选择独处，是巨大的心理祝福

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写在前面的话：孤独，带给人类无处可栖的无力感。
现代人游荡在高度发达的现代化城市中，却不可避免地感到内心与生俱来的荒凉。日本哲学家三木清认识到，孤独不是在山上而是在街上，不在一个人里面而在许多人中间。据统计，全世界每年约有80万人死于自杀，这意味着每40秒钟就会有一个人在孤独中死去。
然而，心理学家却指出，孤独并不总带着死神的面具。换句话说，人们也可以尝试品味孤独，一如村上春树笔下的《挪威的森林》般澄清透彻。由于独自一人与世界面对，人们或者产生孤独感，或者因体悟存在者的孤独，进而萌生敬畏之心。纪伯伦说，孤独，是忧愁的伴侣，也是精神活动的密友。多少精美的油画，动人的音乐，感人至深的文字，以及潸然泪下的电影，都伴随着忧患的焦灼烙印，却升华为人类的精神财富。面对孤独，享受孤独，“独处也是一种巨大的祝福”。

原文阅读。

Under the right circumstances, choosing to spend time alone can be a huge psychological blessing. In the 1980s, the Italian journalist and author Tiziano Terzani, after many years of reporting across Asia, holed himself up in a cabin in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan.

"For a month I had no one to talk to except my dog Baoli, " he wrote in his book A Fortune Teller Told Me.Terzani passed the time with books, observing nature, "listening to the winds in the trees, watching butterflies, enjoying silence". For the first time in a long while he felt free from the unending anxieties of daily life: " At last I had time to have time".

在适当的情况下，选择独处是一种巨大的心理祝福。上世纪80年代，意大利记者兼作家蒂齐亚诺·特扎尼在亚洲各地做了多年报道后，躲在日本茨城县的一个小木屋里。他在《算命先生告诉我的事》一书中写道：“有一个月，除了我的狗宝丽，我没人可以说话。” 特扎尼通过读书来打发时间，观察大自然，“倾听风吹过树的声音，观察蝴蝶，享受宁静。”这么长时间以来，他第一次从日常生活无休止的焦虑中解脱出来：终于有（拥有时间）的时间了。”

Terzani's embrace of isolation was relatively unusual: Humans have long considered solitude an inconvenience, something to avoid a punishment, a realm of loners. Science has often associated it with negative outcomes. Freud, who linked solitude with anxiety, noted that,"in children the first fears relating to situations are those of darkness and solitude. "

John Cacioppo, a modern social neuro-scientist who has extensively studied loneliness-what he calls "chronic perceived-isolation"-contends that, beyond damaging our thinking powers, isolation can even harm our physical health. But increasingly scientists are approaching solitude as something that, when pursued by choice, can prove a therapy.

特扎尼对独立的拥抱是相对罕见的:长期以来，人类一直认为隐居是一种不便，是为了避免惩罚，是孤独者的领地。科学常常把它与消极的结果联系在一起。弗洛伊德将孤独与焦虑联系起来，他指出:“在儿童中，与情境相关的最初恐惧是黑暗和孤独。现代社会神经科学家约翰·卡奇奥波(John Cacioppo)对孤独进行了广泛的研究——他称之为“慢性感知孤立”——他认为，孤立不仅会损害我们的思维能力，甚至还会损害我们的身体健康。但是越来越多的科学家近乎认为，有选择地追求孤立，可以证明是一种疗法。

This is especially true in times of personal disorder, when the instinct is often for people to reach outside of themselves for support. " When people are experiencing crisis, it's not always just about you: It's about how you are in society," explains Jack Fong, a sociologist at California State Polytechnic University who has studied solitude.

人格紊乱的时候尤其如此，即当人们的本能寻求外界支持时。“当人们正在经历危机，并不是只是对你：而是关于你在社会上如何表现，” 杰克方，一位在加州州立理工大学的社会学家

研究孤独后，解释说。

In other words, when people remove themselves from the social context of their lives, they are better able to see how they're shaped by that context. Thomas Merton, a monk and writer who spent years alone, held a similar notion. "We cannot see things in perspective until we cease to hug them to our breast."he writes in Thoughts in Solitude. "People can go for a walk or listen to music and feel that they are deeply in touch with themselves."

换句话说，当人们把自己从生活的社会环境中抽离出来时，他们就能更好地看到自己是如何被这种环境塑造的。托马斯•默顿(Thomas Merton)是一位多年独居的僧侣和作家，他也持有类似的观点。“只有我们停止抱紧那些朝向自我的事物，我们才能正确看待事物。”他在《孤独的思想》中写道。“人们可以去散步或听音乐，然后会感受到，自己与自我有很深的联系。