【推荐1】Laura Stone is the founder of Sydney by Kayak(皮划艇), a company that offers guided kayak tours of Sydney Harbour in Australia. Not only did their business increase during the COVID-19, but one of their tours is actually more popular than ever.

A few years ago, Laura was paddling in the harbour when she noticed trash floating in the water. For reference, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) estimates that about 8 million tons of plastic end up in our ocean each year, causing big problems for wildlife and local plants. Laura was so shocked by the garbage in the water that she decided to dedicate a few paddles each week to trash cleanup. Incredibly, her clients were immediately on board with the idea, so Sydney by Kayak now leads four to five garbage-collecting tours every week!

At the start of the COVID-19, Laura thought her business would drop off as many others had. Instead, desperate for the purpose and a way to get outdoors, people flocked to her “Clean Up Kayak” tours. They now routinely take about 441 pounds of garbage out of the harbour each week! “We’ve been quite surprised, even through the COVID-19, we’ve been very busy,” Laura said, “Because they can’t travel, people are looking for something to do. That is not just good for them, but also good for the environment.”

Each tour begins with participants preparing for some working tools. Some people come back many times for the satisfaction of collecting trash from the harbour. Julie Greening, for example, has done about 10 tours so far and said, “Every little bit is worth it. We have 7 billion people on this planet. If everyone does a little, of course it’s going to help.”

【推荐2】Experiencing hardship early in life is awful. And worse, it can mean a difficult road ahead. Living a life without any stress seems like a much better alternative. But it isn't necessarily a good thing, research is now showing. A small amount of stress may actually help kids build resilience, which is the ability to bounce back after a bad experience.

In one 2010 study, researchers wanted to understand how stress affects resilience. They surveyed 2, 398 adults in the United States. Participants answered questions about their mental health and overall health. And they indicated if they had experienced varying levels of adversity. The survey showed adults who faced some adversity reported fewer symptoms of psychological problems than those who had experienced heavy adversity. They also performed better than those who had sailed through childhood with few hard times.

David Lyons is a professor at Stanford University in California His team reported evidence for this in a November 2019 paper in Scientific Reports . The team studied small squirrel monkeys. These monkeys experienced varying “doses” of stress. “No stress” monkeys enjoyed a typical life in the lab: They were housed in a cage with their mother and siblings and there was plenty of water and food. A second group faced a mild stressor: They spent an hour a day away from their siblings on 10 straight days. The stress dose went up for a third group where these monkeys had daily separation from siblings and no access to mother during that hour. Two more groups experienced daily separation from both their mother and siblings.

Ten weeks later, each monkey was moved with its mother to an unfamiliar cage. The researchers assessed the monkeys' willingness to let go of mother and explore the new digs On the whole, monkeys that faced one or two stressors(groups2 and 3) depend less o their mothers than those in the last two groups. They also more readily explored their new surroundings In general, they showed less anxiety than both the no stress and high stress groups.

“Growing up healthy means learning how to deal with mild challenges and changes,” Lyons concludes.

【推荐3】What do you do with old stuff? That dress you bought for a party three years ago, for example. You wore it once and put it away somewhere. So, what to do?

In the UK, we might take it to a charity shop. The first charity shops appeared in Britain in the 19^th century. The Salvation Army was one of the first to run a second-hand clothing shop to provide the needy with affordable clothes. This was followed by charities such as the British Red Cross, who also relieved hardship and raised money for the war effort during World War Two. In 1947, Oxfam opened a charity shop in High Street, Oxford, which is the modern form we know today. These days, charity shops are a common sight with around 11, 200 shops across the UK, according to the Charity Retail Association. During business hours the public can donate their unwanted items to a charity shop-clothes, books, electronics, furniture. These items are checked for wear and tear and if found still serviceable, priced up to be sold at a heavily discounted price.

For many, this is a win-win situation. To the charity, it means a valuable source of income. To the consumer, it provides the opportunity to buy, often extremely cheap items and clothes. To the donator, it may help to assuage consumer guilt. “You can make a pretty good case to yourself that you are doing good, because what you are doing is going towards a charitable cause and you are saving stuff from landfill(垃圾堆),” Clare Press, fashion journalist and sustainable style advocate, tells the Guardian.

There are sometimes hidden treasures for the buyers, too. Take a screen print for example. It was bought for 99p and later found to be by English artist Ben Nicholson. It was sold for￡4, 200.        So next time you need to rid yourself of something, spare a thought for the charity shop-after all, charity begins at home!

【推荐1】Are you looking for a fun way to improve your fitness? Look no further than tennis! This fast-paced sport offers more than just a good time on the court. Here are a few reasons why you might want to pick up a racket (球拍) and start swinging.

Become more agile (敏捷的) and flexible. Tennis, as you may know, demands quick reactions, swift changes in direction and agile movements.     1     That’s why tennis players show a greater ability for flexibility and agility compared to people who lead a less active life.

    2     Tennis is one of those sports that can get your heart pumping and blood flowing. A study performed by the British Journal of Sports Medicine found that sports with rackets, like tennis, can help lower their player’s risk of heart disease.

Strengthen your mental wellness and growth mindset. Tennis training encourages discipline and requires a person to be in what is known as a growth mindset. It can help improve your psychological resilience (适应力), which is the ability to thrive when being exposed to hardship.     3    

Strengthen your overall strength. Have you ever noticed that tennis isn’t just about the arm movements?     4     The constant running, swinging and hitting the ball builds muscular strength and endurance. Because of this, tennis can make you physically as well as mentally strong.

Build social interaction. Some sports can be played or done on your own, such as swimming. Tennis is not one of them.     5     According to a report, the social interaction that happens while playing tennis with someone else is beneficial to mental wellbeing. Why? Because just being on the court with someone else can make you feel less alone.

【推荐2】We all know about the health benefits of swimming. It offers a great workout for the body —it builds endurance, muscle strength, and cardiovascular (心血管的) fitness.    1    ? Well, many people are trying, based on evidence that it is good for us.

Cold-water swimming involves swimming in natural areas including ponds, rivers, and the sea.     2    . And research has found it can have much bigger benefits than that for your body and mind. Besides being good exercise, spending time outdoors and in the water improves wellbeing.

    3    . One man who suffered constant pain after surgery claimed he was cured by taking a plunge in cold open water. And another swimmer, Sandria Simons, told the BBC, “the immersion (浸) of your body in cold, salt water, just feeling like you’re at one with nature if you like, just feels amazing.”

But what are people gaining from this chilly experience? Doctors say getting into cold water causes a stress response, but the more you do it, your reaction to stress is reduced. It’s also thought to have a strong anti-inflammatory (消炎的) effect.     4    . Some experts believe cold-water swimming helps “cross-adaptation”, where one form of stress prepares the body for another. For example, it also helps reduce the stress of exercising at high altitudes.

    5    : approach it with caution, swim with a friend, and maybe start in the summer, when the water temperatures are higher!