Ways to Free Your Mind You're Feeling Stuck

    Have you ever like you were racing around in without making much forward progress? If you're stuck and you don't know how to rise, don't look outside yourself. Look below.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    Go back to what's important

    When we get stuck, it can be extremely useful to come back to these three things: core values, beliefs and goals. Why?{#blank#}2{#/blank#}

    Ask for help

    Very often, highly happy and successful people have a supporting group of friends, family and others who help them{#blank#}3{#/blank#}And don't be afraid to reach out and help someone who's even more stuck than you.

    Embrace the natural pathways

    When you get stuck, there's no need to go back to the drawing board. Ask the people around you about the systems that are working for them, read insightful books and blog articles, and use the same methods and pathways that others have used to get unstuck.{#blank#}4{#/blank#}

    Relocate yourself to an inspiring environment

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#}You can go for a walk in a nearby park. You can come out of the office for a cup of coffee. Or if you are at home, you can simply go to a different room in the house. Whether it's urban spaces, parks, libraries, museums or even our own backyards, there are plenty of available sources that we can draw inspiration and strength from.

A. Goals are the outcomes in life that we strive for.

B. Here are some useful ways to help yourself get unstuck.

C. When you are stuck, don't be afraid to ask for help.

D. One way to get unstuck is to simply change your environment.

E. Because they form the basics of what is important to us as individuals.

F. Break the circle of worry and work on something else.

G. In fact, the system is nothing more than a natural pathway of thought that someone has created with their mind.

    A major source of teen stress is school exams, and test anxiety is not uncommon. When you recognize your teen is under stress, how can parents help your teen stay calm before an exam?

    Be involved. Parents need to be involved in their teen's work.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}What they look for is your presence - to talk, to cry, or simply to sit with them quietly. Communicate openly with your teen. Encourage your teen to express his worries and fears, but don't let them focus on those fears.

    Help them get organized.{#blank#}2{#/blank#}Together, you and your teen can work out a time-table in which she can study for what she knows will be on the test.

    Provide a calm setting. Help your teen set up a quiet place to study and protect his privacy. Give them a nutritious diet. It's important for your teen to eat a healthy, balanced diet during exam times to focus and do her best.{#blank#}3{#/blank#}If this happens, encourage your teen to eat light meals or sandwiches. A healthy diet, rather than junk food, is best for reducing stress.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#}Persuade your teenager to get some sleep and/or do something active when she needs a real break from studying. Making time for relaxation, fun, and exercise are all important in reducing stress. Help your teen balance her time so that she will feel comfortable taking time out from studying to spend time with friends or rest.

    Show a positive attitude.{#blank#}5{#/blank#}Your panic, anxiety and blame contribute to your teen's pressure. Make your teen feel accepted and valued for her efforts. Most importantly, reassure your teen that things will be all right, no matter what the results are.

How to Do Man-on-the Street Interviews

    The man-on-the-street interview is an interview in which a reporter hits the streets with a cameraman to interview people on the spot. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} But with these tips, your first man-on-the-street interview experience can be easy.

    When your boss or professor sends you out to do man-on-the –street interviews for a story, think about the topic and develop a list of about ten general questions relating to it. For example, if your topic is about environmental problems in America, you might ask, "Why do you think environmental protection is important in America?" {#blank#}2{#/blank#}

    Hit the streets with confidence. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} Say, "Excuse me, I work for XYZ News, and I was wondering if you could share your opinion about this topic," This is a quick way to get people to warm up to you.

    Move on to the next person if someone tells you she is not interested in talking on camera. Don't get discouraged.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#} Each interview that you get on the street shouldn't be longer than ten minutes. As soon as you get the answer you need, move on to the next person. Make sure that as you go from interview to interview, you are getting a variety of answers. If everyone is giving you the same answer, you won't be able to use it. A safe number of interviews to conduct is about six to ten. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}

    If your news station or school requires interviewees to sign release forms to appear on the air, don't leave work without them.

A. Limit your time.

B. As you approach people, be polite.

C. If you don't own a camera, you can buy one.

D. For new reporters, this can seem like a challenging task.

E. To get good and useful results, ask them the same question.

F. That number of interviews should give you all the answers you need.

G. With a question like this, you will get more than a 'Yes" or "No" reply.

    The quality of patience goes a long way toward your goal of creating a more peaceful and loving self. The more patient you are, the more accepting you will be of what life is, rather than insisting that life be exactly as you would like it to be. Without patience, life is extremely frustrating. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Patience adds some ease and acceptance to your life. It's important for inner peace.

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#} If you are stuck in a traffic jam, late for an appointment, being patient would mean keeping yourself from building a mental snowball before your thinking gets out of hand and gently reminding yourself to relax. It might also be a good time to breathe as well as an opportunity to remind yourself that, in the bigger scheme of things, being late is "small stuff".

    Patience is a quality of heart that can be greatly enhanced with deliberate practice. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} They are the periods of time that I set up in my mind to practice the art of patience. Life itself becomes a classroom, and the curriculum is patience. You can start with as little as five minutes and build up your capacity for patience over time. What you'll discover is truly amazing. Your intention to be patient, especially if you know it's only for a short while, immediately strengthens your capacity for patience. Patience is one of those qualities where success feeds on itself. Once you reach little milestone-five minutes of successful patience-you'll begin to see that you do indeed have the capacity to be patient, even for longer periods of time. Over time, you may even become a patient person.

    Being patient will help you to keep your perspective. You will see even a difficult situation, say your present challenge, isn't "life or death" but simply a minor obstacle that must be dealt with. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}

A. An effective way that I have found to deepen my own patience is to create actual practice periods.

B. You are more easily annoyed and bothered.

C. It is generally believed that the quality of being patient is very difficult to develop.

D. Becoming more patient involves opening your heart to the present moment, even if you don't like it.

E. Without patience, you will see the same scene as an emergency complete with yelling, frustration, hurt feelings.

F. If you lack patience, you are destined to fail in what you are pursuing.

    Have you ever imagined the benefits that a good memory can bring to you? {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Here are four ways to improve your memory.

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#} There is evidence that sleep plays a vital role in the consolidation of memories relating to learning motor skills, such as learning to play a musical instrument or ride a bike. Having a full night's sleep soon after gaining a new skill helps consolidate the processes involved, so they can later be performed well.

    It's rewarding to continue education. Older people are often told to adopt a “use it or lose it” approach to maintaining cognitive (认知的) function. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} In a 2016 study, US researchers found participants aged 60-90 who spent 15 hours a week for three months learning a complex skill, such as digital photography, saw significant improvements in memory tests.

    Taking a break counts. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} More than a century ago, German scientists showed that people performed almost twice as well in memory tests if they took breaks.

It's useful to stay social. Having an active social life delays memory loss as we age, US scientists who asked people in their 50s and 60s to do memory tests every other year between 2001 and 2007 found the decline in recall abilities of their most sociable subjects to be half that of the least well connected. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}

A. Sleeping well helps strengthen memories.

B. Old people should participate in easy activities

C. Yoga, meditation or other relaxation techniques may help.

D. Memories can be destroyed if the brain doesn't have enough rests to sharpen them.

E. In fact, when it comes to memory, research suggests that only certain types of mental activities help.

F. Being able to remember important pieces of information can give you a powerful advantage in your life.

G. Having good friends, volunteering for charities and other forms of social engagement also protect memory.

    Every animal sleeps, but the reason for this has remained foggy. When lab rats are not allowed to sleep, they die within a month.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    One idea is that sleep helps us strengthen new memories. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} We know that, while awake, fresh memories are recorded by reinforcing (加强) connections between brain cells, but the memory processes that take place while we sleep have been unclear.

    Support is growing for a theory that sleep evolved so that connections between neurons (神经元) in the brain can be weakened overnight, making room for fresh memories to form the next day.{#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    Now we have the most direct evidence yet that he is right.{#blank#}4{#/blank#} The synapses in the mice taken at the end of a period of sleep were 18 per cent smaller than those taken before sleep, showing that the connections between neurons weaken while sleeping.

    If Tononi's theory is right, it would explain why, when we miss a night's, we find it harder the next day to concentrate and learn new information — our brains may have smaller room for new experiences.

    Their research also suggests how we may build lasting memories over time even though the synapses become thinner. The team discovered that some synapses seem to be protected and stayed the same size. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} “You keep what matters,” Tononi says.

A. We should also try to sleep well the night before.

B. It's as if the brain is preserving its most important memories.

C. That's why students do better in tests if they get a chance to sleep after learning.

D. Similarly, when people go for a few days without sleeping, they get sick.

E. The processes take place to stop our brains becoming loaded with memories.

F. Tononi's team measured the size of these connections, or synapses, in the brains of 12 mice.

G. “Sleep is the price we pay for learning,” says Giulio Tononi, who developed the idea.