壓力不一定都會成爲正能量大綱

Kelly McGonigal is a convert. A health psychologist who teaches at Stanford University, for years she had held to the conventional view that stress is bad for you.

凱莉•麥戈尼格爾(Kelly McGonigal)改變了自己的觀點。作爲一名在斯坦福大學(Stanford University)任教的健康心理學家，她很多年裏一直秉持傳統的看法，即壓力對人不好。

But when a few years ago she came across research which suggested that stress is bad for you only when you believe it to be damaging, she had to reconsider. Indeed, the same research found that people who lived with stress but did not view it as harmful were the healthiest people of all.

但幾年前，她無意中看到了一項研究結果，認爲壓力只有在你相信它有害時纔對你不好，之後她不得不重新思考自己的觀點。事實上，同一項研究還發現，那些生活在壓力之下但不把壓力視爲有害的人才是所有人中最健康的。

McGonigal started digging deeper into the subject and the result is this book, which argues that by recognising and working with stress, rather than trying to ignore or suppress it, we can perform better and achieve more.

麥戈尼格爾於是開始深入研究這一課題，成果就是這本書——《壓力的好處》(The Upside of Stress)。書中認爲，通過承認壓力並在壓力下工作——而非試圖忽視或壓制它——我們可以做得更好，取得更大成就。

It is a bold and counter-intuitive thesis, and she makes quite a good case for it. In particular, she forces the reader to take a more nuanced view. For example, there is more than one kind of response to stress. There are alternatives to “fight or flight”. We can also rise to the challenge.

這是一個大膽且與直覺相反的論點，而且她爲之提出了相當充分的理由。尤其是，她極力勸說讀者接受一種更加微妙的觀點。例如，對於壓力有不止一種反應。除了“或戰或逃”之外，還有其他選擇。我們也可以接受挑戰。

What is more, some of our fundamental concepts could be misconceived. The Hungarian endocrinologist Hans Selye carried out significant research into the subject in the 1930s, studying the behaviour of rats in experiments. But, as McGonigal points out, some of these tests involved randomised electric shocks and near-death by drowning, hardly the common experience of many humans. The stress the rats endured was of the worst kind. What safe conclusions should we draw from that?

更重要的是，我們的一些基本觀念可能都是錯誤的。匈牙利內分泌學家漢斯•謝耶(Hans Selye)上世紀30年代對這一課題開展了重要研究，觀察了實驗中小白鼠的行爲。但是，正如麥戈尼格爾所指出的，其中一些測試涉及隨機電擊以及溺水造成的瀕死體驗，這些並非很多人共有的體驗。那些小白鼠承受的是最極端類型的壓力。我們能從中得出什麼可靠結論呢？

McGonigal says that stress is an important signifier, not something to be ignored. “You don’t stress out about things you don’t care about, and you can’t create a meaningful life without experiencing some stress,” she writes.

麥戈尼格爾稱，壓力是重要的信號載體，是不應被忽視的。“你對不關心的事情不會感到有壓力，不經歷某種程度的壓力，你無法創造出有意義的人生，”她寫道。

She suggests a three-step approach to change our “mindset”: acknowledge stress when you experience it, welcome the stress by recognising that it is a response to something you care about, then make use of the energy it gives you.

她建議採取一種三步法來改變我們的“心態”：感受到壓力時，你要承認它；歡迎壓力，明白壓力是你對所關心之事的反應；然後利用壓力給你帶來的能量。

McGonigal has the zeal of a convert, which possibly leads her to believe she has cracked the problem. There are some big claims. Working better with stress “could even mean the difference between having a heart attack at 50 or living into your nineties,” she says.

麥戈尼格爾擁有一名皈依者的熱情，這可能使她相信自己攻克了這個難題。她說了一些大話。能否在壓力下更好地工作“甚至可能意味着50歲心臟病發作與活到90歲的差別，”她說。

She acknowledges that not all life events can be managed away: “Not every trauma has an upside . . . you shouldn’t force a positive interpretation on every instance of suffering.” But only a few pages on she writes: “Choosing to see the upside in our most painful experiences is part of how we can change our relationship with stress.”

她承認，並非生活中的所有事都能被妥當處理：“不是所有心理創傷都有積極的一面……你不應對每一種痛苦經歷都強迫作出積極解釋。”但就在幾頁之後，她又寫道：“選擇從我們最痛苦的經歷中看到積極的一面是改善我們與壓力的關係的一種方式。”

“Stress is harmful, except when it’s not,” she concludes. But something is missing: any reference to the large body of work carried out by Sir Michael Marmot over recent decades. He has shown that stress can be hard to avoid, or deal with, especially for those with lower status in an organisation.

“壓力是有害的，除非它不是壓力，”她總結道。但本書有所欠缺的是沒有參考邁克爾•馬莫爵士(Sir Michael Marmot)近幾十年來所做的大量工作。他的研究表明了，壓力很難避免或應對，尤其是對那些組織中地位較低的人來說。

McGonigal does concede that stress can be harmful when three things are true: you feel inadequate to it, it isolates you and it feels meaningless and against your will. Unfortunately, for quite a lot of people at work, that unholy trinity can apply all too often.

麥戈尼格爾的確承認，在三種情況下壓力是有害的：你覺得無法應對它，它使你孤立，它的存在毫無意義而且違揹你的意願。不幸的是，對於職場中相當多的人來說，這種邪惡的三位一體往往都可以適用。