Tighten your right hand and arm for five seconds. Then relax it for five seconds. Then tighten and relax your left hand. Then your face, mouth, and tongue. Then your legs. Tense each muscle for five seconds, then relax.

If you repeat this a few times every day, you'll feel much better. It feels great. Try it!

It is hard to focus. As you meditate, many thoughts will pop into your head. Ignore them. With all these thoughts, you might not feel relaxed during meditation. But if you try to meditate for ten minutes, after you stop you'll almost always feel much more relaxed.

Take a few deep breaths, then try to focus on counting your breaths:

• Breathe in, and think "one", then breathe out.
• Breathe in, and think "two", then breathe out.
• Breathe in, and think "three", then breathe out.
• Breathe in, and think "four", then breathe out.
• Then go back to one.

Try this for ten minutes. You'll relax. If you practice every day, you'll feel much better.

Then it dies of hunger

This modern long-lasting stress is very bad for you.

• It makes your head and muscles and stomach hurt.
• It makes you feel always tired and sad.
• It causes ulcers, diarrhea, diabetes, aging, and high blood pressure.
• It stops you from fighting colds, flu, cancer, and AIDS.

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• your heart and breathing speeds up
• your blood pressure increases
• your muscles tense
• your hands and feet get cold and sweaty as blood flows to your muscles
• your digestion stops
• your interest in sex decreases
• your growth and healing stop
• your immune system slows

According to researcher Gregory Berns, the meaning of life is found in the design of the brain. Behavior is controlled by the brain's pleasure system and reward system.

Happiness = pleasure + reward

Most people seek pleasure, but this is hard to find: it comes mostly from genes and luck. It's easier to find reward.

Reward = new + challenge

Reward comes from mastering something new. When working with something unexpected, the brain releases the chemical dopamine, which gives us motivation and purpose. Challenge or good stress releases the chemical cortisol, which excites us. It's easy to find reward:

• Try different kinds of exercise and food.
• Work puzzles.
• Try, learn, and do new things.

Try it!

Sign up
typing your name, email address, and password.

Record your podcast
Click "Allow" (or 許可 or the green check mark).
Click ●Record.
Talk.
Click ■Stop.
Click ⇒Play to hear your recording.
Click ■save recording when you're done.
On the next page, you can type a short title, a longer description, and the URL of a web page - but you don't have to type anything. You can also upload an image, but you don't have to. Finally, where it says "Place in:", select your name, and click Save.

You have recorded your first podcast!

To let other people know about your podcast,
copy the pink URL after "Odeo Directory:"
and email it to your friends.

• StoryPatch has some short, easy stories about a cute little racoon. Click on one of the green stories, like "Fatty Coon at home". Then click on the "Listen" headphone icon.
• EigoTown has some long, difficult stories, with Japanese translations:
  • Beauty and the beast
  • Hansel and Grettle
  • Little Mermaid
  • Puss in Boots
  • Three Little Pigs
  • Jack and the Beanstalk
  • Little Red Rindinghood
  • Sleeping Beauty
  • Goldilocks
  Find vocabulary word lists and scripts at EigoTown.
• ELT Podcast has conversations. Click on any "Basic Conversations" link, then click the pink "Listen".
• ESL Pod has over 100 English lessons, featuring conversations and news from America. Click the gray "Listen" buttons.

I'd like to learn about other useful Internet TOEIC or TOEFL sites. If you know of one, please let me know and I'll share it with the rest of our readers. If you'd like to search for sites, you could try google. Which sites do you find helpful?

American police carry Coke in their car to remove blood after a car accident. Coke is so strong it will dissolve a metal nail or large steak in a few days. Use Coke to clean your toilet, car windows, and even your clothes!

But don't drink it!
Let's drink water instead of Coke!

75% of Americans don't drink enough water. This is the main reason why Americans feel tired during the day. A lack of water prevents people from remembering things, doing basic math, and focus on their computer screen or printed page.

37% of Americans think they are hungry when they are actually thirsty. One glass of water will shut down midnight hunger for 100% of the dieters studied at the Universityof Washington.

Drinking 10 glasses of water each day eliminates 80% of back pain, and reduces cancer by 50%

So drink your water! 8^)

Here's another video of my band, Professor Houser's Experiment:

Turning Japanese

See the previous post if you can't see the movie.

These days, I have joined other bands. But Professor Houser's Experiment still performs once each year, at the birthday party for my friend Rina. Because we practice only once or twice each year, we are very rough! This a video of our practice:

Twist and Shout

To watch the video, you'll need one of the following:

• a Mac
• iTunes (free for both Mac and Windows.)
• QuickTime (free for both Mac and Windows.)
• The VLC media player (free for both Mac and Windows.)

Looking at my schedule, I decided to nap at 8:00, 12:30, 16:30, 20:00, 0:00, and 4:00. I knew I would have to miss some of these naps when I had extra meetings, but thought I could stick to this schedule most days.

I stayed up for two days and two nights. I was having so much fun getting things done I really didn’t want to sleep. I laid down for my nap every 4 hours, but couldn’t get to sleep. Then, after two days, I was finally able to nap. But even so I was tired all the time.

I decided to stop Super Napping. I just didn’t want it bad enough.

But I hope to try Super Napping again in the future.

How about you? Would you like to try Super Napping? I think it’s a great idea! To learn more, google for polyphasic sleep.

Super Napping is more efficient that regular sleep. By making you stay awake those first few days, Super Napping trains you to fall asleep immediately. You’ll immediately fall into a deep sleep; You’ll immediately start dreaming. Then, before your alarm goes off, you’ll finish your deep sleep, you’ll finish your dream, and you’ll wake up, refreshed.

Because Super Napping is so efficient, you only need three hours of sleep each day.