不要對沒發(fā)生的事感到焦慮了

不要對沒發(fā)生的事感到焦慮了

The plot of my only recurring nightmare goes like this: I'm back in college and have not attended one of my classes all semester (usually math or science), and now a final exam is imminent.

我唯一反復(fù)出現(xiàn)的噩夢是這樣的:我回到大學(xué)，整個學(xué)期都沒有上過一門課(通常是數(shù)學(xué)或科學(xué))，現(xiàn)在期末考試就要到來了。

I'm completely unprepared, time has run out, and I don't even recall where the classroom is, so I can't find the professor. I wake up without a resolution.

我完全沒有準備好，時間快沒了，我甚至不記得教室在哪里，所以我找不到教授。我在沒有解決辦法的情況下醒來了。

This is how every brain works. It diligently perseverates over worst-case scenarios, like an anxious new parent. It's just trying to keep us safe and usually does a great job at it.

每個大腦都是這樣工作的。它像一個焦慮的新父母一樣，堅持應(yīng)對最壞的情況。它只是想護我們周全，而且通常做得很好。

But that same things also make it too easy to worry about the wrong things. It clouds our thinking with fear of outcomes that will never come to pass or aren't nearly as bad as we let ourselves imagine. That's the type of worry the writer Erma Bombeck equated to a rocking chair: "It gives you something to do but never gets you anywhere."

但同樣的事情也讓我們很容易擔(dān)心錯誤的事情。它讓我們的思想充滿恐懼，讓我們擔(dān)心那些永遠不會發(fā)生的事情，或者根本不像我們想象的那么糟糕的事情。作家埃爾瑪·邦貝克(Erma Bombeck)把這種擔(dān)憂比作一把搖椅:“它讓你有事可做，但永遠不會讓你有所成就。”

And all that useless worry is detrimental to our overall mental and physical well-being. It can misinform decision-making, raise stress levels, keep us up at night and erode our happiness.

所有這些無謂的擔(dān)憂都不利于我們的身心健康。它會誤導(dǎo)我們做出決定，增加壓力，讓我們夜不能寐，侵蝕我們的幸福感。

For some, anxiety and worry are so toxic and burdensome that medication and/or therapy is needed to fully function. "What worries you," John Locke wrote, "masters you."

對一些人來說，焦慮和擔(dān)憂是如此有害和沉重，以至于需要藥物和/或治療才能充分發(fā)揮作用。約翰·洛克寫道，“你擔(dān)心的東西控制著你。”

"One thing life taught ye was how stupid it was to worry about things ye didnay know for sure, things that might no even happen, nay point in worrying about them," wrote the Scottish novelist and playwright James Kelman.

蘇格蘭小說家、劇作家詹姆斯·克爾曼寫道:“生活教會你的一件事是，為自己不確定的事情擔(dān)憂是多么愚蠢，為那些可能根本不會發(fā)生的事情擔(dān)憂是毫無意義的。”

You may need to teach yourself the same lesson, and tracking your worries can be an effective way to do it，but make it quantifiable so you can be a bit scientific about it.

你可能需要給自己上同樣的一課，跟蹤你的擔(dān)憂是一種有效的方法。但要把它量化，這樣才更科學(xué)一些。

I concluded my personal experiment, and it didn't free me from all worry, of course. But I worry less often and about fewer things.

我結(jié)束了我的個人經(jīng)驗，當(dāng)然，這并沒有讓我從所有的擔(dān)憂中解脫出來。但是我擔(dān)心的事情越來越少。

Now, when a worry starts to brew in my mental cauldron, I take a hard look at whether it's just fictional preparedness, whether there may be something good that could come if it does happen and whether I can do anything to prevent it.

現(xiàn)在，當(dāng)我的腦海中出現(xiàn)一種擔(dān)憂時，我會認真考慮它是否只是虛構(gòu)的，如果它真的發(fā)生了，是否會有好的事情發(fā)生，以及我是否能做些什么來阻止它。