【推荐1】There has long been a notion (观念) that money buys happiness. However, although “we really, really tried that for a couple of generations, it didn’t work,” said Francine Jay, author of The Joy of Less, A Minimalist Living Guide: How to Declutter, Organize, and Simplify Your Life.

Thanks to a travel-inspired revelation (启发), Jay has been happily living a simpler life for 12 years. “I always packed as lightly as possible, and found it exciting to get by with just a small carry-on bag,” she told CNN. “I thought if it feels this great to travel lightly, how amazing would it be to live this way? I wanted to have that same feeling of freedom in my everyday life.”

Jay decided to get rid of all her excess (额外的) possessions and live with just the essentials (必需品). “I wanted to spend my time and energy on experiences, rather than things.”

Jay is a follower of a movement called “minimalism (极简主义)”. Growing numbers of people have been attracted to this lifestyle all over the world. They share the same feeling of disappointment with modern life and a desire to live more simply. Minimalists are typically progressive and concerned about the environment, Leah Watkins, a lead researcher at Otago University in New Zealand, told Stuff magazine in March.

But many simply experienced unhappiness caused by owning too many possessions. Depression with the materialism of our world isn’t new. English romantic poet William Wordsworth summed up how dispiriting (令人 消沉的) this was back in 1802, at the beginning of the industrial age, when he wrote: “Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers”. His preference was to go back to nature. Closer to our own times, the hippies (嬉皮士) of the 1960s also sought to ‘‘drop out” of modern life.

And for many minimalists, their key is to unload. Without objects, they “believe people are forced more and more into the present moment and that’s where life happens,” wrote Stuff.

But does simplicity ever feel like a sacrifice (牺牲)?

“It’s eliminating the excess—unused items, unnecessary purchases—from your life. Well, I may have fewer possessions, but I have more space … Minimalism is making room for what matters most,” said Jay.

And “the real questions”, according to Duane Elgin, US social scientist, are “what do you care about?” and “What do you value?”

He told CNN: “It’s important for people to realize minimalism isn’t simply the amount of stuff we consume. It’s about our families, our work, our connection with the larger world, our spiritual dimension. It’s about how we touch the whole world. It’s a way of life.”

【推荐2】Are people less or more happy when they get older? A study in 2018 found that people generally become/happier and experience less worry after age 50. In fact, it found that by the age of 85, people are happier with their life than they were at 18.

Arthur Stone in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science at Stony Brook University in New York led the-study. His team found that levels of stress were the highest among adults between the ages of 22 and 25.    1    

Happiness was the highest among the youngest adults and those in their early 70s. But the people least likely to report feeling negative emotions were those in their 70s and 80s.

The survey also found that men and women have similar emotional patterns as they grow older.    2    

The researchers also considered possible influences like having young children, being unemployed or being single. But, they found that influences like these did not affect the levels of happiness and well-being related to age.

    3     One theory is that, as people get older, they become more than thankful for what they have and have better control of their emotions. They also spend less time thinking about bad experience.

    4     In another study, people in their 80s reported the fewest problems with the quality of their sleep. The original goal was to confirm the popular belief that aging is connected with increased sleep problems.    5    But except for that, people reported that they felt their sleep quality improved as they got older.