【推荐1】In a 2012 study, Boaz Keysar, a professor at the University of Chicago in the US, led an experiment on the relationship between foreign languages and people’s way of thinking.

In the experiment, people were asked to make a choice: Just take one pound or take a 50percent chance of winning 2.50 pounds. When given this choice in their native language, most people took the safe option of only getting one pound. But they were more willing to make the riskier choice when asked in a foreign language, leading to more profits overall, according to The Guardian. As Keysar put it, “People just hate the chance of losing, but they hate it less in a foreign language.”

In another study published this year, Keysar and his team did an experiment in which participants were given a series of related words like “dream”, “snooze”, “bed” and “rest”. Later, when asked which words they remembered hearing, people were more likely to mistakenly remember “sleep”, which was not on the list, in their native language. But it was much less likely to happen if they did the test in a foreign language. As Keysar explained, people have more careful thinking when using a foreign language, leading to more accurate memories.

The foreign language effect may even influence our personality. Silvia Purpuri at the University of Trento, Italy, looked at people’s willingness to face uncertainty and enter unfamiliar situations. Being tolerant (宽容的) of uncertainty allows people to have more creative ideas and be more open to new things. It turns out that people naturally score more highly on this trait (特点) when they can speak or use a foreign language because speaking a foreign language requires taking risks.

The evidence is clear: By learning a foreign language, you’re not just learning a language—you’re gaining a new state of mind.

【推荐3】Expressing emotions(情感）is difficult as it's not always encouraged in society. People rely on comfort zones and a secure mask to get them through the day. You may feel emotions strong and wonder, “Why am I so sad?” and not know how to answer that.

In a way, being sensitive can be looked down upon. We ignore warning signs of sadness, depression and other forms of suffering because having feelings is something we cannot be open about in society. Sadness is one emotion of many. But it's often the one most ignored. We don't want to appear weak to others, or even to ourselves.

There is a difference between sadness and depression. Depression may lead to strong sadness that cannot be easily dealt with. You may go through all your skills at dealing with sadness, and it may still be there if it's depression.

Commonly, sadness is running quickly and brought on by something; it comes and goes, while depression holds us down for prolonged periods of time. When you are feeling sad, you are most likely feeling helpless. You feel like it's the end of the world or that you can't go on. But part of depression is feeling this way almost nonstop at a depth (深度） that can influence your behavior.

We feel we should be our own heroes. We feel like we need to hold on rather than let go and let others in. When this happens, sadness increases. When sadness hits, we have to tell someone and build a support system. Your sadness does not represent what you are worth. It only tells you the story you tell yourself. And when you change that story, you can breathe. You start to see the positives (正面的事物）in your day. You start to realize you deserve to be happy.