisis’; but what do they really mean by the term? And when can it be useful to have it to hand? 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/bsiXH Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/3WYMF 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 about self and other topics here: http://bit.ly/29weaXW 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: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with Damn Fine Media http://www.damnfinemedia.co.uk #TheSchoolOfLife

Remaining calm around people who annoy us is one of the great life skills. It’s also a teachable and learnable skill. 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/ZDl-j Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/owJuu FURTHER READING "One of the most fundamental paths to calm is the power to hold on, even in very challenging situations, to a distinction between what someone does – and what they meant to do....." You can read more about this an other topics here: http://bit.ly/29fu4oE MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/29khQuM 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 Produced in collaboration with Rachel Sale http://www.rachelsaleillustration.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife

The French 17th century philosopher Blaise Pascal is one of the world’s great pessimists- with an unusual power to cheer us up. 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/56Oel Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/2uT88 MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on PHILOSOPHY: http://bit.ly/TSOLphilosophy 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 Produced in collaboration with Mad Adam http://madadamfilms.co.uk #TheSchoolOfLife

So much in our culture emphasises long-term love; it may be time to hear a word or two in praise of the short-term approach. 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/j38S5 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/gQplY MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with Ana Tortos http://www.anatortos.com #TheSchoolOfLife

Sapiosexuality means a powerful sexual attraction to intelligence. People who gravitate to this channel are often sapiosexuals. 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/gxWRB Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/tlxsH 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 Produced in collaboration with Matthew Hammett Knott http://www.curtisbrown.co.uk/client/matthew-hammett-knott #TheSchoolOfLife

The great French 19th century novelist Gustave Flaubert understood tragedy, France, the bourgeoisie and laughter. 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/Aq-2U Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/3WZPJ MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on LITERATURE: http://bit.ly/TSOLliterature 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 Produced in collaboration with Mike Booth http://youtube.com/somegreybloke #TheSchoolOfLife

The key to ending a relationship is not to insist on being liked by someone you no longer like. 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/7sHVI Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/sq0Md MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with Peter Caires http://www.twitter.com/peterlikesthis http://www.petercaires.com #TheSchoolOfLife

When we’re down or melancholy, the last thing we need is someone who will jolly us along. 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/9O9rL Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/CnDvZ Watch more films on SELF: http://bit.ly/TSOLself Produced in collaboration with Andrew Foerster http://www.rewfoe.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife

Charles Dickens was one of the most popular writers in English in the 19th century. He deserves our attention for his ideas about sympathy, popularity and happiness. 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/n41-c Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/XquCZ MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on LITERATURE: http://bit.ly/TSOLliterature 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 Produced in collaboration with Mike Booth http://youtube.com/somegreybloke #TheSchoolOfLife

The quality of one’s childhood has an overwhelming effect on the course of adult life. It’s good to be fully aware of this – and plan accordingly. 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/Qmymz Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/T9Hcs MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on SELF: http://bit.ly/TSOLself 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 Produced in collaboration with Nick Hilditch http://nickhilditch.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife

Being good or bad in bed has nothing to do with physical exertion; it’s all about a state of mind. 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/ckdvC Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/3GXfh Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships Produced in collaboration with Patrick Smith http://www.blendfilms.com #TheSchoolOfLife

Jacques Lacan was France’s most famous psychoanalyst, who came up with the intriguing concept of the ‘mirror phase.’ 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/XSWbq Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/B_u-u 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 MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on PSYCHOTHERAPY: http://bit.ly/TSOLpsychotherapy 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 Produced in collaboration with Reflective Films http://www.reflectivefilms.co.uk #TheSchoolOfLife

Rejection is always painful; it need not be a tragedy. 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/GtoOz Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/kfjCA MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with Avi Ofer http://www.aviofer.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife

Insomnia is in essence a revenge for all the thoughts we forgot to have in the 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/QFhRf Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/1Sfk6 Watch more films on SELF: http://bit.ly/TSOLself Produced in collaboration with Daniela Scherer http://www.danielasherer.com #TheSchoolOfLife

Come and say hello in the following places: New York City Tues 14th June 2016, 6.30-8.30pm http://www.cooper.edu/events-and-exhibitions/events/alain-de-botton-course-love Philadelphia Wed 15th June 2016, 7.30pm https://libwww.freelibrary.org/authorevents/index.cfm?id=56550 A Free Library of Philadelphia event. Cambridge: SOLD OUT - SORRY Fri 17th June 2016, 6.00pm http://www.harvard.com/event/alain_de_botton/ Los Angeles Sun 19th June 2016, 5.00pm To reserve a ticket, email: [email protected] http://www.skylightbooks.com/event/alain-de-botton-reads-his-new-novel-course-love San Francisco Tues 21st June 2016, 7.00pm To reserve a ticket, call: (415) 927-0960 http://www.bookpassage.com/event/alain-de-botton-course-love-corte-madera Seattle Wed 22nd June 2016, 7.00pm http://www.spl.org/calendar-of-events#/?i=4 Portland Thurs 23rd June 2016, 7.30pm http://www.powells.com/calendar #theschooloflife 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/LsoRH Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/Qwfh7

Our societies have dropped ever more rituals from our calendars. The long history of rituals seems to be winding down. That’s a great pity. 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/lh5Jq Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/uhFAm MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on HISTORY: http://bit.ly/TSOLhistory 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 Produced in collaboration with Mike Booth http://www.youtube.com/somegreybloke #TheSchoolOfLife

The School of Life founder (and voice behind this channel) Alain de Botton lays out his ideas on love in the modern world - at a conference by Google held in London in May 2016 called Zeitgeist [many thanks to them for the film]. 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/K7bj2 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/imXks CREDITS Brought to you by Google/Zeitgeist #TheSchoolOfLife

It’s extremely nice when other people agree with us. But it’s also not unpleasant when we find people whose views revolt us completely. 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/UpuRQ Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/6oSAT MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on SELF: http://bit.ly/TSOLself 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 Produced in collaboration with Reflective Films http://www.reflectivefilms.co.uk #TheSchoolOfLife

The set of ideas we can call Romanticism is responsible for making our relationships extremely difficult. We shouldn’t give up on love; we should just recognise that it’s a skill, not an emotion. 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/vO9tU Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/t-kKS MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS: http://bit.ly/TSOrelationships CREDITS Produced in collaboration with Zedem Media http://www.zedemanimations.com #TheSchoolOfLife

The Russian 19th century novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky deserves our attention for the austerity and pessimism of his vision – from which we can nevertheless gain enlightenment and hope. 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/vsVeX Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/iVsa3 MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on LITERATURE: http://bit.ly/TSOLliterature 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 Produced in collaboration with Reflective Films http://www.reflectivefilms.co.uk #TheSchoolOfLife

To have sound levels of self-esteem is one of the gateways to happiness. But achieving this has very little to do with the progress of our careers. 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/ERC12 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/Ncr6A 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 MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on SELF: http://bit.ly/TSOLself 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 Produced in collaboration with Jesse Collett http://www.jessecollett.co.uk/ #TheSchoolOfLife

The 19th century thinker Auguste Comte invented a religion without a God in it. It was a fascinating move that deserves to be studied today. 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/fKUDD Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/Cj7yu MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on PHILOSOPHY: http://bit.ly/TSOLphilosophy 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 Produced in collaboration with Reflective Films http://www.reflectivefilms.co.uk #TheSchoolOfLife

Our childhoods have a deep and often seriously troubling impact on our adulthoods; what happened at 5 will still be colouring how things are for us at 55. It's something we need to learn to adjust to. 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/LlhHc Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/CKrct 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/ MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on SELF: http://bit.ly/TSOLself CREDITS Produced in collaboration with Marc Moynihan. http://mmoynihan.tumblr.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife

What is it that makes us most distinctively ourselves? Our bodies, our memories, our values...? Take a tour through the philosophy of personal identity. 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/qoEu2 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/51b49 FURTHER READING You can read more on this and many other topics here : https://goo.gl/FGMqVi MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE More films on SELF in our playlist below: http://bit.ly/TSOLself 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 Produced in collaboration with: Vale Productions http://www.valeproductions.co.uk/ Music Woods by Hawkin #TheSchoolOfLife

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. 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/2pSja Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/a9KBT MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on LITERATURE: http://bit.ly/TSOLliterature 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 Produced in collaboration with Reflective Films http://www.reflectivefilms.co.uk Script written for The School of Life by Professor Nicholas Cronk, Director of the Voltaire Foundation: http://www.mod-langs.ox.ac.uk/people/nicholas-cronk #TheSchoolOfLife

There is still so much we are never quite able to tell those close to us about who we are and what we want. We should dare to have the important conversations. 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/RoP2f Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/Jy-MI MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with Action Films http://www.actionproductions.co.uk #TheSchoolOfLife

Eastern philosophy is a great deal more popular than its Western counterpart. That’s not because Western philosophy has nothing valuable to teach us - but because of the dispiriting, abstract way it has to date been presented to us by Western educational elites. 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/lP8Hg Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/YPpZG MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on CAPITALISM: http://bit.ly/TSOLcapitalism 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 Produced in collaboration with Reflective Films http://www.reflectivefilms.co.uk #TheSchoolOfLife

Ralph Waldo Emerson taught us about the presence of nature and something a little divine inside all of us. 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/EbsVE Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/BHNcz MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on LITERATURE: http://bit.ly/TSOLliterature 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 The script for the film was kindly produced for The School of Life by Dr David Greenham of the University of the West of England: http://people.uwe.ac.uk/Pages/person.aspx?accountname=campus%5Cd2-greenham Produced in collaboration with Reflective Films http://www.reflectivefilms.co.uk #TheSchoolOfLife

All of us have deeply unhelpful inner voices inside us, dragging us down with criticisms and unfair accusations. Wisdom involves learning how to replace them with more benevolent guides. 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/T9WT2 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/Z_TpN 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 MORE FROM THE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on SELF: http://bit.ly/TSOLself 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 Produced in collaboration with Ana Tortos http://www.anatortos.com #TheSchoolOfLife

#petergabriel #music #interview The great musician Peter Gabriel came to do an event around the corner from the School of Life's London HQ: a discussion on music, philosophy, science, therapy and... apes. 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/h1s8x Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/xelen 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 York Tillyer http://www.yorktillyer.com #TheSchoolOfLife

We hear a lot about how to speak well in public, but very little about how to learn the equally important art of listening properly to others. 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/KNzHH Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/-_zfJ MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with Zedem Media http://www.zedemanimations.com #TheSchoolOfLife

The founder and creative director of the channel, Alain de Botton, has written a novel called THE COURSE OF LOVE. If you enjoy the channel, you'll enjoy 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/4i4Sl Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/Sw2-M 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 Produced in collaboration with Reflective Films http://www.reflectivefilms.co.uk #TheSchoolOfLife

A lot of what we long for and desire will never be ours; we might go out of our minds with frustration, were it not for a very useful manoeuvre first identified by Sigmund Freud: sublimation. 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/kuNrq Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/wblr6 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 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://theschooloflife.com Produced in collaboration with Mad Adam http://MadAdamFilms.co.uk #TheSchoolOfLife

We know that kissing is pleasurable but the reasons why are a little mysterious; it may have a lot to do with feeling accepted. 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/7XUDQ Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/8akU6 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 Matthew Hammett Knott http://www.curtisbrown.co.uk/client/matthew-hammett-knott #TheSchoolOfLife

Children can’t draw very well in the technical sense - but their art has important value for us nevertheless. 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/uimEx Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/jYHzt 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 Delphine Burrus https://vimeo.com/delphineburrus #TheSchoolOfLife

Franz Kafka is a guide to some very dark feelings most of us know well concerned with powerlessness, self-disgust and anxiety. This literary genius turned the stuff of nightmares into redemptive, consoling art. 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/YvWZH Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/uJ__A 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/ Produced in collaboration with Mike Booth http://youtube.com/somegreybloke and Carla Pereira http://carlapereiradocampo.blogspot.co.uk/ #TheSchoolOfLife

Should you stay or leave a relationship? Here’s a checklist of questions to ask oneself before heading out too quickly - or too slowly. If you like our films take a look at our shop (we ship worldwide): http://www.theschooloflife.com/shop/most-popular-1/?utm_source=You%20Tube&utm_medium=Video%20description&utm_campaign=YT%20video%20description%20most%20popular Brought to you by http://www.theschooloflife.com Produced in collaboration with Andrew Foerster & Joren Cull http://www.rewfoe.com/ Illustration by Joren Cull http://jorenmania.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife

A lot of the reason why people have affairs isn’t to do with random excess horniness. It’s do to with issues of closeness and distance. 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/thDUP Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/ls0N5 FURTHER READING “Too often, affairs are seen as the outcome of random horniness – or just plain old nastiness. That’s very rarely the case. When it comes to affairs, we spend far too long being incensed or secretive, and far too little time trying to understand. In truth, affairs stem from a very fiddly aspect of our romantic psychology…” You can read more on this here: https://goo.gl/CfK2wk MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE More films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist below: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships Do you speak a different language to English? Did you know you can submit Subtitles on all of our videos on YouTube? For instructions how to do this click here: https://goo.gl/sXJqFn SOCIAL MEDIA Feel free to follow us at the links below: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theschooloflifelondon/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Zedem Media http://www.zedemanimations.com #TheSchoolOfLife

Thomas Aquinas deserves to be remembered for reconciling faith with reason, thereby saving Western civilisation from turning its back on science and Greek and Roman wisdom. 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/o77eI Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/r3XDH 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://theschooloflife.com Produced in collaboration with Mad Adam http://madadamfilms.co.uk #TheSchoolOfLife

It’s tempting to see love as the easy bit of life and work as the harder one; but in truth, knowing how to love is often a good deal harder than managing to succeed in the work place. 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/KZ8_J Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/3Q6JX 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 Daniel Brereton and Will Samuel Sound design by Dan Shutt Website: www.danielbrereton.com #TheSchoolOfLife

John Locke's greatness as a philosopher is based on his theories on childhood, his work on religious toleration and his concept of the rights of citizens. He helped to make us who we are. 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/AkAzq Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/lJSSW CREDITS Brought to you by http://www.theschooloflife.com Produced in collaboration with Reflective films http://www.reflectivefilms.co.uk #TheSchoolOfLife

We live in a culture which, while it pays lip service to hugging, doesn't quite appreciate its true significance and poignancy. 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/1MtCq Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/U0ef5 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 Reflective films http://www.reflectivefilms.co.uk #TheSchoolOfLife

We often end discussions about what’s beautiful in architecture by shrugging our shoulders and saying: ‘Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.’ This is an extremely dangerous and ultimately unfounded conception. 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/pOPel Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/ujf-a 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 Jamie Kendall http://www.jamiekendall.com #TheSchoolOfLife

Wu Wei is a key concept within Daoism – and refers to a serene acceptance of events. It’s a wisdom we’re very uninclined to remember in our own times. 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/zKtzZ Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/tFK0s 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://theschooloflife.com Produced in collaboration with Mad Adam http://madadamfilms.co.uk #TheSchoolOfLife

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? 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/aJtDM Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/VlqDW FURTHER READING You 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 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 Produced in collaboration with: Richard O’Connor http://www.aceandson.com #TheSchoolOfLife

When people close to us annoy us, and we wonder why we allowed them into our lives, we should draw vital comfort from a theory known as The Weakness of Strength. 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/0jvNm Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/Lf1mu 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 Artrake Studios #TheSchoolOfLife

France and England have had two very different gardening histories that tell us as much about psychology as they do about horticulture. 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/jLj8C Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/owMl_ 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://theschooloflife.com Produced in collaboration with Mad Adam http://madadamfilms.co.uk #TheSchoolOfLife

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

The pressure to be in a relationship, and the suggestion that anyone who isn’t in one is weird and pitiable, has very bad consequences for us all, forcing people into choices they shouldn’t necessarily have to make. 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/klPNs Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/B6Yz6 FURTHER READING “Anyone who lives alone and manifests no longing to be in a relationship is – in our times – almost automatically (though more or less secretly) viewed as both pitiable and deeply troubled. It’s simply not thought possible to be at once alone and normal. This sets us up for collective catastrophe, for it means that a huge number of people who have no innate wish to live with anyone else, and are at heart deeply ill-suited to doing so, are every year press-ganged and shamed into conjugal life, with disastrous results for all involved...” MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships SOCIAL MEDIA Feel free to follow us at the links below: Download our App: https://goo.gl/g6MK6V Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theschooloflifelondon/ X: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Martin Stacey http://www.martinstacey.co.uk/ Neil Evan http://www.neilevan.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife

Nous sommes à Paris! Nous proposons d'explorer avec vous les grandes questions de la vie. Nous n'avons pas toutes les réponses, mais nous explorerons ensemble des idées inspirées par l'art, la littérature, la philosophie, la psychologie, qui devraient vous stimuler, vous consoler, vous nourrir et vous provoquer. Venez nous voir ici: http://www.theschooloflife.com/paris 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/muXtW Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/Uj-3g 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 #TheSchoolOfLife

Chinese culture shows us a remarkable interest in rocks, as objects of beauty and philosophical wisdom. We have much to learn. 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/gUQ3P Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/4SONM 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 Mike Booth http://www.youtube.com/somegreybloke #TheSchoolOfLife

Humans have evolved: are we still doing so? Very slowly perhaps, but what’s really changing is how we are adapting to the natural environment. And here, the nerds are winning. 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/MXSSz Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/0GNnY Produced in collaboration with Mad Adam http://www.twitter.com/peterlikesthis http://www.petercaires.com #TheSchoolOfLife

Plato’s theory of the forms is at the centre of his philosophy and teaches us the virtues of thinking about the ideal version of things. 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/n60ts Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/YcW7v Produced in collaboration with Mad Adam http://madadamfilms.co.uk #TheSchoolOfLife

When we think of the future of technology, we often imagine gadgets that will make us go faster. But some of the truly exciting developments will be around gadgets that help us with the tricky aspects of our emotional lives. 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/sbTkW Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/Sd22R 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

Quiet lives feel nowadays like lives of failure and resignation, but they may be no such thing: true ambition can lie in learning how to minimise stress and divert energy to properly important projects. 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/lngyi Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/kLfE4 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 Reflective films http://www.reflectivefilms.co.uk #TheSchoolOfLife

Andrea Palladio was one of the world's greatest architects - who launched the Classical style which influenced how we build to this 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/zivdC Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/SeOOI 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/khyan #TheSchoolOfLife

We’re used to thinking of envy in very negative terms. But it’s an emotion we should learn to accept and – in a calculated way – learn from. 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/Ykeb4 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/lXKod 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: Lara Lee - http://www.laralee.kr Hannah Jacobs - http://www.hellohannahjacobs.com #TheSchoolOfLife

Looked at over time, we’re gradually picking up slightly better manners – but what are we doing now that might, in future eras, be considered bad manners? 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/kb07u Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/1gcbh 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 Produced in collaboration with Mike Booth http://www.youtube.com/somegreybloke Harry Brewis https://www.youtube.com/hbomberguy #TheSchoolOfLife

Adults may grumble about kids: but what about the other side of the coin? A thoughtful member of the younger generation (9 and a half) shares with us some of the horrors of parents. 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/RsRvK Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/eeKaw 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 Produced in collaboration with Alex Morris http://pinvin.com/ Voice-over: Saul de Botton #TheSchoolOfLife

Society tells us some lovely sweet stories about what it’s like to have children. But there are some darker sides no one really likes to talk about, but we should – before it’s too late… 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/4h_cW Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/5gt9e 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 Gal Shkedi http://www.galshkedi.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife

The German designer Dieter Rams deserves our attention because he believed in products of everyday use that could be beautiful and long-lasting. He’s the ideal capitalist for our times. CREDITS Brought to you by http://theschooloflife.com Produced in collaboration with Mad Adam http://madadamfilms.co.uk #TheSchoolOfLife

We’re still only at the dawn of learning how to use drugs properly – knowing what drugs we need and when we should take them. We look forward to a brighter future for drug use. 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/ElW4j Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/jjxM1 FURTHER READING “It’s easy to have a pretty negative view of drugs: the news is always going on about police raids on drug dealers, kids tripping dangerously at raves, overdoses and rehab. It goes without saying: things can go horrifically wrong around drugs. But our intense awareness of the negatives is in danger of creating a misleadingly narrow view of the subject. Drugs are – at best – serious, dignified, noble and important, and we need more of them in our lives....” You can read more on this and other subjects here: https://goo.gl/PQlio4 MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE More films on SELF in our playlist below: http://bit.ly/TSOLself 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 Produced in collaboration with: Noelle Smith http://www.noellesmithdesign.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife

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

‘Kintsugi’ is the remarkable Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with elegance and grace - a tradition with a lot to teach us more generally about how to handle the broken bits of ourselves. 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/dGVGV Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/q6ugP 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://theschooloflife.com Produced in collaboration with Mad Adam Films http://madadamfilms.co.uk #TheSchoolOfLife

Sexting has a pretty low reputation, yet another part of our sexuality we dismiss as low and trivial – but it can, in certain forms, capture a lot of what is most moving about relationships in general. 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/ma_na Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/W43xC Produced in collaboration with Matthew Hammett Knott http://www.curtisbrown.co.uk/client/matthew-hammett-knott #TheSchoolOfLife

This is a thought experiment about what the perfect country might be like. It's not an idle daydream, it's a way of highlighting some of the problems with our own nations and a way of signaling what the true opportunities might be. 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/5LDN- Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/vpORo Produced in collaboration with Vale Productions http://www.valeproductions.co.uk #TheSchoolOfLife

Leo Tolstoy was a remarkable novelist in part because he believed in the novel as a tool for social reform, something that would enable us to become kinder, more thoughtful and more generous towards others. 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/cpb4F Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/hGaA6 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://theschooloflife.com Produced in collaboration with Mad Adam Films http://madadamfilms.co.uk #TheSchoolOfLife

It’s an odd quirk of relationships that, after a time, we tend to develop the sincere conviction that it is all always our partner’s fault. 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/ptv0A Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/CY90v 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 Hayley Atkins http://www.hayleyakins.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife

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 other, self-flagellation, where we blame only ourselves, tear ourselves apart and constantly replay evidence of our waywardness and sheer stupidity...” You can read more on this and many other topics here: https://goo.gl/pJrNNO MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE More films on SELF in our playlist below: http://bit.ly/TSOLself 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 Produced in collaboration with: Directed by Joe Bichard Music and Sound by Skillbard Additional Voice Talent by Sophie Koko Gate Additional Animation by Joe Sparrow Desk Space Generosity by Moth Collective, Studio AKA and Joe Sparkes #TheSchoolOfLife

#24hours #adayinmylife #theschooloflife Continuing our series of films about working lives around the world, a farmer from Yorkshire, UK. 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/QpvZp Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/2sDeG 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 Jeremy Riggall http://www.sketchfilms.co.uk #TheSchoolOfLife

Continuing our series about working lives around the world, a cattle herder from Cameroon. 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 Jeremy Riggall http://www.sketchfilms.co.uk #TheSchoolOfLife

Mark Zuckerberg is one of the richest people on the planet - and yet dresses like a very ordinary guy. That's both cheering and subtly deeply wounding to our pride. 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/WV6Bo Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/stPPx 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://theschooloflife.com Produced in collaboration with Mad Adam Films http://madadamfilms.co.uk #TheSchoolOfLife

Philosophy means, in Ancient Greek, the love of wisdom. But the word wisdom can sound very big and forbidding; what does it really mean to be wise? And how might we consciously strive to be a little wiser? 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/2jfKv Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/TiQNG 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 Mike Booth http://www.youtube.com/somegreybloke #TheSchoolOfLife

We might assume that the moment we cry in films is when something very sad or troubling is occurring. But the truth is rather stranger. We often break down is when things are particularly lovely. 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/vHgvr Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/gDrdt 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://theschooloflife.com Produced in collaboration with Mad Adam Films http://madadamfilms.co.uk #TheSchoolOfLife

There's a particular pleasure to be felt in the mighty things of nature: thunderstorms, the stars, vast deserts, oceans, the icecaps. One philosopher who analysed our pleasure was Edmund Burke, who pinned a word to this sensation and theorised about why it was so nice: he gave us the concept of The Sublime. 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/u4yi0 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/eFArA Produced in collaboration with Mad Adam Films http://madadamfilms.co.uk #TheSchoolOfLife

Despite talk of liberation, our sexual lives remain the focus of immense amounts of shame. One way to deal with this is to expand - with dignity - evidence of what people are truly like. Here, some brave individuals reveal what it is they deep down want and think about. We applaud their courage, and find it poignant too. 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/t9acs Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/ghYC8 FURTHER READING “From adolescence onwards, one of the great struggles we face is how to reconcile our desire to be normal and good with the contents of our sexual fantasies. For most of us, there are some alarming bits of our imaginations that simply refuse to fit in with the rest of our allegiances: we may be deeply interested in monogamy, and yet after a while, could find that we are only excited by the attention of complete strangers. We may be believers in every kind of gender equality, yet in bed, dream of humiliating someone. We perhaps want to be strong and competent, but are drawn to sexual scenarios in which we’ll be ordered to follow a master or mistress around on a chain on our hands and knees...” You can read more on this and other topics here: https://goo.gl/ex9WXH MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE Watch more films on RELATIONSHIPS in our playlist: http://bit.ly/TSOLrelationships 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 Produced in collaboration with: Chloë Ellingson http://www.chloeellingson.com #TheSchoolOfLife

There’s so much pressure on us to be always rational, calm and sensible: it’s time also to say a word about the essential normality of a little madness. 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/r3OcA Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/-sjra FURTHER READING You can read more on this here: https://goo.gl/QBqUsD MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE More films on SELF in our playlist below: http://bit.ly/TSOLself Do you speak a different language to English? Did you know you can submit Subtitles on all of our videos on YouTube? For instructions how to do this click here: https://goo.gl/eBzPrF SOCIAL MEDIA Feel free to follow us at the links below: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theschooloflifelondon/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSchoolOfLife Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theschooloflifelondon/ CREDITS Produced in collaboration with: Artrake Studio http://www.artrake.com/ #TheSchoolOfLife

Goethe is one of the great minds of European civilisation, though his work is largely unknown outside of the German speaking countries. He deserves our renewed attention. 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/1dLx_ Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/KgySl 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://theschooloflife.com Produced in collaboration with Mad Adam Films http://madadamfilms.co.uk #TheSchoolOfLife

Psychotherapy throws important light on what causes panic attacks. Often there’s a desire to sabotage one’s performance in order to remain loyal to something or someone in one’s past. If you're considering therapy, visit us here: https://www.theschooloflife.com/online-psychotherapy/ 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/FYX95 Be more mindful, present and inspired. Get the best of The School of Life delivered straight to your inbox: https://t.ly/9LRWV 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 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 Produced in collaboration with Zedem Media http://www.zedemanimations.com #TheSchoolOfLife