【推荐2】Life can bring us down from time to time. At some point, you may find yourself in what you will consider as your darkest hour. As you try to find your way out of that bad situation, you should try to remind yourself that there will always be a reason to be grateful.

If you look at your situation now and compare it with someone else who is in much deeper trouble than you, I am sure that you'll find something to be thankful for. We all have our share of problems, but complaining about them so much only makes us blind to the fact that there are the miracles (奇迹) which happen around us each day.

When all your needs are provided, then you should be content and happy. If you have a roof over your head, some proper clothes to wear, enough food on the table, a comfortable place to sleep, clean water to drink and you are free to make your own choices, then you should be happy and grateful. Many people all around the world, especially those who are at war or those in very poor countries, would give anything to be in your shoes.

Even if you lose all your money or possessions and your heart is broken for some reason, as long as you are still alive, then everything you have lost can be regained. If you have a few good friends who will be there to support or help you, then be glad because true friends are hard to find. As long as you have someone to love and someone to love you back, then you are a very fortunate person. Remember to be patient and trust that things will get better.

【推荐3】What do butterflies have in common with the human spirit? Meet Maggie, a middle-aged wife and mother who was about to find out.

Maggie wasn’t rich like a millionaire or poor in a manner of being homeless. She was living an average comfortable life. It was made even better when a baby girl came her way. She and her husband made sure their daughter had her needs met and they were still able to take a yearly vacation by the beach.

Maggie was a partner in her husband’s business. They both had a different set of duties and everything was in balance. One day a severe blow came to her husband’s business, and over a three-year period the business dropped out of sight. Her husband had to totally reinvent himself and was eager to start a new business. She was happy for him and supported him fully, but still the money was not coming in.

Maggie began to feel guilty that she wasn’t contributing with any kind of income. She began job-hunting and found filling out applications somewhat difficult, especially the part asking for job references. She was self-employed with her husband for almost 20 years, which seemed to mean nothing as she was never called for an interview.

When she was job-hunting her mom became more ill than she had been and ended up in the hospital for a week. Once Maggie’s mom returned home she became her mom’s helper one day a week. She did everything that her mother was not able to do any more. Of course her mom would pay her for her lime and labor but she still felt she needed to find another source of income.

One of the first applications she had filled out finally came through. She passed the interview and was told she was exactly what they were looking for. Although it was only part-time it was exactly what she wanted. It was important for her to be home when her daughter arrived home from school.

Within a few weeks, though, she received an e-mail saying that the company had changed the job into a full-time position so that she was not qualified. Maggie felt betrayed and felt she had been lied to. That evening she was alone at home. She welcomed the aloneness and wanted to put herself in the bathtub to kill the lonely time.

As she knew she would, Maggie began to cry, softly at first just from the sharp pain of being rejected. Three long years of struggle had finally overwhelmed her.

When she was able to cry no more, she became worn out and gave up. It was at that moment that a silent idea came to her: why not offer elderly people home care assistance? Using another talent for computers she printed off some flyers and cards and distributed them to her church, grocery stores and even placed a small ad in the newspaper. Within a week she had procured two new customers. Now, even though she’s not a CEO of a major company she feels happy and productive again.

Before a butterfly can come out of its chrysalis (茧) it has to go through a lot of struggling. Each time it pushes out to escape, acids are being removed from its wings. If someone were to come along and break the chrysalis open for it then the butterfly would die from those acids. Actually the struggle is necessary for the butterfly to survive. Then in the stillness, when the struggle is over, the butterfly can come out and share its beauty with the world.

We as humans are not any different.

【推荐1】Rather than building new homes to help satisfy housing markets, a new study says that taxing empty homes in big cities could increase housing affordability for local residents while generating income for the governments.

During the past 20 years, housing affordability has decreased significantly in the UK due to a rapid increase in prices relative to earnings. This may be due to foreign investors buying out properties in cities such as London, or from British citizens in the countryside buying out second homes in the city, which reduces the availability of affordable housing for local residents.

This means that local citizens who actually live in the city are forced to pay more money for housing in neighborhoods that are filled with homes that are unoccupied for more than half of the year.

In a study that was published recently,researcher Jonathan Bourne at University College London studied the relationship between the amount of properties which do not have permanent residents, and housing affordability in different parts of England and Wales. Upon researching the data, which represents about 40% of the population.the researcher was stunned to find that there were over 340,000 empty apartments across the places.

Though some cities are trying to meet housing demands by building more housing. Bourne suggests that local governments put an empty homes tax of 1% instead. “The data shows that empty homes are very concentrated in small numbers of desirable areas. In such cases simply building more homes is not going to solve the problem.as the issue is severe competition for property, not a lack of places to live." says Bourne.

Vancouver introduced a similar empty homes tax in 2017,which was the first oi its kind in North America. One year after it went into effect. the city reported a 15% decrease in unoccupied homes,which amounted to 163 properties being rented out to local people. Furthermore, the tax raised more than $ 38 million in city revenue(税收），all of which was spent on affordable housing programs.

【推荐1】The commonly held belief that it takes 21 days to form a new habit can be traced back to a 1960 book by plastic surgeon Maxwell Maltz called Psycho-Cybernetics. In his work treating patients who had gone through facial recognition surgery, Maltz noticed that it typically took around three weeks for them to adjust to seeing their new faces in the mirror. He also found that individuals who had lost a limb still sensed “phantom” (幻觉的) pains in the missing arm or leg for about 21 days.

Based on these perceptions (认知) of recovery time after significant physical changes, Maltz theorized in his book that it likely takes a minimum of 21 days for the neurological pathways in our brains associated with old behaviors and habits to go away, and for new mental images and routines to take firm root. This idea of a standardized 21-day formation period for habits soon became widely accepted.

However, Maltz was drawing casual inferences rather than conducting strict scientific research. It was not until 2010 that health psychologist Phillipa Lally at University College London decided to properly study habit formation timelines. She designed a year-long experiment that tracked 96 participants as they each established a single new habit of their choosing. Every day, subjects reported on whether they successfully performed their intended behavior that day as well as how automatic the action felt.

Lally’s findings revealed that on average, it took 66 days before a habit became a normal part of a routine and felt automatic. But results varied widely, with habits forming anywhere from 18 days up to 254 days between individuals. Perseverance was the key factor in successfully making a behavior habitual, with sometimes missing days not stopping overall progress.

This landmark study disproved the assumed 21-day standard and showcased that a wide range of timelines are normal. Ultimately, being committed to consistently practising a new behavior for months, not weeks, is what allows real habit change and improvement to occur naturally in the brain. Understanding habit formation as a gradual, individualized process helps people develop positive routines without unrealistic expectations.

【推荐2】HABITS FOR A HEALTHY LIFESTYLE

As teenagers grow up, they become more independent and start making their own decisions. However, during this period, it can be easy for some of them to form bad habits. These bad habits, if left unchecked, could lead to more serious ones when they become adults. For example, some of them may become involved in tobacco or alcohol-abuse, which can lead to physical and mental health problems. To prevent harmful habits like these from dominating a teenager’s life is essential. They must learn to recognise bad habits early and make appropriate changes.

To change bad habits is never easy, even with many attempts. There is a famous saying based on the philosophy of Aristotle: “We are what we repeatedly do.” In many ways, our lifestyle is the sum of choices we have made. We make a choice to do something, and then we repeat it over and over again. Soon that choice becomes automatic and forms a habit that is much harder to change. The good news is that we can change, if we understand how habits work.

According to modern psychology, we must first learn about the “habit cycle”, which works like this:

*Firstly, there is a “cue”, an action, event, or situation that acts as a signal to do something.

*Secondly, there is a “routine” , the regular action you take in response to the cue.

*Thirdly, there is the “reward”, the good thing or feeling we get from the routine.

For example, when we feel unhappy (cue), we eat lots of unhealthy snacks (routine), which makes us feel happy (reward). The reward makes us much more likely to continue the cycle, and the bad habit of relying on unhealthy snacks is formed.

To facilitate a positive change in our bad habits, we must first examine our bad habit cycles and then try to adapt them. We can do this by combining the information from our habit cycles with our own positive ideas. For example, we could try to replace a negative routine with something more positive. So, when we feel unhappy again(cue), rather than eat snacks, we could listen to some of our favourite music instead(routine), which will make us feel relaxed (reward). Aside from changing bad habits, we can also use the habit cycle to create good habits. For example, when we come to an escalator(cue), our normal routine is to ride it, but we could change this routine into something more positive by taking the stairs instead.

Many of us try to change bad habits quickly, and if we are not successful straight away, we often become pessimistic and give up. In fact, the most successful way to change is not suddenly, but over a period of time. As the Chinese philosopher Lao Zi wrote, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” One step seems small, but it is essential. To reach the goal of change, a person must show some discipline and repeatedly take many small steps. After all, it is not easy to break bad habits.

For young people, there is plenty of time to change bad habits. However, there is no “magic pill” or delete button that will help you; you have to think about your bad habits and decide on some changes. You have the power to build a happy and healthy life full of good habits!

As teenagers grow up, they become more independent and start making their own decisions. However, during this period, it can be easy   ______ some of them to form bad habits. These bad habits, if ______ (leave) unchecked, could lead to more serious ones when they become adults. ______ (change) bad habits is never easy, even with many attempts. The good news is that we can change our bad habits if we understand ______ habits work. To facilitate ______ positive change in our bad habits, we must first examine our bad habit cycles and then try to adapt them.

We can do this by ______ (combine) the information from our habit cycles with our own positive ideas. We can also use the habit cycle ______ (create) good habits. Many of us try to change bad habits quickly, and if we are not successful straight away, we often become pessimistic and give up. In fact, the most successful way to change is not suddenly, ______ over a period of time. To reach the goal of change, a person must ______ (repeated) take many small steps. Young people have the power ______ (build) a happy and healthy life full of good habits!