好的父母都知道 It's well understood by good parents
小孩子总是会被各种事情刺激 that life should only ever get so exciting for a baby.
比如有朋友来访 After friends have come round
带了礼物 跟小孩玩 and brought presents and made animated faces,
吃了蛋糕 抱抱孩子 after there's been some cake and some cuddles,
灯光开的比较亮 after they've been a lot of bright lights,
可能还有歌声 and perhaps some songs to,
小孩是受不了的 enough is enough.
孩子会不开心 最后哭起来 The baby will start to look stern and then burst into tears.
聪明的父母知道这很正常 And the wise parent knows that nothing is particularly wrong,
尽管孩子可能已经在大哭了 though the baby may by now be wailing.
孩子只是需要时间休息 It's just time for a nap.
大脑需要对这些混乱的体验 The brain needs to process, digest,
进行处理、理解和分类 and divide up the welter of experiences that have been ingested.
所以拉上窗帘 And so the curtains are drawn,
拿毛绒玩具陪宝宝睡 babies lay down next to the soft toys,
宝宝很快就会睡着 一切都安静下来 and soon it's asleep, and calm descends.
所有人都知道一个小时之后 Everyone knows
生活会容易很多 that life is going to be a lot more manageable again in an hour.
可惜的是 我们不会这样谨慎地对待自己 Sadly, we exercise no such caution with ourselves.
我们每周忙忙碌碌 有几天晚上要去见朋友 We schedule a week in which we're going to see friends every night
要开12个会 in which we're gonna do 12 meetings,
其中3个会要做大量准备工作 three of them requiring a lot of preparation,
周三打飞的去国外 while we'll make a quick overnight dashed another country
第二天回来 on the Wednesday
换6套床单 晚上8点后吃5顿大餐 看3场电影 读14份报纸 change six pairs of sheets, have five heavy meals after 8 pm, while we'll watch three films, read 14 newspapers,
喝30杯咖啡 and drink 30 cups of coffee.
然后感慨生活太不平静 And then we lament that our lives are not as calm as they might be,
精神几近崩溃 and that we're close to mental collapse.
我们不愿意 We refuse to take seriously
正视成年人的孩子一面 how much of our babyhood is left inside our adult selves.
因此 And therefore,
我们要认真简化生活中的事务 how much care we have to take to keep things simple
保持内心平静 and very, very calm.
焦虑通常表现地并不明显 What registers as anxiety is typically no freakish phenomenon.
我们的大脑强烈要求 It is our minds‘ logical, enraged, plea
不要连续强烈地过度刺激 not to be continuously and exhaustingly over stimulated.
为了简化生活 这是是我们可以做的事 These are some of the things we may need to do to simplify our lives.
理论上 人事繁忙是大有益处的 It is theoretically a privilege to have a lot of people to see and things to do.
从心理上说 It is also, psychologically speaking,
这也让人经历透支 因而带来危险 exhausting and ultimately, therefore, rather dangerous.
表达方式有些过时和残忍 The manner of expression is a little dated and brutal,
有人可能对确切的时间安排吹毛求疵 and one might want to quibble over the exact timings.
尼采的这个说法现在依然一针见血 But this point from Free to he, Nietzsche, remains acute.
从古至今 人们可以分为两类: 奴隶和自由人 Today, as always, men fall into two groups, slaves and Free men.
无法自由支配自己三分之二时间的人是奴隶 Whoever does not have 2/3 of his day for himself is a slave.
不管他是 Whatever else he may be
政治家 商人 官员还是学者 a statesman, a businessman, an official, or a scholar.
我们要知道 We need to recognize
身体一天能做多少事并不重要 that what is physically possible for us to achieve in a day is not,
而要看心理上是否能接受 for that matter, psychologically wise or plausible.
可以一天跑两个国家首都 It may well be feasible to nip over to a foreign capital or two in a day
也可以一边经营公司一边照顾家庭 and run a company alongside managing a household.
但是这样的生活很可能让人扛不住 But nor should we be surprised if such routines
这不足为奇 ultimately contribute to a breakdown,
充足的睡眠至少需要七个小时 Sleep, plenty of it, at least seven hours.
如果睡眠时间不够 至少要知道 Or if we can't manage it, we need, at a minimum,
自己是缺少睡眠 fully to recognize how much we are deprived
这样就不会放大自己的痛苦 so that we won't aggravate our sorrows
不会苦苦寻求痛苦的原因 by searching for abstruse explanations for them.
我们没有必要离婚 We don't necessarily have to get divorced,
辞职重新找工作 retrain in a completely different profession,
或者移民 or move country.
我们可能只是需要多休息 We may just need to get some more rest.
我们从手机接收的信息 What we're taking in when we check our phones
可能是造成心理不健康的重要原因 is perhaps the single greatest contributor to our mental ill health.
历史上很难找到 For most of history, it was inconceivable
有一种叫做 that they could ever be such a thing as
信息过剩的时代 "too much news".
政治圈或国外的信息 Information from political circles or foreign countries
是稀有的 标价的 昂贵的 was rare, prized, and expensive.
但从20世纪中期开始 But since the middle of the 20th century,
新闻被商业化了 news has been commodifide.
在这个过程中 And in the process, it's become a major,
尽管不易察觉 though, still too little known
它已经成为我们精神健康的主要杀手 risk to our mental survival.
无时无刻 Every minute of every day
presents us with untold options for filling our minds
with the mania exploits disasters,
furies, reversals, triumphs, insanity, and cataclysms of Complete strangers
all around or benighted planet.
Always, news organizations speak of
a 鈥淣eed to Know", and they need to know right now.
But what they've left out is are equally great
and often even greater need: Not to Know
because we can't change anything
because the stories are too violent, dispiriting, and sad.
because our minds are fragile,
because we have responsibilities closer to home
because we need to lead our own lives
rather than be torn apart by the stories of the lives of others,
who ultimately as remote from an irrelevant to us
as the inhabitants of the Egyptian court of Kingston, a pharaoh
in late 2613 Bc
Insomnia and anxiety are the mind's revenge
for all the thoughts we refuse to have consciously during the day.
In order to be able to find rest,
we need to carve off chunks of time where we have nothing to do
other than lie in bed with a patent paper
in order to think
We need to consider three topics in particular.
Firstly, what's making me anxious?
Secondly, what's cause me pain, and how?
And thirdly, what's exciting me?
We need to sift through the chaotic contents of our minds.
Every hour of living requires at least 10 minutes of sifting.
Of course it might be pleasant to be extraordinary famous and world beating,
but maybe it will be an even greater achievement
to stay sane and kind.
We might opt not to conquer the world
in favor of living a longer and more serene life.
We're not backing away from a challenge.
We're simply shifting our sense of what the real challenge might be,
and more importantly, where the real rewards may lie.
A quiet life isn't necessarily one of resignation or flight.
It may constitute a supremely wise recognition
that the truly satisfying things are available
away from the spotlight and the big cities on modest salaries,
and as far as possible from the manic sleepless competition
to win the professional status race.
As we're discovering, excitement can be fun for a time,
but also it kills.
Simplicity is true wisdom.
We may need a lot more naps.
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