为了健康，请放下

(HealthDay)—The advice to "let go" of negative feelings is repeated in yoga classes and self-help books. Now a new study suggests it really brings a lasting health benefit.

些鸡汤文甚至是瑜伽课都会告诉你，要学着放下负面情绪。而现在的确有新研究表明，放下负面情绪确实对身体健康有长久的益处。

The study, of more than 1,100 middle-aged adults, found that those who had a hard time getting over daily stressors typically had more physical health problems a decade later.

此次研究对象为1000多名中年人，研究人员针对他们每天的焦虑程度和一个星期以后的情绪作了记录，还包括十年后他们的身体状况。结果发现，那些曾经很难应对日常压力的人在若干年后身体的毛病会更多一些。

And it wasn't just that people who were less healthy to begin with had more negative emotions.

此外，研究还发现，即使是身体好一点的人，也开始有了更多的负面情绪。

The researchers accounted for any physical health conditions study participants had at the outset—and the ability to "let go" was still tied to better health 10 years later.

研究人员解释了实验之初参与者的身体状况，并指出：在十年后，懂得放手的人身体的确更好一些。

The findings, published recently in the journal Psychological Science, don't prove that getting over a bad mood will boost your physical well-being.

这篇发表在《心理科学》上的文章还表明，克服消极情绪也并没有给你的身体带来什么益处。

But they do add to evidence that our reactions to stress take a physical toll, said James Maddux, a researcher who was not involved in the study.

詹姆斯 · 马德克斯(James Maddux)是 乔治梅森大学“提升幸福感中心”的资深学者，虽然他没有参与本次研究。

"What's interesting here is that the researchers looked at the 'day-after' effects," said Maddux. He is a senior scholar at George Mason University's Center for the Advancement of Well-Being in Fairfax, Va.

他说：“这次实验使我们更加明确了一点，即我们对压力的处理方式若有不妥，势必会对身体造成伤害。本次研究的特别之处在于，研究人员考虑了‘日后影响’。”

If you tend to ruminate over daily hassles—running through every "what if" and "if only"—it amplifies the impact of a minor event, Maddux said.

马德克斯说，如果你每天都因为一件小事不断地想“如果这样，后果会怎样”、“要是我当时那么做就好了”，那这无形之中就会放大这件微不足道的小事的负面影响。

"You probably find you feel even worse after a night of ruminating," he said.If that cycle is repeated over time,"there's an accumulation of physiological responses that will wear you down," Maddux explained.

马德克斯说，如果你每天都因为一件小事不断地想“如果这样，后果会怎样”、“要是我当时那么做就好了”，那这无形之中就会放大这件微不足道的小事的负面影响。你甚至还会发现，即使你思考了一夜，焦虑之情并没有缓解半分，感觉反而更糟了。“一系列生理反应都会让你疲惫不堪。”他说。

The study results are based on 1,155 people who took part in a national health study. They kept track of their daily hassles and their emotional responses to them for about a week.Each day, participants described their mood changes over the past 24 hours—estimating how much time they spent feeling nervous, sad, angry or upset, for example. So the researchers were able to look at whether people were still out of sorts the day after an everyday stressor, like an argument or a bad day at work.Ten years later, participants rated their physical well-being—including whether they had chronic health conditions, trouble exercising or limitations in daily tasks, such as climbing stairs or carrying groceries.

实验中，参与者每天都会描述在过去的24小时内他们的情绪——如焦虑、紧张、沮丧等，并对这些情绪到底维持了多长时间做了估计。因此，研究人员也就能估计在头一天的负面情绪后，第二天是否仍然情绪低落。十年后，研究人员再次评估了他们的身体状况，包括他们是否患有慢性疾病、每天工作时是否会力不从心、运动是否困难，例如爬楼梯、搬搬东西这样的事儿。

Those issues were common: By the 10-year mark, only 17 percent of study participants were free of physical health conditions, and only 20 percent had no complaints about physical limitations.

答案似乎很一致：只有17%的人身体还比较硬朗，而只有20%的人没有抱怨身体不如从前。

But those problems were more common among people who had reported letting negative emotions linger in response to daily hassles, the findings showed.

但研究发现，那些在日常生活中遇到负面情绪的人更容易出现这些问题。

And it's the "lingering" part—versus short-lived aggravation—that's key, according to lead researcher Kate Leger. She is a doctoral student in psychology and social behavior at the University of California, Irvine.

首席研究员凯特·莱格(Kate Leger)表示, 这种影响不是暂时的，而是"挥之不去的"的。她是加利福尼亚大学欧文分校的心理学和社会行为学的博士生。

People can be prone to prolonged bad moods for various reasons, Leger said. For some, anxiety or depression could be driving it. Many others naturally have a more-anxious disposition or are drawn to ruminate.

她说，人们可能因为各种原因而心情一直都不好，对有些人来说，焦虑或抑郁是长期心情不好的原因之一，还有一些人则是天生就容易犯焦虑。

But even if it's your nature to hold onto negative vibes, that can be changed, she suggested.

但她认为，哪怕你生来悲观，也是可以改变的。

"Yes, it's hard to 'let go,' " Leger said. But, she added, people can cultivate that skill through practices like "mindfulness" and meditation, in which you train the mind to focus on the present, rather than worries about the past.

“我知道让负面情绪顺其自然很难。”莱格说。但她补充到，我们可以借助“正念”或是“冥想”等手段以培养这项技能。在练习中，你可以试着让大脑专注于现在，而不是担心过去。

"Focusing on the present, especially on things you are grateful for, has been shown to have several benefits, including improved mood and well-being," Leger said.

“活在当下，为你所拥有的而感恩，这样做十分有益，还能改善情绪和提升幸福感。”

Maddux agreed that meditation can help. Plus, he said, the premise behind standard mental health "talk therapies" is that people can, in fact, learn to change ingrained ways of thinking.

马德克斯补充到，冥想也会有用。因为解决心理问题的“谈话疗法”的前提就是，人们都可以改变自己根深蒂固的思想方式。

"Some people believe that worrying can actually prevent bad things from happening," Maddux said. So it can be hard for them to see that same mindset as a source of problems, rather than solutions. But, he said, it's possible.

他说，有的人认为只要心里感到忧虑担心，坏事就不会发生，但他们没意识到，同样的心态正是问题的根源。

"You can start to see that maybe the problem is in the way that you think—and not in what other people are doing," he said. "Anyone can learn to better manage their emotions."

“你会明白，真正重要的不是别人怎么做了，而是你自己怎么想了。任何人都可以成为自己情绪的主人。”他说。