PEOPLE OVER 65 SHARED THEIR GREATEST REGRET IN LIFE _ “What do you regret when you look back on your life?” That’s what a researcher at Cornell University asked hundreds of older people. The answer most often received: “I wish I hadn’t spent so much of my life worrying.” One 90-year-old woman in a nursing home told the researchers: “It’s my responsibility to be as happy as I can, right here, today.” The problem with worrying is that it takes place in the absence of actual stressors. We worry when there is actually nothing concrete to worry about. To reduce how much regret we have in a lifetime, the experts suggested increasing the time spent on concrete problem solving and drastically eliminating time spent worrying.
REAL EMAILS TO CITY GOVERNMENT _ Mayors and city managers were asked to share some of the complaints they’ve received from their residents.
• I wish to complain that my father hurt his ankle very badly when he put his foot in the hole in his back passage.
• This is to let you know there is a smell coming from the man next door.
• I am writing on behalf of my sink, which is running away from the wall.
• Do I need a permit for minor construction? I want some repairs doing to my stove, as it has backfired and burnt my knob off.
• Will you please send someone to mend our broken sidewalk. Yesterday my wife tripped and fell over and she is now pregnant.
• I need to report that my garbage disposal is making strange noises. Every time I try to turn it on, it just grinds and grinds but nothing comes out.
• I want to file a complaint about my mailman. He sings to himself as he delivers the mail and he’s a terrible, terrible singer.
• There’s an issue with the streetlight outside my bedroom window. When it comes on at night it shines in my window and keeps me awake.
CHEER UP BY LOOKING UP YOUR DEPRESSING FRIENDS ON FACEBOOK _ We all have those days when we’re feeling down: life isn’t going our way and we want to feel better about ourselves. The solution? If you use Facebook, a study (Ohio State University) suggests looking up friends who are complaining about their problems. Researchers had participants look at fake profiles on a fake social network. Those profiles had successful and unsuccessful people. People who were put in a bad mood by the experiment spent more time reading profiles of unsuccessful people. Researchers explained why: If you need a self-esteem boost, you’re going to look at people worse off than you. You’re probably not going to be looking at the people who just got a great new job or just got married. Your problems may not seem as bad when you look at other people’s struggles.
