Over the past years, countless studies conducted have shown the positive effects that laughing has on one’s physical and mental health. Are you ready to laugh more? Below you’ll find five ways to bring more laughter into your life.

Smile more. Smiling is not laughing. 【小题1】 When you smile, happy changes begin to take place naturally, both internally and externally. In addition, you can think of smiling as a warm-up for laughing.

Learn to laugh at yourself. Most of us take ourselves too seriously. 【小题2】 Learning to laugh at yourself takes some of the pressure off. You can look for the funny side of things. When you’re upset about something, ask yourself “How is this situation funny?” Humor can even turn a negative into a positive.

Share stories from the past. Do you remember one time in high school that you and your best friend wore false hair and matching clothes around your neighborhood? Or, how about when your best friend sat on a painted bench by accident? 【小题3】

Take up something new. When you try something new — whether it’s to draw or learn to roller skate — your original attempts will likely be clumsy (笨拙的) and even ridiculous (荒谬的). 【小题4】 So taking up something new is likely to result in laughs.

【小题5】 We are heavily influenced by the people we are with, so by hanging out with funny people, we can add more laughter into our days. That positive and silly energy will immediately rub off on (感染) us and it can cause us to want to feel happier and sillier throughout our days.

As children grow up, they will likely be drawn to participate in sports. But not all children will be interested in or successful at every sports experience. Some children tend to join in team sports while others will prefer individual sports. 【小题1】 So how can parents help their child pick a most suitable sport? Here’s How:

【小题2】

A child’s interest in a given sport is the best determiner of whether he or she will enjoy it as a participant. So expose the child to a wide variety of sports experiences. Talk with them about what they like and dislike about each sport.

【小题3】

As you check out the various sports, see if you can tell which of them seems most interesting to the child. Listen to your child for signs about their preferences. Maybe they will talk about the players, the skills, or they will tell others about the experience. If you watch and listen, you can pick up what interests them most.

Find out: team or individual?

Some children will prefer to participate in a team sport like football, baseball or basketball in which they play a role in a team. 【小题4】 Sports like these include swimming, tennis or golf. Or they may simply enjoy individual sports like cycling and gymnastics. As you observe your child, try to find out what their preferences are. 【小题5】

In 2020, Pink launched the World Regret Survey, the largest survey on the topic ever undertaken. With his research team, Pink asked more than 15, 000 people in 105 countries, “How often do you look back on your life and wish you had done things differently?” Most of them said regret was at least an occasional part of their life. Roughly 21 percent said they felt regretful all the time. Only 1 percent said they never felt regretful.

If you are of the “no regrets” school of life, you may think that all this regret is a recipe for unhappiness. But that isn’t the case. Letting yourself be overwhelmed by regret is indeed bad for you. But going to the other extreme may be even worse. To extinguish your regrets doesn’t free you from shame or sorrow but causes you to make the same mistakes again and again. To truly get over our guilt requires that we put regret in its proper place.

Uncomfortable as it is, regret is an amazing cognitive feat. It requires that you go back to a past scene. Imagine that you acted differently to change it, and with that new scene in mind, arrive at a different present-and then, compare that fictional present with the one you are experiencing in reality. Not all regrets are the same, of course. Pink says they come in four basic varieties, and an instance of regret may involve just one combination.

Many connection regrets overlap (重叠) with moral regrets, which can come about after you go against your own values. For example, you may pride yourself on being a loving person, and thus regret not living up to this image in the relationship you harmed, Moral regrets can also involve just yourself. Maybe you regret not living up to your commitment to your health when you ate a whole pizza or skipped the gym.

If not analyzed and managed, any variety of regret can be harmful to your well-being. Regret is linked to depression and anxiety, and excessive regret can adversely affect your immune system. But regret doesn’t have to be put aside and ignored.