高档妈妈装:无所事事的重要

作者：罗宾·伯斯林，由www.spotlightradio.net授权使用

“I am bored. I am no longer interested in this game.”

“I am bored. I have nothing to do.”

“I am bored. I am tired of my job.”

“无聊死了！我再也不喜欢玩这个游戏了。”

“好烦啊！啥事儿也没得干。”

    “郁闷！工作真无聊。”

Boredom. People normally think it is a negative emotion. People who are bored are not interested in what they are doing. People naturally do not LIKE being bored. They WANT to be interested in what they are doing. But this does not always happen. People are often bored. So they try many things to help stop boredom. But, is it always good to try and escape boredom? Can boredom be good?

无聊，通常人们认为这是一种负面情绪。感到无聊的人对他正在做的事不再有兴趣。人类本能地不喜欢无聊的感觉。他们总希望对正在做着的事充满浓厚兴趣。可这并不会一直发生。人们会经常感到无聊烦闷。因此，人们也总是试图摆脱无聊之感。可是，想法摆脱无聊真的总是有益的吗？无所事事就不能是件好事儿吗？

History of Boredom 

无聊的字源和历史

The word boredom does not have a long history in the English language. The first records of the word boredom are from the eighteen hundreds. Before this, people did not speak about the emotion of boredom. Instead, they talked about the way a bored person acted. They used words like lazy or slothful. These words describe a person's lack of doing anything or being interested in anything.

在英文中，单词“无聊”并没有太长的历史。此词第一次出现在18世纪。在此之前，人们并不怎么谈论无聊一词所代表的情绪感受。反而是在谈论无所事事之人的行为特征。人们使用诸如“慢吞吞的”、“懒洋洋的”这类词汇。这些词描述了一个人缺乏行动或是对任何事都不感兴趣的状态。

People today may think boredom is bad. However, in the Middle Ages in Europe, people thought it was much worse. They considered being lazy or slothful one of the seven deadly sins. If a person did not avoid these sins, these acts would lead a person toward spiritual death. Today, people may not think that negatively about boredom. But people do try to avoid it as much as possible.

现代人认为无聊是负面的。然而，在中世纪的欧洲，人们认为无所事事甚至比现代人认为的还要糟糕许多。他们将懒惰归为七宗原罪之一。如果一个人无法避免这些罪恶，它会将人带向精神死亡。如今，人们不会那么严重地来看待无所事事，但人们总是尽可能地想法来避免变得无聊。

Escaping Boredom　

摆脱无聊

One major way people try to escape boredom is through entertaining forms of technology. When bored, many people will watch television or listen to the radio. Some people will text message friends or watch videos on the internet. And other people will play computer or mobile phone games. There are so many ways to escape boredom through technology.

现代人摆脱无聊的利器之一是利用科技产品进行娱乐。一但感到无聊了，很多人就看电视或是听广播。有些人立马给朋友发短信或是在线看片。还有人会玩电脑或手机游戏。利用科技产品有很多办法帮人从无聊中逃脱出来。

However, Peter Bregman is not sure escaping boredom is the answer. On his blog, he wrote about how a loss of boredom affected him. He had bought a new computer, an iPad. The iPad could do many things, and these things filled Peter's day. So he decided NOT to keep it! He wrote:"It is too good. It is too easy. For the most part, it does everything I could want...Which, I now recognize is a problem."

不过，彼得·布莱格曼Peter Bregman并不太确定摆脱无聊是件好事儿。他在博客里写了他失去无所事事时是怎样地影响了他的生活。他曾经买了台新电脑，就是大家都知道的iPad. iPad功能强大，这些各种各样的新奇玩意儿将彼得的一天塞得满满当当。于是，他决定再也不要它了！他说：“它太好用，也太容易就会用了。总的来说，iPad能实现我想要的每一种功能，可是，我意识到这是个问题。”

A problem? How could something being too good be a problem? Peter explained that using the iPad filled all of his time. He was always working and playing on it. And he was never bored. Peter said,

问题？怎么一个东西会好到成为一个问题呢？彼得解释道使用iPad占据了他全部时间，他不是用它来工作就是用它来玩耍，并且，从不会感到无聊。

"Being bored is a valuable thing. It is an emotion we should seek. Once we are bored, our minds begin to think freely. Our minds look for something exciting and interesting to think about. And that is when we become creative. My best ideas come to me when I am bored."

“可实际上，无所事事是件很有价值的事情。那是一种我们应该找寻的情绪状态。一但我们感到无聊了，大脑才会开始自由自在的思考。大脑总是找那些令人兴奋又十分有趣的事儿来想，而这正是令我们变得富有创造力的时刻。我所有的好点子都是在我很无聊的时候想到的。”

Positive Effects of Boredom

无所事事的正能量

Peter Bregman is not alone in his opinion about boredom. In fact, many mental health experts agree that being bored has positive effects. Dr. Edward Hallowell is a mental health doctor and the writer of a book called "Crazy Busy." He told Carolyn Johnson of the Boston Globe Newspaper,"If you think of boredom as the thing which comes before creativity...then it is a good thing. Boredom is a door to something better, as opposed to something to be hated and escaped immediately."

彼得并非持有无聊有益观点的唯一一人。事实上，许多精神健康专家都认为无所事事具有正面意义。爱德华·哈洛威Edward Hallowell博士是一位精神健康医生，他写了一本书名叫《疯狂的忙碌》，他在接受波士顿全球新闻报的采访时说：“如果你将无聊视为创造力勃发的序曲，那么它就是件妙事。无聊是一扇门，它通向更为精彩的事情；相反的，不无聊将令到事情变得令人憎恶并想到立马逃脱掉。”

Dr. Richard Ralley is another mental health expert. He agrees with this idea. He is a teacher at Edge Hill University in England who studies the emotion of boredom. Dr. Ralley told the Boston Globe,"The most creative people are known to be able to experience long periods of unsureness and boredom."

里查得·莱利Richard Ralley博士是另一位精神健康专家。他赞同这些意见。他现在在英国吉尔希尔大学任教，专门研究无聊这种情绪。莱利博士对《波士顿全球新闻报》如是说道：“最富创造力的那些人最为大众所知的，也正是他们能够忍得住长时期的充满不确定感及无聊的状态。”

Dr. Ralley encourages parents to let their children be bored. Children naturally react to boredom with creativity. Children can spend many hours playing games that they create. They play with the simplest of resources - an empty box, some rocks or even a long stick.

莱利博士鼓励为人父母者放手让孩子无所事事。小孩子们对无聊的本能反应就是催生创造力。他们能在自己创造出的游戏上玩上几个小时，也能和最简单的对象一起玩得高兴之极，哪怕那只是个空盒子，几块石头甚至一根长木棍。

Adults Need Boredom　

成年人需要无所事事

But what happens to adults? Adults are not as easily entertained as children. It is natural for people to lose interest in something after doing it for a long period of time. So, over time, adults lose interest in many things that they once enjoyed.

那么，对于成年人会发生什么呢？成年人不像孩子那么容易被取悦。人们总是在一段时间后对所做的事情失去兴趣。因此，只要过一段时间，成年人就会对许多他们曾经非常享受的事情不再感到有乐趣。

But often, adults lose their creative reaction because they do not let themselves be bored. Many experts say that entertaining technology devices like computers, music players and televisions are not the answer to boredom. Such devices do keep people from thinking about being bored. But they do not really replace boredom. When a television program ends or the radio breaks or the computer loses power, boredom remains.

然而，通常情况下，成年人失去创造力正是因为他们不让自己感到无聊。许多专家都认为诸如电脑、音乐播放器还有电视这些具备娱乐功能的科技产品并非解决无聊问题的答案。这些东西确实能使人摆脱无聊感，但实际上这些东西并不能真正替代无聊。当电视节目结束，广播中断或是电脑突然没电，无聊之感依然存在。

Dr. Michael Raposa is an expert on boredom and religion from Lehigh University in the United States. He wrote a book called "Boredom and the Religious Imagination." In it, he argues that experiencing boredom can develop how creatively and deeply we think about things. Dr. Raposa recognizes that boredom is going to affect all people. He explains the choice people have when boredom begins.

迈克·拉普萨Michael Raposa博士也是研究无聊及宗教方面的专家，他任教于美国里海大学。他写了一本书叫《无聊感及宗教想像》，在这本书里，他说经历无聊感能让我们对事物思考得更为深刻更具创造力。拉普萨博士意识到无聊将会影响全人类，他解释说，因为“无聊始则选择至”。

"We can avoid boredom. In this case we develop set ways to keep us from thinking about boredom. Or we can experience boredom. In this case we develop set ways to increase thoughtfulness."

    “我们可以避免无所事事，因为我们能找出不再感到无聊的种种方法；当然，我们也可以体验无所事事，于是，我们找到了富于思考的种种途径。”

For example, imagine a mother holding a restless baby. She is moving from right to left in a slow motion. She is trying to settle the baby to sleep. She does this every night and it takes twenty minutes for the baby to fall asleep. After five minutes, the process becomes boring to the mother. At this point, she could decide to turn on the television. She could do this every day and escape the boredom of the event. Or she could decide to experience the boredom. She could watch the small face of the baby and think about the smallness of his mouth, his eyes and his nose. The mother could consider the weakness, smallness and beauty of life. These thoughts may never become a poem or a song. But they are an exercise in the mother's thoughtfulness.

举个例子吧：让我们来想像一位正怀抱哭闹婴儿的母亲。她缓慢地从左右来回踱着步，正试图让孩子睡着。她每天晚上都要这样花掉20分钟来哄孩子入睡。五分钟以后，她已经变得不耐烦了。这时，她可以选择打开电视机，她可以每天都这么干以逃避无聊之感。或者，她也可以选择来经历这种无所事事。她可以细心观察婴儿的小脸蛋，想着他的小嘴、眼睛还有鼻子怎么就能这么小呢。进而，这位母亲想到了脆弱、纤小以及生命的美丽。这些念头可能永远不会变成一首诗或者一支歌，可却是一位母亲的思想经历。

Dr. Raposa believes that the thoughtfulness of boredom can also lead many people to ask big questions - questions about the meaning of life, about God and about our own spirituality. However, he thinks many people fear these questions. He writes,"There is something basically important about us that only boredom can teach us, but we naturally flee from it. We fill up empty spiritual space with "noise" because we cannot face the empty feeling of boredom."

 拉普萨博士相信无所事事时催生的思考状态能够引寻人们去探索人生意义这样的大问题，去思考上帝以及我们自己的精神世界。可是他也认为很多人是惧怕这些问题的，他在书中写道：“我们的生命中确实存在着一些基本的并且重要的事情，这些事只能由无所事事教给我们，可我们却会本能地逃避。我们用噪音填充空荡荡的精神空间，因为我们不敢面对无聊带来的空洞感。”

Do you fear being bored? Do you find ways to escape boredom in your life? Or do you think boredom is important to creativity and faith? If you do not know, maybe you should turn off the radio, put down your mobile phone, and just let yourself be bored...

 你是否害怕无聊？你是不是还在你的生活中不停找寻摆脱无聊的方法？还是你会认为无聊对创造力及信念是重要的？如果你确实不知道，或许你应该关掉广播、放下你的手机，并让你自己无所事事……