Being humble isn’t about shame or self-loathing: it is the act of being present, of knowing there is room to grow

Making sense of it is a column about spirituality and how it can be used to navigate everyday life

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hen I was a teenager in the 1990s, the government seemed to believe that the gender pay gap was best addressed by telling girls that they could do anything. Splashy, lurid pink ads told me that systemic and societal barriers would fall in the face of my self-confidence.

Researchers have since debunked the notion that an individual can fix their lives through positive thinking. Will Storr, in his book Selfie, unpacks how the neoliberal myth of the level playing field underpins much of the self-improvement movement.