你仍然可以在家里找到敬畏和驚奇的時刻

你仍然可以在家里找到敬畏和驚奇的時刻

No one could blame the babysitters for ditching us.

沒有人會責(zé)怪保姆拋棄了我們。

Who wanted to spend time in a spooky old farmhouse with a couple of kids who were, as one doomed sitter put it, "full of beans"?

誰愿意花時間和幾個孩子在一個陰森的舊農(nóng)舍里度過呢?

Sometimes. a screen can be a most welcome distraction. (Photo: Christian Cotroneo)

As a result, my sister and I spent many days and nights on our own, mostly isolated from the rest of the world. Sound familiar?

結(jié)果，我和姐姐獨自度過了許多日日夜夜，幾乎與世隔絕。聽起來是不是很熟悉?

Lately, it seems, we've all been returning to a point in our lives when we spent most of our time at home, often by ourselves.

最近，似乎我們都回到了我們生活中的一個階段，我們大部分時間都呆在家里，通常是一個人。

Unlike childhood, these are not halcyon days — a pandemic is raging and people are dying. But the feeling of being alone and isolated may take many of us back to another time, a time when we exalted in everyday moments. That ability to find moments of awe shouldn't be left behind with childhood. As Sidney Stevens writes in MNN, "the more you're bowled over by things, the healthier you'll be physically, mentally and spiritually."

與童年不同的是，這些日子并不太平——一場大流行正在肆虐，人們正在死亡。但是，孤獨和孤立的感覺可能會把我們許多人帶回到另一個時代，一個我們在日常生活中感到興奮的時代。這種發(fā)現(xiàn)令人敬畏時刻的能力不應(yīng)該被遺忘在童年時代。正如西德尼·史蒂文斯在《MNN》中寫道的那樣:“你被事情壓倒的越多，你的身體、心理和精神就會越健康。”

Finding awe where you are

在你所在的地方發(fā)現(xiàn)敬畏

Who says you have to go far to go camping? (Photo: Christian Cotroneo)

Berkeley researchers recently set out to prove a similar hypothesis, only for people mostly confined to their homes. In other words, the quarantine crowd. Can you, for example, find awe and growth while stuck at home?

伯克利大學(xué)的研究人員最近開始證明一個類似的假設(shè)，只是針對那些主要呆在家里的人。換句話說，就是隔離人群。例如，當(dāng)你呆在家里的時候，你能發(fā)現(xiàn)敬畏和成長嗎?

The answer was a resounding yes. It starts, as the researchers write in Greater Good magazine, with ignoring the myriad distractions that buzz around us.

答案是絕對的肯定。正如研究人員在《更偉大的好雜志》上所寫的那樣，它始于忽視我們周圍的無數(shù)干擾因素。

"When you do, your mind quiets down," they note. "Whatever you're doing — showering, eating, driving, gardening, writing, reading emails, playing with your kids, hiking — you can choose to bring your full attention to the present moment."

他們指出:“當(dāng)你這樣做的時候，你的大腦就會安靜下來。無論你在做什么——洗澡、吃飯、開車、園藝、寫作、閱讀電子郵件、和孩子一起玩、徒步旅行——你都可以選擇將你的全部注意力集中在當(dāng)下。”

When you do that, you're engaging in what they call "Microdosing Mindfulness," a means of easing stress and anxiety by essentially getting high on the present.

當(dāng)你這樣做的時候，你就進入了所謂的“微劑量正念”，這是一種緩解壓力和焦慮的方法，本質(zhì)上就是讓自己沉浸在當(dāng)下。

Of course, there's a lot more to mindfulness than just slowing things down. Researchers recommend treating your house like a museum, pondering every object. And you'll need to time your inhales and exhales just right.

當(dāng)然，正念不僅僅是讓事情慢下來。研究人員建議把你的房子當(dāng)做一個博物館，思考每一個物體。你需要掌握正確的吸氣和呼氣時間。

But ultimately, as previous studies note, cultivating awe in our every day, even in isolation, can be a powerful tonic for both body and soul.

但最終，正如之前的研究指出的，在我們的每一天中培養(yǎng)敬畏之心，即使是在孤立的狀態(tài)下，也能對我們的身體和靈魂產(chǎn)生強大的滋補作用。

The thing is, children do much of that with a lot less effort.

問題是，孩子們在這方面做得很少。

You develop a kind of sensitivity to seemingly normal patterns. Like the way sunlight pours through the front window, gets carved into slender blades by the curtains and appears like a highway of light on the carpet below. That's the perfect road to cruise with the unused eraser from your back-to-school pencil case that looks like a car from the future.

你會對看似正常的模式產(chǎn)生一種敏感性。就像陽光從前窗傾瀉進來，被窗簾雕刻成細長的葉片，在下面的地毯上看起來像一條光的高速公路。這是一個完美的道路巡航與未使用的橡皮從你的返校鉛筆盒，看起來像來自未來的汽車。

You might even notice the aerodynamics of a classic pen cap make it well-suited for elastic-propelled rocketry. Especially when launched at your sister.

你甚至可能會注意到一個經(jīng)典的筆帽的空氣動力學(xué)，使它非常適合于彈性推進火箭。尤其是對你姐姐發(fā)起攻擊的時候。

Please don't shoot these at people you're in lockdown with. (Photo: Pokin Sethapokin/Shutterstock)

And when the imagination sputters, there's always a good book. In my case, it was often "The Good Book." My dad always made sure there was a bible around — though I favored "The Comic Book" a bit more.

當(dāng)想象力迸發(fā)時，總有一本好書。對我來說，它通常是“一本好書”。我爸爸總是確保身邊有一本圣經(jīng)——盡管我更喜歡“漫畫書”。

There were dark times too. I was certain those were ghostly fingers plucking my bed springs at night. And why was the attic door at the far end of my room always heaving open on its own?

也有黑暗的時候。我敢肯定，那是夜里撥我床上彈簧的幽靈般的手指。為什么我房間那頭的閣樓門總是自己開著?

Even the tree in front of the house grew human brains.

甚至房前的那棵樹也長出了人類的大腦。

Isolation may be be good for strengthening familial bonds. Or not. (Photo: Christian Cotroneo)

It was a strange and surreal kind of place for kids. And I probably annoyed my sister with the same question a little too often: When's dad coming home?

對孩子們來說，這是一個奇怪而超現(xiàn)實的地方。我可能經(jīng)常用同樣的問題來煩我姐姐:爸爸什么時候回家?

She may not have always known the answer or appreciated that it came up so often, but we agreed on one thing: we had our own little world on the farm, with room for the imagination to soar.

她可能并不總是知道答案，也不知道為什么這個問題經(jīng)常被提起，但我們在一件事上達成了一致:我們在農(nóng)場里有自己的小世界，有想象翱翔的空間。

And that's all you need.

這就是你所需要的。