#well-being

#well-being

It's Saturday afternoon and you finally have a moment to breathe. You've ticked things off your to-do list, the house is mostly in order, and you should feel good - maybe even happy. But instead, there's a faint tug of "not enough": Not productive enough. Not healthy enough. Not successful enough. Not happy enough. This is the happiness paradox: The more we chase happiness, the more it slips away.

On a Tuesday night in Atwater Village, Teresa "Toogie" Barcelo is creating a portal. With her arms stretched out, she beckons the participants of her movement workshop, Wiggle Room, to join her on the other side, where they will meet a renewed version of themselves. "Walk into the next iteration of yourself," she commands. The participants, who have spent the last hour squirming, shaking and humming, cross the invisible threshold. Their limbs swing loosely, their smiling faces sticky with sweat.

It's been proven that doing good makes us feel good, so there's no reason we cannot lean more into it

Envy arises when we compare ourselves to someone else and conclude they're better off. We've all been there. And while envy is a universal emotion, it's also a corrosive one. In a large longitudinal study of more than 18,000 adults, researchers found that higher levels of envy predicted poorer well-being years later. Put simply: The more envious we are, the worse we tend to feel over time.

For almost five years, I've been dutifully drawing little green dots at the top of my journal entries. A small green dot means it was a generally good day, a slightly bigger one that it was pretty fantastic. A huge one represents one of the handful of no-notes, absolutely perfect days of the year. Orange dots equal stress, red denotes anger, and blue means feeling blue.

But one of the simplest, most personal considerations is whether, and how, having a child will affect a person's quality of life. Here, psychologists studying well-being have encountered what's sometimes called the parenting paradox: parents report lower mood and more stress and depression in their daily lives than adults without children; yet parents also tend to report higher life satisfaction in general.

and I demonstrate how art can gently tip the scales back toward harmony. Think of visual art as a toolkit to soothe the mind and spirit. Every day, we are inundated with imagery urging us to work harder, buy more ... and never stop. Art offers the exact opposite. It slows and calms us down, sharpens our critical thinking, nurtures happiness, and helps us resist the endless cycle of consumption.

The concert was a collective exercise in nostalgia - that powerful emotion triggered by the intersection of experience and memory. Some people think of nostalgia as a sort of bittersweet feeling, an aching reminder of what we have lost. It is joy tinged with sadness, but primarily a positive emotion that is part of the human experience. It is a feeling that sneaks up on you, and not just at massive concerts.

It turns out that it makes a difference-and a measurable difference in the quality of our lives, both for the giver of the random acts and the receiver. The research is impressive: It can help reduce depression and anxiety, it stimulates serotonin, it produces oxytocin, which is helpful if you are feeling anxious or shy in a social situation, and it increases a sense of self-worth.

If you have spent any significant time as a single adult, you know that the world feels built for couples and that the people around us often assume we want to be partnered. Until recently, researchers have been making the same mistake about singles. In 2020, Nicole Watkins and Jonathon Beckmeyer created a tool for assessing a person's level of relationship desire and dismissal. Together, these two components explain the importance someone places on romantic relationships in their lives.

Popular media has made loneliness look bad, but is it really? Author and psychologist Ethan Kross explains his study of loneliness, finding that it is actually our response to loneliness - rather than the act of being alone itself - that has negative effects. If we reframe loneliness as an opportunity instead of a threat, it can have surprising benefits for our creativity, well-being, and relationships with ourselves.

Seeing your life as a Hero's Journey can make you happier, more resilient, and more fulfilled. But these same principles can also transform your digital products, helping you create more motivating and meaningful user experiences. In this article, I'll share insights from a recent paper on the psychology of the Hero's Journey. I'll explain what it is, guide you through a simple exercise to help you experience its psychological effects, and explore how you might heroify your own digital products.

Finding genuine social opportunities as an adult isn't easy-especially when you are a single mom. Another article could cover my to-do list! Workplaces don't always provide deep bonds, and busy schedules leave little room for forging new connections. Apps like Timeleft create structured openings for socializing-essentially giving adults permission to show up, sit down, and connect in a low-pressure situation.

There may not be a recipe for happiness, but there is definitely a meal plan. The 2025 World Happiness Report shares a special ingredient for happiness that transcends age, gender, country, culture, and location. The secret? Sharing a meal with another person. Sharing meals is a universal social ritual practiced daily by millions of people. It is uniquely comparable across countries and cultures, between individuals, and over time.

The paper advances the concept that assertiveness can provide even more benefit to personal well-being by expanding the definition, strategies, and tools associated with assertiveness. Assertiveness has traditionally been defined as directly expressing what we want and how we feel while being respectful of the right of others to do the same (social assertiveness). This form of assertiveness is rooted in behavioral psychology and has been widely adopted in clinical and educational settings.

Joy has the unique potential, compared with happiness, to foster well-being derived from living in alignment with one’s values, purpose, and personal growth.

Maximizing leads to less happiness, as constantly seeking the best option increases regret and dissatisfaction. Too many choices create decision fatigue, reducing contentment.

The portrayal of midlife as a crisis flies in the face of decades of research showing its non-universality. Midlife can be a period of questioning, but these feelings are not unique to this stage of life.

Human connection is fundamental to our well-being, shaping individuals and societies through a spectrum of interactions. These exchanges cultivate personal happiness and societal cohesion.

The difference between escapism and self-care lies in the intent behind the activity and how one feels afterward.

A new meta-analysis has revealed that vacations yield significant and lasting benefits to employee well-being, suggesting that taking time off is essential for mental health.

Participants who started out with higher levels of well-being also tended to have higher levels of cognitive function. When participants experienced declines in well-being, they showed similarly-sized declines in cognition.