白日夢(mèng)還是少做為妙

Yes, it can make you more creative and lead to greater self-reflection, but one of the biggest upsides to daydreaming may be the one with the most immediate impact — namely, that it provides an easy escape from whatever boring thing you’re stuck doing. Your body may be trapped on the subway for another 45 minutes, but your mind can travel to any number of more enjoyable scenarios; letting your imagination wander can make mundane to-dos like cleaning or exercise a little more fun; there’s a whole Reddit page dedicated to the weird places your brain takes you while you’re in the shower.

沒(méi)錯(cuò)，白日夢(mèng)能讓你更有創(chuàng)造力，讓你進(jìn)行更深刻地自我反思，但白日做夢(mèng)最大的壞處之一可能也是它最直接的影響之一——它能夠讓你逃離自己不想做的事情。你的身體可能被困在地鐵里四十五分鐘，但你的心靈卻能夠到達(dá)任何比地鐵更有趣的場(chǎng)景中;讓你的想象馳騁能夠讓單調(diào)的待辦事項(xiàng)(比如打掃和鍛煉)變得更加有趣;Reddit還甚至為人們?cè)谠∈依锵胂筮^(guò)的奇怪地方貢獻(xiàn)了一整個(gè)頁(yè)面。

But as writer Libby Copeland recently explained in Smithsonian, daydreaming-as-escapism isn’t really as effective as we seem to think it is: Research has shown that it doesn’t make people any happier than just focusing on the moment, even when that moment isn’t really that great. In one 2010 study, researchers created an app that sent users seemingly random alerts over the course of the day, each time asking them what they were doing, whether they were thinking about the task at hand or something else, and how happy they felt. Copeland summed up the results:

但正如作家Libby Copeland最近在《史密森尼學(xué)會(huì)》上解釋的那樣，作為逃避的白日做夢(mèng)并沒(méi)有我們想象中的那樣有效。已有研究發(fā)現(xiàn)比起專注于當(dāng)下，白日做夢(mèng)并不會(huì)讓人們變得更加開(kāi)心，即便當(dāng)下這一時(shí)刻沒(méi)那么美好。在2010年的一項(xiàng)研究中，研究人員們創(chuàng)造出了一種應(yīng)用程序，它能夠在一天之中隨機(jī)給人們發(fā)送提醒。每次的提醒都會(huì)問(wèn)人們正在做什么，他們是正在思考手頭的任務(wù)，還是在想別的事情，以及他們的開(kāi)心程度。Copeland總結(jié)的結(jié)果如下：

Overall, people were less happy when their minds wandered. Neutral and negative thoughts seemed to make them less happy than being in the moment, and pleasant thoughts made them no happier. Even when people were engaged in an activity they said they didn’t like—commuting, for example—they were happier when focused on the commute than when their minds strayed.

總體而言，當(dāng)人們的思想信馬由韁的時(shí)候并沒(méi)有專注于當(dāng)下那么開(kāi)心。比起專注于當(dāng)下，中立和負(fù)面的思想會(huì)讓他們沒(méi)那么開(kāi)心，而快樂(lè)的想法也不會(huì)讓他們更加開(kāi)心。就算人們正在做自己并不喜歡的事情(比如通勤路上)，他們專注于通勤也會(huì)比各種白日做夢(mèng)更加開(kāi)心。

What’s more, people’s negative moods appeared to be the result, rather than the cause, of the mind wandering.

更重要的是，人們的負(fù)面情緒會(huì)成為白日做夢(mèng)的結(jié)果而不是原因。

One possible explanation, as lead study author Matt Killingsworth told Smithsonian: “When our mind wanders, I think it really blunts the enjoyment of what it is that we’re doing.” Even if you’re not occupied with something enjoyable, there can still be small pleasures in it: interesting people-watching on the subway, for instance, or Copeland’s example of the feel of hot water against your skin in the shower — both things you miss when you let yourself zone out. Plus, there’s always the chance your daydream could turn into a worry spiral, sending your brain to a situation far less pleasant than the one you were trying to ignore in the first place.

該研究的主要作者M(jìn)att Killingsworth認(rèn)為一個(gè)可能的解釋是：“當(dāng)我們的思想信馬由韁的時(shí)候，它就會(huì)讓我們當(dāng)下的享受變得模糊起來(lái)。”就算你沒(méi)做什么享受的事情，可能這事兒中間也會(huì)給你帶來(lái)一點(diǎn)小愉悅：比如地鐵上看到的有趣之人，或者Copeland說(shuō)的淋浴時(shí)熱水流過(guò)皮膚的感覺(jué)。當(dāng)你去想別的事情時(shí)，你就會(huì)錯(cuò)過(guò)這些。另外，你的白日做夢(mèng)也總是很有可能陷入擔(dān)心的漩渦，它發(fā)送給你的愉悅遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)少于你想要忽略的東西。