Videos by The School of Life
8 min
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8 min ·
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...
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7 min
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7 min ·
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...
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6 min
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6 min ·
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...
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7 min
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7 min ·
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...
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5 min
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5 min ·
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...
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6 min
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6 min ·
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 gifts and more from...
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10 min
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10 min ·
Karl Marx remains deeply important today not as the man who told us what to replace capitalism with, but as someone who brilliantly pointed out its problems. The School of Life, a...
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7 min
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7 min ·
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...
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5 min
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5 min ·
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.
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6 min
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6 min ·
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. // The School of Life
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6 min
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6 min ·
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...
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6 min
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6 min ·
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 ...
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5 min
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5 min ·
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...
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3 min
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3 min ·
Animals have a lot to teach us about wisdom if we are ready to take their quietly-delivered lessons on board.
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5 min
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5 min ·
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...
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4 min
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4 min ·
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...
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5 min
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5 min ·
There’s so much talking going on in the world with everyone trying to get their opinions and stories heard, but not a whole lot of listening. Yet, when we listen, we learn and we...
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5 min
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5 min ·
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 ...
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5 min
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5 min ·
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.
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7 min
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7 min ·
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.
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8 min
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8 min ·
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...
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3 min
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3 min ·
It isn’t macabre or nihilistic to think of death. It’s the start of a proper, braver engagement with the possibilities of life.
"For centuries, artists produced ‘memento mori’, works...
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5 min
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5 min ·
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.
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4 min
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4 min ·
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...
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3 min
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3 min ·
Many people who do brilliantly at school turn out not to do so well at life. Why?
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2 min
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2 min ·
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.
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2 min
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2 min ·
Apologising doesn't generally come easily - but it always tends to pay off beautifully.
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5 min
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5 min ·
Remaining calm around people who annoy us is one of the great life skills. It's also a teachable and learnable skill. Want help reaching your own state of calm?
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7 min
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7 min ·
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.
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4 min
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4 min ·
When we're down or melancholy, the last thing we need is someone who will jolly us along.
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3 min
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3 min ·
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.
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4 min
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4 min ·
Rejection is always painful; it need not be a tragedy.
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5 min
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5 min ·
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.
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5 min
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5 min ·
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 recognize that it’s more a skill we...
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4 min
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4 min ·
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.
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5 min
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5 min ·
“The biggest casualty of humanity is the lack of communication, it’s the thing that breaks most relationships. It just feels so much better to talk and get it out.”
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97 min
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97 min ·
Welcoming and insightful in both approach and tone, this compilation of short videos named Capitalism tackles various aspects of capitalistic ideals from a surprisingly human perspective...
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2 min
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2 min ·
We talk of love as if it were just one thing: in fact, it’s two very different moves, Loving and Being Loved. You start to grow up when you stop focusing on the latter and get involved...
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