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.

現代社會中人們抱怨最多的就是日程太滿，負擔過重，勞累過度。社交寒暄中你問候一聲“最近咋樣？”，得到的回應絕對是清一色的“超忙”“忙暈了”，要不然就是“忙瘋了”，再也難聽到簡單的一聲“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，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幻足球，忙著對自家宗譜追根溯源，或者忙著自己在家煉制黃油。

[3]如果有那么一個平靜的片刻可以用來反思，比如，在商場排隊等候或者堵車的時候，移動設備又冒出來了。因此上個月發表在《科學》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為了逃避自省究竟可以做到何種程度。

[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、弗吉尼亞大學心理學教授蒂莫西·威爾遜表示：“我們早就發現人們有多么沉迷于電子設備，而且不遺余力地尋找理由使自己陷于忙碌之中，只是從沒有人研究過如何讓人們自己擺脫忙碌，靜下心來思考。”

[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]研究的結果不僅令威爾遜教授感到驚訝，而且還在心理學與神經科學領域引起了轟動。在超過700人參與的11組實驗中，大多數參與者表示，讓他們獨自待在一間房子里思考只要6到15分鐘就會感覺不適。

[6]不僅如此，在一組實驗中，64%的男性和15%的女性參與者在獨自思考時甚至開始實施自我電擊。而恰恰就是這些人，在實驗前信誓旦旦，說寧愿罰錢也不愿遭受電擊這樣的痛苦。

[7]其實無論這項沉思實驗的地點是在家還是實驗室，也不管是否收到了關于思考內容的建議，比如即將來臨的假期，這些都無關緊要，實驗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]這可能是因為人類在獨處的時候，容易去琢磨人生中哪里出了問題。我們已經進化出解決問題的能力，也會思考事情的意義所在。當我們沒在刷臉書或者上動感單車課的時候，心頭縈繞的便是那些沒解決的問題——情感上的困境，生活和工作上的失意，經濟上的窘迫，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，否則它們就會一直纏繞在我們的腦中，揮之不去。緊接著，憂慮就隨之降臨了。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，因為人們一直在試著避免那些煩心事的出現，”密歇根大學情緒與自控研究實驗室負責人伊桑·克羅斯說道，“而如果你不是天生喜歡的話，那這感覺可不太好受。”

[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上有一段視頻點擊量近800萬次，視頻中他描述了那種糟糕的感受。“有時，你也沒什么事，什么都不關注，只是在自己的車里坐著，正要發動油門，孤獨便開始向你襲來，你沒法抗拒，就是這種悲傷。”他說道，“這就是為什么人們要邊開車邊發短信，寧愿去冒著生命危險，因為他們一刻也不想獨自待著，獨處是如此的艱難。”

[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間去思考，你就永遠也無法解決和擺脫這些問題。思考是必要的，只不過我們的文化忽略了它，因為我們的文化認為行動勝于思考，而且深信解決問題的答案是在手中而非腦中。

[12]“而我們就好像都處在一個‘忙碌成癮’的家庭中，在這里所有的忙碌都是正常的，即便實際上它是非常有害的，”硅谷的心理學家、《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，“人們普遍認為思考和感受只會拖慢步伐，阻擋前進的道路，但事實上恰好相反。”

[13]她表示，刻意去抑制這些消極情緒只會讓其愈發強烈，讓人滋生出更消極的念頭，最后導致你為了躲避它們而不得不使自己變得更加忙碌。而逃避情緒帶來的持續認知緊張正是造成一系列心理問題的根源所在，譬如強迫癥、焦慮、抑郁以及恐懼癥，更不用說各種癮性疾病了。與此同時，這種認知緊張還會引發諸多身體問題，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]研究進一步表明，不給自己思考的時間還會損害你對他人的同理心。“我們越是能夠正視和接納自身的情緒和經歷，對于其他人想法的猜測就會越豐富、越準確。”詹卡羅·迪瑪喬說道，他是羅馬元認知人際關系治療中心的精神科醫師，主要研究反省和同理心的相互作用。“感受自己的感受也是一種能力，不用的話這種能力就會退化。”

[15]同時，研究人員還發現，放松的大腦是煉制創造力的熔爐。許多研究已經證明，如果人們一開始接受的是一項允許他們思維自由發散的簡單任務，而不是要求苛刻的任務，他們更容易想出事物的更多新奇用途。

[16]“放松的心理過程能夠促生創造力和解決方案，因為旁觀者清，跳出問題去思考與身處其中是不一樣的，”英國約克大學的認知神經學家喬納森·斯莫伍德認為，“發揮想象意味著你實際上是在以一種新奇的方式重新思考這個問題。”

[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設名為“探索自己的內心”“自我神經窺探”兩門課程的原因了。這兩門課包含了對正念冥想的指導，而正念冥想的目的就是辨識和接納自己內心的思緒和感受，而不是刻意忽視或者壓制。對公司而言這是大有利處的，因為這解放了員工原本設防的大腦空間，讓他們能夠憑直覺感受終端用戶的需求并創造出產品來滿足其需求。

[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家薩拉·格里瑟將正念冥想融入了她的醫療實踐中，她說：“許多人想學習冥想，想借此摒棄安靜時大腦產生的雜念。但是允許并容忍雜念的進進出出，其實也是冥想的一部分。”她的患者，大多都是強勢的職業人士，稱練習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，專家建議：在思考生活中的煩心瑣事時，不要使用第一人稱，可用第三人稱或自己的名字替代。“如果一個朋友來向你咨詢某個問題，你會覺得很容易去開導他。但是如果問題發生在我們自己身上，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，這種偏見讓我們無法理性思考。”密歇根大學的克洛斯教授說道，“數據很清楚地表明，你完全可以用語言令自己相信，問題不是發生在自己身上而是發生在他人身上。”

[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]盡管有時候會很艱難，但負面情緒確實是每個人生活無法避免的一部分。尤其是我們超級忙的時候，可能負面情緒更甚。但另一方面，也就是這些深居內心的、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。或許忙碌可以平復洶涌而出的悲傷情緒，但與此同時它也限制了你使自己開心快樂的能力。 □