Unmarried, Happily Ever After
Despite the increasing number of dating apps, matchmakers, and love advice designed to facilitate romantic connections, many women are opting out of relationships. They are declaring to be happily unmarried and proudly find solace in living solo.
How To Prevent Loneliness In A Time Of Social Distancing
Researchers have long understood the toll that social isolation and loneliness take on the body. People who do not feel connected to others are more likely to catch a cold, experience depression, develop heart disease, have lower cognitive function and live a shorter life.
When Passion Leads To Burnout
You’ve no doubt heard the well-worn advice that “if you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life.” It’s a nice idea but a total myth. When we equate work we love with “not really working.” This type of mentality leads to burnout, and the consequences can be both dire and hard to detect.
The Homeownership Obsession
There are two different tales we tell ourselves about houses. The primary story is about bright futures, long lives, children, grandchildren, and hard-earned success. The second story, the darker story, is about the horror of being trapped.
The Way We Work Is Killing Us
In the United States, workers work among the longest, most extreme, and most irregular hours; have no guarantee to paid sick days, paid vacation, or paid family leave; and pay more for health insurance, yet are sicker and more stressed out than workers in other advanced economies.
How To Be Productive According To Ancient Philosophy
Productivity has been a topic of discussion ever since ancient eastern and western philosophy started. It’s a universal theme. I believe it’s in our nature to make better use of our time. Let’s start by learning the following 7 productivity lessons from the most well-known philosophers in history.
“Quadrangle”, How A Group Marriage Went Terribly Wrong
In 1969, two “conventional” married couples met, swapped partners, and lived in a group marriage, hoping to pioneer an alternative to divorce. It didn’t work. “Quadrangle” was directed by Amy Grappell.
The End Of Babies
Fertility rates have been dropping precipitously around the world for decades — in middle-income countries, in some low-income countries, but perhaps most markedly, in rich ones. Something is stopping us from creating the families we claim to desire. But what?
What We Know About Mental Fatigue
A temporary and localized fuel shortage triggers a rise in adenosine levels, which in turn blocks the release of neurotransmitters like dopamine. The result is a rise in perception of effort and a decrease in motivation—in other words, a feeling of mental fatigue.
The Only Metric Of Success That Really Matters Is The One We Ignore
When all is said and done it’s the people around you that make the difference. Warren Buffett, a friend of Bill Gates, says that his measure of success comes down to one question: “Do the people you care about love you back?” Gates wrote: “I think that is about as good a metric as you will find.”
What Makes A Person Charismatic?
Why do some people so clearly have it and others don’t? Why do we fall so easily under its influence? Charismatics can make us feel charmed and great about ourselves. They can inspire us to excel. But they can also be dangerous. They use charisma for their own purposes, to enhance their power, to manipulate others.
What Would Happen If Facebook Were Turned Off?
Facebook is blamed for all sorts of social horrors: from addiction and bullying to the erosion of fact-based political discourse and the enabling of genocide. New research—and there is more all the time—suggests such accusations are not entirely without merit. It may be time to consider what life without Facebook would be like.
The Problem Of Mindfulness
Instead of engaging in deliberation about oneself, what the arts of mindfulness have in common is a certain mode of attending to present events – often described as a ‘nonjudgmental awareness of the present moment’. Mindfulness promotes itself as value-neutral but it is loaded with (troubling) assumptions about the self and the cosmos.
Inside The Dark, Lucrative World Of Debt Collection
A dizzying array of variables affects a portfolio of debt’s true potential — the age of the debt, how many agencies have tried to collect on it, the size of the balances, the type of credit card, where the debtors live and the current economic climate.
The Curse Of America’s Illogical School-Day Schedule
The average start time for public high schools, 7:59, requires teens to get up earlier than is ideal for their biological clocks, meaning many teens disrupt their natural sleep patterns every school day. The world, apparently, does not revolve around parents either. Their lives also tend to be mismatched with school-day schedules.
How To Persuade People To Change Their Behavior
Our innate anti-persuasion radar raises our defenses, so we avoid or ignore the message or, even worse, counter-argue. Rather than trying to persuade people, getting them to persuade themselves is often more effective. Here are three ways to do that.
A Mother Journeys Through Grief Across Finland’s Many Islands
The beauty and calm of the Aland archipelago is deceptive. Aland is a Swedish-speaking autonomous region of Finland and consists of 16 municipalities. The island population is close to 30,000; around 12,000 live in Mariehamn. The smallest municipality, Sottunga, had 91 residents in 2018. Isolation encourages contemplation — but can it offer respite as well?
How To Optimize Your Life
You’ve only got — on average — 78.53 years on this planet, total. And you’re likely already spending a precious 5 hours each day on email, not to mention the time spent waiting in line or stuck in transit. But what if there were ways to make more time out of time?
The Unlisted: How People Without An Address Are Stripped Of Their Basic Rights
Without an address, it’s nearly impossible to get a bank account. And without a bank account, you can’t save money, borrow money or receive a state pension. But large parts of the world’s population still live off the map.
What To Say To Someone Who Lost A Parent Or Loved One
There are many potential answers but all are derivative of the same goal: communicating empathy and offering assistance, empathizing with what a person is going through, understanding what a person might need from you, and knowing how to phrase sentiments the right way.
The Link Between Self Compassion And Peak Performance
Research shows that individuals who react to failure with self-compassion get back on the bandwagon much more swiftly than those who judge themselves. That’s because if you judge yourself for messing up, you’re liable to feel guilt or shame, and it is often this very guilt or shame that drives more of the undesired behavior.