Lots of people stress out about talking in front of the class or getting laughed at if they make a mistake in front of an audience. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}The “stress hormones" that your body produces at times like these can actually help you focus.

    But when worry and stress about performing get to be too much, these hormones give people that “red alert(紧急状态)” feeling—the one that causes you to feel cold or sweaty, or get butterflies in your stomach. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}

    Be prepared. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} Rehearse(排练) as much as you can and practice in front of others at every opportunity. Most of all, think positively. Tell yourself “I'll be OK" or “I can do this" even if you are not 100% sure of it

    Look after yourself. Before big performances it's easy to let taking care of yourself slip as you spend too much time on rehearsals and practice. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} Exercise can also help you feel good, and along with sleep and nutrition, is an excellent way of keeping those stress hormones from getting out of control.

    Find out what the experts do. You can find books, DVDs, and online information about how to give your best when you perform, depending on what type of performance you're preparing for. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} Or ask the cast of your school play or your drama or music teacher how they beat stage fright. And if your parents or grandparents ever performed, they may have their own secrets to share.

    Poet William Stafford once said that we are defined more by the detours (绕行路) in life than by the narrow road toward goals. I like this image. But it was quite by accident that I discovered the deep meaning of his words.

For years we made the long drive from our home in Seattle to my parents' home in Boise in nine hours. We traveled the way most people do: the fastest, shortest, easiest road, especially when I was alone with four noisy, restless kids who hate confinement (限制) and have strong opinions about everything.

    Road trips felt risky, so I would drive fast, stopping only when I had to. We would stick to the freeways and arrive tired.

    But then Banner, our lamb was born. He was rejected by his mama days before our planned trip to Boise. I had two choices: leave Banner with my husband, or take him with me. My husband made the decision for me.

    That is how I found myself on the road with four kids, a baby lamb and nothing but my everlasting optimism to see me through. We took the country roads out of necessity. We had to stop every hour, let Banner shake out his legs and feed him. The kids chased him and one another. They'd get back in the car breathless and energized, smelling fresh from the cold air.

    We explored side roads, catching grasshoppers in waist-high grass. Even if we simply looked out of the car windows at baby pigs following their mother, or fish leaping out of the water, it was better than the best ride down the freeway. Here was life. And new horizons (见识).

    We eventually arrived at my parents' doorstep astonishingly fresh and full of stories.

    I grew brave with the trip back home and creative with my disciplining technique. On an empty section of road, everyone started quarreling. I stopped the car, ordered all kids out and told them to meet me up ahead. I parked my car half a mile away and read my book in sweet silence.

    Some road trips are by necessity fast and straight. But that trip with Banner opened our eyes to a world available to anyone adventurous enough to wander around and made me realize that a detour may uncover the best part of a journey—and the best part of yourself.

    It is a popular Internet thing to focus on the upside of being in your 30s, and it is nice to know how to do basic modern-human-being things like paying your taxes and cooking a simple meal. But it can be a less-encouraging story at work: People in their late 20s to early 40s tend to report lower levels of job satisfaction and higher levels of emotional exhaustion than other age groups, according to new research.

    There's an obvious reason: These tend to be the ages when people have young children at home, and the researchers did find that this group reported feeling increasingly crunched for time. But adding to that pressure, coworker support also tends to decline at this age. Some researchers interpret the findings:

    Support from co-workers probably decreases in midlife as peers compete for limited resources（promotion bottlenecks are often encountered during this career stage. Also, whereas younger co-workers are often hungry to make up new social networks, and older workers seek identity-affirming work experiences in their remaining tenure（任期）, mid lifers find it demanding enough just to maintain existing social networks. Meanwhile, time pressure likely increases as colleagues are all trying to enrich their own knowledge and experience.

    But the good news is that after about a decade of struggle, things start to pick back up again. Occupational psychologists say that happiness at work recovers when people reach their 40s, and that people in their 50s are more satisfied with their jobs than any other age group. Hang in there, 30-somethings-soon you will be older, but at least work will meet less frustration（挫折）!

A HALF - EMPTY BASKET

    Once there was a poor farmer and his farm belonged to a rich man. One day he brought a basket of apples to the rich man's house. On the doorsteps, he met two monkeys dressed like children. They jumped onto the basket to eat the apples and threw some on the ground. The farmer politely took off his hat and asked the monkeys to get off. They obeyed(服从) and the farmer went into the house. He asked to see the rich man. A servant took him to the room where the rich man was sitting.

    "I have brought you the basket of apples you asked for," he said.

    "But why have you brought a half-empty basket?" the rich man asked.

    "I met your children outside, and they stole some of the apples."

    Each year there are at least five million people around the world who develop serious flu (流感), and almost half a million deaths. When someone we know gets the flu virus, we expect them to be very careful not to pass it on to others. Doctors and nurses working with flu patients also need to protect themselves from the virus. But what is the best way to do this? This is the question that flu expert Professor Jonathan

    Van-Tam at Nottingham University is trying to answer. He wants to find out how flu is transmitted, so that he can stop doctors and nurses getting sick.

    Van-Tam explains their method, "There are 41 volunteers in my experiment. Some healthy volunteers are made to get flu first. When they show symptoms (症状), other volunteers, usually called recipients(接受者), enter the house. Everyone lives together in the small space for four days. Some of the recipients wear face masks, and wash their hands every 15 minutes, but some have no protection. In this way we can study who catches the flu and which ways of transmitting flu are important. During the four days when they are in contact with the virus, and for the ten days after that, the flu recipients are checked regularly."

    The experiment is not simple and it is very expensive. It is difficult to design correctly, and it is also difficult to plan and carry out. Just one study like this takes about 18 months to organize and needs hundreds of people working on it. But Van-Tam believes it is worth because the results will help to decide what type of protection is needed for people working in hospitals with large numbers of flu patients around the world. And perhaps it could reduce the number of deaths from flu each year.

    Do you have any stress in your daily life and do you know how to reduce your stress?

    Our world is changing with ever increasing speed and many people are finding it difficult to keep up with it. Although no one can control the world at large, people do have the power to control their personal world by controlling stress and their responses (反应) to it.

    Of course a certain amount of stress, both physical and mental is normal and healthy for humans but too much can be fatal. According to a report on the Mayo Clinic's website, "80% of patient visits to their doctors are stress related. Almost 60% of all employee absences from work are related to stress. Over one million people (in the U. S. ) die each year due to diseases related to stress. This includes obesity(肥胖), lung cancer (due to smoking), heart disease and high blood pressure. "

    The result of stress or the way it shows in a person's life is, in part, their reaction to the situation. Some of the ways in which stress "shows up" are signals that need to be recognised, before more serious conditions develop. A few of these are: stomachaches, chest pain, anxiety, depression, low self-esteem (自尊) and impatience.

    The good news is that these reactions can be changed naturally. By using positive suggestions a hypnotist (催眠治疗师) can help us make great changes. A deep, relaxing hypnotic rest is a very safe, pleasant and enjoyable process and stress reduction is a natural by-product.

    If you would like to get the tools to reduce stress naturally, hypnotism can be very helpful. A professional hypnotist not only guides people through stress reducing exercises and offers suggestions for dealing with stress, but also teaches self hypnosis skills which can be used throughout life.