No Time to Think

无暇思考

By Kate Murphy

文/凯特·墨菲

One of the biggest complaints in modern society is being over-scheduled, overcommitted and overextended. Ask people at a social gathering how they are and the stock answer is “super busy,” “crazy busy” or “insanely busy.” Nobody is just “fine” anymore.

现代社会中人们抱怨最多的就是日程太满，负担过重，劳累过度。社交寒暄中你问候一声“最近咋样？”，得到的回应绝对是清一色的“超忙”“忙晕了”，要不然就是“忙疯了”，再也难听到简单的一声“还好”。

When people aren’t super busy at work, they are crazy busy exercising, entertaining or taking their kids to Chinese lessons. Or maybe they are insanely busy playing fantasy football, tracing their genealogy or churning their own butter.

即便是不忙于工作，人们也一定在忙于锻炼、玩乐，或者忙着带孩子去上中文课。再不然，他们就可能在疯狂地忙着玩梦幻足球，忙着对自家宗谱追根溯源，或者忙着自己在家炼制黄油。

And if there is ever a still moment for reflective thought – say, while waiting in line at the grocery store or sitting in traffic – out comes the mobile device. So it’s worth noting a study published last month in the journal Science, which shows how far people will go to avoid introspection.

如果有那么一个平静的片刻可以用来反思，比如，在商场排队等候或者堵车的时候，移动设备又冒出来了。因此上个月发表在《科学》杂志上的一篇研究论文便值得在此处一提了。这篇文章向我们展示了人们为了逃避自省究竟可以做到何种程度。

 

“We had noted how wedded to our devices we all seem to be and that people seem to find any excuse they can to keep busy,” said Timothy Wilson, a psychology professor at the University of Virginia and lead author of the study. “No one had done a simple study letting people go off on their own and think.”

文章的第一作者、弗吉尼亚大学心理学教授蒂莫西·威尔逊表示：“我们早就发现人们有多么沉迷于电子设备，而且不遗余力地寻找理由使自己陷于忙碌之中，只是从没有人研究过如何让人们自己摆脱忙碌，静下心来思考。”

The results surprised him and have created a stir in the psychology and neuroscience communities. In 11 experiments involving more than 700 people, the majority of participants re-ported that they found it unpleasant to be alone in a room with their thoughts for just 6 to 15 minutes.

研究的结果不仅令威尔逊教授感到惊讶，而且还在心理学与神经科学领域引起了轰动。在超过 700人参与的11组实验中，大多数参与者表示，让他们独自待在一间房子里思考只要 6到 15分钟就会感觉不适。

…………

It could be because human beings, when left alone, tend to dwell on what’s wrong in their lives. We have evolved to become problem solvers and meaning makers. What preys on our minds, when we aren’t updating our Facebook page or in spinning class, are the things we haven’t figured out – difficult relationships, personal and professional failures, money trouble, health concerns and so on. And until there is resolution, or at least some kind of understanding or acceptance, these thoughts reverberate in our heads. Hello rumination. Hello insomnia.

这可能是因为人类在独处的时候，容易去琢磨人生中哪里出了问题。我们已经进化出解决问题的能力，也会思考事情的意义所在。当我们没在刷脸书或者上动感单车课的时候，心头萦绕的便是那些没解决的问题——情感上的困境，生活和工作上的失意，经济上的窘迫，以及身体上的病痛，等等。除非这些难题有了解决方案，或者多少能够想得通，否则它们就会一直缠绕在我们的脑中，挥之不去。紧接着，忧虑就随之降临了。然后，失眠也就接踵而至了。

…………

But you can’t solve or let go of problems if you don’t allow yourself time to think about them. It’s an imperative ignored by our culture, which values doing more than thinking and believes answers are in the palm of your hand rather than in your own head.

但是如果你不给自己时间去思考，你就永远也无法解决和摆脱这些问题。思考是必要的，只不过我们的文化忽略了它，因为我们的文化认为行动胜于思考，而且深信解决问题的答案是在手中而非脑中。

“It’s like we’re all in this addicted family where all this busyness seems normal when it’s really harmful,” said Stephanie Brown, a psychologist in Silicon Valley and the author of “Speed: Facing Our Addiction to Fast and Faster – and Overcoming Our Fear of Slowing Down.” “There’s this widespread belief that thinking and feeling will only slow you down and get in your way, but it’s the opposite.”

“而我们就好像都处在一个‘忙碌成瘾’的家庭中，在这里所有的忙碌都是正常的，即便实际上它是非常有害的，”硅谷的心理学家、《速度：直面快速上瘾症——克服慢速恐惧症》的作者斯蒂芬妮·布朗指出，“人们普遍认为思考和感受只会拖慢步伐，阻挡前进的道路，但事实上恰好相反。”

Suppressing negative feelings only gives them more power, she said, leading to intrusive thoughts, which makes people get even busier to keep them at bay. The constant cognitive strain of evading emotions underlies a range of psychological troubles such as obsessive-compulsive disorder, anxiety, depression and panic attacks, not to mention a range of addictions. It is also associated with various somatic problems like eczema, irritable bowel syndrome, asthma, inflammation, impaired immunity and headaches.

她表示，刻意去抑制这些消极情绪只会让其愈发强烈，让人滋生出更消极的念头，最后导致你为了躲避它们而不得不使自己变得更加忙碌。而逃避情绪带来的持续认知紧张正是造成一系列心理问题的根源所在，譬如强迫症、焦虑、抑郁以及恐惧症，更不用说各种瘾性疾病了。与此同时，这种认知紧张还会引发诸多身体问题，比如湿疹、肠道易激综合征、哮喘、炎症、免疫力受损和头痛等。

…………

“I have a lot of people who come in and want to learn meditation to shut out thoughts that come up in those quiet moments,” said Sarah Griesemer, a psychologist in Austin, Tex., who incorporates mindfulness meditation into her practice. “But allowing and tolerating the drifting in of thoughts is part of the process.” Her patients, mostly hard-charging professionals, report being more productive at work and more energetic and engaged parents.

得克萨斯州奥斯汀的一位心理学家萨拉·格里瑟将正念冥想融入了她的医疗实践中，她说：“许多人想学习冥想，想借此摒弃安静时大脑产生的杂念。但是允许并容忍杂念的进进出出，其实也是冥想的一部分。”她的患者，大多都是强势的职业人士，称练习冥想后工作上变得更高效，在家庭育儿上也变得更加精力充沛，乐于投入。

To get rid of the emotional static, experts advise not using first-person pronouns when thinking about troubling events in your life. Instead, use third-person pronouns or your own name when thinking about yourself. “If a friend comes to you with a problem it’s easy to coach them through it, but if the problem is happening to us we have real difficulty, in part because we have all these egocentric biases making it hard to reason rationally,” said Dr. Kross of Michigan. “The data clearly shows that you can use language to almost trick yourself into thinking your problems are happening to someone else.”

要想摆脱“情绪静电”的困扰，专家建议：在思考生活中的烦心琐事时，不要使用第一人称，可用第三人称或自己的名字替代。“如果一个朋友来向你咨询某个问题，你会觉得很容易去开导他。但是如果问题发生在我们自己身上，事情就变得困难多了，部分原因是我们有自我为中心的偏见，这种偏见让我们无法理性思考。”密歇根大学的克洛斯教授说道，“数据很清楚地表明，你完全可以用语言令自己相信，问题不是发生在自己身上而是发生在他人身上。”

Hard as they sometimes are, negative feelings are a part of everyone’s life, arguably more so if you are crazy busy. But it’s those same deep and troubling feelings, and how you deal with them, that make you the person you are. While busyness may stanch welling sad-ness, it may also limit your ability to be overcome with joy.

尽管有时候会很艰难，但负面情绪确实是每个人生活无法避免的一部分。尤其是我们超级忙的时候，可能负面情绪更甚。但另一方面，也就是这些深居内心的、令人不安的情绪，以及你处理这些情绪的方式，决定了你成为什么样的人。或许忙碌可以平复汹涌而出的悲伤情绪，但与此同时它也限制了你使自己开心快乐的能力。