Center for Relationships

02/13/2026

For Valentine’s Day, relationship experts share a few ways to show our partners that we care.

02/13/2026

02/13/2026

02/13/2026

Studies across the globe have found that married people tend to be happier than single people, Olga Khazan wrote in 2023. What’s their secret?⁠ https://theatln.tc/XZrIfMfa
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Researchers attempting to explain this phenomenon fall into two camps. “Camp No. 1, that of cynical libertines like me,” Khazan writes, “believes that marriage doesn’t make you happy; rather, happy people get married.” In other words, the act of being married isn’t the thing that makes one happy. People who are happy to begin with get married and remain happy, whereas unhappy people remain unmarried and unhappy.⁠
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“In Camp No. 2 are the romantics, who believe that getting married makes you happy, because there’s something special about marriage,” Khazan continues. “The logic of this camp goes as follows: Close, supportive, long-term relationships make you happy. Finding those types of relationships through friendships is possible, but it’s hard. People move away; they get busy. Most friends don’t buy houses or raise children jointly—the kinds of activities that glue people together and force them to cooperate.”⁠
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For this camp, a spouse is like a super-friend. “A good spouse will buffer you from the stress of your job, your kids, your family of origin. They’ll give you emotional, and sometimes financial, support.”⁠
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In the end, happiness and marriage are different for everyone. Khazan writes that, for her, “getting married is more optical than emotional. I’m tired of being a woman pushing 40 who has a ‘boyfriend’ … He’s already my super-friend; now I just want to make it official.”⁠
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📷️: Peter Marlow / Magnum

02/13/2026

02/13/2026

A new book, “How to Feel Loved,” links our social skills to how content we are.

02/07/2026

Many people are attached to their childhood pain because they still hope that whoever didn't meet their needs will somehow make things better for them in adulthood.

It doesn't work that way.

What happens instead is they externalize & blame others for their unhappiness.

But once you realize that you're no longer reliant on (damaged? emotionally unaware?) people, you see your freedom more clearly, which is…

You're a fully capable adult who gets to decide how to live your life.

Nothing your parents did/didn't do changes the fact that your life is now up to *you*

So what choice will you make today?

Continue to externalize your unhappiness?

OR

Look *inside* and ask yourself how you, as the capable adult, can craft the life you want—whether it’s noticing your negativity, conquering your fear, accepting that the past can’t be redone, being kinder to yourself, pursuing a goal, or noticing the ways you hold yourself back as if you’re still that child stuck in a place you’ve long been released from.

Share your answer in the comments :)

02/07/2026

02/07/2026

Coauthors (and twin sisters) Emily and Amelia Nagoski share straightforward advice on how you can handle your stress *before* it turns into burnout.

02/07/2026