What Drives Us: Exploring the Hidden Forces of the Mind

How to Live is a weekly newsletter that delves into the unseen forces shaping our thoughts and actions. Blending psychology, philosophy, art, and personal experience, author Amanda Stern distills complex ideas into compelling narratives that confront life’s hardest questions. Join over 13,000 readers for sharp insights, revelatory ideas, and darkly funny reflections—all to make life a little less lonely and profoundly more human.

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The Entire Library

The Annual Wildly Comprehensive Mental Health Resource Guide

For everyone aged 4-94!

Amanda Stern

Notes & Thoughts: The New York Times 1st Well Festival

Amanda Stern

The Feeling of the Form: On the Nature of Taste

Why this and not that?

Amanda Stern

APRIL TL;DR

Pieces too long? Read this monthly summary!

Amanda Stern

The Meaning We Make: How Neutral Thoughts Become Personal Truth

In the space between thinking and feeling

Amanda Stern

The Politics of Being Alone: The Systemic Bias Against Singles.

When One is the Loneliest Number

Amanda Stern

How to Learn Anything, Really

Richard Feynman’s Timeless Strategy

Amanda Stern

The Hidden Language of Healing: 10 Things Every Great Therapist Knows

A primer on what's left unsaid

Amanda Stern

The Masterclass is back (10 spots only)

Amanda Stern

MARCH TL;DR

Pieces too long? Read this monthly summary!

Amanda Stern

The Vigilant Heart: Hypervigilance and Emotional Exhaustion

What neuroscience and attachment theory teach us about the exhausting vigilance that keeps love at bay

Amanda Stern

The Necessary Unknown: The Voynich Manuscript, Winnicott's Third Space, and Why We Need What We Cannot Understand

The cognitive pull of the unsolvable

Amanda Stern

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