保持快樂的秘訣：寫日記

Note to self: the key to happiness is keeping a diary and writing down the things that make you smile.

寫給自己：保持幸福的訣竅就是記日記，記下那些讓你快樂的事。

For while fictional diarists Bridget Jones and Adrian Mole used journals to record their woes and embarrassments, paying attention to the things that lift our moods mean we can learn how to cheer ourselves up, says a leading physicist.

一位著名的物理學(xué)家說，《BJ單身日記》和《艾德里安·莫爾的秘密日記》等虛構(gòu)日記的作者用日記記錄他們的傷心和尷尬事，不過多關(guān)注那些能提振我們心情的事情或許意味著我們可以學(xué)會讓自己快樂起來。

Author Dr Stefan Klein has found that being happy is a skill that can be learned like a foreign language, and one way to train ourselves to be happy is to write down the little things that cheer us up each day – a technique he practises himself.

作者斯蒂芬·克萊因博士發(fā)現(xiàn)保持快樂是一門技巧，它可以像學(xué)習(xí)外語一樣通過學(xué)習(xí)來掌握，訓(xùn)練我們自己快樂的方法之一就是記下每天讓我們高興的事，這門技巧他自己也在研習(xí)。

Dr Klein, who analysed psychological research for his book The Science of Happiness, added he often writes about his three young children, despite occasionally finding them ‘incredibly annoying’.

克萊因博士在他的著作《幸福的科學(xué)》一書中進(jìn)行了心理學(xué)研究，他表示，他會經(jīng)常寫一些關(guān)于他三個(gè)小孩兒的事情，雖然偶爾也會發(fā)現(xiàn)這些孩子“出奇地惱人”。

Speaking at the Cheltenham Science Festival, the German-born researcher said that decades of study into happiness has shown that people who are clinically depressed often believe there are no sources of joy in their lives.

出生于德國的克萊因博士在切爾騰納姆科學(xué)節(jié)的演講中表示，幾十年來對于幸福的研究表明，那些通過臨床診斷為抑郁的人們通常認(rèn)為在他們的生活中沒有快樂的來源。

But a study by Italian psychiatrist Giovanni Fava found that when patients were asked to keep diaries of events that made them happy, it ‘helped them a lot to get better’.

但是，意大利精神病學(xué)家喬瓦尼·法瓦通過研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，當(dāng)病人被要求將那些使他們快樂的事情記錄下來時(shí)，“他們的情況好轉(zhuǎn)很多。”

Dr Klein said: ‘It is incredibly simple – you just sit down in the evening and write down the moments where you feel happy and the circumstances.

克萊因博士說：“這個(gè)方法非常簡單，你只要每晚坐下來，然后把那些讓你感到快樂的時(shí)刻與當(dāng)時(shí)的情景寫下來就可以了。”

‘The object of the exercise is to simply make you more aware of these moments to know yourself better.

“這個(gè)練習(xí)的目的只是為了讓你更多地意識到那些感覺良好的時(shí)刻，讓你更了解自己。”

‘Even in states of severe depression there are moments of happiness, but the person suffering it doesn’t believe they have these moments in their lives.’

“即使處于嚴(yán)重的抑郁狀態(tài)，也總會有幸?？鞓返臅r(shí)刻，但是患抑郁的人卻不相信在他們的生命中也有快樂的時(shí)刻。”

And if you decide to take Dr Klein’s advice, you can make yourself even happier by recommending the technique to others.

如果你決定接受克萊因博士的建議，那么把這個(gè)技巧介紹給他人吧，這會讓你更快樂。

Happiness occurs when the brain releases endorphins – chemicals that trigger positive feelings – and scientists have found this occurs not only when we achieve one of our own goals, but when we help someone else achieve theirs.

當(dāng)大腦釋放內(nèi)啡肽(能引發(fā)積極情感的化學(xué)物質(zhì))時(shí)，幸福感就會產(chǎn)生。此外，科學(xué)家發(fā)現(xiàn)幸福感不僅僅在我們達(dá)到自己的預(yù)期目標(biāo)時(shí)產(chǎn)生，在我們幫助他人實(shí)現(xiàn)目標(biāo)時(shí)也會產(chǎn)生幸福感。

Dr Klein added it is important not to dwell on the times we felt sad, saying: ‘Going deep down into your negative feelings, [the idea] it has a cathartic effect, and you have to cry your tears out and shout your fears out, is really c**p’.’

克萊因博士補(bǔ)充道，最重要的是不要一味沉浸于那種悲傷情緒之中，“沉入你內(nèi)心的負(fù)面情緒，(那種說)這樣做有宣泄作用，你必須哭出來，將害怕的情緒宣泄出來，那都是胡說。”

The idea we should delve into our sadness became popular under Sigmund Freud, who saw the mind as a pressure cooker that needed to let out steam. But Dr Klein argued this was a ‘misguided analogy’.

精神分析學(xué)家西格蒙德·佛洛伊德，將心靈看做一個(gè)需要釋放壓力的高壓鍋，在他的提倡下，深入探究我們的悲傷情緒這種理念得以普及。但是克萊因博士卻認(rèn)為這種看法是個(gè)“有誤導(dǎo)性的類比”。

Vocabulary

woe: 苦惱，悲痛

trigger: 引發(fā)

dwell on: 老是想著