Your house may have an effect on your figure . Experts say the way you design your home could play a role in whether you pack on the pounds or keep them off . You can make your environment work for you instead of against you . Here are some ways to turn your home into part of diet plan.

    Open the curtains and turn up the lights . Dark environments are more likely to encourage overeating , for people are often less self-conscious（难为情）when they're in poorly lit places-and so more likely to eat lots of food . If your home doesn't have enough window light, get more lamps and flood the place with brightness.

    Mind the colors. Research suggests warm colors fuel our appetites. In one study, people who ate meals in a blue room consumed 33 percent less than those in a yellow or red room . Warm colors like yellow make food appear more appetizing , while cold colors make us feel less hungry . So when it's time to repaint, go blue.

    Don't forget the clock-or the radio. People who eat slowly tend to consume about 70 fewer calories（卡路里） per meal than those who rush through their meals. Begin keeping track of the time, and try to make dinner last at least 30 minutes, And while you're at it, actually sit down to eat. If you need some help slowing down, turn on relaxing music. It makes you less likely to rush through a meal.

    Downsize the dishes. Big serving bowls and plates can easily make us fat. We eat about 22 percent more when using a 12-inch plate instead of a 10-inch plate. When we choose a large spoon over a smaller one ,total intake（摄入） jumps by 14 percent. And we'll pour about 30 percent more liquid into a short, wide glass than a tall, skinny glass.

    Winters are long and unforgiving in North Dakota. The winter of 1996 was especially brutal. It was a hard time in my own life too, A neck injury had kept me flat in bed for nearly a year. “Just in time for Easter,” my husband, Dick, said. But how could I feel the joy when the snow was four feet deep and I had months of painful physical treatment ahead?

    I was doing the dishes one day, feeling hopeless when there was a tap against the glass. It was a branch of the troublesome cottonwood (棉白杨).Back in the fall of 1979, it was a new subdivision (分支) then, an eight-foot stick. The people who'd briefly occupied the house before us had placed the pipe from the pump next to it. The earth was so wet that the poor thing had fallen down, most of its bare root system pointing skyward, and blowing hopelessly back and forth in the cold wind. Dick decided to pull it out one day, but I disapproved of it.

    “Look at how hard it's trying!” I said, pointing to the way it strongly kept hold of the earth. “It deserves a chance.”

    Dick borrowed some tools. We packed dry soil around the tree and put up some stakes (桩) into the ground, making it stand upright. That winter was still terrible. Surprisingly, in the spring my “rescue stick” put forth a few leaves, then with lots of branches. The year after that, we were able to remove the stakes. By the 1990s that little stick was a giant, towering over the house.

    Now the tapping at the window continued, louder as the wind picked up, almost as though to tell me to look up. At last, I did. I caught ray breath. In the window against the icy blue sky, thousands and thousands of fresh red buds were waving in the wind.

    The tree was bursting with life and I had a wonderful Easter.

    “You can't stop the waves from coming but you can learn to surf.”

    This is the title on a poster of the spiritual teacher, Swami Satchitdananda who is pictured wearing a loincloth（腰布）while staying down on a surfboard riding the ocean waves. It's a far-reaching reminder that no matter how hard we try, sometimes we will make mistakes. Life brings us trouble at times, and we carelessly make trouble for ourselves. It can't be helped. 'Learning to surf' is a metaphor（暗喻）for becoming good at handling life's difficulties and successfully repairing errors or mistakes that we may have made.

    Since we are all mistake-prone（易于犯错的）, to varying degrees, it's necessary for us to master the art of making effective repairs and corrections. We should, of course, by all means make our best effort to do it “right” the first time, but being human, our best efforts won't always prevent us from having moments or days when we wish that we could do that one over again. Since we can't always do “do-overs,” the next best thing is to correct our mistakes, and the best way to start this process is with an apology.

    Making an effective apology is both an art and a science. It requires the fulfillment（完成）of a number of conditions that must be met in order for both parties to feel satisfied with the outcome. The first thing to keep in mind is exactly that both parties must feel complete and satisfied with the outcome in order for things to get back on track after the breakdown.

    There are a number of components that increase the possibility that an apology will be effective. These conditions and guidelines apply to all relationships. They include patience, responsibility, sincerity, etc. With them, the chance of a successful apology will be high.

    When we have confidence that harm caused to the relationship through unskillful choices can be fully healed, we are motivated to use the methods that we know work to keep our relationship in the best possible condition. The belief that the trust, harmony, and love can be fully repaired, and perhaps even become more than it was prior to(在前面的) the breakdown, encourages us to hold a standard of excellence. And then we work hard to use every incident that occurs in the partnership to become stronger at the broken places. There is surely some work involved in the process at becoming good at repairs, but the rewards of a close, delightful, trusting relationship are well worth the effort!

    Growing up, I wanted to be just like my mom. She was kind. People always seemed to feel comfortable in her presence. For years, she was a volunteer in our community. I loved going to the local nursing home with her where she taught a ceramic class.

    On one summer day, Mama told me to get changed and meet her at the car.

I had planned to spend the day at the lake with friends. Why did she have to ruin everything? I imagined the cool lake water. Irritated, I climbed into the car and slammed the door shut. We sat in silence. I was too upset to make conversation.

“Tasha, would you like to know where we are going?” Mama asked calmly.

    “No,” I said.

    “We are going to volunteer at a children's shelter today. I have been there before and I think it would benefit you,” she explained.

    When we reached the shelter, Mama rang the doorbell. Moments later, we were greeted by a woman. She led us to the front room where all of the children were playing. I noticed a baby whose body was scarred with iron marks. I was told it was because she wouldn't stop crying. The majority of the children had noticeable physical scars. Others hid their emotional wounds.

    As I took in my surroundings, I felt a gentle tug on my shirt. I looked down to see a little girl looking up at me. “Hi. You want to play dolls with me?” she asked. I looked over at Mama for reinforcement. She smiled and nodded. I turned back and said, “Sure.” Her tiny hand reached up and held mine, as if to comfort me.

     My mom taught me a valuable lesson that summer. I returned to the shelter with her several times. During those visits, some of the children shared their troubled pasts with me and I learned to be grateful for what I had. Today as I strive to instill (逐渐灌输) these values in my own child, I reflect back to that experience. It was a time that I will never forget.

    Welcome to Holker Hall & Gardens

    Visitor Information

    How to Get to Holker

By Car: Follow brown signs an A590 from JB6, M6.Approximale travel times: Windermere-20 minutes, Kendal-25 minutes, Lancaster-45 minutes, Manchester—-1 hour 30 minutes.

    By Rail: The nearest station is Cark-in-Cartmel with trains to Carnforth, Lancaster Preston for connections to major cities & airports.

    Opening Times

    Sunday-Friday (closed on Saturday)11:00 am-4:00pm,30 March-2nd November.

    Admission Charges

    Special Events

    Producers: Market 13th April

    Join us to taste a variety of fresh local food and drinks. Meet the producers and get some excellent recipe ideas.

    Holker Garden Festival 30th May

    The event celebrate its 22nd anniversary with a great show of the very best of gardening, making it one of the most popular events in gardening.

    National Garden Day 28th August

    Holker once again opens is gardens in aid of the disadvantaged. For just a small donation you can take a tour with our garden guide.

    Winter Market 8th November

    This is an event for all the family. Wander among a variety of shops selling gifs while enjoying a live music show and nice street entertainment.

    Some of the best research on daily experience is rooted in rates of positive and negative interactions, which has proved that being blindly positive or negative can cause others to be frustrated or annoyed or to simply tune out.

    Over the last two decades, scientists have made remarkable predictions simply by watching people interact with one another and then scoring the conversations based on the rate of positive and negative interactions. Researchers have used the findings to predict everything from the likelihood that a couple will divorce to the chances of a work team with high customer satisfaction and productivity levels.

More recent research helps explain why these brief exchanges matter so much. When you experience negative emotions as a result of criticism or rejection, for example, your body produces higher levels of the stress hormone, which shuts down much of your thinking and activates(激活) conflict and defense mechanisms(机制). You assume that situations are worse than they actually are.

    When you experience a positive interaction, it activates a very different response. Positive exchanges increase your body's production of oxytocin, a feel-good that increases your ability to communicate with, cooperate with and trust others. But the effects of a positive occurrence are less dramatic and lasting than they are for a negative one.

    We need at least three to five positive interactions to outweigh every one negative exchange. Bad moments simply outweigh good ones. Whether you're having a conversation, keep this simple short cut in mind: At least 80 percent of your conversations should be focused on what's going right.

    Workplaces, for example, often see this. During performance reviews, managers routinely spend 80 percent of their time on weaknesses and "areas for improvement". They spend roughly 20 percent of the time on strengths and positive aspects. Any time you have discussions with a person or group, spend the vast majority of the time talking about what is working, and use the remaining time to address weaknesses.