Psyche Magazine
@psyche.co
A magazine to help you understand yourself and live well.
Our capacity for neuroplasticity is essential for us to learn, but can we influence the process? In this BBC News series, Melissa Hogenboom ventured to find out – joining a six-week programme to restructure her brain through mindfulness @melissa-hogenboom.bsky.social
How meditation can boost your brain’s capacity to adapt | Psyche Videos
The brain has the remarkable ability to rewire itself in response to change – and we can harness this through meditation
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January 9, 2026 at 1:30 PM
Our capacity for neuroplasticity is essential for us to learn, but can we influence the process? In this BBC News series, Melissa Hogenboom ventured to find out – joining a six-week programme to restructure her brain through mindfulness @melissa-hogenboom.bsky.social
Reflecting on how his complicated relationship with exercise interacted and transformed with his transition, de Vries tells a story sparkling with sensory detail and – ultimately – joy
I’m a nonbinary trans man. Do I have to be hard, loud, big? | Psyche Turning Points
How transitioning upended my own gendered understanding of strength, desirability, and power
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January 9, 2026 at 11:30 AM
Reflecting on how his complicated relationship with exercise interacted and transformed with his transition, de Vries tells a story sparkling with sensory detail and – ultimately – joy
It can be comforting to think of your ‘self’ as separate from the world, but the German philosopher Martin Heidegger argued that it is a fantasy. This striking Idea invites us to enjoy the adventure of being ‘always essentially outdoors’
Heidegger knew that we are always outside, weathering the storms | Psyche Ideas
We aren’t safe inside separate minds. Being-in-the-world means we’re entangled and vulnerable – and that’s how we flourish
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January 8, 2026 at 11:15 AM
It can be comforting to think of your ‘self’ as separate from the world, but the German philosopher Martin Heidegger argued that it is a fantasy. This striking Idea invites us to enjoy the adventure of being ‘always essentially outdoors’
Madison Lamb’s life was forever altered by a drive-by shooting which left her with crippling PTSD. She was losing hope in the system when she discovered transcranial magnetic stimulation, a life-changing treatment that could finally give her the chance to heal
Could brain stimulation heal my trauma from a random shooting? | Psyche Turning Points
A random shooting left me with crippling PTSD. Could magnetic stimulation of my brain quiet the terror?
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January 7, 2026 at 3:03 PM
Madison Lamb’s life was forever altered by a drive-by shooting which left her with crippling PTSD. She was losing hope in the system when she discovered transcranial magnetic stimulation, a life-changing treatment that could finally give her the chance to heal
When it comes to OCD compulsions, what seems horrible to one person might seem innocuous to the next, and looking to the past offers another dimension of this multiplicity
I find an odd comfort in the long, evolving lineage of OCD | Psyche Notes to Self
In an investigation of compulsions, a book connects our modern understanding of OCD to accounts from previous eras
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January 7, 2026 at 11:45 AM
When it comes to OCD compulsions, what seems horrible to one person might seem innocuous to the next, and looking to the past offers another dimension of this multiplicity
Reposted by Psyche Magazine
Ever had someone ask "What are you thinking about?" and your honest answer was "Actually, nothing"?
In this essay for @psyche.co, I explain why "mind blanking" is more than just a glitch: it’s a window into how our brains toggle between being awake and asleep.
🧠🧪💤
psyche.co/ideas/what-y...
In this essay for @psyche.co, I explain why "mind blanking" is more than just a glitch: it’s a window into how our brains toggle between being awake and asleep.
🧠🧪💤
psyche.co/ideas/what-y...
What your mind’s blank moments reveal about consciousness | Psyche Ideas
Scientists are uncovering the nature of an elusive mental experience that challenges what it means to be conscious
psyche.co
January 5, 2026 at 1:17 PM
Ever had someone ask "What are you thinking about?" and your honest answer was "Actually, nothing"?
In this essay for @psyche.co, I explain why "mind blanking" is more than just a glitch: it’s a window into how our brains toggle between being awake and asleep.
🧠🧪💤
psyche.co/ideas/what-y...
In this essay for @psyche.co, I explain why "mind blanking" is more than just a glitch: it’s a window into how our brains toggle between being awake and asleep.
🧠🧪💤
psyche.co/ideas/what-y...
Through muted colours, elegant hand-drawn animation and lyrical storytelling in ‘Malá/The Little One’, filmmaker Diana Cam Van Nguyen animates her own coming-of-age as a ‘third culture kid’ growing up in the Czech Republic, far from Vietnam which her parents always regarded as home
An animator’s bittersweet ode to her ‘third culture’ childhood | Psyche Videos
Caught between Czech culture and Vietnamese heritage, an animator reflects on growing up as a stranger in her own home
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January 5, 2026 at 1:30 PM
Through muted colours, elegant hand-drawn animation and lyrical storytelling in ‘Malá/The Little One’, filmmaker Diana Cam Van Nguyen animates her own coming-of-age as a ‘third culture kid’ growing up in the Czech Republic, far from Vietnam which her parents always regarded as home
Have you ever suddenly snapped back to attention and realised your mind had been completely empty? This Idea by neuroscientist Thomas Andrillon dives into the phenomenon known as ‘mind blanking’ and asks what these moments of apparent nothingness can tell us about consciousness itself
What your mind’s blank moments reveal about consciousness | Psyche Ideas
Scientists are uncovering the nature of an elusive mental experience that challenges what it means to be conscious
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January 5, 2026 at 11:15 AM
Have you ever suddenly snapped back to attention and realised your mind had been completely empty? This Idea by neuroscientist Thomas Andrillon dives into the phenomenon known as ‘mind blanking’ and asks what these moments of apparent nothingness can tell us about consciousness itself
Inspired by an ancient piece of Sámi rock art in Norway, the artist Rémy Noë set out to create a connection between the deep past and the deep future. In this meditative and tactile piece, Noë details the process of creating a petroglyph of his own
Creating rock art the ancient way taught me our place in nature | Psyche Turning Points
Inspired by 6,000-year-old rock art in Norway, I decided to create a new carving closer to home
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January 2, 2026 at 11:30 AM
Inspired by an ancient piece of Sámi rock art in Norway, the artist Rémy Noë set out to create a connection between the deep past and the deep future. In this meditative and tactile piece, Noë details the process of creating a petroglyph of his own
Rest is essential to a good life. Learning to recharge is a skill that will allow you to enjoy a more creative, sustainable life. Today’s editor’s pick shows you how to harvest the benefits of rest – a reminder we need more than ever over the Christmas season
How to rest well and enjoy a more creative, sustainable life | Psyche Guides
Taking a break isn’t lazy – learning to recharge is a skill that will allow you to enjoy a more creative, sustainable life
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January 1, 2026 at 4:35 PM
Rest is essential to a good life. Learning to recharge is a skill that will allow you to enjoy a more creative, sustainable life. Today’s editor’s pick shows you how to harvest the benefits of rest – a reminder we need more than ever over the Christmas season
As we settle into a new year, this stunningly shot short by Mykhailo Bogdanov invites us to take a moment and enjoy the ‘avoesis’ – a term coined by the ecologist Liam Heneghan to describe a ‘form of quietness, one that is not precisely silence’. Come along for a wander in avoesis
There’s a nourishing calm in quietly wandering, far from goals and distractions | Psyche Videos
A mediation on what we can discover about ourselves and the world if we truly wander aimlessly, free from distractions
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January 1, 2026 at 1:45 PM
As we settle into a new year, this stunningly shot short by Mykhailo Bogdanov invites us to take a moment and enjoy the ‘avoesis’ – a term coined by the ecologist Liam Heneghan to describe a ‘form of quietness, one that is not precisely silence’. Come along for a wander in avoesis
How do you select a bottle of wine that you’ll enjoy? In this guide, a Master of Wine offers advice on how to forget wine snobbery and develop your own distinctive taste
How do you select a bottle of wine that you’ll enjoy? | Psyche Guides
Bite into a strawberry, talk to a wine geek, pore over a map: forget wine snobbery and develop your own distinctive taste
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December 31, 2025 at 4:34 PM
How do you select a bottle of wine that you’ll enjoy? In this guide, a Master of Wine offers advice on how to forget wine snobbery and develop your own distinctive taste
What could a new step family need more than a high-energy, difficult-to-train puppy? Reflecting on the first years of Elsa’s life – first exploding like a grenade, then settling into a highly active routine – this Turning Point makes for a perfect family holiday read
Getting a dog turned our lives upside down but saved our family | Psyche Turning Points
We were a new stepfamily, and only the puppy was missing. With Elsa, we lobbed a grenade into the mix
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December 31, 2025 at 1:01 PM
What could a new step family need more than a high-energy, difficult-to-train puppy? Reflecting on the first years of Elsa’s life – first exploding like a grenade, then settling into a highly active routine – this Turning Point makes for a perfect family holiday read
Do we really get sluggish and depressed in winter? Tim Brennen, a psychology professor who moved to Tromsø, Norway – 350 km north of the Arctic Circle, where the sun doesn’t rise for two months – decided to find out in this Idea. His research suggests the mind adjusts to darkness in unexpected ways
What happens to our cognition in the darkest depths of winter? | Psyche Ideas
Contrary to popular beliefs about winter sluggishness and depression, human cognition is not affected by the seasons
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December 30, 2025 at 1:30 PM
Do we really get sluggish and depressed in winter? Tim Brennen, a psychology professor who moved to Tromsø, Norway – 350 km north of the Arctic Circle, where the sun doesn’t rise for two months – decided to find out in this Idea. His research suggests the mind adjusts to darkness in unexpected ways
Looking for some motivation for your new year’s resolutions? Maybe GOD could help?
The GOD principle – guts, organisation and determination – is an excellent way to tackle ‘pretty much anything you set your mind to in life’. Find out how in this Guide
The GOD principle – guts, organisation and determination – is an excellent way to tackle ‘pretty much anything you set your mind to in life’. Find out how in this Guide
How to complete an impossible challenge, using the GOD principle | Psyche Guides
There’s no need to hide under the bed covers – with the GOD principle you’ll be able to achieve your goals, big or small
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December 30, 2025 at 11:15 AM
Looking for some motivation for your new year’s resolutions? Maybe GOD could help?
The GOD principle – guts, organisation and determination – is an excellent way to tackle ‘pretty much anything you set your mind to in life’. Find out how in this Guide
The GOD principle – guts, organisation and determination – is an excellent way to tackle ‘pretty much anything you set your mind to in life’. Find out how in this Guide
‘The aroma of this house was beautiful … I felt life, a very healthy life, being led in that space.’
Moving gently through memory, photographs and stillness, the film becomes a sensorial meditation on time, craftsmanship and connection, revealing how a home can shape the lives within it
Moving gently through memory, photographs and stillness, the film becomes a sensorial meditation on time, craftsmanship and connection, revealing how a home can shape the lives within it
An elegy and a celebration of what it really means to find a home | Psyche Videos
The meaning of home is revealed in the relationship between the architecture of a Japanese farmhouse and its inhabitants
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December 29, 2025 at 1:30 PM
‘The aroma of this house was beautiful … I felt life, a very healthy life, being led in that space.’
Moving gently through memory, photographs and stillness, the film becomes a sensorial meditation on time, craftsmanship and connection, revealing how a home can shape the lives within it
Moving gently through memory, photographs and stillness, the film becomes a sensorial meditation on time, craftsmanship and connection, revealing how a home can shape the lives within it
If you’ve ever moved to a beat, joined in a chorus or felt your heart quicken to the lyrics of a song, you’ve felt the power of music. Everyone can make music, and this Guide will show you how
How to start making music, alone or with others | Psyche Guides
It’s never too late to play an instrument or learn to sing. Take the leap from listener to maker in the way that suits you
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December 29, 2025 at 11:15 AM
If you’ve ever moved to a beat, joined in a chorus or felt your heart quicken to the lyrics of a song, you’ve felt the power of music. Everyone can make music, and this Guide will show you how
In this charming MoMA tutorial, artist Bix Archer takes her practice into the museum’s sculpture garden, exploring plein-air drawing amid shifting light, movement and reflections. She places the practice in a rich artistic lineage and frames outdoor drawing as a deeply embodied experience
To become more attuned to the world around you, try sketching outdoors | Psyche Videos
Learn how to sketch outdoors from an artist, and the masters who inspire her, in the Museum of Modern Art’s sculpture garden
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December 26, 2025 at 11:30 AM
In this charming MoMA tutorial, artist Bix Archer takes her practice into the museum’s sculpture garden, exploring plein-air drawing amid shifting light, movement and reflections. She places the practice in a rich artistic lineage and frames outdoor drawing as a deeply embodied experience
This helpful Guide explores why we attach negative emotions to eating – and what you can do to create a more positive relationship with food
How to enjoy food without feeling guilty about it | Psyche Guides
Through mindful eating and a shift in mindset, you can alleviate unwarranted negative feelings and embrace the joy of food
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December 25, 2025 at 2:30 PM
This helpful Guide explores why we attach negative emotions to eating – and what you can do to create a more positive relationship with food
Should you encourage or slow children’s understanding of the truth about Santa clause? This Idea explores a study where psychologists investigate how both children and adults felt about uncovering the myth and magic
At what point does the Santa myth become a harmful deception? | Psyche Ideas
Exactly when and how children discover they’ve been duped makes an important difference to the revelatory experience
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December 25, 2025 at 11:45 AM
Should you encourage or slow children’s understanding of the truth about Santa clause? This Idea explores a study where psychologists investigate how both children and adults felt about uncovering the myth and magic
The idea of taking a break from technology to ‘reset’ the brain has been gaining popularity. But does digital detoxing actually work, or is it simply another health trend that distracts us from our real problems?
Curious about a digital ‘detox’? Here’s what you should know | Psyche Ideas
For many who are chronically connected, a break from tech sounds appealing. Research is uncovering when and how it helps
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December 24, 2025 at 1:30 PM
The idea of taking a break from technology to ‘reset’ the brain has been gaining popularity. But does digital detoxing actually work, or is it simply another health trend that distracts us from our real problems?
‘Spending time with the dying without a doctorly purpose required rewiring.’ This heartfelt story details how a medical student placed on a hospice rotation brought her newborn baby to accompany a dying patient
The moment when I took my newborn to visit a hospice patient | Psyche Turning Points
I brought my newborn to visit a hospice patient. It took me far from what I’d thought medicine was
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December 24, 2025 at 11:15 AM
‘Spending time with the dying without a doctorly purpose required rewiring.’ This heartfelt story details how a medical student placed on a hospice rotation brought her newborn baby to accompany a dying patient
‘Everyone has a body, and all bodies can dance.’ From overcoming mental blocks to picking a style and what to look for in an instructor, this lovely, inclusive Guide on how to start learning dance will get you boogying in no time @dawndavisloring.bsky.social
How to start learning dance for fun, fitness, or connection | Psyche Guides
Follow these steps to find a style of movement that will captivate you – even if you’ve never seen yourself as a dancer
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December 23, 2025 at 1:30 PM
‘Everyone has a body, and all bodies can dance.’ From overcoming mental blocks to picking a style and what to look for in an instructor, this lovely, inclusive Guide on how to start learning dance will get you boogying in no time @dawndavisloring.bsky.social
How lovely is it to find ‘someone whose experience of the world overlaps with [ours]’? In this lovely Note to Self, the writer Hannah Seo contemplates the comfort that comes from living in a shared reality with her partner – which research has found is predictive of higher wellbeing @hannahseo.com
Why a ‘shared reality’ is something to value in a relationship | Psyche Notes to Self
My partner and I often seem to respond to the world in similar ways. Research suggests this may have benefits for us both
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December 23, 2025 at 11:24 AM
How lovely is it to find ‘someone whose experience of the world overlaps with [ours]’? In this lovely Note to Self, the writer Hannah Seo contemplates the comfort that comes from living in a shared reality with her partner – which research has found is predictive of higher wellbeing @hannahseo.com
As we head into the season of rewatching holiday rom-coms, pay attention to how many end with someone sprinting through an airport or racing across a city to confess their love. From ‘When Harry Met Sally’ to ‘Love, Actually’, this trope appears again and again, and there’s a fascinating reason why
What a romantic comedy cliché reveals about modern love | Psyche Videos
The intriguing reason many rom-coms end with a character dashing through an airport, street or station to profess their love
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December 22, 2025 at 1:30 PM
As we head into the season of rewatching holiday rom-coms, pay attention to how many end with someone sprinting through an airport or racing across a city to confess their love. From ‘When Harry Met Sally’ to ‘Love, Actually’, this trope appears again and again, and there’s a fascinating reason why