高田贤三一枝花:你是否忽略了身体的声音?

中国人常说，“冰冻三尺，非一日之寒。”一切都是慢慢地不知不觉地累积起来的，尤其对于我们的健康而言，变得不健康也是累积而成。如果躺在医院吊着针，掌握时间管理的优先技能对我们又有何用?如果不得不每天不断地使用药物，我们又如何实现我们的梦想呢?

One crucial element in finding our balance in life is to first listen to our body.

Two years ago, I started to suffer from severe migraines, not a little headache that would go away with some sleep, but jackhammer pounding migraines. I was completely debilitated, I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t watch TV, and I couldn’t focus during meetings at work. So many times I’ve had to force myself to ignore the pain whilst discussing a contract with a client, and yet to excuse myself suddenly so I could run off to the bathroom and throw up. 

在寻求生活平衡中至关重要的一点是，首先要聆听我们的身体。

两年前，我开始患有严重的偏头痛，不是轻微的头疼，而是那种像电钻冲击般的偏头痛，使得我无法入睡。我变得神经衰弱，不能入睡，不能看电视，无法在工作会议时集中精神。很多次，当和客户讨论合同时我不得不强迫自己忽略这种疼痛，有时疼痛得恶心而不得不借口突然去洗手间呕吐。

Panadol and paracetamol (Tylenol) stopped working on me, and the doctor kept prescribing stronger painkillers. I had X-rays and MRI scans done but all seemed normal, and yet the migraines kept coming. I would get dizzy spells and feel nauseous; locking myself up in a dark, eerie quiet room didn’t do much to help. The only relief I found was banging my head on the floor so that the pain of impact could crowd out the throbbing of the migraines. 

泰诺对我已经失效，医生只有开更强劲的止痛药。我做了X射线和核磁共振检查，但一切似乎正常，可偏头痛依旧不断涌现。我感到头晕恶心，将自己锁在一个黑暗、阴森恐怖的安静的房间并不能缓解我的疼痛。而我发现的唯一能缓解的方法是：在地板上撞自己的头，以此疼痛来减轻的偏头痛的阵痛。

Eventually, the doctor forced me to take medical leave from work for my own sanity. They said my migraines were caused by stress. 

As I sat at home every day, with no energy to even pick up my glass of water from the coffee table, I tried to work out when, and how this all started, for it seemed so sudden since I’ve never had a migraine before that fateful day. 

最后为了我的健康，医生让我休病假。他们说我的偏头痛是因为压力所引起的。

当我每天坐在家里，甚至没有力气从茶几上拿起一杯水，我开始思考偏头痛是在什么时候、怎么开始的。因为在这之前，我从没有偏头痛，这似乎来得太突然。

Yet, was it really so sudden? In fact, there had been so many forewarnings in even just the previous year, which I systematically ignored. Career was my first priority then and I was on the way up the corporate ladder, so I chose – perhaps unconsciously – to shove away the symptoms that my body had reached boiling point and that it could not handle another late night. 

然而，这真的就那么突然？事实上，在一年前就有很多预兆，而当时的我都忽略了。那时，事业对我而言是最重要的事，我正努力在企业阶梯向上爬，所以选择忽略(也许是不知不觉地)各种症状，这些症状告诉我身体已经达到零界点，且在深夜无法抵挡。

In the course of pursuing our goals, many of us tend to get distracted from taking care of ourselves.

These were simple tell tale signs, and yet so easy to overlook and dismiss. 

在追求我们的目标时，太多人容易疏于照顾自己。

这些简单的警示迹象，太容易被忽视。

I used to get stomach aches everyday in the afternoon for a few months continuously, just a slight cramp but enough to make me wince in pain. What did I do? I went on filling in the excel spreadsheets – we had a deadline of 12pm, after all. The economy was crumbling down. I was responsible and I needed to do my job, and do it well.

连续几个月，我每天下午都会感觉胃痛，虽然只是轻微的痉挛，但足以让我痛苦。当时我做了什么? 我继续填写这Excel表格，因为中午12点是截止时间。当时，经济正在崩塌。我有责任，我需要做好我的工作。

At one point, I averaged a cold or minor viral flu every 3-4 weeks, my GP probably didn’t even need to see me to know what to prescribe each time I slouched in, tired and exhausted, but just eager to grab my medicine from the counter and go back to the office. 

在某个阶段，我通常3至4个星期得一次感冒或者轻微的病毒性流感，每次当我无精打采、疲惫地走进医院，医生甚至不需要看我就知道开什么药。而我只是着急地从柜台拿走我的药回办公室。

Unbeknownst to me, these were all warning signals from my body that I was stressed, and I needed rest – not the spa trips or gym work outs that I believed were part of coping with stress, but a complete step back from what I was doing for I had too much on my plate. 

当时的我并不知道，这些都是我的身体发出的警告：我压力过大，需要休息 —— 并不是过去我所认为的通过泡温泉或是去健身房来应对压力，而是从工作中全然地退出，因为我的压力太大了。

Even as my assistant once whispered in my ear, ” maybe you should put some make up on before seeing the client, you look very tired and pale…” I still stubbornly insisted I was invincible. It paid off – I got good performance ratings at the end of the year – but that was about it. The little “1” on my scorecard was not very helpful when I was rushed to ER from fainting yet again due to dehydration from vomiting too much as a result of the excruciating migraines.

My immune system was breaking down as a result of stress, and eventually I collapsed, physically and mentally. 

即使我的助手曾在我耳边说过，“也许你应该在见客户前化个妆，你的脸色看起来很疲倦、苍白......”而我依然固执地坚持我是无敌的。我得到了回报—— 在年底获得了良好的业绩评级——但仅此而已。当我因为难以忍受的偏头痛呕吐到脱水而晕倒被送进急诊室时，这些回报对我并没有帮助。

我的免疫系统被压力打败了，最终我的身体和精神都崩溃了。

We are all trying to find some sort of balance that works for us in our life, in our time and space. But sometimes we can get so caught up in achieving the goal of “balance”, that we actually forget to take care of our most basic self – the body and its health. 

我们都试图在时间空间上找到生活中的某种平衡。但是，有时我们只是为了达到“平衡”的目的而实际上却忽略了关照最基本的部分——身体和健康。

So before you get to my juncture, take a few minutes for introspection. Is your body trying to tell you something?

做个反省。你的身体是否也在尝试告诉你什么呢?

Here are a few steps I suggest you take: 

这里有一些我建议的步骤：

1. Review your physical health for the past year

In a notebook (or OK, on an excel spreadsheet if you must), record all the times you were ill, even a little sneeze, or pain in your thumb (oh blackberry addicts!), and try to document the time, the severity, the duration, and what you did about it. Leave it for a day or two and come back to it and try to write more down as your memory is jolted.

1.回顾最近几年的身体健康  

在笔记本上(或在excel表中也可以)，做一个生病记录，甚至只是打喷嚏，或是拇指受伤(手机上瘾症！)，试着记录发生时间、严重程度、持续时间，以及你之前做了什么相关的事。将这些记录搁置一两天再重新省视并增加记录。

It will surprise you how much you actually remember if you put your conscious thought into it, and perhaps it would surprise you also, that you had more days of back pains than you remember. 

你会惊讶于当你有意识地去想，你竟然可以记得如此之多，也许你也会惊讶于原来你的背部疼痛存在的时间比你所记得的还要长。

2. Review your physical condition everyday

In the same notebook but in a new section, start reviewing your physical condition everyday. You can start reviewing weekly then gradually more frequently. 

2.每天回顾你的身体情况

在同一本笔记本中开始记录另外一部分，用来每天回顾你的身体情况。刚开始你可以每周回顾，逐渐地增加回顾频率。

Create a system for yourself to record your energy level and also your moods:

 

- Were you tired that day, more than usual? Why? 

- Were you generally happy? Sad? Frustrated? Why? 

Also take note if you recognize pain in any part of your body, and document fatigue or trouble areas – the neck, the spine, lower waist, feet etc? Do you get headaches around the same time every day? 

After two weeks, see if you start noticing trends. Compare it with your record from the previous year. Has anything changed? Do you notice patterns? 

为你自己建立一个记录系统，同时记录精力水平和心情：
- 你疲惫吗，比平时疲惫? 为什么?
- 你快乐吗? 悲伤吗? 沮丧吗? 为什么? 
同时也记录你意识到的身体疼痛的任何部位——是在颈部，脊椎，腰，脚等？每天你都在同样的时间感觉头疼?
两周以后，你可以看看是否发现其中的趋势。将这些记录和前一年相比，有什么变化吗?你发现什么模式吗? 

3. Stop if you need to

 

Once you notice physical patterns, ask yourself, what do you think caused them? Were there any particular activities that could lead to this kind of pain? Identify these actions and stop the behavior. 

3.如果有必要，你需要停下

一旦你察觉到身体的问题，问问自己，是什么引起这些问题?是否有一些特别的活动导致了这些疼痛。确认这些行为并停止它们。

If your eyes are tired from staring at the computer screen for too many hours a day, stop reading this blog post right now and come back later. 

 

Every little discomfort counts, and must be stopped. 

如果你的眼睛因过长时间看电脑屏幕而感觉疲惫，可以立即停止阅读这篇博文，在以后再看。每个细小的不适都需要引起注意，需要停止（这些引起它们的行为）。

4. Change habits

 

This is when the prioritization and time management skills you have read about on this blog come into handy. Plan your ideal situation and think about how you can eliminate this pain – are you exercising enough? Are you working too many hours? Is sleep your problem? Make plans to change undesirable behavior using the skills you’ve already learned.

4.改变习惯

你在这个博客上阅读到的关于优先次序和时间管理技巧正好可以派上用场了。 做一个理想中的情景计划，思考一下如何能消除这种疼痛——你是否运动得当?你是否工作过量呢?你的睡眠有问题吗?用这些你已经学会的技巧来制定计划去改变这些讨厌的行为。

Unless you identify the issues, there would not be solutions or improvements. So listen to what your body is telling you, every little pain or wince matters and is a message to which you should pay attention.

除非你找出问题，否则不会有解决方案或改进。所以请聆听你身体的声音，每一个细微的疼痛或痉挛传达出的讯息都值得你去留心。

Today, I review my body condition every evening before going to bed. I have a log of when my migraines occur and when I feel more bubbly and energetic. My log also consists of how my body reacted after I started practicing meditation through Chinese calligraphy and taichi martial arts.

 

Baby step improvements and adjustments, and every week I take a look at my own physical condition to see what needs to be tweaked.

现在，每天晚间睡前，我都会回顾我的身体状况。当偏头痛出现时，我都有日志记录。我感觉自己更有生气和能量。日志中也包括着我通过中国书法和太极来练习冥想之后的身体反应。

留意着每一点滴的改善和调整，每周我都会回顾自己的身体状况看看是否有调整的需要。

Everyone has to find the optimum way and balance for themselves. I urge you to listen to your body in the process. 

 

Are there warning signals you have been snoozing too?

每个人都需要找到自己适合的平衡方式。希望你在这个过程中聆听自己身体的声音。

你是否也忽略了身体所发出的讯号?