—— 选自Observer网站（吉玛译）
Meditation is less of a physical act and more of a way to train the mind to see the world in a different light, gaining control over how we approach life and allow it to affect us.
冥想不再是一种身体行为，而是训练心灵以不同的方式看待世界，控制我们如何对待生活，如何影响我们的一种方式。
Meditation was once viewed as a practice reserved exclusively for the yoga-posing, wheat grass-sipping, crystal-touting crowd; a spiritually-indulgent act that busy people just didn’t have the time—or the devotional capacity—to get behind. Growing from a niche practice to an all-out wellness craze in just a few years, however, meditation has certainly gone mainstream, and anyone can reap the benefits of practicing mindfulness in their everyday life.
冥想曾经被认为是一种专门为瑜伽者、健身者、富人所独有的活动;一种忙碌的人没有时间或信仰的能力来追随的放纵精神的行为。然而，在短短几年时间里，从小众的实践成为一个全面的健康热潮，冥想已经成为了主流，任何人都可以在日常生活中获得练习正念的益处。
For many busy Americans and city-dwellers, penciling in time to meditate seems an insurmountable feat. Fortunately, injecting your already-packed schedule with mindfulness is easier than it seems. Observer spoke to holistic healer and meditation coach Aaron Teich to better understand why we should prioritize meditation, and how to begin incorporating it into our daily routines. Studying Comparative Religion at Harvard University, Teich translated his deep understanding of Buddhism and the practice of meditation into a private healing practice with locations in New York City and The Hamptons, where he helps clients realize the full potential that practicing spiritual and physical wellbeing has to improve their lives.
对于许多忙碌的美国人和城市居民来说，花时间冥想似乎是一项不可跨越的技艺。幸运的是，在你的日程表中加入冥想比你想象中的简单。观察者与整体治疗师和冥想教练亚伦·泰希进行了交谈，以便更好地理解为什么我们应该优先考虑冥想，以及如何将冥想融入到我们的日常生活中。在哈佛大学学习比较宗教学的泰希将他对佛教深刻理解和冥想的练习变成纽约和长岛的汉普顿私人治疗实践,在那里他帮助客户实现全部潜力，通过身体和精神健康上的实践改善他们的生活。
First and foremost, we wanted to learn what meditation really means. Popular culture depicts it as simply sitting down, legs-crossed, eyes-closed, patiently awaiting a mindful, refreshed outlook. Teich informs us that meditation is less of a physical act and more of a way to train the mind to see the world in a different light, gaining more control over how we approach life and allow it to affect us. “The stream of thought that dominates inner experience and inspires outer action tends to be far more multifaceted and uncontrolled than we generally recognize,” Teich explains. “Meditation encompasses a set of techniques for becoming more aware of the mind’s dynamics, which in turn offers the possibility of effective self regulation. We discover who we are under the hood, and apply that understanding to think and act more effectively and intentionally.”
首先，我们想学习冥想的真正含义。流行文化把它描绘成简单的坐下来，腿交叉，眼睛闭着，耐心地等待着正念，焕然一新的面貌。泰希告诉我们，冥想并不是一种身体行为，而是训练心灵以不同的方式看待世界，控制我们如何对待生活，如何影响我们的一种方式。泰希解释说:“思想的潮流主宰着内在的体验，激发着外在的行动，往往比我们通常意识到的方面更广、更不受控制。”冥想包含一套技巧，可以让你更清楚地意识到大脑的动态，进而提供有效的自我调节的可能性。我们能够理解自我，并将这种理解更有效、更有意的运用到思考和行动中。
Teich acknowledges that meditation can be intimidating when first starting out, and stresses the importance of maintaining a regular sustained practice. “Many new students find meditation difficult at first and often write it off too quickly. Sitting with the endless flow of thought and feeling without our usual outlets can be intense, even uncomfortable, with little noticeable benefit,” he told Observer. “However, with even as little as a week or two of regular practice, the inner noise can begin to subside, and deeper spaces of quiet, joy, and even ecstasy reveal themselves. With sustained practice, these positive states become more stable and infiltrate our experiences off the mat.”
泰希承认，在刚开始，冥想可能会让人生畏，并强调维持日常持续练习的重要性。他在观察者中说道，坐着无休止的思考和不按照常理来感觉，往往伴随着强烈的感情冲击，甚至是不舒服的，没有什么明显的好处，然而，哪怕只有一两周的常规练习，内心的噪音也会开始消退，更深层的安静、快乐甚至狂喜都会显现出来。通过持续的练习，这些积极状态变得更加稳定，并渗透到我们的经验中。
For those new to meditation, Teich recommends taking it outdoors; it can even be as simple as taking a walk in the park on your lunch break, or carving out time over the weekend to get out in nature. The Japanese art of Shinrin-yoku, or the act of immersing yourself outdoors in a wooded area, is accompanied with countless benefits for your mental and physical health. Shinrin-yoku, more commonly referred to as “forest bathing,” has been proven to be medically beneficial; a 2010 study published in Environmental Health and Preventive Medicine found that participants who walked in a forest had lower blood pressure and levels of cortisol, the hormone that regulates stress in the body.
对于那些刚开始冥想的人来说，泰希建议在户外进行;甚至可以在午休时间在公园走走,或者周末抽个时间走进大自然“.日本森林浴艺术，或者将自己融入到森林中，这将会为你的身心健康带来了无数的好处。Shinrin-yoku，被称为“森林浴”，已经被证明是有益的;2010年发表在《环境健康与预防医学》上的一项研究发现，在森林中行走的人的血压和皮质醇水平以及调节身体压力的荷尔蒙都较低
Our minds have the tendency to become myopic within our own thoughts,” Teich told Observer. “Immersing oneself in the movement, sounds, and beauty of nature can effectively take us out of our own heads, complementing and even jump starting the expanded range of awareness that meditation can offer.”
泰希告诉观察家说，我们的思想倾向于在自己的思想中变得短视。把自己沉浸在大自然的运动、声音和美丽中，可以有效地从自己的思想中走出来，补充甚至开始扩大冥想所能够提供的意识范围.
Maintaining a sustained practice requires a considerable level of commitment, and it can be hard to understand just what you’re getting out of it after all that time on the mat. Teich explains that investing your time in meditation isn’t something that pays off in the moment, but creates positive change that has the power to resonate in all areas of life. “Innumerable benefits from practicing meditation have been reported and discovered: increased focus and energy, better sleep, less stress and more calm, being more present for activities and relationships, to list a few—because all life experience is mediated through our minds, becoming more aware of thought processes has an impact throughout the full spectrum of our lives.”
维持一个持续的练习需要相当程度的约束，而且当你在垫子上冥想很久之后，你将会很难知道你想要从中得到什么。泰希解释说，把你的时间投入到冥想中并不是一件有意义的事情，而是创造了积极的改变，这些改变在生活的各个方面都能产生共鸣。
Link: Why You Probably Need to Meditate, as Explained by an Expert
