My Happiness

Happiness is such invisible feeling but it makes all people feel great. Unfortunately, this great feeling is so short: one moment you're like a king of a world, other moment that feeling is gone. So can we really slow down our moments of happiness or just learn how to be happy?
There are as many different opinions as many different people. But I would say YES. If I can make myself happy with little presents or just talking to my friends. I can control these moments.That's like always: if now you feel sad or really bad you shouldn't worry- after a moment you'll be happy and feel great( just like in waving sea).
Of course not everyone feels good just because of talking to friends. Personaly me, communication or visiting friends gives a great pleasure. It's one of the things that make me happy.
Second, I feel really happy when someone does something for me( who doesnt?). For example I won't never forget the birthday that my sister made for me..That moment I felt so happy like none else in the whole world.Also even hug or good word can make my day magic.
On the other hand I'm not so old but sometimes I love to slow down , forget what i must to do ..and just sit down, look through window and let myself to dream a bit about past moments.About great adventures or situations that made me laugh. And when I do so I always feel so happy.
So finally, I always can catch those moments inside of me. So I don't need to learn how to be happy. I can always feel like that..hope you too;)
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Listening To a Podcast

I've listened to two podcasts. They were two parts of one story. Looking through podcast's list I've noticed title :"History's greatest love affairs". So I've chosen story about Napoleon Bonapart and his mistress. And the titles of podcasts were: " Conqueror Part 1" and "Conqueror Part 2".
I'm not sure about the level of English because it wasn't exactly written. But I have no doubts that it was upper- intermediate or advanced.Next thing I noticed was the speaker's accent.On my opinion it was American English. I loved listening to these podcasts because of several reasons.
First of them is that the speaker wasn't speakint too slow or too fast.It was perfect.
Secondly, I loved the way the speaker was speaking. He wasn't speaking boringly. The speach was fluent.As he was reading I could imagine everything he was telling.
And I guess the most important reason I loved doing this task is that I've chosen the most interesting topic for me.Undoubtedly, I wouldn't have had so much fun if I hasn't been able to choose the topic by myself.
I think that these points were the reasons why I didn't have to read the text after listening. And of course these are the reasons why I' d to listen podcasts just two times each.
To sum up, on my opinion such tasks are really useful for students, because we can hear the real English. Also it helps us to prepare for our future English exam.By the way, today I' ve found some new facts about really famous person.
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Stress and Coping

The topic I've chosen is stress and coping. I'm going to mention these tinhgs:

1. what is stress
   
2. situations when we are stressed and grouops of stress
   
3. consequences of stress
   
4. how to deal with stress

Firstly, it is important to know that if we want somethingto control we have to get known to it as much as we can.
Stress is a person's response to events that are threatening or chalenging. Definitly, the description differs a bit depending on where it is used( for example biology, medicine, psychology, everyday life). Due to the fact I'm sutdying psychology I'll try to share the information I've found out on psychological aspects.
So, in psychology stress occur as a tension, annoyance, fear, anxiety, anger or other emotions that we understand as inner discomfort and lost of inner balance.
When people suffer from stress they loose their ability to think logically, attentivness, will, conscious control of behaviour. Due to that people who are stressed start acting weard:they may become slower or opositly - more active.
Strong, long-lasting or chronic, often repeating stress may lead to biological and psychological disorders. But there's no point and use at trying to live the whole life without stress. According to H. Selje( a person who began research of stress) life with no stress is equal to death. Everybody can take some level of stress and feels a necessity to have some.
There are some different groups of situations in which we feel stressed.
To begin time stress- such kind of stress occurs in situations when we' re short in time.
Second, stress of responsibility occurs when we have to make really important decisions or we have to take a risk.
Third, social- psychological stress. Occurs due to communication. For example: because of difference of opinions, bad relationships.
Then inner conflicts' stress. Occurs in situations where are psychological conflicts. For example: conflicts of motivation, different feelins to the same objects.
And the last, physiological stress. Occurs due to discomfort of body.For example: people may be stressed in noisy, too hot places.
Of course there's something that everytime leads us to stress. So circumstances or events that produce threats to our well- being are known as stressors. Obviously, there are several different categories of them. And trhee general classes of them:

1. cataclysmic events. A strong stressors that occur suddenly and typically affect many people at once.
2. personal stressors. Include major life events such as the death of family member that have immediate negative consequences that generally fade wih time.
3. background stress( daily hassles). Everyday annoyences that cause minor irritations and may have long term ill effects if they continue or are compounded by other stressful events.

Furthermore, there are four ways how we react to a stress: psychological, physiological, behavioural and changes in thinking.

1. psychological reactions. In other words emotional- feeling reactions. Are anger, irritation, fear , tension.
2. physiological reactions. We can identify them from frequent blood pulsation, higher level of sweating, tension in muscles, etc.
3. behavioural reactions. People make much more gestures or opositly make no gestures, they may shout or be quiet.
4. changes in thinking. We can not think fluently, can not concentrate on other things, we just have one obsessive thought.

And the consequences of stress. Usually it is difficult to track physiological sings of stress. One of the reasons is that physiological reactions occur automatically inside our body and we can not see them. Second,typically people do not care much about their body. They do not pay attention till something hurts. There's one good expression about consequences of stress: "All illnesses are because of nerves and just a few because of untidyness".
And finally, dealing with stress. There are three major ways to deal with it: executive, rational and relaxation steps.

1. executive way. The best situation to apply in coping with time stress. For example: when you try to plan what to do when. Planing considers on importance of things.
2. rational. When people have inner conflict they are looking for somebody to talk to.
3. relaxation. In this way people deal with stress when they take a walk, listen to music, read a book or does some other things that help them to relax.

To sum up, everybody should know the best ways helping to deal with stress, reduce it. And most important they should not forget to use them when needed.

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•R. Bandzevičienė "Savireguliacija ir streso įveikimas" , Vilnius, 1994.
G. Žukauskas "Psichologinės pareigūnų problemos", Vilnius, 2000.