焕若新生

去年冬天，当我布置了让学生静坐6分钟的作业时，很多人都没能做到。对这些同学来说，这其实是一个警钟，提醒他们云游的思绪经常不受控制。与此同时，这也成为一些人把冥想练习加入日常安排的动力所在：

我在假期里完全没能完成这项作业，回到学校后只能面对因自己的懒惰而导致的结果，这让我备受打击。通过这门课程，在了解了正念和冥想练习能够带来的诸多好处之后，我决定把冥想培养成一种习惯。

因为开始时不知从何做起，我便下载了一款指导冥想练习的App。我对自己的预期很低：既然之前静坐6分钟的作业都没能完成，那说明我确实不那么适合做冥想。但在完成了3分钟的冥想引导练习之后，我体验到了几个月以来最为放松、专注和平静的时刻。我很高兴之前对自己的预判是错的。

从那时开始，我尝试着每天都进行冥想练习，并基本上完成了这个目标。虽然只有短短几周的时间，但我已感受到自己心态上的变化：压力没有那么大了。即便在最为繁忙和慌乱的期中阶段，我也惊奇地发现自己能保持平和愉悦的心态。这些发生在实际生活中和我态度上的积极改变，给了我继续坚持冥想练习的动力。不但如此，我更加享受冥想本身，享受在那几分钟里自己的身体和周围的环境产生深深共鸣的感受。我从未想过自己会说出如此肉麻的话，但真心的：冥想让我整个人焕若新生。

谁又能预料到，这6分钟的家庭作业会如此意义深远呢？

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  • Lyubomirsky, S., Sheldon, K.M., & Schkade, D., “Pursuing Happiness:The Architecture of Sustainable Change,” Review of General Psychology 9(2005): 111– 131.

  • Killingsworth, M.A. & Gilbert, D.T., “A Wandering Mind Is an Unhappy Mind,” Science 330 (2010): 932.

  • Parks, M., “It’s Now Illegal to Text while Crossing the Street in Honolulu,”NPR, July 29, 2017. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/sections/ thetwo-way/2017/07/29/540140824/ its-now-illegal-to-text-while-crossing-the-street-in-honolulu.

  • Kushlev, K., Proulx, J., & Dunn, E. W., “Silence Your Phones: Smartphone Notifications Increase Inattention and Hyperactivity Symptoms,”CHI ’16 Proceedings of the 2016 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (2016): 1011– 1020.

  • Ward, A.D., Duke, K., Gneezy, A., & Bos, M.W., “Brain Drain: The Mere Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity,”Journal of the Association for Consumer Research 2 (2017): 140–154.

  • Thích Nhât Hanh (1990). Present Moment, Wonderful Moment: Mindfulness Verses for Daily Living. Berkeley: Parallax Press.

  • Whippman, R., “Actually, Let’s Not Be in the Moment,” New York Times,November 26, 2016. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/26/opinion/sunday/ actually-lets-not-be-in-the-moment.html?_r=0.

  • 唐·德雷柏是美剧《广告狂人》中的一个虚构角色。——译者注

  • Desrosiers, A., Vine, V., Klemanski, D.H., & Nolen-Hoeksema, S., “Mindfulness and Emotion Regulation in Depression and Anxiety: Common and Distinct Mechanisms of Action,” Depression and Anxiety 30 (2013): 654– 661.

  • Ibid.

  • Mermelstein, L.C. & Garske, J.P., “A Brief Mindfulness Intervention for College Student Binge Drinkers: A Pilot Study,” Psychology of Addictive Behaviors 29 (2015): 259– 269.

  • Joaquim, S. et al., “Direct Experience and the Course of Eating Disorders in Patients on Partial Hospitalization: A Pilot Study,” European Eating Disorders Review 21 (2013): 399– 404.

  • Fairfax, H., Easey, K., Fletcher, S., & Barfield, J., “Does Mindfulness Help in the Treatment of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)? An Audit of Client Experience of an OCD Group,” Counselling Psychology Review 29 (2014): 17– 27.

  • Bei, B. et al., “Pilot Study of a Mindfulness-Based, Multi-Component, InSchool Group Sleep Intervention in Adolescent Girls,” Early Intervention in Psychiatry 7 (2013): 213– 220; Caldwell, K., Emery, L., Harrison, M., &Greeson, J., “Changes in Mindfulness, Well-Being, and Sleep Quality in College Students through Taijiquan Courses: A Cohort Control Study,” The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine 17 (2011): 931–938.

  • Glick, D.M. & Orsillo, S.M., “An Investigation of the Efficacy of Acceptance-Based Behavioral Therapy for Academic Procrastination,” Journal of Experimental Psychology 144 (2015): 400–409.

  • Teehan, S., “New SAT paying off for test-prep industry,” The Boston Globe,March 5, 2016. Retrieved from https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2016/03/04/ new-sat-paying-off-for-test-prep-industry/blQeQKoSz1yAksN9N9463K/story.html.

  • Mrazek, M.D., Franklin, M.S., Phillips, D.P., Baird, B., & Schooler, J.W.,“Mindfulness Training Improves Working Memory Capacity and GRE Performance while Reducing Mind Wandering,” Psychological Science 24(2013): 776– 781.

  • Williams, M., Teasdale, J, Segal, Z., & Kabat-Zinn, J. (2007). The Mindful Way through Depression: Freeing Yourself from Chronic Unhappiness.New York: The Guilford Press, p. 34.

  • Ibid., 35.

  • Davidson, R.J. et al., “Alterations in Brain and Immune Function Produced by Mindfulness Meditation,” Psychosomatic Medicine 65 (2003): 564– 570.