Here are the 25 best original Greater Good articles from the past year, as determined by a combination of reader popularity and staff votes.
1. Why Do People Succeed or Fail in Life? Your Answer Matters, by Bob McKinnon: Are people in control, or do external forces shape our lives? Our “attributions” affect how compassionate we are to ourselves and others.
2. Why Friendships Among Men Are So Important, by Jill Suttie: Men have fewer friends these days, which can hurt their well-being. Here are expert tips for fostering those relationships.
3. What Type of Exercise Is Best for Mental Health?, by Kira Newman: A large new study looks at how exercise can help alleviate symptoms of anxiety and depression.
4. Five Ways Mindfulness Helps You Age Better, by Jill Suttie: Research suggests that being more mindful in our everyday lives can protect our health as we age—and even help us live longer.
5. Four Ways We Avoid Our Feelings—and What to Do Instead, by Sandra Parker: Avoiding our emotions is not good for our mental health. A psychologist explains how to break the habit and embrace your vulnerability.
6. Six Ways to Deal With Someone Who Wronged You, by Everett L. Worthington Jr.: Here’s what we have learned from 25 years of research about forgiveness—and its alternatives.
7. How to Set Boundaries When You’ve Never Been Taught How, by Sahaj Kaur Kohli: What if your family’s cultural values don’t embrace the concept of boundaries? Here are 14 tips for boundary setting this holiday season.
8. Eight Lessons From My Research on Creativity, by Robert J. Sternberg: Want to become more creative? Try cultivating courage, perseverance, humility, ethics, and purpose.
9. How Curiosity Can Help Us Overcome Disconnection, by Scott Shigeoka: Here are four steps to practicing deep curiosity about the perspectives, stories, and humanity of others.
10. 11 Things to Do When You Feel Lonely by Jill Suttie: Many of us are feeling a bit lonelier these days. These tips may help—some involving other people, and some you can follow all by yourself.
11. How to Communicate With Love (Even When You’re Mad), by Michelle Becker: Instead of continuing to beat your head against the procrastination wall, how about trying something new?
12. How Your Body Posture Communicates Feelings to Others, by Jill Suttie: New research suggests that body postures can reveal our emotions to other people—and maybe even change how we feel inside.
13. Three New Ideas About Happiness and Well-Being, by Kira Newman Psychologists are questioning whether our current understanding of well-being is too limiting and what else is important for a good life.
14. Does Humility Have a Dark Side?, by Daryl R. Van Tongeren: When it comes to freedom, death, and the meaning of life, acknowledging you might have limits can cause existential distress.
15. How to Stop the Pain of Wishing People Were Different, by Rick Hanson: Sometimes it’s hard to just accept people for who they are. Here’s how to be at peace with someone, faults and all.
16. Four Ways to Turn a Bad Day Around, by Shanna B. Tiayon: Some days, nothing seems to go right. Here are four steps to calm down and get things back on track.
17. Three Ways to Help Your Students Cultivate Their Inner Lives, by Vicki Zakrzewski: Providing space for young people to explore their spirituality may benefit everyone.
18. Twelve New Films That Highlight the Best in Humanity, by Jeremy Adam Smith, Jill Suttie, Maryam Abdullah, Aakash Chowkase, and Aurelia Santos: It’s time for the Greater Goodies, honoring movies from the past year that exemplify human strengths and virtues.
19. Can We Train American Police to Turn Away From Violence?, by Jeremy Adam Smith: American police are not well trained compared to those in other countries. That needs to change if we want to prevent incidents like the one that killed Tyre Nichols.
20. The Eight Kinds of Humility That Can Help You Stay Grounded, by Ravi Chandra: There are many ways to be humble, according to recent research.
21. Five Ways to Have More Constructive Disagreements, by Mylien Duong: Here’s what we learned from teaching a free online program focused on empathy, communication, and openness to different perspectives.
22. How to Avoid Post-Vacation Stress, by Shanna B. Tiayon: So you’ve spent all that time and money to plan a vacation, but what’s your after-vacation plan?
23. Other People May Not Be the Solution to Loneliness, by Kira Newman: A new study finds that people feeling very lonely are not necessarily comforted by company.
24. After Depression, Our Brain’s Negativity Bias Lingers, by Jill Suttie: After recovering from depression, we still hold on to negative information too strongly—and may benefit from cultivating more positive feelings.
25. What Kind of Support Do Moms Need?, by Maryam Abdullah: Instead of judgment and unreasonable expectations, what mothers need is love and care—from friends, partners, and each other.
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