全球疫情的火還在燒著，國內似乎已經逐漸回歸正軌，但是疫情對於這個社會的影響，對於每一個人的影響遠沒有結束。前段時間看到一篇關於如何處理焦慮情緒的TED採訪，其中一些片段很有意思，也值得思考，整理出來如下，也順便和很久不見的大家打個招呼，好久不見啊～
01
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Question:How should we deal with anxiety under the circumstance of COVID-19 and lock-down situation?
問題：請問我們應該怎麼處理在疫情期間的焦慮情緒？
Elizabeth Gilbert: I think you would have to be either a sociopath or totally enlightened not to be feeling anxiety at a moment like this.
回答：我覺得像現在這種情況，如果你不覺得焦慮的話，是不可能的，除非你是反社會者或者完全看破紅塵的大師。
So I would say that the first thing that I would want to encourage everybody to do is to give themselves a measure of mercy and compassion for the difficult emotions that you’re feeling right now. They’re extremely understandable. I think sometimes our emotions about our emotions become a bigger problem, so if you’re feeling frightened and anxious, and you’re layering shame on top of that because you feel like you should be handling it better, or you should be doing your isolation better, or you should be creating more while you’re alone, or you should be serving the world in some better way, now you just multiplied the suffering, right? So I think that the antidote for that, first of all, is just a really warm, loving dose of compassion and mercy towards yourself, because if you’re in anxiety, you’re a person who is suffering right now, and that deserves a show of mercy.
所以首先我想鼓勵每個人給予自己一些仁慈，理解和同情，尤其是現在你正在面對著的一些不易消化的情緒。這些情緒是完全合乎情理的。有些時候我們對於自己情緒的「情緒」會成為一個比情緒本身更大的問題，（比如說某人現在感覺到很焦慮，他對自己「感覺焦慮」的這種情況同時也感覺到很焦慮）也就是說，如果你正感到擔心害怕或者焦慮，並因為有這種情緒而感到慚愧，你覺得你應該更好地應對它，或者你覺得自己應該讓這段因為疫情獨處的時間更有價值，或者你應該在獨自一人的時候創造更多，或者你覺得自己應該更好的服務這個社會…如果你有上面的這些想法，其實你在讓自己加倍的難受，對吧？對於上述所有的治癒良藥，首先，就是給自己一劑大大的，暖心的仁慈，理解和同情，因為你在遭受焦慮的困擾，你是那個正在受苦的人，任何人在這種時候都值得被仁慈的對待。
The second thing I would say about anxiety is this, that here’s what I think is the central paradox of the human emotional landscape that I’m finding particularly fascinating right this moment, and it’s really come to light for me. So there are these two aspects of humanity that don’t match — hence the word paradox — but they really define us. And the first is that there is no species on earth more anxious than humans. It’s a hallmark of our species, because we have the ability slash curse to imagine a future. And also, once you』ve lived on earth for a little while, you have the experience to recognize this terrifying piece of information, which is that literally anything can happen at literally any moment to literally any person. And because we have these vast, rich, colorful imaginations, we can see all sorts of terrifying movies in our heads about all the possibilities and all of the scariest things that could occur. And actually, one of the scariest things that could occur is occurring. It’s something people have imagined in fiction and imagines in science, and it’s actually happening right now, so that’s quite terrifying.
其次，對於焦慮我想說的是，我越來越意識到人類情感境域裡的核心悖論，此時此刻我發現它很絕妙。人性的這兩個方面可以稱為「悖論」，但其實這兩方面又的確定義了我們。第一方面是，地球上沒有任何生物會比人類更加地焦慮，這種屬性是我們人類的印記，因為我們有幻想未來的「能力「又或者可以說是」詛咒「。當你在世上生活一段時間後，你的經驗會幫你認知到這個令人害怕的信息— 任何人可能在任何時間發生任何事情，也就是說，世事無常。正因為我們有著超大超豐富多彩的想像力，我們能在自己腦海裡幻想出各種可能會發生的可怕事件。事實上，我們能想到可能發生的最可怕的事情之一，正在發生。這次全球疫情，人們覺得更可能會出現在小說裡或者對未來科學的預想中，但現在它真真實實地正在發生，所以這確實很可怕。
The paradox is that, in that level, we’re very bad, emotionally, at fear and anxiety, because we stir ourselves up to a very heated degree because of our imaginations about how horrible it can get, and it can get very horrible, but we can imagine it even worse. The paradox is that we’re also the most capable, resourceful and resilient species that has ever lived on earth.
悖論是，我們真的不擅長於處理害怕和焦慮情緒。我們的想像力，我們作為人類的「印記」，也大大地加劇了我們對事情可能會變得更糟的猜想，雖然事情可能會變糟，但是我們也許會想像的更糟。悖論是，我們人類，也是至今為止世上最強，最有智慧並且也最有韌性的物種。
So the history has shown that when change comes to humanity — either on the global level, like it’s happening now, or on the personal level — we’re really good at it. We’re really good at adaptation. And I think that if we can remember that, it can help to actually mitigate the fear. And you can remember it in a historical perspective by looking at what humanity has gone through, and what we have not only survived but figured out how to thrive through. And you can also look at it at a personal level, where you can make an inventory of what you yourself have survived, and notice, as I often notice, my panic and my anxiety about the imagined future is deadly on my nervous system, but I actually have discovered that when there’s an actual emergency in the moment, I tend to be pretty good at it. And I think most of us are like that.
歷史已經證明了這一點：當人類面對改變的時候，不管是全球層面上的，像是現在全球的疫情，或者個人層面上的，我們都很擅長於面對改變。我們是真的很善於適應和調整。如果可以記住這一點，就可以幫助我們減輕恐懼情緒。你可以站在歷史的角度來看人類的進化歷程，人類不僅是生存下來了，更是想方設法地茁壯繁榮起來了；或者你也可以從個人的層面來看，為你自己曾經經歷過的事列個清單，看看自己是怎麼熬過來的。我注意到，我對於想像中的未來充滿了恐慌和焦慮，也會讓我十分緊張，但我發現當有一個緊急事件確實發生時，我通常會處理的很好，我認為我們大多數都是如此。
You』ll see that repeated in history in so many examples. I think about those heartbreaking and devastating phone messages that people were leaving for their loved ones from the towers on September 11th, and you can hear the calm, the calm in people’s voices. The biggest emergency ever was happening, and in that moment, intuition told them what to do. The important thing to do now is to make this phone call. And I think you can trust that when the point of emergency actually arrives, you』ll be able to meet it, and when the world changes, you』ll be able to adapt to it — it certainly helps me to calm down.
像這樣的事情屢見不鮮。我想起了911事件時，那些知道自己即將死去的人，為自己所愛之人留下了讓人心碎、絕望的電話留言，在他們的聲音裡，你卻能聽到一種鎮定。那麼大的緊急事件正在發生，在那個時刻，直覺告訴了他們要做什麼— 當前最重要的是，要打這個電話。所以你應該相信當危機真正到來的時候，你有能力面對它，當這個世界改變的時候，你有能力適應它。深知這些，都無疑地幫助我平靜下來。
02
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Question: Do you have some advice on how someone could turn their fear into something useful, at this moment?
問題：請問在這個特殊的時刻，您對於怎麼樣把擔心轉化成其他更有用的東西這方面，有什麼建議嗎？
Elizabeth Gilbert: Can I tell you a story that I’m using as a touchstone for myself right now and drawing wonder and inspiration from?
回答：我能告訴你個故事嗎？我一直用這個故事作為我的試金石，來幫我理清思路汲取靈感。
So some of you may have heard of a young woman named Amanda Eller. She was in the news recently, because she got lost in Hawaii in the wilderness for 17 days, and there was a massive, massive hunting for her, because she had left her car, she』d gone for a simple hike, had left her phone in her car, went up into the woods, took a wrong turn, and then had this disastrous 17 days — fell off a cliff, broke her leg, walked for 40 miles on a broken knee, lost her shoes in a flash flood.
你們可能在最近的新聞裡聽到過一個叫Amanda Eller的年輕女人，她在夏威夷的荒野裡迷路了17天，為了找到她，人們組織了大規模的搜救行動。她只想下車簡單地在樹林裡徒步一下，所以沒帶手機就走進了樹林裡，沒想到迎來了噩夢般的17天— 摔落懸崖，斷了腿，拖著摔壞的波稜蓋兒走了40英裡，碰上了山洪還把鞋也搞丟了…
She had to sleep packed in mud in order to protect herself from the cold and the mosquitoes. I mean, just a harrowing story of survival. I met her recently, and she was so lit and radiant with this kind of serenity and this kind of wonder and joy, and I said, 「How are you like this? You went through one of the most traumatizing things that a person could go through.」
為了保暖也為了少挨蚊子咬，她不得不把自己用泥巴包起來之後再睡覺。完完全全是一個慘烈的生存遊戲。我最近見到了她，她看起來神採奕奕的，並且帶著一種平和安詳的氣場，讓人感覺很不可思議，我就問她「你怎麼會是這個樣子呢？你看起來一點都不像一個剛剛歷經浩劫的人。」
She said, 「 First of all, I discovered that I can survive anything,」 going back to the idea of how resourceful and adaptive humans actually are. But the piece of her story that I am using like a life raft right now, is that she said, on her second day in the jungle, when she realized that she was truly and very much in trouble — she』d already spent one night in the woods and she was completely lost and she was totally alone and no one knew where she was, and she was full of terror — she said she closed her eyes and she prayed or asked or requested, she made a wish to herself, to consciousness, to the universe, and she said, 「Please take my fear away, and when I open my eyes, have it be gone, and have it be gone and have it not come back.」
她說，」首先，這次經歷讓我意識到，不管發生任何事，我都能活下來「，她這一經歷正好驗證了人類其實有很強的韌性和適應能力這一說法。她的故事裡有一處，對我來說如今就像救生筏一樣。
在叢林裡的第二天，她真正地意識到自己有大麻煩了，因為她已經在叢林裡呆了整整一晚而且完全迷了路，獨自一人在這裡也沒有任何人知道她的行蹤，恐懼感侵蝕了她。之後，她閉上眼睛開始祈禱，她希望她自己可以聽見，希望她的理智能夠聽見，也希望這個宇宙可以聽見，「請把我的恐懼帶走吧，當我睜開眼睛的時候，請讓這恐懼消失吧，讓這恐懼一去不復返吧。」
And she opened her eyes, and it was gone, and it was replaced by intuition. And I think intuition is a little bit the opposite of fear, because fear is the terror that you feel about a frightening imagined future. Intuition can only happen when you’re in the moment.
當她睜開眼睛的時候，恐懼消失了，取而代之的是一種直覺。直覺正好與恐懼相反，恐懼是你對幻想中的未來的一種害怕情緒，而直覺只能發生在當下。
And so, from that point forward, she did not experience fear for the rest of the time she was in the woods. She just was guided by some deep intuitive sense, located somewhere between her sternum and her navel, and in every moment. She would ask it, 「Right or left?」 「Up or down?」 「Eat this? Don’t eat this?」
從睜開眼睛的那刻起，她再也沒有感覺到害怕了。之後她就被一種從胸骨和肚臍之間發出的直覺帶領著，這直覺無時無刻不引導著她。她會問自己的直覺「向左還是向右？」「向上還是向下？」「要不要吃這個？」
And just trust it. Complete, absolute surrender to the intuition of the moment.
完完全全地仰仗當時的直覺，並且相信它。
And she said it hasn’t returned, the fear hasn’t returned, and she still guides her life that way.
自從那時開始，她再也沒有感到過恐懼，到如今她仍然用這種方法來指導著自己的生活。
So it’s a return to some sense that there’s a navigational system within you that will, if you stay present in this actual moment, tell you what to do one moment to the next.
總的來說，我們自己內在有一種即時的「導航系統」，如果你能認識到它，關注當下這個時刻，保持「系統在線」的狀態，這個系統會指引我們一步步的走下去。
Now if you want to suffer, pop out of the moment and imagine a future, and then you can suffer indefinitely. So it is almost like a spiritual or meditation practice, and anybody out there who’s done any spiritual or meditation practices, this is what you were practicing for. You were practicing for this moment. And those of you who haven’t tried that, this might be a really interesting moment for you to be centered in the instant.
相反，如果你想讓自己難受，那就跳出「當下」想像未來吧，之後你就可以無限期地痛苦了。這個有點像是靈修或者冥想的過程，如果你正在進行靈修或冥想練習的話，其實你在練習的，就是關注當下。如果你還沒有試過相關練習，那對你來說，試著去「關注當下」可能會是一次有趣的經驗。
*原文節選自TED演講，視頻名稱為：It’s ok to feel overwhelmed. Here’s what to do next | Elizabeth Gilbert
寫在最後
太多的雞湯告訴你「振作起來」「讓自己更有價值」「努力創造價值」」大家都在奮鬥，你不奮鬥你就會被遠遠地甩在人群之後「……這些看不見的、從生活各個方面裡滲透出來的雞血，像是告訴一個耄耋之年的老者去參加重量級舉重比賽，老者眼中閃爍著微弱的光、顫顫巍巍地彎腰試圖舉起對他來說宛如兩座大山的槓鈴，周圍的人緊握拳頭大聲吆喝著「不要在本該奮鬥的年紀選擇安逸！」 耀眼的聚光燈下，現場口沫橫飛……
但是當我們備受煎熬的時候，我們是可以讓自己靜靜地休息一下的，至少我們應該對自己有這一份仁慈。
每個人都應該由自己清醒的意識作出自主的選擇，有自己自成一體的批判性思維，能夠把自己從眾多「聲音」的洪流裡拯救出來，而不是迫於某些「雞湯」為了找到所謂的集體安全感，就匆匆湧入到茫茫的大軍之中。你完全可以選擇奮鬥一生，但這應該是你自己對於生命的追求；你也可以選擇安逸地度過一生，不爭不搶，安於現狀，同時也沒有必要為此而受到他人異樣的眼光。
祈禱我們的「耳邊風」會是我們內心深處的聲音，與外界無關。
每次碼字都覺得，寫的東西多少要有點營養，多少要給孩子們一點點的建議，希望我的文字可以給她或他做某種程度上的參考，希望孩子們可以有更清晰的意志去選擇他們想要的生活，希望他們可以感恩生命中的每一天，因為每一天都充滿平和，希望，喜悅。
Love and peace to all of you.