第6章　消除思想上的憂慮

我永遠都忘不了幾年前的一個晚上，當(dāng)時馬利安·道格拉斯是我班上的一個學(xué)員。（我沒用他的真名。出于個人原因，他要求我不要說出他的身份。）但這是他的真實故事，他在我的一個成人教育班上講過。他告訴我們他家里遭受的不幸——不只一次，而是兩次。第一次他失去了5歲的女兒，這是他非常喜愛的孩子。他和他的妻子都以為他們無法承受這個打擊。可是，正如他所說的：“10個月之后，上帝又賜給我們另一個小女兒——她只活了5天。”

接連而來的打擊幾乎使人無法承受。“我受不了，”這個父親告訴我們，“我睡不著吃不下，也無法休息或放松。我精神上受到了致命的打擊，信心全沒了。”最后，他去看了醫(yī)生。有一位醫(yī)生建議他吃安眠藥，而另一位醫(yī)生則建議去旅行。

他試了這兩個方法，可是都沒有用。他說：“我的身體猶如夾在一把鐵鉗子里，而鐵鉗卻越夾越緊。”那種悲哀——如果你曾經(jīng)因為悲哀而感覺麻木的話，就知道是什么感受了。

“不過，感謝上帝，我們還有一個孩子——一個4歲大的兒子。他教我找到了解決問題的方法。一天下午，我悲傷地呆坐著，他問我：‘爸爸，你肯不肯給我做一條船？’我實在沒有心情。事實上，我沒有心情做任何事。可是我的兒子是個很

peace that I had had in months!

“That discovery jarred me out of my lethargy and caused me to do a bit of thinking—the first real thinking I had done in months. I realised that it is difficult to worry while you are busy doing something that requires planning and thinking. In my case, building the boat had knocked worry out of the ring. So I resolved to keep busy.

“The following night, I went from room to room in the house, compiling a list of jobs that ought to be done. Scores of items needed to be repaired: bookcases, stair steps, storm windows, window shades, knobs, locks, leaky taps.Astonishing as it seems, in the course of two weeks I had made a list of 242 items that needed attention.

“During the last two years I have completed most of them.Besides, I have filled my life with stimulating activities. Two nights per week I attend adult-education classes in New York. I have gone in for civic activities in my home town and I am now chairman of the school board. I attend scores of meetings. I help collect money for the Red Cross and other activities. I am so busy now that I have no time for worry.”

No time for worry! That is exactly what Winston Churchill said when he was working eighteen hours a day at the height of the war. When he was asked if he worried about his tremendous responsibilities, he said, “I'm too busy. I have no time for worry.”

Charles Kettering was in that same fix when he started out to invent a self-starter for automobiles.Mr.Kettering was, until his recent retirement, vice-president of General Motors in charge of the world-famous General Motors Research Corporation. But in those days, he was so poor that he had to use the hayloft of a barn as a laboratory. To buy groceries, he had to use fifteen hundred dollars that his wife had made by giving piano lessons; later, he had to borrow five hundred dollars on his life insurance. I asked his wife

會纏人的小家伙，我不得不屈服。

“做那條玩具船花了三個小時。等做好之后，我發(fā)現(xiàn)這三小時竟成了我這幾個月以來第一次心情放松的時間。

“這個發(fā)現(xiàn)使我從恍惚中驚醒過來，也使我想了許多——這是我?guī)讉€月來第一次認(rèn)真思考。我發(fā)現(xiàn)，如果你忙著做一些需要計劃和思考的事情時，就很難去憂慮了。對我來說，做那條船時憂慮全都消失了，所以我決定讓自己忙起來。

“第二天晚上，我看了看每一個房間，把要做的事情列成一張單子。有許多東西如書架、樓梯、屋頂窗、窗簾、門把、門鎖、漏水的龍頭都需要修理。讓人震驚的是，我在兩個星期里竟然列出了242件需要做的事情。

“在過去的兩年里，這些事情大部分都已經(jīng)做完了。此外，我還給我的生活增加了富有啟發(fā)的活動：每個星期到紐約市參加兩晚上成人教育課，并參加了小鎮(zhèn)上的一些活動。現(xiàn)在我是校董事會主席，參加過很多會議，并協(xié)助紅十字會和其他活動募捐。現(xiàn)在我忙得沒有時間憂慮。”

沒有時間憂慮！這也正是丘吉爾曾說過的，當(dāng)時戰(zhàn)事緊張，他每天工作18個小時。當(dāng)別人問他是不是擔(dān)心這一巨大責(zé)任時，他說：“我太忙了，沒有時間憂慮。”

查爾斯·吉特林著手發(fā)明汽車自動點火器的時候，也碰到過類似情形。吉特林先生一直擔(dān)任通用汽車公司副總裁，主管世界知名的通用汽車研究公司，不久前才退休。可是當(dāng)年他窮得只能租堆稻草的谷倉做實驗室，全家的開銷靠他太太教鋼琴

if she wasn't worried at a time like that.“Yes,” she replied, “I was so worried I couldn't sleep; but Mr.Kettering wasn't. He was too absorbed in his work to worry.”

The great scientist, Pasteur, spoke of “the peace that is found in libraries and laboratories.” Why is peace found there? Because the men in libraries and laboratories are usually too absorbed in their tasks to worry about themselves.Research men rarely have nervous breakdowns. They haven't time for such luxuries.

Why does such a simple thing as keeping busy help to drive out anxiety? Because of a law—one of the most fundamental laws ever revealed by psychology. And that law is: that it is utterly impossible for any human mind, no matter how brilliant, to think of more than one thing at any given time. You don't quite believe it? Very well, then, let's try an experiment.

Suppose you lean right back now, close your eyes, and try, at the same instant, to think of the Statue of Liberty and of what you plan to do tomorrow morning.（Go ahead, try it.）

You found out, didn't you, that you could focus on either thought in turn, but never on both simultaneously? Well, the same thing is true in the field of emotions. We cannot be pepped up and enthusiastic about doing something exciting and feel dragged down by worry at the very same time.

One kind of emotion drives out the other. And it was that simple discovery that enabled Army psychiatrists to perform such miracles during the Second World War.

When men came out of battle so shaken by the experience that they were called “psychoneurotic”, Army doctors prescribed “Keep'em busy” as a cure. Every waking minute of these nerve-shocked men was filled with activity—usually outdoor activity, such as fishing, hunting, playing ball, golf, taking pictures, making gardens, and dancing. They were given no time for brooding over their terrible experiences.

賺來的1500美元。后來，他不得不用他的人壽保險做抵押借來500美元。我問他太太，她在那段時期是不是很憂慮？“當(dāng)然，”她回答說，“我擔(dān)心得睡不著，可是我丈夫一點都不擔(dān)心。他沉浸在工作中，沒有時間憂慮。”

偉大的科學(xué)家巴斯特也曾經(jīng)談過“在圖書館和實驗室找到的平靜”。為什么會在那兒找到平靜呢？因為在圖書館和實驗室工作的人，通常都埋頭于工作，沒時間為自己擔(dān)憂。研究人員也很少精神崩潰，因為他們沒有時間享受這種奢侈。

為什么“讓自己忙著”這么簡單的一件事情，就能把憂慮趕走呢？因為有這么一個定理——這是心理學(xué)所發(fā)現(xiàn)的基本定理之一。這條定理就是：一個人不論多么聰明，都不可能在同一時間想一件以上的事情。不信？讓我們來做一個實驗：

假定你現(xiàn)在靠坐在椅子上，閉上雙眼，試著在同一時間去想自由女神以及你明天早上打算做什么事情。

你會發(fā)現(xiàn)，你只能輪流想其中的一件事，而不可能同時想兩件事，對不對？就你的情感來說也是如此。我們不可能充滿熱情地想去做一些令人興奮的事情，同時又因為憂慮而拖延下來。

一種感覺會把另一種感覺趕出去。就是這么簡單的發(fā)現(xiàn)，使得軍方一些心理專家能夠在二戰(zhàn)時創(chuàng)造出醫(yī)學(xué)奇跡。

當(dāng)有些人因為在戰(zhàn)場上受到打擊而退下來時，他們都患上了“心理上的精神衰弱癥”。軍隊醫(yī)生采取了“保持忙碌”的治療方法。這些精神受到打擊的人每時每

“Occupational therapy” is the term now used by psychiatry when work is prescribed as though it were a medicine. It is not new. The old Greek physicians were advocating it five hundred years before Christ was born!

The Quakers were using it in Philadelphia in Ben Franklin's time. A man who visited a Quaker sanatorium in 1774 was shocked to see that the patients who were mentally ill were busy spinning flax. He thought these poor unfortunates were being exploited—until the Quakers explained that they found that their patients actually improved when they did a little work. It was soothing to the nerves.

Any psychiatrist will tell you that work—keeping busy—is one of the best anesthetics ever known for sick nerves.Henry W.Longfellow found that out for himself when he lost his young wife. His wife had been melting some sealing-wax at a candle one day, when her clothes caught on fire.Longfellow heard her cries and tried to reach her in time; but she died from the burns. For a while, Longfellow was so tortured by the memory of that dreadful experience that he nearly went insane; but, fortunately for him, his three small children needed his attention. In spite of his own grief, Longfellow undertook to be father and mother to his children. He took them for walks, told them stories, played games with them, and immortalised their companionship in his poem The Children's Hour. He also translated Dante; and all these duties combined kept him so busy that he forgot himself entirely, and regained his peace of mind. As Tennyson declared when he lost his most intimate friend, Arthur Hallam:“I must lose myself in action, lest I wither in despair.”

Most of us have little trouble “l(fā)osing ourselves in action” while we have our noses to the grindstone and are doing our day's work. But the hours after work—they are the dangerous ones. Just when we're free to enjoy our own leisure, and ought to be happiest—

刻都在活動，例如釣魚、打獵、打籃球、打高爾夫球、拍照、種花、跳舞，根本不讓他們有時間回想那些可怕的經(jīng)歷。

“職業(yè)治療”是精神病學(xué)發(fā)明的名詞，就是拿工作當(dāng)作治療疾病的藥。這并不是什么新方法，耶穌誕生前500年古希臘醫(yī)生就已經(jīng)使用這種方法。

在富蘭克林時代，費城教友會的教徒也使用過這種方法。1774年，有一個人去參觀教友會辦的療養(yǎng)院，當(dāng)他看見那些精神病人正忙著紡紗時，他大為震驚。他認(rèn)為那些可憐而不幸的人正在被剝削。后來教友會的人向他解釋說，他們發(fā)現(xiàn)那些病人只有在工作時病情才能真正好轉(zhuǎn)，因為工作能讓他們安定。

任何精神病專家都會告訴你：工作——保持忙碌——是治療精神病的良方。亨利·朗費羅在他年輕的妻子去世之后，也發(fā)現(xiàn)了這個道理。有一天，他太太在蠟燭上熔化一些封蠟，結(jié)果衣服著火了。朗費羅聽見她的叫喊聲，立即趕過去，但她還是因為燒傷而離開了人世。很長一段時間，朗費羅都忘不掉這件可怕的事情，幾乎發(fā)瘋。幸好他的三個幼小的孩子需要他照料。他雖然很傷心，但還是要父兼母職。他帶他們散步，給他們講故事，和他們做游戲，把他們的親情永存在《孩子們的時間》一詩里。他還翻譯了但丁的詩。所有這些使他忙得完全忘了自己，思想上重新得到了平靜。這正如丹尼森在他最好的朋友亞瑟·哈蘭死的時候曾說過的：“我必須讓自己沉浸在工作中，否則我會在絕望中死去。”

對大部分人來說，當(dāng)日常工作使我們忙得團團轉(zhuǎn)的時候，“沉浸在工作中”不

that's when the blue devils of worry attack us.

That's when we begin to wonder whether we're getting anywhere in life; whether we're in a rut; whether the boss “meant anything” by that remark he made today; or whether we're getting bald.

When we are not busy, our minds tend to become a near-vacuum. Every student of physics knows that “nature abhors a vacuum”. The nearest thing to a vacuum that you and I will probably ever see is the inside of an incandescent electric-light bulb.Break that bulb—and nature forces air in to fill the theoretically empty space.

Nature also rushes in to fill the vacant mind. With what? Usually with emotions. Why? Because emotions of worry, fear, hate, jealousy, and envy are driven by primeval vigour and the dynamic energy of the jungle. Such emotions are so violent that they tend to drive out of our minds all peaceful, happy thoughts and emotions.

James L.Mursell, professor of education, Teachers College, Columbia, puts it very well when he said:“Worry is most apt to ride you ragged not when you are in action, but when the day's work is done. Your imagination can run riot then and bring up all sorts of ridiculous possibilities and magnify each little blunder. At such a time,” he continued, “your mind is like a motor operating without its load. It races and threatens to burn out its bearings or even to tear itself to bits. The remedy for worry is to get completely occupied doing something constructive.”

But you don't have to be a college professor to realise this truth and put it into practice.During the Second World War, I met a housewife from Chicago who told me how she discovered for herself that “the remedy for worry is to get completely occupied doing something constructive.” I met this woman and her husband in the dining-car while I

會有多大問題。可是下班以后——也就是我們能夠自由自在地享受我們的輕松和快樂的時候——憂慮之魔就會襲擊我們。

這時我們會想各種問題：我們的生活有什么成就、我們是不是墨守成規(guī)、老板今天說的那句話是不是“有什么特別意思”，或者我們是不是開始禿頭了……

當(dāng)我們不忙的時候，大腦常常會變成一片真空。每一個物理專業(yè)的學(xué)生都知道“自然界沒有真空狀態(tài)”。我們看過的最接近真空狀態(tài)的是電燈泡。打破燈泡，空氣就會進去，充滿了從理論上來說是真空的那個空間。

大腦空出來時，也會有東西補充進去。是什么呢？通常是感覺。為什么？因為憂慮、恐懼、憎恨、嫉妒和羨慕等情緒都是受思想控制的，而這些情緒都非常強烈，往往會攆走我們思想中所有平靜、快樂的思想和情緒。

詹姆斯·馬歇爾是哥倫比亞師范學(xué)院教育系教授。他在這方面說得很清楚：“憂慮對你傷害最大的時候，不是在你忙著工作的時候，而是在你干完一天的工作之后。那時，你的想象力會混亂，使你想到各種荒誕不經(jīng)的事情，夸大每一個小錯誤。在這個時候，你的思想就像一輛沒有載重的汽車，橫沖直撞，摧毀一切，甚至把自己撞成碎片。消除憂慮的良方，就是讓自己做一些有意義的事情。”

并非成為大學(xué)教授才能懂得這個道理，才能將其付諸實踐。我在二戰(zhàn)時碰到一位住在芝加哥的家庭主婦，她告訴我說，她發(fā)現(xiàn)“消除憂慮的良方，就是讓自己做一些有意義的事情”。當(dāng)時我正在由紐約到密蘇里州農(nóng)莊的路上，正好在火車餐車

was travelling from New York to my farm in Missouri.（Sorry I didn't get their names—I never like to give examples without using names and street addresses—details that give authenticity to a story.）

This couple told me that their son had joined the armed forces the day after Pearl Harbour. The woman told me that she had almost wrecked her health worrying over that only son. Where was he? Was he safe? Or in action? Would he be wounded? Killed?

When I asked her how she overcame her worry, she replied:“I got busy.” She told me that at first she had dismissed her maid and tried to keep busy by doing all her housework herself. But that didn't help much.“The trouble was,” she said, “that I could do my housework almost mechanically, without using my mind. So I kept on worrying. While making the beds and washing the dishes. I realised I needed some new kind of work that would keep me busy both mentally and physically every hour of the day. So I took a job as a saleswoman in a large department store.

“That did it,” she said.“I immediately found myself in a whirlwind of activity: customers swarming around me, asking for prices, sizes, colours. Never a second to think of anything except my immediate duty; and when night came, I could think of nothing except getting off my aching feet. As soon as I ate dinner, I fell into bed and instantly became unconscious. I had neither the time nor the energy to worry.”

She discovered for herself what John Cowper Powys meant when he said, in The Art of Forgetting the Unpleasant:“A certain comfortable security, a certain profound inner peace, a kind of happy numbness, soothes the nerves of the human animal when absorbed in its allotted task.”

And what a blessing that it is so! Osa Johnson, the world's most famous woman

上碰到這位太太和她的先生。（很抱歉我沒有他們的姓名，這是增加故事可靠性的細(xì)節(jié)。我不喜歡不帶姓名、地址地舉例。）

這對夫婦告訴我，他們的兒子在“珍珠港事變”的第二天加入陸軍部隊。母親當(dāng)時很擔(dān)憂她的獨生子，這使她的健康嚴(yán)重受損。她常常想：他在哪里？是不是安全？是不是在打仗？會不會受傷？會不會陣亡？

我問她是怎么克服憂慮的，她回答說：“我讓自己忙著。”她告訴我，她先是把女傭辭退，試圖做家務(wù)保持忙碌，可是作用不大。“問題是，”她說，“我做家務(wù)總是機械式的，完全不用思想。所以當(dāng)我鋪床和洗碟子時，還總是擔(dān)憂。我發(fā)現(xiàn)我需要一些新的工作，才能使我每時每刻都能身心忙碌，于是我去了一家大百貨公司當(dāng)售貨員。

“這次好了，”她說，“我馬上發(fā)現(xiàn)自己身處一個運動的大漩渦：四周全是顧客，問價錢、尺碼、顏色等。除了工作，我沒有一秒鐘想其他問題。到了晚上，我也只能想如何讓雙腳休息一下。吃完晚飯之后，我躺在床上很快就睡著了。我既沒有時間，也沒有精力憂慮。”

她發(fā)現(xiàn)的這一點，正如約翰·科伯爾·波斯在《忘記不快的藝術(shù)》一書中所說的：“一種舒適的安全感，一種內(nèi)在的寧靜，一種因快樂的遲鈍，都能使人在專心工作時精神平靜。”

能做到這一點的人實在太幸運了！世界著名的女冒險家奧莎·瓊森最近告訴

explorer, recently told me how she found release from worry and grief. You may have read the story of her life. It is called I Married Adventure. If any woman ever married adventure, she certainly did.Martin Johnson married her when she was sixteen and lifted her feet off the sidewalks of Chanute, Kansas, and set them down on the wild jungle trails of Borneo. For a quarter of a century, this Kansas couple travelled all over the world, making motion pictures of the vanishing wild life of Asia and Africa.Back in America nine years ago, they were on a lecture tour, showing their famous films. They took a plane out of Denver, bound for the Coast. The plane plunged into a mountain.Martin Johnson was killed instantly. The doctors said Osa would never leave her bed again. But they didn't know Osa Johnson. Three months later, she was in a wheel chair, lecturing before large audiences. In fact, she addressed over a hundred audiences that season—all from a wheel chair. When I asked her why she did it, she replied, “I did it so that I would have no time for sorrow and worry.”

Osa Johnson had discovered the same truth that Tennyson had sung about a century earlier:“I must lose myself in action, lest I wither in despair.”

Admiral Byrd discovered this same truth when he lived all alone for five months in a shack that was literally buried in the great glacial ice-cap that covers the South Pole—an ice-cap that holds nature's oldest secrets—an ice-cap covering an unknown continent larger than the United States and Europe combined.Admiral Byrd spent five months there alone. No other living creature of any kind existed within a hundred miles. The cold was so intense that he could hear his breath freeze and crystallise as the wind blew it past his ears. In his book Alone, Admiral Byrd tells all about those five months he spent in bewildering and soul-shattering darkness. The days were as black as the nights. He had to keep busy to preserve his sanity.

“At night,” he says, “before blowing out the lantern, I formed the habit of blocking out

我，她是如何從憂慮悲傷中解脫出來的。你也許讀過她的自傳《與冒險結(jié)緣》。如果說有哪個女人能跟冒險結(jié)緣，那就是她。馬丁·瓊森在她16歲時娶了她，在堪薩斯州查那提鎮(zhèn)的街上將她一把抱起，直到婆羅洲的原始森林才把她放下。25年來，這對來自堪薩斯州的夫婦周游了全世界，拍下了亞洲和非洲逐漸絕跡的野生動物的影片。當(dāng)他們9年前回到美國，到處旅行演講時，放映了他們的電影。有一次，他們在丹佛城乘飛機前往西海岸，飛機撞在山上，馬丁·瓊森當(dāng)場死亡，醫(yī)生說奧莎也永遠不能再下床了。可是他們并不了解奧莎·瓊森。3個月后，她就坐著一輛輪椅，當(dāng)著一大群人演講。事實上，她在那段時間做了100多場演講，每次都是坐輪椅去的。當(dāng)我問她為什么要這樣做時，她回答說：“我這樣做，是想讓我沒有時間悲傷憂慮。”

奧莎·瓊森發(fā)現(xiàn)了丹尼森先生一個世紀(jì)前曾在詩中說的同一真理：“我必須讓自己沉浸在工作中，否則我會在絕望中死去。”

海軍上將拜德也是在覆蓋著冰雪的南極小茅屋里單獨住了5個月才發(fā)現(xiàn)這個道理的。在那冰天雪地里，是一片無人知曉、比美國和歐洲加起來還要大的大陸。拜德上將單獨在那里待了5個月，周圍100英里（1英里約為1.6千米）以內(nèi)沒有任何生物。天出奇的冷，當(dāng)風(fēng)吹過他耳邊的時候，他能聽見他的呼吸幾乎凍住了，結(jié)得像水晶一樣。他在《孤寂》這本書里，敘述了他在既難過又可怕的黑暗中度過的那5個月。他不得不一直忙著，才不至于發(fā)瘋。

the morrow's work. It was a case of assigning myself an hour, say, to the Escape Tunnel, half an hour to leveling drift, an hour to straightening up the fuel drums, an hour to cutting bookshelves in the walls of the food tunnel, and two hours to renewing a broken bridge in the man-hauling sledge...

“It was wonderful,” he says, “to be able to dole out time in this way. It brought me an extraordinary sense of command over myself... ” And he adds, “Without that or an equivalent, the days would have been without purpose; and without purpose they would have ended, as such days always end, in disintegration.”

Note that last again:“Without purpose, the days would have ended, as such days always end, in disintegration.”

If you and I are worried, let's remember that we can use good old-fashioned work as a medicine. That was said by no less an authority than the late Dr. Richard C. Cabot, formerly professor of clinical medicine at Harvard. In his book What Men Live By, Dr. Cabot says, “As a physician, I have had the happiness of seeing work cure many persons who have suffered from trembling palsy of the soul which results from overmastering doubts, hesitations, vacillation and fear... Courage given us by our work is like the self-reliance which Emerson has made for ever glorious.”

If you and I don't keep busy—if we sit around and brood—we will hatch out a whole flock of what Charles Darwin used to call the “wibber gibbers”. And the “wibber gibbers” are nothing but old-fashioned gremlins that will run us hollow and destroy our power of action and our power of will.

I know a businessman in New York who fought the “wibber gibbers” by getting so busy that he had no time to fret and stew. His name is Tremper Longman, and his office

“在夜晚，”他說，“熄燈之前，我養(yǎng)成了安排第二天工作的習(xí)慣。也就是說，我要為自己安排工作。比如，一小時檢查逃生隧道，半小時挖橫坑，一小時檢查燃料罐，一小時在放食物的隧道墻上挖地方放書，再花兩小時修整雪橇……

“能把時間分開，”他說，“是一件非常好的事。這使我產(chǎn)生了一種可以主宰自我的感覺……要是沒有這些工作，那日子就過得漫無目標(biāo)了。而沒有目標(biāo)的話，這些日子就會像平常一樣，最后崩潰。”

（注意最后那句話：“沒有目標(biāo)，這些日子就會像平常一樣，最后崩潰。”）

要是我們憂慮的話，就讓我們記住，我們可以把工作當(dāng)作一種很好的古老療法。原哈佛大學(xué)臨床醫(yī)學(xué)教授、已故博士理查德·卡伯特在《生活的條件》這本書中也說過：“作為一個醫(yī)生，我很高興地看到，工作可以治愈很多病人。他們所患的病，是由于過分疑懼、遲疑、躊躇和恐懼造成的。工作帶給我們的勇氣，就像愛默生永垂不朽的自信一樣。”

如果你和我不能一直忙著，如果我們呆坐發(fā)愁的話，我們就會孵出許多達爾文稱為“胡思亂想”的東西，而這些“胡思亂想”猶如傳說中的魔鬼，會掏空我們的思想，摧毀我們的行動和意志。

我認(rèn)識紐約的一個商人，他就是用忙碌來趕走“胡思亂想”，使自己沒有時間煩惱和憂慮的。他叫查伯爾·朗曼，辦公室在第40大街，他也是我成人教育班的學(xué)員。他征服憂慮的經(jīng)歷非常有意思，也非常特殊，所以上完課之后我請他和我一

is at 40 Wall Street. He was a student in one of my adult-education classes; and his talk on conquering worry was so interesting, so impressive, that I asked him to have a late supper with me after class; and we sat in a restaurant until long past midnight, discussing his experiences.Here is the story he told me:“Eighteen years ago, I was so worried I had insomnia. I was tense, irritated, and jittery. I felt I was headed for a nervous breakdown.

“I had reason to be worried. I was treasurer of the Crown Fruit and Extract Company，418 West Broadway, New York. We had half a million dollars invested in strawberries packed in gallon tins. For twenty years, we had been selling these gallon tins of strawberries to manufactures of ice cream.

“Suddenly our sales stopped because the big ice-cream makers, such as National Dairy and Borden's, were rapidly increasing their production and were saving money and time by buying strawberries packed in barrels.

“Not only were we left with half a million dollars in berries we couldn't sell, but we were also under contract to buy a million dollars more of strawberries in the next twelve months! We had already borrowed $350，000 from the banks. We couldn't possibly pay off or renew these loans. No wonder I was worried!

“I rushed out to Watsonville, California, where our factory was located, and tried to persuade our president that conditions had changed, that we were facing ruin. He refused to believe it. He blamed our New York office for all the trouble—poor salesmanship.

“After days of pleading, I finally persuaded him to stop packing more strawberries and to sell our new supply on the fresh berry market in San Francisco. That almost solved our problems. I should have been able to stop worrying then; but I couldn't.Worry is a habit; and I had that habit.

起去吃宵夜。我們在一間餐館一直坐到半夜，談他的經(jīng)歷。下面就是他告訴我的故事：“18年前，我因為憂慮患上了失眠癥。我緊張不安，愛發(fā)脾氣。我想我快要精神崩潰了。

“我之所以發(fā)愁，是有原因的。當(dāng)時我是紐約市西百老匯418號皇冠水果制品公司的財務(wù)經(jīng)理。我們投資50萬美元，把草莓裝在一加侖的罐子里。20年來，我們一直向冰淇淋廠銷售這種一加侖裝的草莓。

“突然，我們的銷售大跌，因為那些大冰淇淋廠商的產(chǎn)量迅速增加，他們?yōu)榱斯?jié)省開支和時間，都買桶裝草莓。

“我們50萬美元的草莓不僅賣不出去，而且根據(jù)合同，我們在接下來的一年還要再購買100萬美元的草莓。我們已經(jīng)向銀行借了35萬美元，既還不出錢，也不能再續(xù)借貸款，我當(dāng)然擔(dān)憂了！

“我趕到我們在加州華生維里的工廠，想讓總經(jīng)理相信情況有所改變，我們將面臨毀滅。但他不肯相信，而是把這些問題都?xì)w罪給紐約的公司以及那些可憐的業(yè)務(wù)員。

“經(jīng)過幾天的協(xié)商，我終于說服他不再用這種包裝，把新包裝投放在舊金山市場上賣。這幾乎可以解決我們的問題，因此我應(yīng)該不再憂慮了，可我還是有些擔(dān)憂。憂慮是一種習(xí)慣，而我已經(jīng)染上這種習(xí)慣了。

“回到紐約后，我開始擔(dān)心每一件事：在意大利買的櫻桃、在夏威夷買的鳳

“When I returned to New York, I began worrying about everything: the cherries we were buying in Italy, the pineapples we were buying in Hawaii, and so on. I was tense, jittery, couldn't sleep; and, as I have already said, I was heading for a nervous breakdown.

“In despair, I adopted a way of life that cured my insomnia and stopped my worries. I got busy. I got so busy with problems demanding all my faculties that I had no time to worry. I had been working seven hours a day. I now began working fifteen and sixteen hours a day. I got down to the office every morning at eight o'clock and stayed there every night until almost midnight. I took on new duties, new responsibilities. When I got home at midnight, I was so exhausted when I fell in bed that I became unconscious in a few seconds.

“I kept up this program for about three months. I had broken the habit of worry by that time, so I returned to a normal working day of seven or eight hours. This event occurred eighteen years ago. I have never been troubled with insomnia or worry since then.”

George Bernard Shaw was right. He summed it all up when he said:“The secret of being miserable is to have the leisure to bother about whether you are happy or not.” So don't bother to think about it! Spit on your hands and get busy. Your blood will start circulating; your mind will start ticking—and pretty soon this whole positive upsurge of life in your body will drive worry from your mind.Get busy.Keep busy. It's the cheapest kind of medicine there is on this earth—and one of the best.

To break the worry habit, here is:

Rule 1：Keep busy. The worried person must lose himself in action, lest be wither in despair.

梨……我緊張不安，睡不著覺，就像我剛才所說的，簡直精神崩潰了。

“在絕望中，我換了一種新的生活方式，它治好了我的失眠癥和憂慮。我一直忙著，忙到必須全力以赴，根本沒有時間憂慮。以前我一天工作7小時，現(xiàn)在一天工作十五六個小時。我每天早上8點就到辦公室，一直干到半夜。我接下新的工作，擔(dān)負(fù)起新的責(zé)任。每當(dāng)我半夜回家時，總是筋疲力盡地躺在床上，不過幾秒鐘就渾然入睡。

“這樣過了將近3個月，我改掉了憂慮的習(xí)慣，恢復(fù)到每天工作七八個小時的正常情形。這事情發(fā)生在18年前。從那以后，我再也沒有失眠和憂慮過。”

蕭伯納說得對，他總結(jié)這些說：“人們之所以憂慮，就是有空閑來想自己到底快樂不快樂。”所以，不必去想它！在手掌心吐口唾沫，讓自己忙起來，你的血液就會開始循環(huán)，你的思想就會變得敏銳——不久這種積極的情緒就會驅(qū)除思想上的憂慮。讓自己一直忙著！這是世界上治療憂慮最便宜、最有效的良藥。

要改掉憂慮的習(xí)慣，下面是第一條規(guī)則：

保持忙碌。憂慮的人一定要讓自己沉浸在工作中，否則會在絕望中掙扎。