[翻译]恐惧是我们过度拥有的元凶

译文BY刘安娜20160903

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原文链接：Fear Is Why We Have Too Much Stuff BY LEO BABAUTA

LEO BABAUTA（里奥·巴伯塔）是博客禅习惯（Zenhabits）创始人，专注写作25年，博客文章版权全部公开，这篇文章原文版权归属Leo，译文版权归我本人。可以参考译文学习。译文仅为本人理解，不一定完全准确，欢迎讨论。

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While we might want to get out from under the mountain of possessions we have, and have all the best intentions of simplifying our lives … the truth is that we continue to have too much stuff.

我们的东西堆积如山，有时也想摆脱，想尽全力简化生活……真相是我们仍然有很多东西。

Part of that is laziness, an attitude of “I’ll get to it later” … but the real driving force behind our too-much-stuffitis is fear.

一部分因为懒惰，还有“我等会儿整理”的态度……但背后真正迫使我们囤积过多的原因是恐惧。

Fear is what causes us to buy things we don’t really need. Fear keeps us holding onto stuff we don’t need.

恐惧导致我们买了很多并不真需要的东西，并一直留着它们。

Consider:

想想吧：

• You pack too much when you travel, and have a garage full of stuff, just in case you might need it. This is a fear that you might need something and not have it. It’s fear of lack of safety and certainty.

• 旅行时你打包的东西太多了，箱子里满满的，仅仅为了“万一用得上”。这是种“你可能需要什么但是没带”的恐惧，是对缺乏安全感和不确定性的恐惧。

• You buy a lot of things for an upcoming event or trip because you don’t know what you might need. Your fear is that you’ll be unprepared. Again, it’s fear of lack of safety and certainty.

• 为了近期的某事或旅行你买了很多东西，因为你不知道可能需要什么。你害怕没有准备好。这仍然是对缺乏安全感和不确定性的恐惧。

• You hold on to things you don’t use anymore because you might need it someday. You probably won’t, but you’re really not sure. Again, it’s fear of lack of safety and certainty.

• 你留着那些再也没用过的东西，因为也许某天会用的。你很可能不会用上，但你也不十分确定。安全感的缺失和不确定性的确实让人害怕。

• You keep books and other aspirational items (guitar you never learned, elliptical machine you don’t use) because you hope you’ll get to them someday, and letting go seems like a loss of hope. You fear not being the person you want to be. This is a fear of not being good enough as you are.

• 你留着书和其他励志的玩意儿（从来不学的吉他，从来不用的椭圆机）因为你希望有一天你会用起来，如果扔了等于放弃希望。你担心不能成为你想成为的那个人。这是对自己不够好的担忧。

• You hold on to sentimental items, because you don’t want to lose the memories, or because it means a lot. Really, you’re afraid you will lose the love or relationship that these items represent (grandpa’s jacket represents your loving relationship with him). You fear the loss of love. This is a fear that the love you have now is not good enough.

• 你因为感情留着一些东西，因为你不想失去过去的记忆，或者因为它们对你很重要。事实是，你害怕会失去那些物件代表着的爱或者关系（祖父的外套代表了你们之间的爱）。你害怕失去爱。这是对你现在拥有的爱可能不够好的恐惧。

• You don’t want to get rid of things because you paid a lot for them, and you fear that letting go would be a waste. Actually, if you’re not using them, it’s a waste to keep them. It’s hard to say what the fear is here … but you likely fear that if the original purchase was a mistake, things might not turn out well in the future. This is a fear that the present moment won’t turn out OK, or again, a fear of uncertainty.

• 你不想扔东西，因为你花了很多钱买它们，你担心丢弃是种浪费。其实如果你根本不用，留着才是种浪费。很难说这是种什么恐惧……但你可能是担心最初买错了，未来也许不会顺遂。这是对当下状态不满意的恐惧，也是对不确定性的恐惧。

• You keep a lot of clothes (or other similar items) because they’re a means of self-expression for you … and getting rid of many of those clothes would feel like you’re limiting your means of self-expression. You fear not having those options, not having the ability to be who you want to be. This is a fear that you’re not good enough as you are, without those items.

• 你留着许多衣服（或者类似的）因为它们是你表达自己的方式……丢掉它们感觉像是限制自己的自我表现。你担心失去选择，没有能力成为你想做的那个人。这是对没有这些东西的你不够好的恐惧。

I could go on, but nearly all our possessions that aren’t absolute necessities (shelter, a bed, very minimal clothing, food, personal hygiene stuff, etc.) are bought and kept because of fears.

还有很多例子，但几乎所有非生活必需品（必需品指住所，床，极少几件衣服，食物，个人卫生用品，等等）都是因为恐惧才买的，因为恐惧而拥有。

We want these items to comfort us, to help us cope with fears and anxieties, to help us feel prepared and more secure, to help us feel that we’ll be OK, to help us feel more certain about the future.

我们想要这些身外之物的慰藉，帮我们应对恐惧和焦虑，让我们感觉有所准备，更有安全感，觉得一切顺利，增加未来的确定性。

And of course, these items don’t actually do any of these things. We hope they will, but they never do. We never have more certainty about the future, and we continue to want more things to cope with fears that we’re not good enough, that things won’t turn out OK, and so on. The cycle doesn’t end.

当然，身外之物根本不能起到以上的作用。我们希望它们能，但它们绝办不到。未来从来不确定，而我们仍然想要更多的身外之物来应对“我们不够好”“生活遍地挫折”等等的恐惧，陷入恶性循环。

So what’s the solution?

那么，怎么破？

A Better Way to Cope With Fears

应对恐惧更好的方式

If we could find a different way of coping with these fears and anxieties, we wouldn’t need the stuff. We could pause before buying something out of fear, and decide not to buy it. We could finally get rid of much of the stuff we have lying around taking up space and mental energy. We could downsize, and live a more minimalist life.

如果我们能找到一种应对恐惧和焦虑的更好方式，就不再需要那么多东西。在基于恐惧而购买前，我们可以暂停，然后决定不买。最终我们就能摆脱身边的很多东西，不再占地方，也不再消耗精神能量。我们可以精简，过一种更简约的生活。

So what’s another way to cope with these fears? Try this:

那么用什么方式应对恐惧呢？试试这些：

1. First notice that you have fear. Notice that you’re being motivated out of fear. Notice that there’s some anxiety, some worry about uncertainty or insecurity, some desire for comfort.

首先留意你的恐惧。留意到恐惧感控制着你。因为不确定性或缺乏安全感，你感到恐惧和担心，渴望慰藉。

2. Stay with the fear. Our tendency is to run away from the fear, to try to seek comfort by buying something or eating comfort food or doing something relaxing. Running from the fear is what causes many of our problems. Stay, sit still, face the fear, breathe. Find the courage to go to the places we’re afraid of.

与恐惧共处。我们倾向于逃避恐惧，用买买买或吃吃吃或者什么休闲娱乐来寻找安慰。逃避就是我们大部分问题的原因。不逃不避，冷静，面对恐惧，深呼吸。鼓起勇气做我们害怕的事。

3. Smile at the fear. Face this fear and smile at it. It is just a scared child inside you, nothing to run from, nothing to be upset about. It’s perfectly OK, perfectly natural, for fears to arise in us. Accept this fear in front of you, and smile at it. This smiling dissipates much of its power.

对恐惧微笑。面对恐惧，并微微一笑。你心里有一个害怕的小孩，无需逃跑，也不必沮丧。这很正常，感到恐惧是种天性。接受内心恐惧，一笑而过。微笑能驱散恐惧。

4. Develop a friendliness with it. Be open and curious about your fear, see how it feels in your body, what is its quality? Investigate it with friendliness, get to know it like a new friend. Once you really learn what this fear feels like, really become unconditionally friendly with it, you begin to trust that you’ll be OK, that it will float away eventually like a cloud in the wide open expanse of the sky of your mind.

和恐惧做朋友。心胸开阔，探究恐惧，感受体内的这种感受，它有什么特性？友好的研究它，像交往一位新朋友。一旦你真的了解恐惧是什么样的，真正无条件的与它友好相处，你将开始相信一切都会好的，恐惧将最终消散，正如头脑里那宽广的天空，白云飘散，云破天开。

Friends with this fear, you can now decide how to act, unencumbered by the need to alleviate the fear with possessions. You can close the tab with your favorite online shopping site, you can put it on a 30-day list to look at later, when the urge has faded and the fear is no longer with you. You can let go of the possessions you do have, finally freeing yourself of this burden.

和恐惧做朋友，你就能控制应对行为，不需要身外之物来减缓恐惧。你可以关闭最爱的电商网站，决定30天以后再看，因为不再恐惧，购物冲动也就消失了。现有的身外之物也可以处理掉，最终卸下负担，获得自由。

And in the end, you’ll find that you’re perfectly OK as you are, without needing to change, without needing anything to “express” who you are or improve you. And that’s worth more than all the possessions in the world.

最终，你会发现你现在就很好，不需要改变，不需要什么表现自我或提升自我的任何物件。这比什么身外之物都有价值。

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