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What the Second-Happiest People Get Right
In 2007, a group of researchers began testing a concept that seems, at first blush, as if it would never need testing: whether more happiness is always better than less. The researchers asked college students to rate their
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Do We Need Hugs to Be Happy? I Don’t.
Recently published reports in Discover and Psychology Today assert that hugs are essential for human happiness. According to Suzanne Deggs-White, a professor at Northern Illinois University who studies social relationships, our need to be hugged
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Guiding Young People Not to Colleges or Careers — But to Good Lives
Who are you? If you saw this question on a government form, you’d likely respond in a practical fashion, checking boxes about how the world perceives you. Where were you born? What’s your family’s income?
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Yale’s Happiness Professor Says Anxiety Is Destroying Her Students
Since the Yale cognitive scientist Laurie Santos began teaching her class Psychology and the Good Life in 2018, it has become one of the school’s most popular courses. The first year the class was offered
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A Good Life is Painful
Can we live a good life without suffering? Notice that I used the word “good” and not “happy.” It doesn’t make any sense to ask whether we can suffer and be happy at the same
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Five Principles for a Better Post-Pandemic You
As an executive coach, I saw a troubling trend among my clients even before Covid-19: Many were exhausted and on a path to burnout, if they weren’t already there. The chief physician of a large
