【推荐1】Once a month, I volunteer at a meal center to help serve food to people who are in need. Despite the many other things that I need to do, I really look forward to meeting and serving these people, even if only briefly. Although my motivation begins with wanting to help others and be grateful for what I have been given, it is joy that helps bring me back when I am very busy. I first noticed this some time ago: at the end of our shift, after the kitchen and dining room have been cleaned up, I would experience a lightness of being.

A few years ago, as I was researching how kindness affected health, I came to learn that volunteerism was associated with a markedly lower risk of dying. One recent and large European study found that self-reported health scores were apparently better in volunteers than non-volunteers. Depending on the study, the decrease in death rates ranged between 20 to 60 percent or so.

How could volunteering decrease the risk of death? There are several factors at play. The first, and most primary, is decreased symptoms of stress and uplifted mood. Many studies have provided evidence that volunteering is good for depression, well-being, and social networking, among other effects. Secondly, people who volunteer regularly also make more effort to take care of themselves. They manage to pay visits to their doctor for preventive health care. Finally, people who volunteer may be more physically active. Volunteers have an obvious increase in walking each day compared to those who did not volunteer.

To try to tie this together, volunteering likely exerts its positive health effects by connecting people to others and to an activity that they find meaningful. Achieving connection, purpose, and meaning is critical to reducing stresses of life — particularly loneliness. Since stress is a major cause of disease, especially heart disease, the ability to satisfy the need for connection, purpose, and meaning can bring about beneficial changes for people. And when there is purpose and we are connected to others, we take care of ourselves.

【推荐2】All people need to sleep. Sleep is a restorative (恢复健康的) process that promotes proper body functioning and can improve the quality of your life. Not only is the quantity of sleep important, but also the quality of sleep.

Your bedroom should be shaped to your taste and allow you to sleep in a peaceful environment. One of the biggest mistakes people make in their sleep is to use the bedroom for activities other than sleep. If your bedroom also functions as a command station for your life and work, the possibility of your sleep being poor is rather high. Bedrooms should be designed, decorated and used for sleep only. TVs, computers and other things should not be in your bedroom if possible.

Establishing regular sleeping and waking times can help improve the quality of your sleep especially for those suffering from sleeplessness. Avoid hot food, caffeine, sugar and alcohol at least 4 to 6 hours before you go to bed. Develop a regular exercise program. Proper exercise and nutrition will help improve sleep patterns. However, avoid exercising 2 hours before bed, since this may stimulate your body and make it more difficult to fall asleep.

Establish a pre-bedtime rule that will help you focus on sleep. You can try meditation (沉思), reading or deep breathing and relaxation. Your bedtime rule should be yours. Do not worry about it fitting into a specific category. Do what is best for you.

Things such as room temperature, noise and light levels and even your bed mattress (床垫) can have a lot of effect on the quality of sleep that you experience. Block out distracting noises and lights. You are in your bedroom to sleep and not be distracted by environmental interference (干扰).

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【推荐3】Is It Bad to Cross Your Legs When You Sit?

Crossing your legs is an extremely common habit; most people don’t even notice that they’re doing it when they sit down. While you may find it comfortable to sit with one knee crossed over the other. it might be causing health problems that you are not aware of.

A study published in Blood Pressure Monitoring stated that sitting with your legs crossed can increase your blood pressure. This happens because the blood in your legs has to work against gravity to be pumped back to your heart, crossing one leg over the other Increases resistance (阻力), making it even harder for the blood to circulate. This causes your body to increase your blood pressure to push the blood back to the heart. You won’t feel any immediate effects, but if you sit for long periods of time it’s important that you take note of how long you have your legs crossed for. You shouldn’t have your legs crossed for more than 15 minutes. and it’s important that you get up and walk around at least once every hour.

Crossing your legs can also lead to neck and back pain. Ideally, it’s best for our bodies to sit with our feet planted flat, hip width apart, on the floor, but it’s not easy to maintain perfect posture all day at the office. When you sit with your legs crossed your hips are in a twisted position, which can cause one of your pelvic bones (骨盆) to rotate. Since your pelvic bone supports your neck and spine, this can cause pressure on your lower and middle back and neck.

You also might notice that when you sit with your legs crossed for long periods of time your feet and legs get tingly or have the feeling of being asleep. This is because when one leg sits on top of the other it causes pressure on the veins and nerves in your legs and feet. It can cause pumbness and/or temporary paralysis in the legs, ankles, or feet While the feeling of discomfort may only last a minute or two, repeatedly crossing your legs until they feel numb can cause permanent nerve damage.

So next time you sit down, try to get yourself in the habit of sitting with both of your feet on the floor. Not only will it help your posture and stability, but it will also save your health in the long run.

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【推荐1】While dogs openly demonstrate joy or displeasure through wide smiles and grimaces (怪相), recognizing a cat’s emotions from its face is often hard, even for its owner. Now researchers from Canada’s University of Guelph claim that stoic (高冷的) as they may appear, cats also express emotions on their faces.

For their study, Professors Lee Niel and Georgia Mason found 6,300 people from 85 countries. The participants were asked a few questions and then watched 20 short cat videos. Each video highlighted just the cat’s face, its eyes, nose and mouth, and gave no clues (提示) to its surroundings. The viewers did not have to determine the cat’s exact emotions, but just decided whether it was in a positive or negative state.

The researchers found that only 13 percent, or 819 participants, were able to read the cats’ emotions accurately over 75 percent of the time. Further research showed that the so-called “cat whisperers” were mainly women and animal doctors. Younger adults also seemed to be able to read the expressions better than older individuals.

“The fact that women generally scored better than men is in line with previous research that has shown that women appear to be better at interpreting nonverbal expressions of emotion, both in humans and dogs,” said Mason. Being a cat owner did not help study participants, indicating that a strong attachment to the animal did not necessarily mean better understanding of its emotions.

Fortunately, all is not lost for cat owners who are unable to tell their pets’ emotions. The researchers believe the skills are not innate (天生的) but learned over time, which explains why animal doctors scored high in the study. “It is important to be able to do so because it could help strengthen the ties between cats and their owners,” said Niel.

【推荐3】The excitement of the FIFA World Cup in Qatar is truly ongoing. It’s the world’s biggest international soccer tournament(比赛)and also the most-watched sporting event in the world. There are 32 teams competing for championship. The tournament of 2022 looks to be particularly unique. What makes it different from the ones before?

For starters, it’s the first time the tournament has been held in the Middle East after Qatar beat other host competitors − the US, South Korea, Japan and Australia back in 2010. It’s also the first time in history the tournament has happened during the Northern Hemisphere(北半球)winter months, from Nov 20 to Dec 18.

That’s because Qatar is a desert country, and in summer the temperature can be as high as 42 ℃. That’s too hot to play outdoor sports. But it will still be pretty warm in winter. The temperature in the stadium is expected to be around 20 ℃ to 30 ℃. Air conditioning will help to keep it cooler.

Qatar is also the smallest nation by area hosting the cup. They play the first match of the tournament, facing Ecuador. It’s Qatar’s first-ever FIFV World Cup game. This makes them the first to perform their debut(首秀)game since Italy in 1934!

There are some new challenges for many players too. Apart from the hot weather, for European teams like England, France, Germany and Spain, it’s only just over a year since their last big international tournament, the UEFA Champions League.

According to FIFA’s rankings, the favorites to win the tournament this year are Brazil, followed by Argentina and France. Do you know who has had the last laugh?