【推荐1】When you feel sick, you go to the doctor. She checks your fever, and asks what you’ve been thinking about recently. When you leave, she gives you not only some medicine but also a list of thinking skills that you are supposed to practice daily. She says that the way you think is causing some of your illness.

Doctors and scientists who study the human mind and try to explain why people behave in the way they do are called psychologists (心理学家). They are starting to believe that your brain is connected to every part of your body through your nervous system ( 神 经 系 统 ). Now scientists have proved that how you think and feel can have an influence on the health of your body. Stress can help us better understand this link(关联).

Stress is caused whenever there is a problem or a change in your life. In fact, stress is necessary, so everybody has stress more or less. Without stress, we would never learn anything or grow or change. But too much stress can hurt you. It can weaken your body’s protection so that you are more likely to catch diseases. It can even make you more likely to have an accident.

When you feel stressed, your brain sends a message to your body to produce a chemical thing that speeds up your breathing and your heartbeat. And that’s what can do something bad to you. Therefore, how can you deal with stress? First, you can try to find ways to change things so you aren’t under so much stress. You can set up a plan to finish homework or go to a doctor or a psychologist to try to work things out with your family or your friends. But sometimes you can’t change a stressful situation. Sometimes you don’t even want to. A big change might be a good change, but it will still be stressful.

The link between your body and brain works in two ways. Your body can help your mind deal with stress. If you are under stress, you need to take especially good care of your body. It’s important to get enough sleep and eat nutritious ( 有 营 养 的 ) meals. Some people take a vitamin-mineral pill every day. Another thing that you can do is daily exercise. You can go running or jogging or do aerobic(有氧的) dancing or work out at the gym.

【推荐2】In Sweden, Finland and Norway, people are generally very healthy. Their diet is good and they have a healthy lifestyle.     1     It is called SAD, which stands for Seasonal Affective Disorder.

In these northern countries, the summer days have 23 hours of sunlight and in the winter, the nights are 23 hours long. During the winter season, some people become very sad. Doctors have discovered that the sadness that these people suffer because they do not get enough sunlight.     2     People with this condition wear a special hat, the hat has a light in it which is very similar to sunlight. By wearing this hat, people can feel happy all winter.

Perhaps the opposite of this is wearing sunglasses. Many people feel more relaxed if they wear sunglasses.     3     Or it might be because they think they look cool in sunglasses. Plus, people who wear sunglasses can look at other people without anyone knowing!

    4     Whale songs are very popular because of the soft voices and calm rhythms and so are the sounds of waterfalls and bird songs.

Sound also affects people's mood and health. Medical studies have shown that certain kinds of music, such as gentle classical music, can lower people's blood pressure and heart rate. This is important for people who have heart problems. Of course, the opposite of this can be true.     5    

Isn't it amazing that so many things can change our mood and health?