It’s about the Mindful Life.
We’re dedicated to sharing the good life beyond the choir, and to all those who didn’t yet know they give a care about living a good, fun life that’s good for others and our planet.
The mindful life is about yoga, organics, sustainability, conscious consumerism, enlightened education, the contemplative arts, adventure, bicycling, family…everything. But mostly it’s about this present moment, right here, right now, and how we can best be of benefit, and have a good time doing so. Read more at our About page.
>> Contact our support team here for questions about your paid subscription, website difficulties, or other technical questions, including about our App.
>> Our Terms of Service are found here, and our community guidelines can be found here. Our privacy policy is here.
>> Interested in writing? It’s easy! Find our writer guidelines here, and then post here. Make sure to fill out your profile here.
>> Find our list of current Ecosystem winners on the side bar of every page on Elephant! You can also find our list of current contenders here.
>> Here’s where you can manage your paid subscription. And here’s where you can sign up for our newsletter. The two are not the same thing—see #5 below for more info!
>> Get in touch with our shop here if you have questions about your order.
>> Interested in working at Elephant? More info here.
1. I’m brand new to Elephant Journal. Where should I start?
The front page of our website is the best place to start reading. It’s a mix of classic and brand new articles as well as trending and timely topics. If you want to read only new articles, click on “Latest.” Next, our scrollable menu on the top or the drop-down menu on the side (desktop version) allows you to narrow down your focus on specific topics to read.
You can access your own profile here to find a history of articles you’ve read or hearted, your comments, your own posts, and any Elements you’ve created. You can also manage your subscription and update your password.
You may want to sign up for our newsletter as a prompt to read articles every day! We have daily, weekly, and monthly options, but we highly suggest the daily for the best variety of articles. We share just our best out of the many articles we publish each day.
2. How do I change the name that appears when I comment? Why does it say Sunshine?
“Sunshine” is the default name when you haven’t filled out your profile. You can update that here. We encourage all readers, commenters, and writers to use their real, full name. Using our real, full name helps us stay accountable for what we’re putting out in the world, and it also helps Elephant Journal to maintain its integrity.
3. What are hearts? What are boosts?
Hearts act as “likes” on our articles, but your list of hearted articles are also saved on your profile so that you can come back and find your favorites any time you like!
Boosts act like tips that go into a pool, which then help us pay our best writers—the amount and frequency will increase as our boosts and paid subscribers increase. We’d love to one day pay thousands, even tens of thousands of writers! For now, we pay the top 10 articles every week.
4. What are Elements?
Elements are Elephant’s built-in beautiful, visual quotes that you can heart, comment on, share, and embed into your own posts. You’ll see them within articles you’re reading and also nestled in between articles on our front page. Try creating an Element when you post your own articles (located on the “image selection” screen when creating your post).
5. Why am I being blocked from reading? Why do I have to pay?
Readers with free accounts can read two free articles per week—and that’s a lot of reading! If you want more, you can subscribe for a yearly renewing subscription, $60 per year (so low), which goes to pay our editors and writers to do good work for you. Writers and editors deserve to be paid, just like you—and we’re independent and hopefully worth supporting. Disagree? Continue to enjoy two free reads per week.
6. Why are there so many ads? Why are some of them adult in nature?
We want to support our writers and our editors. We keep our membership low and affordable so more readers can read more articles. Our ad percentage is roughly 35 percent of the industry average and we are trying to change the world—which requires some fuel, and that’s cash—and these ads aren’t perfect, but they are helping us change the world (in supporting what we are doing). That said, objections are noted and appreciated, and we are always working to be as non-intrusive as possible. We continue to test our ads in terms of type, volume, and placement.
Regarding more adult advertising, Elephant Journal is indie, mindful, sex-positive media: we embrace sexuality and sexual expression, with an emphasis on safe and consensual sex. And we’re about the mindful life, which does include sex and sexuality. So, let’s talk about these things. Elephant is a human-forward company, and we’re changing the conversation and understanding around the idea of sex—nothing here is taboo and a lot is tactfully uncensored. Writers can read more about specific ad removal requests here under section 1D.
7. What’s the difference between subscribing to the newsletter and a paid subscription?
Our newsletter is free to receive, with options to get it in your inbox daily, weekly, or monthly. It acts as a reminder to read and helps you select some of our best articles out of the many we publish each week. (That said, there are a ton of hidden gems all over our website, and we encourage you to peruse our virtual shelves!) Anyone can sign up for this newsletter, whether they are a paying subscriber or not. Those who do not have paid full access may only read two articles per week, even from the ones showcased in our newsletter.
A paid subscription allows you full access to read all articles at Elephant. Those with a free membership (or no membership at all) are limited to only two articles per week. These paid subscriptions auto-renew every year, and we send a reminder to your email about one month before that happens. You don’t have to receive the newsletter to make good use of your paid subscription, but it helps! Other ways to use your paid subscription are to visit us directly at elephantjournal.com, download and use our App (Apple only for now), or follow us on social media.
8. Why are you posting an article I disagree with? Why are you writing about politics when you’re about mindfulness and spirituality?
Yes, some of our articles may offend some of you, our dear readers. It’s important to note that Elephant is reader-created. Each writer who submits their posts, including editors on staff, will have differing but still mindful takes on any topic. We’re happy to share conflicting opinions if both may be of benefit. Hate an article? Please rebut it—send us an article with your view, and if it’s thoughtful we’ll feature it and link the two articles together. We’re not an echo chamber, we’re here for dialogue, even and especially when others are “wrong.”
Elephant Journal is about the mindful life. And while that does include things like yoga and spirituality and wellness, it also includes politics, enlightened society, sex, humor, environmentalism, animal rights, and even what’s trending on Twitter. Elephant is here to help you find the mindfulness in all aspects of life. We’re also not all about just positivity, love, and light; we’re about being present and awake to all of it, including fear, anger, confusion, and other parts of everyday life. This article and this video will explain more.
9. Why do you boycott Amazon?
First, we encourage you to read this article in The New Yorker. Then, we encourage you to read Waylon Lewis’ take on the matter. Still have questions? Email us!
