Here are the 20 most popular Greater Good articles from the past year, according to Google Analytics, followed by our staff’s nominations for the 10 best (but not-as-popular) articles we published in 2022.
1. Is Your Brain Foggy? Here Are Five Ways to Clear It, by Jill Suttie: Studies are finding that isolation, stress, and uncertainty can cause forgetfulness and disorganization. Here’s what to do about it.
2. How Relationship Satisfaction Changes Across Your Lifetime, by Kira Newman: Our romantic happiness goes through normal ups and downs as we get older—and we’re least happy around age 40, a new study finds.
3. How to Turn Bad Anxiety Into Good Anxiety, by Kira Newman: A new book explains that anxiety can give us clues about how to make our lives better.
4. How to Stay Open and Curious in Hard Conversations, by Mónica Guzmán: Here are eight tips for having better conversations across our differences.
5. What to Do When You Never Feel Good Enough, by Kira Newman: Are you stuck in constant self-judgment? In a new book, a clinical psychologist suggests a better way to feel good about yourself.
6. Five Ways to Help Someone With Depression, by Richard W. Sears: Knowing how depression works can help you better support loved ones who are struggling.
“The key is to focus on curiosity and understanding. It’s the only approach that values other people as people by giving them the space to be who they are. ”
7. Four Ways to Cool Down Your Defensiveness, by Daryl R. Van Tongeren: Our brains make us naturally defensive, but there are steps we can take to cultivate more humility.
8. Eleven Films That Highlight the Best in Humanity, by Jeremy Adam Smith, Shuka Kalantari, Andrea Collier, Shanna B. Tiayon, May-Lee Chai, Jill Suttie, and Amy L. Eva: It’s time for the Greater Goodies, honoring movies from the past year that exemplify optimism, love, empathy, and other keys to our well-being.
9. Four Ways Dancing Makes You Happier, by Kira Newman: Human bodies are hardwired for dance, which might explain why it’s so good for our health, happiness, and relationships.
10. Three TV Series Showing Us How to Bridge Generation Gaps by Marc Freedman: If you can’t begin to imagine a thriving multigenerational, multicultural future, turn on the tube.
11. Two Counterintuitive Ways to Stop Procrastinating, by Fuschia Sirois: Instead of continuing to beat your head against the procrastination wall, how about trying something new?
12. Five Ways to Feel Like You’re Doing Enough, by Rachel Goldsmith Turow: Here are some strategies to reduce self-criticism and feel more productive.
“Happy love stories are created, not stumbled upon.”
13. How to Get Comfortable With Uncertainty and Change, by Kira Newman: When life is uncertain, our usual responses and coping strategies might not always work. The practice of mental agility can help us be resilient.
14. Four Ways to Stop Imagining the Worst Will Happen, by Patricia Riddell: If you have a tendency to worry about worst-case scenarios, it’s possible to get your brain on a different track.
15. Your Anxiety Might Be Coming From Your Body, by Kira Newman: Diet, sleep, and inflammation can all contribute to anxiety—but taking care of your body could help alleviate some of it.
16. How to Learn From Your Failures, by Jeremy Adam Smith: Research suggests that we need to overcome some emotional and cognitive barriers if we’re to learn from our defeats—but it can be done.
17. How to Stop Overthinking Your Relationship, by Alicia Muñoz: Ruminating about your relationship isn’t a healthy way to solve any problems—and it may be a way to avoid your real feelings.
18. Two Keys to a Calmer Emotional Life, by Kira Newman: New studies are investigating why life is such an emotional rollercoaster for certain people, and how to cultivate more stable happiness.
“People who were more purposeful had more positive events in their lives, and they also felt more positive emotions. And yet their well-being was less dependent on good things happening. ”
19. Nine Tips for Giving Better Feedback at Work, by Christine Porath: Receiving feedback (positive and negative) helps us feel engaged, connected, and satisfied at work.
20. I’m a Happiness Journalist, and Omicron Is Crushing Me, by Jeremy Adam Smith: With the new surge in COVID-19, Jeremy Adam Smith is asking himself if happiness is possible right now.
Editors’ Picks
We polled our staff on their personal favorites from the past year—and came up with more you might also consider reading, listed by number of votes they received.
1. How Much Control Do You Have Over Your Own Happiness?, by Jeremy Adam Smith: Social conditions and inequality affect well-being. So, why do we keep insisting “happiness is a choice”?
2. How Your Life Is Shaped by the Emotions You Want to Feel, by Kira Newman: We all have emotional goals that are influenced by our culture. Understanding and adjusting them could help our health and well-being.
3. How Do You Know if You’re Actually Humble?, by Tyrone Sgambati: New research on empathic joy points the way to closer intimate relationships.
“There’s something dishonest in minimizing the role of social forces in shaping happiness—and this dishonestly can be rooted in discounting the experiences of people who are hurt or marginalized by those forces. ”
4. When You Feel Jealous, Think About Cultivating “Compersion”, by Marie Thouin: A year and a half into the pandemic, exhausted parents need healing. A mother explains how parents can move beyond burnout.
5. Six Ways to Find Your Courage During Challenging Times, by Amy L. Eva: Courage doesn’t have to look dramatic or fearless. Sometimes it looks more like quiet perseverance.
6. Why Is Self-Compassion So Hard for Some People?, by Caroline Brenner: There’s a different way to practice self-compassion if the typical reflective exercises don’t work so well for you.
7. How Men Can Support Their Partners Through Menopause, by Vicki Larson: A little education can help couples communicate better about this challenging life transition.
8. Four Ways Access to Abortion Improves Women’s Well-Being, by Jill Suttie: Research suggests that women who can access abortions are healthier and happier—and have better relationships with their subsequent children.
9. What Is Sympathetic Joy and How Can You Feel More of It?, by Jeremy Adam Smith: Science is discovering how we can be happy with other people and why that’s good for us.
10. Can We Make Real, Transformative Change in Education?, by Renee Owen: A new program is preparing leaders to facilitate systemic change in education in order to better serve all students.
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