双语有声阅读：学会活在当下

To a large degree, the measure of our peace of mind is determined¹ by how much we are able to live in the present moment. Irrespective of what happened yesterday or last year, and what may or may not happen tomorrow, the present moment is where you are -- always!

 

Without question, many of us have mastered the neurotic² art of spending much our lives worrying about a variety of things -- all at once. We allow past problems and future concerns to dominate our present moments,so much that we end up anxious,frustrated, depressed³, and hopeless. On the flip⁴ side, we also postpone⁵ our gratification, our stated priorities, and our happiness, often convincing ourselves future will be better than today. Unfortunately, the same mental dynamics⁶ that tell us to look toward the future will only repeat themselves so that"someday "never actually arrives. John Lennon once said,"Life is what~ s happening while we"re busy making other plans. "When we"re busy making "other plans", our children are busy growing up, the people we love are moving away and dying, our bodies are getting out of shape, and our dreams are slipping away. In short, we miss out on life.

 

Many people live as if life were a dress rehearsal⁷ for some later date. It isn＇t. In fact, no one has a guarantee that he or she will be here tomorrow. Now is the only time we have, and the only time that we have any control over. When our attention is in the present moment, we push fear from our minds. Fear is the concern over events that might happen in the future -- we won＇t have enough money, our children will get into trouble, we will get old and die, whatever.

 

在很大程度上，我们内心的平和取决于我们在多大程度上享受眼前的生活。不管昨天或去年发生了什么，也不管明天将会发生什么或不会发生什么，现实才是你所在之处——生活就是这样。

 

毫无疑问，在我们的生活中，许多人总是这样的神经兮兮，他们担心各种各样的事情，而且会突然之间担心许多事情。我们让过去与未来的问题支配我们现有的时间，以致于整日焦躁不安、委靡不振、精神沮丧甚至感到绝望。另一方面，我们又永远不让自己满足、享有优先权和幸福感，而且还经常说服自己将来会比今天好。不幸的是是，同样的告诉我们去展望未来的精神动力，它只是不断重复自己，以致于“某一天”永远不能到来。约翰·列侬曾说：“生活就是我们忙于制订其他计划时所发生的事。”当我们忙于制订“其他计划”时，我们的孩子忙于成长，我们所爱之人远离、并撒手尘寰，我们体型走样了，我们的梦想消失了。总之，我们错过了人生的大好光阴。

 

许多人活着，他们的生活就像未来日子的一次时装彩排。然而，并非如此。事实上，没有人能确保他或她明天还在。现在是我们拥有的惟一时间，是惟一能够把握的时间。当我们的注意力集中于现在时，我们便能消除恐惧。 恐惧是我们对未来事情的担心，比如我们没有足够的钱，我们的孩子会惹上麻烦，我们会变老，会离开人世，如此等等，不胜枚举。

1 determined   

adj.坚定的；有决心的

参考例句：

• I have determined on going to Tibet after graduation.我已决定毕业后去西藏。
• He determined to view the rooms behind the office.他决定查看一下办公室后面的房间。

2 neurotic   

adj.神经病的，神经过敏的；n.神经过敏者，神经病患者

参考例句：

• Nothing is more distracting than a neurotic boss. 没有什么比神经过敏的老板更恼人的了。
• There are also unpleasant brain effects such as anxiety and neurotic behaviour.也会对大脑产生不良影响，如焦虑和神经质的行为。

3 depressed   

adj.沮丧的，抑郁的，不景气的，萧条的

参考例句：

• When he was depressed,he felt utterly divorced from reality.他心情沮丧时就感到完全脱离了现实。
• His mother was depressed by the sad news.这个坏消息使他的母亲意志消沉。

4 flip   

vt.快速翻动；轻抛；轻拍；n.轻抛；adj.轻浮的

参考例句：

• I had a quick flip through the book and it looked very interesting.我很快翻阅了一下那本书，看来似乎很有趣。
• Let's flip a coin to see who pays the bill.咱们来抛硬币决定谁付钱。

5 postpone   

v.延期，推迟

参考例句：

• I shall postpone making a decision till I learn full particulars.在未获悉详情之前我得从缓作出决定。
• She decided to postpone the converastion for that evening.她决定当天晚上把谈话搁一搁。

6 dynamics   

n.力学，动力学，动力，原动力；动态

参考例句：

• In order to succeed,you must master complicated knowledge of dynamics.要取得胜利，你必须掌握很复杂的动力学知识。
• Dynamics is a discipline that cannot be mastered without extensive practice.动力学是一门不做大量习题就不能掌握的学科。

7 rehearsal   

n.排练，排演；练习

参考例句：

• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。
• You can sharpen your skills with rehearsal.排练可以让技巧更加纯熟。