保持幸福的訣竅:寫日記

Note to self: the key to happiness is keeping a diary and writing down the things that make you smile.

寫給自己：保持幸福的訣竅就是記日記，記下那些讓你快樂的事。

For while fictional diarists Bridget Jones and Adrian Mole used journals to record their woes and embarrassments, paying attention to the things that lift our moods mean we can learn how to cheer ourselves up, says a leading physicist.

一位著名的物理學家說，《BJ單身日記》和《艾德里安·莫爾的祕密日記》等虛構日記的作者用日記記錄他們的傷心和尷尬事，不過多關注那些能提振我們心情的事情或許意味着我們可以學會讓自己快樂起來。

Author Dr Stefan Klein has found that being happy is a skill that can be learned like a foreign language, and one way to train ourselves to be happy is to write down the little things that cheer us up each day – a technique he practises himself.

作者斯蒂芬·克萊因博士發現保持快樂是一門技巧，它可以像學習外語一樣通過學習來掌握，訓練我們自己快樂的方法之一就是記下每天讓我們高興的事，這門技巧他自己也在研習。

Dr Klein, who analysed psychological research for his book The Science of Happiness, added he often writes about his three young children, despite occasionally finding them 'incredibly annoying’.

克萊因博士在他的著作《幸福的科學》一書中進行了心理學研究，他表示，他會經常寫一些關於他三個小孩兒的事情，雖然偶爾也會發現這些孩子“出奇地惱人”。

Speaking at the Cheltenham Science Festival, the German-born researcher said that decades of study into happiness has shown that people who are clinically depressed often believe there are no sources of joy in their lives.

出生於德國的克萊因博士在切爾騰納姆科學節的演講中表示，幾十年來對於幸福的研究表明，那些通過臨牀診斷爲抑鬱的人們通常認爲在他們的生活中沒有快樂的來源。

But a study by Italian psychiatrist Giovanni Fava found that when patients were asked to keep diaries of events that made them happy, it 'helped them a lot to get better’.

但是，意大利精神病學家喬瓦尼·法瓦通過研究發現，當病人被要求將那些使他們快樂的事情記錄下來時，“他們的情況好轉很多。”

Dr Klein said: 'It is incredibly simple – you just sit down in the evening and write down the moments where you feel happy and the circumstances.

克萊因博士說：“這個方法非常簡單，你只要每晚坐下來，然後把那些讓你感到快樂的時刻與當時的情景寫下來就可以了。”

'The object of the exercise is to simply make you more aware of these moments to know yourself better.

“這個練習的目的只是爲了讓你更多地意識到那些感覺良好的時刻，讓你更瞭解自己。”

'Even in states of severe depression there are moments of happiness, but the person suffering it doesn’t believe they have these moments in their lives.’

“即使處於嚴重的抑鬱狀態，也總會有幸福快樂的時刻，但是患抑鬱的人卻不相信在他們的生命中也有快樂的時刻。”

And if you decide to take Dr Klein’s advice, you can make yourself even happier by recommending the technique to others.

如果你決定接受克萊因博士的建議，那麼把這個技巧介紹給他人吧，這會讓你更快樂。

Happiness occurs when the brain releases endorphins – chemicals that trigger positive feelings – and scientists have found this occurs not only when we achieve one of our own goals, but when we help someone else achieve theirs.

當大腦釋放內啡肽（能引發積極情感的化學物質）時，幸福感就會產生。此外，科學家發現幸福感不僅僅在我們達到自己的預期目標時產生，在我們幫助他人實現目標時也會產生幸福感。

Dr Klein added it is important not to dwell on the times we felt sad, saying: 'Going deep down into your negative feelings, [the idea] it has a cathartic effect, and you have to cry your tears out and shout your fears out, is really c**p’.’

克萊因博士補充道，最重要的是不要一味沉浸於那種悲傷情緒之中，“沉入你內心的負面情緒，（那種說）這樣做有宣泄作用，你必須哭出來，將害怕的情緒宣泄出來，那都是胡說。”

The idea we should delve into our sadness became popular under Sigmund Freud, who saw the mind as a pressure cooker that needed to let out steam. But Dr Klein argued this was a 'misguided analogy’.

精神分析學家西格蒙德·佛洛伊德，將心靈看做一個需要釋放壓力的高壓鍋，在他的提倡下，深入探究我們的悲傷情緒這種理念得以普及。但是克萊因博士卻認爲這種看法是個“有誤導性的類比”。