Running is undoubtedly a healthy lifestyle, but it is difficult to stick to it. I still remember one 50-minute run in particular in the spring of 2018. I made a detailed plan at first and immediately began creating a long list of excuses as to why this was simply just not going to work, why I wasn’t fit enough and why I would fail. I was afraid that I had no confidence in my plan. Before I even tied my shoes, I’d already convinced myself I couldn’t do that.

How would it go? I had quit the workout mentally before I even started. Who knows how many times I stopped and restarted my watch? I spent an awfully long afternoon sitting by the road feeling sorry for myself. One bad workout would even upset me for days. I questioned my fitness gradually and cut more workouts short. And pretty soon, my fitness gradually came to a steady level or moved backward.

The problem I gradually realized was that I treated my entire training plan like a tempo run—hard, fast, strict. In a tempo run, if you don’t hit your pace early, it’s nearly impossible to catch up. Therefore, I realized I needed to treat my training like my favorite workout: the long run. I love ignoring my watch, settling into a relaxing pace, enjoying the route and focusing on only one goal—finishing. I love that I can have a bad mile in the middle and still end up strong.

Now, when I set a new goal and write a new training plan, I have what I call “the long-run mindset”. I find success and value in my training because I’m not eager for immediate results as before. Yes, there is still an important place for hard fast tempo runs, but I have shifted my attitude to thinking bigger than short-term outcomes and work towards lifelong success.

Half of all Australian teens now spend more time, or as much time, online with their friends rather than seeing them in person. This is despite the fact that one third of boy’s and 42 per cent of girls say social media makes hard times even more tough. Teenagers who went from using social media weekly to daily had a higher risk of depression and anxiety, the researchers found. New research from the Australian Institute of Family Studies has renewed concerns about the impact of screen time on teenagers’ mental health.

The findings showed 46 per cent of 16-year-olds and 36 per cent of 14-year-olds spent the same time contacting friends via Snapchat, video gaming, Instagram or TikTok as seeing then face-to-face. The findings also showed 7 per cent of 16-year-olds and 5 per cent of 14-ycar-olds mainly interacted with friends electronically. The highest percentage of children who communicated with friends mostly via social media were 16-year-olds with autism (自闭症), the researchers found. The study, which has followed 10,000 children since 2004, surveyed 14 and 15-year-olds and 16 and 17-year-olds about the time they spent online.

Australian Institute of Family Studies researcher Pilar Rioseco said, “The platforms young people are using to commune have changed significantly and digital devices such as mobile phones have become more readily available to adolescents.”

“The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way that many young people connect, with many having to rely heavily on digital technologies to keep in touch with friends and family.” Dr Rioseco also found that a quarter of teens were victims of cyber-bullying, including threats and name calling. A quarter of those with autism said being online made it easier to be themselves and almost half said being online helped them feel better during difficult times.

Dr Rioseco said online connection “appears to have benefits for some young people in terms of helping social connection and providing support during difficult times” . “Providing young people with the skills to communicate safely online and deal with cyber-bullying is critical,” she added.

Water shortage is occurring in some of the US’ biggest freshwater reserves and it is also evident in other parts of the planet, according to a research study published in the journal Nature last month.

The research study was conducted by Xander Huggins, a PhD candidate at the University of Victoria and his fellow researchers.

The Earth has less than 3% freshwater with only 1% is accessible to the growing human population. Both natural freshwater reserves and freshwater in reservoirs may be at risk if their amount continues to drop and the population continues to increase. In 2021, there are approximately 7.9 billion people by January 31, according to the United States Census Bureau. The research study found 34 trends in terrestrial (地面上的) water reserves observed by the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment ( GRACE ) satellites from 2002 to 2016. These trends were acquired when the researchers examined 1,024 basins across the world with the goal of understanding how water availability couples with social processes in the community.

According to Huggins, the main factor they studied were freshwater stress, which is related to the amount of H₂O that naturally leaves the watershed or basin per year. The higher the stress or exit of water from the basin means that there will be less water available for ecosystems and for people’s demands, Huggins explains. The significance of the study can be of interest not only to water specialists and water conservators but also to government policy-makers. Huggins stated that after mapping the most high-risk freshwater sources and creating a framework to identify hotspot basins, policy makers will be able to prioritize a specific location.

Huggins shows that while the US score highly in terms of social adaptiveness based on the study’s freshwater stress factor, the country has many freshwater concerns that goes be-yond between freshwater stress and freshwater storage. The states of Illinois and Ohio have the highest levels of lead (铅) pipes carrying water from freshwater basins to residential households. Meanwhile in Colorado, an estimate from the Colorado Water Center predicts there will be a 20% to 30% less water of the Colorado River Basin by 2050.