Happiness expert: One technique for staying upbeat during the pandemic

幸福专家：在疫情期间保持积极向上的一个技巧

As the coronavirus pandemic rages on, it can be difficult to remain upbeat.

随着新冠疫情继续肆虐，要保持积极向上成为一件困难的事。

Aside from the health implications and associated financial stressors, uncertainty over the outcome of the virus has eroded one of the key contributors to our overall happiness, making optimism hard to obtain.

除了对健康的影响以及与之相关的经济压力，对病毒后果的不确定也让我们的整体幸福感有所缺失并让乐观变得难以寻觅。

“A sense of control is very important for happiness,” Tali Sharot, a cognitive neuroscientist and author of “The Optimism Bias”.

“掌控感对于幸福非常重要”，Tali Sharot，认知神经学专家及《乐观主义倾向》作者表示。

Indeed, in her research during the height of lockdowns, Sharot and her peers at University College London found that control was the number one contributor to people’s overall level of happiness: Those who felt they had a sense of agency in their day-to-day lives were far happier than those who did not.

的确，Sharot和她在英国伦敦大学学院的团队在疫情封锁高峰期间研究发现，掌控感是影响人们整体幸福感的第一要素：在日常生活中有主人翁感的人要比那些没有这种感觉的人幸福的多。

In the months since then, people have adapted to the pandemic and the average person’s happiness level has returned to a “baseline,” said Sharot, describing happiness like a treadmill.

在封锁开始后的数个月内，人们开始适应疫情，而普通人的幸福水平也恢复到了一个“基准线”，将幸福比作跑步机的Sharot表示说。

“You can go up and down, but people do converge to a certain baseline of happiness,” she said. “That’s true when things are very, very difficult; they eventually find their way back to that baseline. But also when things are good; after a while, they adapt to these good things and go back to the baseline.”

“你会感觉兴奋和低落，但是人们最终会汇聚到某个幸福基准线，”她说。“当事情变得非常非常困难时，事实就是如此；人们最终会重新回到这一基准线。而情况比较好时，也是如此。当情况比较好时，过了一段时间后，人们也会适应这一好的情况并回到幸福的基准线。”

However, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t find new ways to boost our happiness levels, said Sharot.

然而，这并不意味着我们无法找到提升幸福的新途径，Sharot表示。

One of the best ways of doing that is to start making plans, or what she calls “anticipatory events.” Such tactics can not only help us regain feelings of excitement but also that sense of control, she said.

提升幸福的最佳方法之一就是开始制定计划或开始她称之为“预期事件”的行动。这些方法不仅能够帮助我们重获兴奋感，也会让我们重新拥有掌控感。

“Anticipation makes us happy in and of itself,” said Sharot. Indeed, in a 2010 Dutch study of close to 1,000 holidaymakers, researchers found that the act of planning a holiday contributes a greater boost to respondents’ happiness levels than the aftermath of the trip itself.

Sharot表示：“期望本身就会让我们感到幸福。”确实，在丹麦2010一项针对近1000名度假者的研究中，研究人员们发现，与度假本身的影响相比，制定假期计划会极大提升参与者的幸福指数。

Of course, planning for the future can be easier said than done right now. With so many unknowns ahead and further potential lockdowns looming, it can be difficult to arrange anything with certainty.

当然，规划未来说起来要比做起来容易。面对未来如此多的未知因素以及后面可能存在的封锁，不带有任何疑虑的安排任何事情并不容易。

However, such plans don’t need to be huge or immovable. They could range from vacation for next summer to smaller highlights like dinner with friends, watching a movie or going on a hike.

其实，这些计划不需要非常庞大或大到无法实施。计划可以从明年夏天的度假开始到一些小事，比如和朋友晚餐，看电影或去远足。

“It’s important to still get into the habit of making those plans, putting them in the diary, and having things that we can look forward to,” she said.

保持制作计划的习惯，把计划记在日记本上，然后列出我们期待的事情，这一点很重要。

来源：CNBC，编辑：Susan