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We can accept ourselves and also expect more from ourselves.
In my work, I investigate unexpected truths about everyday life—and identify ways we can take happiness from the transcendent to the concrete.
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Life in Five Senses is now available in paperback!
The New York Times bestseller is now available on paperback in addition to hardcover and audiobook.
FEATURED
“The more you know, the more you can create.”
—Julia Child
FEATURED QUIZ
What Is Your Neglected Sense?
Once you identify your neglected sense, you can find a new source of comfort, calm, and creativity; you can find fresh experiences that will delight you; perhaps most important, you can make opportunities to engage with other people.
FEATURED ARTICLE
The Opposite of Meditation Is…Recess & I Need More Recess.
I’ve spent many years pursuing self-knowledge and self-mastery. Now I wanted to illuminate my thoughts from the outside—not with detachment, not with discipline, but with wildness.
FEATURED BOOK
Happier at Home
Kiss more, jump more, abandon self-control—Discover what I learned from my experiments to become happier at home, concentrating on factors such as possessions, marriage, time, parenthood, body, and neighborhood.
FEATURED PODCAST EPISODE
431: Design Your Summer, an Easy Hack to Have More Fun with Food, and a Talk on the Joy of Dressing
As we do each year, we consider how we plan to design our summer. We also discuss a hack from a food-scientist listener about an easy way to have more fun with the sense of taste, and we talk to Sarah LaFleur, founder and CEO of M.M.LaFleur, about the pleasures of clothes.
FEATURED TOOL
The Muse Machine
The Muse Machine is a collection of indirect directions—150 cards with somewhat mysterious creative prompts to consult whenever you feel stuck. The directions are short, suggestive, and open-ended, so that they spark unexpected insights.
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WHAT'S NEW
Discover the latest articles and podcast episodes.
CURATED COLLECTIONS
Explore Gretchen Rubin’s work on these popular topics.
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Tap in to the power of your five senses as a path to a happier, more mindful life.
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Unexpected insights and concrete suggestions about how to create a happier life.
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Helpful tips, tools, and strategies for building (and breaking) habits.
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Understand yourself and others with Gretchen Rubin’s personality framework.
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ABOUT GRETCHEN
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About Gretchen
Hi, I’m Gretchen Rubin. For more than a decade, I’ve been studying human nature—the science of the soul. My happiness project is to understand myself, the people around me, and how we can move from good intentions to concrete actions to build happier lives.