What is loving-kindness meditation and how can you practice it? Take this 7-minute guided meditation with UC Berkeley’s Eve Ekman, PhD to try it out. 

People who have greater levels of self-compassion tend to be more motivated, less lazy, and more successful over time. But just as important, they like themselves even when they fall short.Psychologist Susan David explains how you can cultivate this quality.

When personal relationships and ideological differences collide, the result can lead to strained relations — or even years of silence and distance. Actor Betty Hart offers an alternative to cold shoulders and haughty hellos: compassion, and a chance for growth and change instead of losing important time with loved ones.

It’s all too easy to be extremely tough on ourselves; we need – at points – to get better at self-compassion. Here is an exercise from the School of Life on how to lessen the voices of self-flagellation and learn to appreciate the role of self-care in a good and fruitful life. 

It’s easy to tell when someone’s not paying attention, but it can be surprisingly tricky to know what good listening looks like. Good listening is one of the most important things we can do to improve our relationships, develop our worldview, and potentially change people’s minds. So what can we do to become better listeners? Dig into different strategies that can improve your listening skills.