英語美文朗讀 第317期 Stay Away From Bad Habits

We all know what a bad habit is. Smoking, eating unhealthy foods and being lazy are just some of the behaviors we ought to avoid in order to increase our overall well-being. Yet a recent study by scientists at the centers for disease control and prevention, found that avoidable behaviors such as poor diet, lack of exercise, smoking and drinking alcohol, were some of the underlying causes of nearly half of the deaths in the United States.

 

我們都知道什么是壞習(xí)慣。為了讓自己更健康，我們需要改掉一些壞習(xí)慣，比如吸煙，好吃懶做，等等。然而，疾控中心的科學(xué)家們最近的一項研究表明，在美國，將近一半的死亡，是由飲食不健康、缺乏鍛煉、吸煙、飲酒等習(xí)慣引起的，而這些壞習(xí)慣其實是可以避免的。

 

Tobacco accounted for eighteen point one percent of total deaths. Inactivity and bad eating sixteen point six percent and alcohol consumption three point five percent. If we know bad habits are so detrimental to our health, why do we continue to do that? We all indulge in behaviors that we know aren't good for us, and the main reason we resort to these behaviors, is because bad habits give us the comfort we need.

因吸煙而死的人，占總死亡人數(shù)的18.1%。因不運動和飲食不健康而死的人，占總死亡人數(shù)的16.6%。因飲酒而死的人，占總死亡人數(shù)的3.5%。既然我們知道壞習(xí)慣對健康有害，為什么我們還要去做這些事情？我們都沉迷于對自己有害的壞習(xí)慣，主要的原因就是，我們需要舒適，而這些壞習(xí)慣滿足了這個需要。

 

When it comes to making decisions, your brain can't differentiate good from bad. It only knows comfortable and uncomfortable. Every action you take has a purpose behind it, even if you're not consciously aware of what that purpose is. The most common hidden purpose is comfort. Our brains are wired to be reward-based and our reward is the feeling of comfort that in turn triggers a release of dopamine, called the feel-good hormone.

做決定時，你的大腦無法明辨是非，它只知道什么是舒服的，什么是不舒服的。你的每個舉動，背后都有目的，盡管有可能你并不知道這個目的是什么。最常見的潛在目的，就是舒適。我們的大腦都是遵從獎勵制度的，我們所得到的獎勵，就是那種舒適的感覺，這種感覺會帶來多巴胺，一種能讓我們感到快樂的荷爾蒙。

 

When you bite into a chocolate chip cookie you get a hit of dopamine. When you get a like on instagram you get a hit of dopamine. The hit of pleasure causes us to crave more and so we associate this good feeling with the bad habit. This explains why we continue to indulge in bad habits and find it so difficult to stop. It feels comfortable and we essentially get to exist in our safe zone. In other words, you get attracted to the reward despite knowing it's bad for you.

當(dāng)你咬一口巧克力餅干時，你會得到多巴胺。當(dāng)你在Instagram上收到一個贊時，你會得到多巴胺。多巴胺帶來的快樂，會讓我們渴望得到更多，所以我們會把快樂的感覺和壞習(xí)慣聯(lián)系起來，這就是我們沉迷于壞習(xí)慣且無法自拔的原因。這讓我們感到舒服，從本質(zhì)上看，我們其實是走進了舒適區(qū)。也就是說，雖然你知道壞習(xí)慣對你有害，但是你還是被它帶來的舒服感覺所吸引。