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Hey everyone and welcome back to
the Understandable English 

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Podcast. 
I'm Oliver and today we are 

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going to be talking about how 
seasons affect our mood. 

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So as we come into spring time, 
so the season of spring, I 

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noticed that my mood is 
beginning to change. 

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I start to feel like I have more
energy. 

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I'm sure you have noticed a 
change in your mood too at 

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different times of the year. 
So I decided to start reading 

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online and I found a very 
interesting article by the 

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British Psychological Society 
and it looks it's called Seasons

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and the Psyche. 
So it's looking at how seasons 

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affect our mood. 
And today I'm going to read a 

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bit of this article and talk 
about the different points. 

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So let's get started. 
But first, I want to remind you 

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that this podcast is on YouTube.
If you're listening on YouTube, 

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great. 
If you're not, check out our 

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podcast on YouTube and be sure 
to share it with other friends 

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or classmates that are also 
studying English. 

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OK, let's get started. 
So people often say they have 

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seasonal affective disorder. 
So this is when they feel 

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depressed or SAD in different 
seasons and in others they feel 

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better. 
So Seasonal Affective Disorder 

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or SAD for short and often. 
This effects about 2 million 

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people in the UK alone. 
That's crazy. 

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But this change in mood and 
feeling is not only in winter. 

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It isn't only when we feel bad 
or worse, according to a lot of 

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research, SAD. 
So Seasonal Affective disorder 

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is just the beginning. 
There are many other ways that 

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seasons affect our behavior and 
how we think and this can be on 

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everything from how much we like
to give money to other people, 

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right up to color preferences. 
So which colors we prefer? 

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The first point is mood. 
How do seasons affect our moods?

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So psychologists have known 
about SAD, so seasonal affective

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disorder for decades. 
People suffering from SAD eat 

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more, sleep more, feel less 
motivated, and are less 

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productive at certain times of 
the year. 

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And this low mood is most common
in winter time. 

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These kind of symptoms are 
almost like animal hibernation. 

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So when an animal hides away for
the year, they eat lots of food 

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and they sleep more waiting for 
the spring. 

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And the article, it talks about 
an interesting study which was 

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studied, sorry, a UK study which
looked at Twitter users and they

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did an analysis of their music 
streaming. 

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So the songs that they listened 
to on Spotify. 

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And they found that there was a 
link between the length of the 

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day, so how long our days are 
and the intensity of the songs. 

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So on longer days which are 
brighter and lighter for a 

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longer time people listened to 
more energetic songs, whereas on

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shorter days people listened to 
more relaxed and lower mood 

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songs. 
And this behavior reflects the 

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season and the days around us. 
But I think this point on mood 

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is the most clear and simple one
to all of us. 

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We all know that our moods 
change with the seasons, How 

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much is different from each 
person to person? 

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But of course, brighter, longer 
days make most people feel 

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happier. 
And darker, quieter days make a 

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lot of people feel a little bit 
more sad sometimes. 

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But let's look at the next point
in the article, and this is 

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physical harm or violence. 
So when someone hurts someone 

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else or themselves, some studies
have shown that crime is higher 

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with certain types of weather. 
So a study in Philadelphia in 

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the US found that there was 
almost 10% more violent crime on

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hotter than average days. 
And another study in the same 

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area found that there was higher
rates of domestic violence, So 

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that is violence at home during 
the summertime. 

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So this shows that when the 
weather is hotter, there may be 

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a higher risk of violence. 
And that's interesting. 

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I wonder why it happens. 
And some psychologists are 

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worried that rising temperatures
could cause more violence. 

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So with climate change there 
could be more violence around 

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the world. 
So the Third Point we will look 

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at today is diet and exercise. 
So this article talks about how 

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some studies show that in warmer
days we eat less. 

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So when you eat a meal outside 
on a warm day, you feel more 

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full, faster, so you'd need to 
eat less, whereas on a colder 

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day you don't feel as full. 
So warmer temperatures might 

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make us feel fuller after fewer 
calories. 

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And this might help to explain 
why we eat more and gain more 

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weight in winter. 
And this is interesting, but the

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article also points out that 
differences in weight and diet 

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could be affected by cultural 
reasons. 

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So for example, in springtime 
more people start diets. 

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So a diet is when you maybe eat 
healthier or eat less food to 

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try to lose weight. 
And people do this possibly 

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culturally, because they have a 
feeling that they want to look 

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good for summertime because they
will have less cloves in 

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summertime and people will see 
more of their bodies. 

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This one makes more sense to me.
I think a lot of people in 

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springtime think, hmm, I want to
start a diet and look better for

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my holiday. 
So maybe that explains why there

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are differences in diets and 
weights between winter, spring 

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and summer. 
So another really interesting 

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point is colour preferences. 
So this is the colours that we 

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like the most. 
And this article and the studies

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they talk about show that 
seasonal changes, so different 

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seasons, make us prefer 
different colors. 

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So some studies show that in 
autumn people prefer yellow, 

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greenish yellow colors in autumn
because these are associated 

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with the autumn leaves. 
So the color of the leaves on 

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trees in autumn, whereas in 
winter time these colors are 

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associated with sickness, so 
being unwell and people don't 

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tend to like these colors in 
January for example. 

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And in summertime there tends to
be a preference towards brighter

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colors like Blues and Reds, very
bright colors. 

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But what do you think? 
Does the change in seasons or 

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different seasons affect you? 
And how does it affect you? 

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Does it affect your mood, Your 
activity, Your behavior? 

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Tell me in the comments below. 
Let me know what you think. 

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How do seasons affect you? 
So I hope this was interesting 

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for you and a useful podcast. 
If you want to read the article 

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that this podcast episode is 
based on, I will include it in 

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the description for you of the 
podcast and the YouTube video. 

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Thank you very much for 
listening and I hope that you 

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enjoyed this episode. 
Have a great rest of your day. 

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Goodbye.