Online Class Notes (Jesse)

Do you find that we are often dissatisfied with our lives, relationships, work, etc？, but we don’t know why. Today I watched a video which can clarify the reason of this, and it worth pondering. Today’s social media or advertisement always build a dream to everyone that the true happy life is with an ideal work, great experiences, wonderful soulmate and something else. And a vase array of self-improvement products implies that it’s all your fault for not working hard enough on yourself. In last 20years，lots of institutes investigated how we can counteract these impulses. Finally, they found a result: if you learn to be grateful, everything will become simple and happy. Gratitude can mean different things to different people in different context. It’s a character trait, a feeling, a virtual and a behavior. So, the institutes summarized 3 topics for further discussion: 1) how gratitude connects us to each other.2) The consequence of gratitude 3) How to make your brain more grateful. For point 1 The predecessor of gratitude is probably reciprocity, if your brain realizes someone done nice for you, it reacts with gratitude to motivate you to payoff them. This behavior makes you care about others and others care about you, and it means human brains got better at reading emotions, selfish individuals were identified and shunned. It can help you to build lasting relationships. For point 2，Scientists found that gratitude stimulates the pathways in your brain involved in feelings of reward, it can makes you easier to save and retrieve positive memories. For point3, this is a serious topic, the ability to experience more or less gratitude is not equally distributed, and your “trait gratitude” determines how much you are able to feel it. It depends on your genetics, personality and culture, so everyone is different. The institute suggest that every week you can write down five to ten things you are grateful for, and you will find that you will feel more happiness and a higher general life satisfaction, so it shows your emotions are not fixed and it prove that your view of life comes from whether you believe it or not.

Do you find that we are often dissatisfied with our lives, relationships, work, etc？, but we don’t know why. Today I watched a video which can clarify the reason of / for this, and it is worth pondering. Today’s social media or advertisements / advertising always build a dream for everyone that the true happy life is with an ideal job / an ideal career, great experiences, wonderful soulmates, among other things. And a vast array of self-improvement products implies that it’s all your fault for not working hard enough on yourself. In last 20 years，lots of institutes investigated / researched / looked into how we can counteract these impulses. Finally, they found a result: if you learn to be grateful, everything will become simple and happy. Gratitude can mean different things to different people in different contexts. It’s a character trait / it’s part of your character, a feeling, a virtue and a behavior. So, the institutes summarized 3 topics for further discussion: 1) how gratitude connects us to each other.2) The consequence of gratitude 3) How to make your brain more grateful. For point 1 The predecessor of gratitude is probably reciprocity (res sip pross city), if your brain realizes someone is nice to you / does nice things for you, it reacts with gratitude to motivate you to pay it back to them. This behavior makes you care about others and others care about you, and it means human brains got better at reading emotions, selfish individuals were identified and shunned, which can help you to build lasting relationships. For point 2，Scientists found that gratitude stimulates the pathways in your brain involved in feelings of reward which can make it easier for you to save and retrieve positive memories. For point 3, this is a serious topic, the ability to experience more or less gratitude is not equally distributed, and your “trait gratitude” determines how much you are able to feel it. It depends on your genetics, personality and culture, so everyone is different. The institute suggest that every week you can write down five to ten things you are grateful for, and you will find that you will feel more happiness and a higher general life satisfaction, so it shows your emotions are not fixed and it proves that your view of life comes from whether you believe it or not.

Grammar

when you was a kid – when you were a kid

im not work hard enough – I don’t work hard enough

the client is not the first time we worked with – it’s not the first time that we worked with this client 

i will feedback to the client – I will give feedback to the client

if you in the town which live people – if you are in a town with people / where people live

they have do some lot of basic foundation in tibet – they have done lots of basic…

Vocabulary

I trip in tibet – I had a trip in tibet / i traveled in tibet 

ponder – think about carefully / for a long time
eg. I often ponder the meaning of life

Apple sells a vast array (many different types) of technology products

situation – generally what’s happening
circumstance – the details of the situation
context – the very specific details of the situation which affect / change the meaning of things (words and actions)
eg. “I’m hungry” if a little girl says it means she wants food, but if Steve Jobs says it, it probably means he’s hungry for success or money

what character / personality trait / what characteristic is most valuable to you in an assistant?

reciprocal (adj)
eg. I just want our relationship to be reciprocal! I always help you, so I expect you to reciprocate
reciprocate (v) – to give back
reciprocity (n)