No Time to Think

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One of the biggest complaints in modern society is being overscheduled, 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 “f i ne” anymore.

現(xiàn)代社會(huì)中人們抱怨最多的就是日程太滿(mǎn)，負(fù)擔(dān)過(guò)重，勞累過(guò)度。社交寒暄中你問(wèn)候一聲“最近咋樣？”，得到的回應(yīng)絕對(duì)是清一色的“超忙”“忙暈了”，要不然就是“忙瘋了”，再也難聽(tīng)到簡(jiǎn)單的一聲“還好”。

[2] 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.

[3] And if there is ever a still moment for ref l ective thought—say, while waiting in line at the grocery store or sitting in traff i c—out comes the mobile device.So it’s worth noting a study published last month in the journalScience, which shows how far people will go to avoid introspection.

[2]即便是不忙于工作，人們也一定在忙于鍛煉、玩樂(lè)，或者忙著帶孩子去上中文課。再不然，他們就可能在瘋狂地忙著玩夢(mèng)幻足球，忙著對(duì)自家宗譜追根溯源，或者忙著自己在家煉制黃油。

[3]如果有那么一個(gè)平靜的片刻可以用來(lái)反思，比如，在商場(chǎng)排隊(duì)等候或者堵車(chē)的時(shí)候，移動(dòng)設(shè)備又冒出來(lái)了。因此上個(gè)月發(fā)表在《科學(xué)》雜志上的一篇研究論文便值得在此處一提了。這篇文章向我們展示了人們?yōu)榱颂颖茏允【烤箍梢宰龅胶畏N程度。

[4] “We had noted how wedded to our devices we all seem to be and that people seem to fi nd 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.”

[4]文章的第一作者、弗吉尼亞大學(xué)心理學(xué)教授蒂莫西·威爾遜表示：“我們?cè)缇桶l(fā)現(xiàn)人們有多么沉迷于電子設(shè)備，而且不遺余力地尋找理由使自己陷于忙碌之中，只是從沒(méi)有人研究過(guò)如何讓人們自己擺脫忙碌，靜下心來(lái)思考?！?/p>

[5] 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 reported that they found it unpleasant to be alone in a room with their thoughts for just 6 to 15 minutes.

[6] Moreover, in one experiment, 64 percent of men and 15 percent of women began self-administering electric shocks when left alone to think. These same people, by the way, had previously said they would pay money to avoid receiving the painful jolt.

[7] It didn’t matter if the subjects engaged in the contemplative exercise at home or in the laboratory, or if they were given suggestions of what to think about, like a coming vacation; they just didn’t like being in their own heads.

[5]研究的結(jié)果不僅令威爾遜教授感到驚訝，而且還在心理學(xué)與神經(jīng)科學(xué)領(lǐng)域引起了轟動(dòng)。在超過(guò)700人參與的11組實(shí)驗(yàn)中，大多數(shù)參與者表示，讓他們獨(dú)自待在一間房子里思考只要6到15分鐘就會(huì)感覺(jué)不適。

[6]不僅如此，在一組實(shí)驗(yàn)中，64%的男性和15%的女性參與者在獨(dú)自思考時(shí)甚至開(kāi)始實(shí)施自我電擊。而恰恰就是這些人，在實(shí)驗(yàn)前信誓旦旦，說(shuō)寧愿罰錢(qián)也不愿遭受電擊這樣的痛苦。

[7]其實(shí)無(wú)論這項(xiàng)沉思實(shí)驗(yàn)的地點(diǎn)是在家還是實(shí)驗(yàn)室，也不管是否收到了關(guān)于思考內(nèi)容的建議，比如即將來(lái)臨的假期，這些都無(wú)關(guān)緊要，實(shí)驗(yàn)的參與者們只是單純地不喜歡思考罷了。

[8] 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.

[8]這可能是因?yàn)槿祟?lèi)在獨(dú)處的時(shí)候，容易去琢磨人生中哪里出了問(wèn)題。我們已經(jīng)進(jìn)化出解決問(wèn)題的能力，也會(huì)思考事情的意義所在。當(dāng)我們沒(méi)在刷臉書(shū)或者上動(dòng)感單車(chē)課的時(shí)候，心頭縈繞的便是那些沒(méi)解決的問(wèn)題——情感上的困境，生活和工作上的失意，經(jīng)濟(jì)上的窘迫，以及身體上的病痛，等等。除非這些難題有了解決方案，或者多少能夠想得通，否則它們就會(huì)一直纏繞在我們的腦中，揮之不去。緊接著，憂(yōu)慮就隨之降臨了。然后，失眠也就接踵而至了。

[9] “One explanation why people keep themselves so busy and would rather shock themselves is that they are trying to avoid that kind of negative stuff,” said Ethan Kross, director of the Emotion and Self-Control Laboratory at the University of Michigan. “It doesn’t feel good if you’re not intrinsically good at ref l ecting.”

[9]“這就可以解釋為什么人們總是使自己保持忙碌，寧愿自我電擊也不愿思考了，因?yàn)槿藗円恢痹谠囍苊饽切┬氖碌某霈F(xiàn)，”密歇根大學(xué)情緒與自控研究實(shí)驗(yàn)室負(fù)責(zé)人伊?！た肆_斯說(shuō)道，“而如果你不是天生喜歡的話(huà)，那這感覺(jué)可不太好受。”

[10] The comedian Louis C.K. has a riff that’s been watched nearly eight million times on YouTube in which he describes that not-good feeling.“Sometimes when things clear away and you’re not watching anything and you’re in your car and you start going,oh no, here it comes, that I’m alone, and it starts to visit on you, just this sadness,” he said. “And that’s why we text and drive. People are willing to risk taking a life and ruining their own because they don’t want to be alone for a second because it’s so hard.”

[10]喜劇演員路易斯C.K.在YouTube上有一段視頻點(diǎn)擊量近800萬(wàn)次，視頻中他描述了那種糟糕的感受。“有時(shí)，你也沒(méi)什么事，什么都不關(guān)注，只是在自己的車(chē)?yán)镒?，正要發(fā)動(dòng)油門(mén)，孤獨(dú)便開(kāi)始向你襲來(lái)，你沒(méi)法抗拒，就是這種悲傷?！彼f(shuō)道，“這就是為什么人們要邊開(kāi)車(chē)邊發(fā)短信，寧愿去冒著生命危險(xiǎn)，因?yàn)樗麄円豢桃膊幌氇?dú)自待著，獨(dú)處是如此的艱難?！?/p>

[11] 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.

[12] “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.”

[13] 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, inf l ammation, impaired immunity and headaches.

[11]但是如果你不給自己時(shí)間去思考，你就永遠(yuǎn)也無(wú)法解決和擺脫這些問(wèn)題。思考是必要的，只不過(guò)我們的文化忽略了它，因?yàn)槲覀兊奈幕J(rèn)為行動(dòng)勝于思考，而且深信解決問(wèn)題的答案是在手中而非腦中。

[12]“而我們就好像都處在一個(gè)‘忙碌成癮’的家庭中，在這里所有的忙碌都是正常的，即便實(shí)際上它是非常有害的，”硅谷的心理學(xué)家、《速度：直面快速上癮癥——克服慢速恐懼癥》的作者斯蒂芬妮·布朗指出，“人們普遍認(rèn)為思考和感受只會(huì)拖慢步伐，阻擋前進(jìn)的道路，但事實(shí)上恰好相反?！?/p>

[13]她表示，刻意去抑制這些消極情緒只會(huì)讓其愈發(fā)強(qiáng)烈，讓人滋生出更消極的念頭，最后導(dǎo)致你為了躲避它們而不得不使自己變得更加忙碌。而逃避情緒帶來(lái)的持續(xù)認(rèn)知緊張正是造成一系列心理問(wèn)題的根源所在，譬如強(qiáng)迫癥、焦慮、抑郁以及恐懼癥，更不用說(shuō)各種癮性疾病了。與此同時(shí)，這種認(rèn)知緊張還會(huì)引發(fā)諸多身體問(wèn)題，比如濕疹、腸道易激綜合征、哮喘、炎癥、免疫力受損和頭痛等。

[14] Studies further suggest that not giving yourself time to reflect impairs your ability to empathize with others.“The more in touch with my own feelings and experiences, the richer and more accurate are my guesses of what passes through another person’s mind,”said Giancarlo Dimaggio, a psychiatrist with the Center for Metacognitive Interpersonal Therapy in Rome, who studies the interplay of self-ref l ection and empathy. “Feeling what you feel is an ability that atrophies if you don’t use it.”

[15] Researchers have also found that an idle mind is a crucible of creativity.A number of studies have shown that people tend to come up with more novel uses for objects if they are fi rst given an easy task that allows their minds to wander, rather than a more demanding one.

[16] “Idle mental processing encourages creativity and solutions because imagining your problem when you aren’t in it is not the same as reality,”said Jonathan Smallwood, a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of York,in England. “Using your imagination means you are in fact rethinking the problem in a novel way.”

[14]研究進(jìn)一步表明，不給自己思考的時(shí)間還會(huì)損害你對(duì)他人的同理心?！拔覀?cè)绞悄軌蛘暫徒蛹{自身的情緒和經(jīng)歷，對(duì)于其他人想法的猜測(cè)就會(huì)越豐富、越準(zhǔn)確?！闭部_·迪瑪喬說(shuō)道，他是羅馬元認(rèn)知人際關(guān)系治療中心的精神科醫(yī)師，主要研究反省和同理心的相互作用?！案惺茏约旱母惺芤彩且环N能力，不用的話(huà)這種能力就會(huì)退化。”

[15]同時(shí)，研究人員還發(fā)現(xiàn)，放松的大腦是煉制創(chuàng)造力的熔爐。許多研究已經(jīng)證明，如果人們一開(kāi)始接受的是一項(xiàng)允許他們思維自由發(fā)散的簡(jiǎn)單任務(wù)，而不是要求苛刻的任務(wù)，他們更容易想出事物的更多新奇用途。

[16]“放松的心理過(guò)程能夠促生創(chuàng)造力和解決方案，因?yàn)榕杂^者清，跳出問(wèn)題去思考與身處其中是不一樣的，”英國(guó)約克大學(xué)的認(rèn)知神經(jīng)學(xué)家喬納森·斯莫伍德認(rèn)為，“發(fā)揮想象意味著你實(shí)際上是在以一種新奇的方式重新思考這個(gè)問(wèn)題?！?/p>

[17] Perhaps that’s why Google offers its employees courses called “Search Inside Yourself” and “Neural Self-Hacking,” which include instruction on mindfulness meditation, where the goal is to recognize and accept inner thoughts and feelings rather than ignore or repress them. It’s in the company’s interest because it frees up employees’otherwise embattled brain space to intuit end users’ desires and create products to satisfy them.

[17]這也許就是谷歌公司為其員工們開(kāi)設(shè)名為“探索自己的內(nèi)心”“自我神經(jīng)窺探”兩門(mén)課程的原因了。這兩門(mén)課包含了對(duì)正念冥想的指導(dǎo)，而正念冥想的目的就是辨識(shí)和接納自己內(nèi)心的思緒和感受，而不是刻意忽視或者壓制。對(duì)公司而言這是大有利處的，因?yàn)檫@解放了員工原本設(shè)防的大腦空間，讓他們能夠憑直覺(jué)感受終端用戶(hù)的需求并創(chuàng)造出產(chǎn)品來(lái)滿(mǎn)足其需求。

[18] “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 hardcharging professionals, report being more productive at work and more energetic and engaged parents.

[18]得克薩斯州奧斯汀的一位心理學(xué)家薩拉·格里瑟將正念冥想融入了她的醫(yī)療實(shí)踐中，她說(shuō)：“許多人想學(xué)習(xí)冥想，想借此摒棄安靜時(shí)大腦產(chǎn)生的雜念。但是允許并容忍雜念的進(jìn)進(jìn)出出，其實(shí)也是冥想的一部分。”她的患者，大多都是強(qiáng)勢(shì)的職業(yè)人士，稱(chēng)練習(xí)冥想后工作上變得更高效，在家庭育兒上也變得更加精力充沛，樂(lè)于投入。

[19] To get rid of the emotional static,experts advise not using first-person pronouns when thinking about troubling events in your life. Instead, use thirdperson 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.”

[19]要想擺脫“情緒靜電”的困擾，專(zhuān)家建議：在思考生活中的煩心瑣事時(shí)，不要使用第一人稱(chēng)，可用第三人稱(chēng)或自己的名字替代?！叭绻粋€(gè)朋友來(lái)向你咨詢(xún)某個(gè)問(wèn)題，你會(huì)覺(jué)得很容易去開(kāi)導(dǎo)他。但是如果問(wèn)題發(fā)生在我們自己身上，事情就變得困難多了，部分原因是我們有自我為中心的偏見(jiàn)，這種偏見(jiàn)讓我們無(wú)法理性思考?！泵苄髮W(xué)的克洛斯教授說(shuō)道，“數(shù)據(jù)很清楚地表明，你完全可以用語(yǔ)言令自己相信，問(wèn)題不是發(fā)生在自己身上而是發(fā)生在他人身上?！?/p>

[20] 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 sadness, it may also limit your ability to be overcome with joy. ■

[20]盡管有時(shí)候會(huì)很艱難，但負(fù)面情緒確實(shí)是每個(gè)人生活無(wú)法避免的一部分。尤其是我們超級(jí)忙的時(shí)候，可能負(fù)面情緒更甚。但另一方面，也就是這些深居內(nèi)心的、令人不安的情緒，以及你處理這些情緒的方式，決定了你成為什么樣的人?；蛟S忙碌可以平復(fù)洶涌而出的悲傷情緒，但與此同時(shí)它也限制了你使自己開(kāi)心快樂(lè)的能力。 □