“Dealing with money is a basic life skill”

Why financial transactions are about relationships and why the

quality of the relationship is more important than the transaction itself.

British psychologist, William Bloom, has long argued that society would benefit if money flowed more freely-if, for example, people regularly give part of their salaries or profits to charity.

When you say, “Money should flow more freely,” what do you mean?

“There are two metaphors that I like to use for money. One is the energy of the environment and human nature. Money represents a(n)     1     of these energies; it’s a materialized form of energy. The other metaphor is water. If you look at water, it can be still and polluted or, once the dams are opened, it has the ability to     2     itself. Healthy energy flows in the way rich people should allow their money to flow. If they are good, they will know how to give.”

Money still isn’t flowing freely.

A lot of it is dammed up in banks and in the hands of a small percentage of extremely wealthy individuals. “We have to build a society in which we are not threatened by each other. The gap between the rich and the poor     3     social connection and harmony. The Baby Boomers (婴儿潮一代) are too comfortable for too long. Now they have to ask themselves what their politics are, because life is political. This is the time for all of us to     4     politically.”

How can we deal with money in a healthier way?

“When it comes to money, there is a lot of naiveté. Children need to be taught in school that dealing with money is a basic life skill. They need to be able to read a bank statement in a(n)     5     way. When a transaction takes place, this means     6     pausing to say, ‘This exchange affects me in this and this way.’ We are often in too much of a hurry to realize that. We also forget that transactions are first and foremost about relationships. The quality of that relationship is more important than the transaction itself. That’s why Bedouins (游牧民族贝都因人)   always share a cup of tea when they do business together. They understand the need to     7     their relationship with others.”

Another form of flow is giving. Can that be a kind of spiritual practice?

“Humans are paradoxical beings. It is possible to have pure     8     and to get satisfaction as a by-product from your actions. There is the classic idea that giving away money brings a sense of safety and satisfaction. And it does. Being alive in this universe comes from the     9     that you’re part of a flow in the universe. People think highly of altruism (舍己为人), giving away money to someone who cannot see you. Donating money to charity is not just about the material effect but it also allows you to pay attention to what causes you’re supporting. It’s healthy to give without thinking of the material     10    . Money is neutral, like language. It’s all about the way in which it is used.”

What makes us happy?

You probably know the type of personality in some people: they seem to be hopeful in almost everything. Are they simply born happy? Is it the product of their environment? Or does it come from their life decisions?

If you are familiar with genetics research, you will have guessed that it is a     1     of all three. A 2018 study of 1516 Norwegian twins suggests that around 30% of the differences in people’s life satisfaction is     2    . Much of this seems to be related to personality traits.

To put this in context, the heritability of IQ is thought to be around 80%, so     3     factors clearly play a role in our happiness. These include our physical health, the size and strength of our social network, job opportunities and income. It seems that the absolute value of our salary matters less than whether we feel richer than those around us, which may explain why the level of       4     predicts happiness better than GDP.

Interestingly, many important life     5     have only a little influence on our happiness. Consider marriage. A 2019 study found that, on average, life satisfaction does rise after the wedding, but the feeling of happiness tends to     6     over middle age.

Parenthood is even more complex. For decades, social scientists have found that people with children at home are significantly less happy than those without. More recent research, however, suggests that there are important regional differences.

Analyses show that these differences can be almost completely explained by variations in       7     parental leave, flexible working hours, affordable childcare and holiday leave, which together     8     the potential for work-family conflict. The effects of these policies may play out across generations. In addition to the legacy of their genes, parents’ own emotional well-being will influence the family vigour, which will, in turn, shape the     9     of their children.

Our life satisfaction, then, is shaped by our genes, health, economic prospects, relationships and the culture around us. While many of these things may be beyond your control, there is now good evidence that certain psychological strategies will help you to     10     to your circumstances in the happiest way possible.

Trust in your scientific instincts and never stop moving forward

I’ve studied biology, biochemistry, math, and computer science, and received my Ph.D. from Cambridge University. In 2008, when I learned Philip Morris International (PMI) was building a new laboratory to    1     the products that would form part of a smoke-free future, I said, “I’m in.”

Seeing the positive results from the first studies looking at the differences between cigarette smoke and aerosol (气溶胶) from our smoke-free nicotine (尼古丁) products was stimulating. There were so many positive findings, and yet we were still in the building phase. What would happen next? We had to tell ourselves to be    2    : Don’t worry, just look at the data.

Systems toxicology (系统毒理学) is an exciting and     3     field to work in. However, it    4     massive amounts of data, as it combines standard toxicology with new and diverse techniques to help give us a bigger and more detailed picture of how toxic substances affect the body. Working with such giant blocks of data is a challenge for all applications of systems toxicology, not just tobacco harm reduction. This is why we share our data and methods     5    . It is not only in our best interest to     6     openness to the world at large, but it’s also important to engage the global scientific community in order to always be moving the science forward.

The     7     public health impact of science-backed smoke-free products is considerable. And while these products are not risk-free and deliver nicotine—which is addictive—the breakthrough is     8    . And I feel an enormous sense of accomplishment with what we’ve achieved so far.

Of course, we still have important work to do. We will continue to provide information to     9    , scientists, public health organizations, and policymakers about the potential of smoke-free products. We will continue to share our science. And we will continue working to deliver smoke-free     10     for the world’s adult smokers who don’t quit tobacco and nicotine altogether. But this is a marathon, and we’re in this for the long term.

Feeling Ugly on Zoom

Jane, a 40-year-old mental health professional from Ireland, never worried too much about how she looked. However, when her job went fully     1    , she found herself desperately anxious about Microsoft Teams (video) meetings. Her face looked rounder, her nose looked bigger, and her top lip looked thinner than she had ever noticed it while looking in the mirror.

“I’ve always thought that I was attractive, and people would always compliment my looks in person,” Jane says. “But on video, nobody was saying how nice it was to see my pretty face.”

In June 2021, Jane took matters into her own hands — or rather, her lips — and got her wrinkles plumped with filler. She was so pleased with the results that she plans to     2     the process every year.

As the pandemic forced the masses into video conferences throughout 2020, researchers noticed a phenomenon they called “Zoom dysmorphia” (畸形恐惧症). After months of remote meetings and social gatherings — and seeing their own faces on screen — more and more people became focused on their physical     3    . Shadi Kourosh, a Massachusetts dermatologist (皮肤科医生), coined the term after her clinic reopened for in-person appointments in the summer of 2020, when she noticed a huge increase in consultations for cosmetic procedures. Even more     4    , with the return to face-to-face interaction, consultation requests are not slowing down. While the trend may not only be attributable to Zoom, it is clear that the age of video conferencing has opened up a Pandora’s box of physical and mental insecurities.

Psychological studies have long associated time spent in front of the mirror with one’s     5    feelings of insecurity. However, Kourosh says that looking at yourself on a screen is more like looking into a funhouse mirror than an actual one. Front-facing cameras, with their close     6    , can distort (使……失真) people’s appearance, making eyes look smaller and noses seem bigger. Plus, people are not used to watching themselves while trying to pay attention to other people.

Doctors who perform cosmetic procedures are familiar with how the phenomenon of body dysmorphia has become     7     worsened in recent years by retouched (润饰的) celebrity photos or, even more recently, by social media filters. But most people are self-aware enough to know a social media filter is not real life. Zoom dysmorphia is tricker because people simply were not aware that video calls could cause     8    . These types of insecurities also affect a much broader section of society. Not everybody has a Snapchat account, but almost anybody who worked from home during the pandemic used video conferencing. The impact can be profound and lasting.

Jane has    9     feelings. Her job will be online for the foreseeable future. Feeling less attractive on screen than in real life, she is considering a rhinoplasty (隆鼻术) to improve her confidence. “But resolving my anxiety about my physical appearance is likely to     10    its own kind of insecurity,” she says. “It feels juvenile (幼稚的) as a 40-year-old women to think about my looks like a teenager. There’re bigger problems in the world.”

New Year’s Eve celebrations will still be on in Times Square, but with smaller crowds

NEW YORK — Revelers(狂欢者)will still ring in the new year in New York’s Times Square next week, there just won’t be as many of them as usual under new restrictions announced Thursday as the city struggles with a spike in COVID-19 cases.

Viewing areas that normally accommodate about 58,000 people will be    1    about 15,000 to allow for more distancing, and everyone in attendance must show proof of vaccination(接种疫苗)and wear a mask, Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a news release    2    the changes.

“There is a lot to celebrate and these additional safety measures will keep the fully vaccinated crowd safe and healthy as we ring in the New Year,” de Blasio said, noting the city’s success in getting residents vaccinated while also keeping businesses open.

The added precautions for New Year’s Eve in Times Square were spurred by the rapid spread of the omicron variant in the Big Apple, where lines for testing have snaked around blocks in recent days.

On Wednesday, the city set yet another one-day testing record with 22,808 new cases, though a true comparison to the number of cases during the initial COVID-19 surge in spring 2020 is impossible because tests were very limited at the time.

Because of vaccinations, hospitalizations and deaths from the current surge are far fewer than at the pandemic’s height.

The new wave of cases has    3    to the cancellation of concerts, sporting events and Broadway shows, but de Blasio has shown a strong preference for having the annual Times Square ball drop go on as    4    — the last major event of his eight-year tenure(任期), which ends Jan.1.

Little more than a month ago, de Blasio gladly announced that a fully vaccinated crowd of hundreds of thousands of people would be back at the iconic celebration — dressing goofy 2022-themed glasses and watching a crystal-clad ball drop at midnight — after it was limited last year to small groups of essential workers.

But that was before omicron caught fire,     5    city officials and event organizers to rethink just how many people they wanted to squeeze into the bright, billboard-lined tourist haven known to some as the Crossroads of the World.

On Tuesday, the Fox network gave its decision, pulling the plug on a planned live broadcast from the New Year’s Eve event.Other networks plan to air the festivities, including Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve on ABC, the loyal program now hosted by Ryan Seacrest.

De Blasio said along with Thursday’s announcement that the city is    6    the COVID-19 situation and could impose additional precautions if needed.Among the other changes announced Thursday, revelers won’t be allowed into viewing areas until 3 p.m., much later than in past years.

On New Year’s Eve last year, Times Square was mostly empty, with Jennifer Lopez and other artists     7    behind police walls. After vaccines became widely available in the U.S., the city allowed crowds back to the Macy’s Fourth of July fireworks, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade and other events.

“New York is the best place in the world to celebrate New Year’s Eve and now it will be one of the safest against COVID as well,” Mayor-elect Eric Adams said in a written statement supporting the new precautions.

“New Yorkers and visitors alike can now enjoy Times Square and the rest of our city as we ring in 2022.”

A star athlete at the college where I work recently stopped by my office. After committing a few unforced errors during a weekend match, she was torn apart by self-criticism. “I can’t stop beating myself up,” she told me. “I’m at peak fitness, and I practice hard. How is this happening?”

This student, like many I teach, believes she should be able to control the outcomes of her life via her hard work. The mentality can be described as such: all-nighters in the library and hours on the field should get her     1     where she needs to go.

I study and write about resilience (适应力), and I’m noticing a     2     point in students like this athlete. When they win, they feel powerful and smart. When they fall short of what they imagine they should accomplish, however, they are crushed by self-blame.

We talk often about young adults     3     with failure because their parents have protected them from discomfort. But there is something else at play among the most advantaged in particular: a false     4     that they can achieve anything if they are willing to work for it.

The cruel, messy reality is that you can do everything in your power and still fail. This knowledge comes early to underrepresented minorities whose experience of     5     and inequality teaches them to prepare for what is, for now,     6     beyond their control to change. Yet for others, the belief that success is always within their grasp is a setup. University of Chicago professor Lauren Berlant calls this “cruel optimism,” when the     7     of a goal harms you because it is largely unachievable.

Instead of allowing our kids to beat themselves up when things don’t go their way, we should all     8     a culture that has taught them that feeling anything less than overwhelmed means they're lazy, and that how they perform for others is more important than what actually inspires them. The point is not to give our kids a pass on working hard. We would be wise to remind our kids that life has a way of sucker-punching us when we least expect it. It’s often the people who learn to say “stuff happens" who get up the fastest.

Marvelous Mallorca

Located off the southern coast of Spain, the island of Mallorca is often praised as one of the jewels of the Mediterranean. As the Spanish royal family’s preferred summer vacation spot, Mallorca     1     charms visitors with its beautiful villages and mountains covered in orange and lemon trees.

Since it is a(n)     2     small island, Mallorca is best seen by bicycle. The Serra de Tramuntana Mountain range runs along the island’s north-western coast and covers nearly 30 percent of the island’s     3    , which makes it a cyclist’s dream.The     4     roads that cross the tall peaks and rocky cliffs provide some of the most challenging cycling on the island.

However, most of the island’s visitors come to see Mallorca’s splendid coast. Though there are several busy beach resorts built specifically for tourists, you’re better off     5     the 260 beaches around the island on your own. Along the south coast, you’ll find white sands and clear blue waters seemingly made just for diving. In the east, keep an eye out for hidden bays that     6     for peaceful swimming even in high season.

Although Mallorca’s beaches have been its main attraction for many years, more recently, visitors have begun to appreciate the island’s cultural attractions too. Many of Mallorea’s grand old houses and     7     farms are being turned into resorts where visitors can enjoy the relaxed lifestyle of the Mallorcan countryside.

Palma, Mallorca’s lively capital, is also home to many museums, historic buildings, and galleries. Here you’ll be able to     8     paintings by great Spanish master such as Picasso, Dali, and Miro, whose former house in the city’s western district is open to visitors.

As the day     9     down, spend an evening enjoying a freshly caught supper in one of Palma’s oceanfront restaurants while taking in a beautiful Mallorcan sunset. What better way to wrap up your Spanish     10    ?

Obstacles can be overcome, say trade experts

The main problem in the EU-UK talks on a trade deal is resolvable so long as neither side treats the matter as a question of high principle, according to trade experts.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned on Wednesday that a trade deal must     1     a “level playing field, not only for today, but also for tomorrow ”. But British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Wednesday evening that Britain would never sign up to automatically having to     2     future EU rules in areas such as environmental regulations and labour standards in order to keep the     3     of a trade deal.

Nonetheless, experts said there was the     4     for negotiation between Britain’s position, a willingness to swear not to     5     regulatory standards as they stand at the end of its Brexit (British exit) transition period, and the EU’s quest to ensure that these trade deals work well for ever.

The “landing zone” for any deal would likely ensure that the UK was not able to weaken the effectiveness of European regulations and keep the advantages of zero tariffs (关税) in goods: the main feature of the     6     free trade agreement.

David Henig, UK director of the European Centre For International Political Economy, said what was needed to be agreed were specific     7     that the trade deal covered and the process for dealing with possible     8    .

The only reason that this should spoil the trade deal talks, said Mr. Henig, was if one or both sides keep their positions on a matter of principle.

Since the start of the talks, the EU’s concern has been to avoid having a(n)     9     competitor close to its single market, seizing an advantage through lax (宽松的) environmental regulations and labour standards.

The EU has already moved     10     on state aid. Brussels entered the negotiations saying the UK should continue to in effect operate the state aid system under the supervision of the European Court of Justice. It has since agreed to an approach based upon agreeing common principles with Britain.