How to keep an open mind

Plus: The signs of seasonal depression  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

Mandy Oaklander | November 07, 2026     Want to become more creative, empathetic, social, and pretty much more psychologically healthy? Practice keeping an open mind, writes Joan M. Cook, a trauma psychologist at the Yale School of Medicine, in her new essay for TIME. You don't even have to change your mind, she writes: "You just need to be open to expanding it." Cook explains how, below. TODAY’S TOPICS Inside your nose A plastic surgeon’s decor Open mind, better life Spotting seasonal depression         QUICK CHAT Your nose is bigger than you think When I recently interviewed Dr. Ryan Salvador, an ENT surgeon at Sinus & Snoring Specialists in Austin, about the ear, nose, and throat symptoms you should never ignore, he offered to switch our phone call to FaceTime so he could show me some medical diagrams. (I love when doctors come prepared with visual aids.) He pulled up an illustration of the inside of the nose and mentioned something that stopped me in my tracks: The nasal cavity is about as big as your mouth. Wait, what? I had questions. —Angela Haupt This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity. Science Photo Library—Getty Images Hold on. The inside of my nose is HOW big? The nasal cavity is huge. It's about as big as your mouth. Think about the roof of your mouth, where your upper teeth are. The nasal cavity extends all the way back above that area. Most people don't realize just how much space is inside there. What's actually taking up all that space? Inside your nose, you have structures called turbinates. They're shelves of tissue that help warm and humidify the air you're breathing. And your nasal cavity extends much farther back than the part of your nose you can see from the outside. And where do the sinuses fit into all of this? The sinuses are air-filled cavities in the bones of your face. They produce mucus that drains into your nose. You have frontal sinuses above your eyes, ethmoid sinuses between your eyes, and maxillary sinuses—the largest ones—underneath your eyes. So all of this is happening right behind my face? Exactly. Your nose and sinuses occupy a surprisingly large area, and they're very close to other important structures, including your eyes. In some places, only a very thin plate of bone separates them. Read the full story here.         SPONSORED BY ROKU The holiday streaming season is almost here Are you ready? As revealed in our holiday playbook, Roku Ads Manager lets you easily set up, measure and optimize your self-serve holiday ad campaign. You can even create a shoppable ad unit that lets streamers buy directly from their remote. Set up your campaign today.         AT HOME WITH AN EXPERT Beauty at the bedside Dr. Maryam Zamani Dr. Maryam Zamani’s home is filling up with body parts. The plastic surgeon collects Jonathan Adler’s sculptural decor, including breast-covered vases and a face-shaped vessel that holds her bedside glasses. She loves the curves, textures, and double takes from visitors who suddenly realize what’s decorating the dining table. Her bedside books offer another way of looking at the human form. Among them is The Atlas of Beauty, a collection of portraits of women around the world that reminds Zamani how many ways there are to be beautiful. “There’s no consistent feature. There’s no one set ratio. There’s no one type of skin tone,” she says. In a profession where she sees a pull toward one particular look, she likes keeping that reminder close. “You can recognize how each person is so beautiful in their own way.” —A.H.         SPONSORED BY CHERRY Increase acceptance rates by up to 50% - with Cherry When treatment is easier to pay for, more people go for it. Practices using Cherry payment plans have seen acceptance rates rise by up to 50%*. Patients apply on their phones in ~35 seconds, and Cherry approves around 90% of applicants. See why Cherry is trusted by over 75,000 practices. * These figures come from Cherry’s provider case studies, so individual results vary. Details at withcherry.com/provider-reviews. Payment options through Cherry are issued by the following financing partners: withcherry.com/financing-partners         SPONSORED TIME100 Most Influential Companies is expanding TIME100 Most Influential Companies 2027 entries are now open. With new Exceptional Workplaces categories, the TIME100 Companies publication is expanding to recognize businesses pioneering new approaches to how people work, from flexible and hybrid work to technology integration and career development.  Because it’s no longer just what you do, but how you do it.  Submit your company.         SATURDAY READ How to keep an open mind By Joan M. Cook J Studios—Getty Images No one particularly likes to have their views challenged—to be told they don’t see things clearly or have the full picture. And when someone, like a friend, neighbor, co-worker, journalist, or podcast host disagrees with our way of thinking, it’s natural to get a bit defensive.  It’s easy to think we are right, and someone else’s perceptions and ways of being are wrong. But the tighter we clench our jaws and fists, the more we restrict our ability to connect and expand both our views and our connections.  Open-mindedness is related in part to intellectual humility, recognizing one’s own imperfections as a knower, and appreciating others’ thinking strengths.  Read the full essay here.         WHAT WE’RE READING Feeling the effects of darker afternoons? Carla K. Johnson at the Associated Press explains how to recognize seasonal depression—and what actually helps. Could chasing new experiences be making you less happy? NPR's Life Kit explains how to find more joy in the familiar.  Do spiders dream? Sara Hashemi at Smithsonian explores research suggesting that jumping spiders experience a sleep state remarkably similar to REM sleep in humans.       More Newsletters from Click to sign up. THE BRIEF +FUTURE PROOF +INSIDE TIME +IN THE LOOP +WORTH YOUR TIME + Subscribe to TIME Email us: healthmatters@time.com Received this from a friend? Sign up here Connect with TIME PRIVACY POLICY   © 2026 TIME USA, LLC. All rights reserved. TIME Customer Service, P.O. Box 37508 Boone, IA 50037-0508, United States Unsubscribe

What to say to a neighbor whose dog won’t stop barking

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Mandy Oaklander | November 06, 2026     Disputes with neighbors can be some of the hardest to solve. How do you tell someone you live next door to that, for instance, their yapping dog is keeping you up at night? If that’s your issue, my colleague Angela Haupt has you covered. She polled experts of all breeds about how to talk to your neighbor when their dog won’t stop barking. Read on for the script you can keep in your back pocket. TODAY’S TOPICS The human touch The “ghost therapist” network A sunset reset Walk this way A ruff conversation Why care keeps costing more         QUICK CHAT Proof of sweat I've always thought a handwritten card was one of the nicest things you could give someone. But now that AI can write a perfectly lovely birthday message in seconds, how do you know whether the person who sent it actually wrote it?  I recently interviewed Erica Dhawan, author of the forthcoming Use Your Brain, about how AI is changing the way we communicate. She told me she thinks voice notes and phone calls are making a comeback—and introduced me to a new phrase: “proof of sweat.” —Angela Haupt This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity. Olga Pankova—Getty Images You have a phrase I love: “Proof of sweat.” What does that mean? It's evidence that a human was in the room. When you're writing a birthday card or working with a team, how do you show that you actually put thought into it? It might be a specific memory, like remembering when someone's mom picked you up when you were 16, or an inside joke that only the two of you would understand. Why do you think that's becoming more important? Writing is cheap now. AI can generate these beautiful, polished messages, but people can tell when something doesn't sound like you. I interviewed a woman who went to a 70th birthday celebration for her mom. Ten people had written tributes, and five of them sounded exactly the same. She knew they'd used ChatGPT. Is that why you think voice notes and phone calls are making a comeback? Yes. One way people are showing proof of sweat is by sending a 90-second voice note instead of writing something. I think phone calls and voice notes are coming back. What's a simple way to make a message feel more personal? Think about what you know that nobody else knows. What memory do you have with this person? What's something that only you could say? That's the kind of detail that shows someone you actually care.         SPONSORED BY GLADLY.AI “Running shos” shouldn’t return zero results. Gladly understands what your shoppers mean, typos and all, and finds the right products. See how it works         TODAY I LEARNED There are huge “ghost networks” of mental-health providers Eoneren—Getty Images It’s hard to find a therapist, and even harder to find one covered by your insurance. One reason is that insurance providers are supposed to have a directory of providers who accept that insurance—but many directories are outdated or inaccurate. A new study in JAMA Health Forum used a secret shopper to make more than 5,000 calls to psychiatrists and psychologists listed in commercial insurance carriers’ directories. It found that only 24% of those calls resulted in a scheduled appointment—the goal with every call in the experiment—while 56% of the listings had directory errors. —Alana Semuels         SPONSORED BY BEZEL Unlock up to $2 million licensing your company data Have a business larger than 20 people that lives on Slack and is older than a year? Companies like Micro1 want to pay $100k - $2 million to license your data. They anonymize it and then use it to train the next set of frontier AI models. Get an estimate here         HOW WE RELAX Stop and watch the sunset Alana Semuels I have long thought that the best part of a sunset isn’t the act of watching the sun go down, but rather watching the sky turn unexpected and amazing colors afterward. It’s been much easier to catch a glimpse of those colors since the end of Daylight Saving Time, because the sunset—which now happens around 5 p.m. where I live in New York—coincides with the time I’m often driving along the Hudson River to pick up my daughter from daycare.  I’ve tried to catch the sunset and the coinciding sky glow this week before daycare pickup. I find that it resets my perspective and gives me a sense of awe that I might have missed on an otherwise busy day. —A.S.         SPONSORED TIME100 Most Influential Companies is expanding TIME100 Most Influential Companies 2027 entries are now open. With new Exceptional Workplaces categories, the TIME100 Companies publication is expanding to recognize businesses pioneering new approaches to how people work, from flexible and hybrid work to technology integration and career development.  Because it’s no longer just what you do, but how you do it.  Submit your company.         WORTH THE HYPE? Walking backwards is worth it Photo-Illustration by TIME; Getty Images Want to get more out of your walk? Put it in reverse. When I tried backward walking, my lower legs started burning after about 50 steps. Physical therapists say the switch-up challenges muscles differently than your usual stroll and can help improve balance and coordination. It may help ease knee pain, too. The verdict: Worth a spin, even if you attract some funny looks. Start slowly in a clear, flat space, ideally with a buddy who can be your eyes. —A.H.         TIME TO TALK What to say to a neighbor about their barking dog Photo-Illustration by TIME (Source Image: Anita Kot—Getty Images) Your neighbor’s dog has been barking for hours. How do you address the issue with someone you’ll have to see every day? —A.H. Lead with specifics Try: “I’ve been waking up because your dog is barking around 6 a.m. I realize you may not know. Could we figure something out?” Share exact times instead of saying it happens “all day.” If they get defensive Say: “I know dogs bark, and I’m not expecting total silence.” If nothing changes, document the barking and contact your landlord, building manager, or homeowners association. Read the full story here.         WHAT WE’RE READING Why is Gen Z obsessed with a past it never knew? Zara Abrams at APA’s Monitor on Psychology explores the surprising appeal of nostalgia. An interview with professor Anna Sinaiko at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health looks at why health care costs are continuing to rise. Speaking of neighbors…how neighborly is too neighborly? Georgina Lawton at the Guardian explores a couple’s disagreement over getting involved in neighbors’ drama.       More Newsletters from Click to sign up. THE BRIEF +FUTURE PROOF +INSIDE TIME +IN THE LOOP +WORTH YOUR TIME + Subscribe to TIME Email us: healthmatters@time.com Received this from a friend? Sign up here Connect with TIME PRIVACY POLICY   © 2026 TIME USA, LLC. All rights reserved. TIME Customer Service, P.O. Box 37508 Boone, IA 50037-0508, United States Unsubscribe