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It started about two weeks ago, and now you can’t escape it.
说起来，这事儿是两周前开始的，现在大家都无法逃避了。
What began with hushes and whispers -- the occasional ominous news article or TV sound byte --
最初的沉默和低语——偶尔有不祥的新闻文章或电视播报——
has now escalated to full-blown panic about the global pandemic that’s swept the globe, and it’s crept into every facet of life.
现在已经升级为对席卷全球的流行病的全面恐慌，这样的情绪已渗透到生活的方方面面。
You can’t hug anyone without worrying that he or she might be a carrier.
拥抱他人的时候还会担心对方是不是病毒携带者。
And overseas, the situafotion is even worse.
在海外，情况甚至更糟糕。
Police are out in the streets, pressing people on what they’re doing and where they’re going.
警察在街上巡逻，催促着民众不要停留，不要聚集。
While you couldn’t even stand within three feet of your roommates anyway for fear of catching this,
因为害怕被传染，你甚至不敢站在离室友三英尺以内的地方，
one day you wake up, and they’re all gone -- back home with their families to ride out the duration of the mandatory quarantine.
有一天你醒过来，他们都已经离开了——回家和家人一起度过强制隔离期。
It would’ve been nice having them around, even if you couldn’t touch at least you’d have someone to talk to.
有他们陪在身边就好了，即使没有肢体接触，至少可以有个说话的人。
But what do you do to cope now that you’re on your own and have to deal with this situation all by yourself?
但是现在你要靠自己来处理这种情况，你会怎么做呢?
It’s tempting to grab your phone, lay in bed and scroll through Instagram or Facebook all day,
拿起自己的手机，躺在床上，滑动Instagram或Facebook，
but the mental overload those will inevitably cause might make the situation worse,
但这不可避免地会导致精神负担过重，可能使情况变得更糟，
so in between FaceTime calls with your family and in the silence of your now deserted house, you’re going to need some other strategies.
所以在与家人FaceTime视频通话的间隙，以及置身在空荡荡的房子时，你需要一些其他的策略。
The first thing that’s recommended is to stay calm.
首先，建议大家保持冷静。
As you come to terms with the totality of this dire situation, your fight or flight stress response is going to kick in --
当你面对这个可怕的局面时，你的“战或逃应激反应”就会启动——
and likely at full blast, so it can be helpful to recognize the weird sensations you’re feeling as being connected ot that natural process.
而且很可能会达到高潮，所以认识到这种与自然过程有关的奇妙感觉是有帮助的。
One of the first telltale signs is that your skin might start to feel cooler and even go pale as blood is being sent to its extremities -- like your arms, legs.
最开始的迹象是，随着血液输送到四肢，比如胳膊和双腿，你的皮肤可能会开始感到凉爽，甚至会发白。
But it could also be rerouted to your shoulders, brain, eyes, ears and nose.
但这种症状也可能会转移到肩膀、大脑、眼睛、耳朵和鼻子上。
The eyes, ears and nose might seem strange to add to the mix,
眼睛、耳朵和鼻子这样的组合可能看起来很怪异，
but it’s just our bodies’ ways of making sure our sense of smell, taste and hearing are all heightened.
但这只是我们身体确保嗅觉、味觉和听觉都得到强化的方式。
This mechanism also pulls blood away from the skin, which would decrease bleeding from possible cuts and scrapes.
这种机制还能将血液从皮肤上抽离，从而减少可能出现的割伤和擦伤导致的出血。
Which makes sense, in the event that this apocalyptic reality gets so weird that you’re running from your life from a possessed creature,
这一点也讲得通，如果末日的现实变得十分怪异，以至于你要逃离一个被附身的生物，
you don’t want to be slowed down by a scraped knee.
你可不想因为膝盖擦伤而停下脚步。
Next, you’ll be able to recognize your body’s increased stress response by immediate sweating,
接下来，身体会通过立刻出汗的方式让你识别到应激反应，
which is your body’s way of preparing itself for any major actions you might need to take,
这是身体为可能需要采取的重大行动做预警的方式，
so you might feel like you desperately need to drink some water. Yup.
所以你可能会觉得非常口渴。是的。
Science says this is because the gastrointestinal juices -- delightful --
科学表明，这是因为随着流入消化系统的血液减少，
and saliva production both go down as blood flow to your digestive system is decreased.
胃肠道汁液和唾液的分泌都减少了。
So, say you do start to feel that onslaught of panic and recognize that they’re fight or flight symptoms, what should you do?
那么，假如你真的开始感到一阵恐慌，并意识到这是战斗或逃跑的症状，你该怎么办?
We all passively breathe, but now you’re going to have to go a step beyond
我们都是被动地呼吸，但现在你必须超越这一步，
and channel that hippie dippy yoga teacher you’ve always found to be extremely pretentious.
和那个你一直认为极其自命不凡的嬉皮士瑜伽老师沟通。
You’d always poked fun at her, but what she was teaching during that class will serve you well.
你总是拿她开涮，但她在那堂课上教的内容会对你很有帮助。
You recall she stressed the importance of being intentional about your breathing.
你回忆起她强调了有意识呼吸的重要性。
First, you’ve got to find a spot where it’s quiet and make your spine all nice and straight.
首先，你得找个安静的地方，舒展你的脊椎。
You could do this sitting at a dining room chair or anywhere else.
你可以在餐厅的椅子上或其他任何地方舒展自己。
It’s best to then fill your abdomen up like a balloon on the inhale,
吸气时最好让空气像气球一样充盈着腹部，
feeling it move into your rib cage and then upper chest and then letting it out slowly on the exhale, contracting your ab muscles as you do.
感觉气流移动到胸腔，然后上胸部，然后呼气时慢慢把气吐出，同时收缩腹肌。
And don’t worry, you’ve got abs under there matter how many bags of Doritos from your emergency food supply you’ve already torn into.
别担心，不管吃了多少袋应急食品中的多力多滋，你的腹肌都还是存在的。
Experts suggest doing this strategic breathing for five minutes for its soothing effects to take over your panicked nervous system.
专家建议做这样战略性的呼吸5分钟，可有效缓解惊慌失措的神经系统。
But if you are going to have a freak-out moment -- experts say sometimes the best thing you can do is to just let yourself feel it.
但如果你真的要抓狂了——专家说有时候你能采取的最佳方式就是让自己去感受情绪。
Give yourself a “worry window.” This window could just be 15 to 30 minutes during the morning or afternoon --
给自己设置“忧虑窗口期”。“这段时间可以是上午或下午的15到30分钟——
any time that’s time set aside for you to scream, pace, yell into the void or into your pillow.
这段时间你可以尖叫、踱步、对着空气或枕头大喊。
This mechanism of coping looks different for everyone, so you’ve got to find what works for you.
这种应对机制对每个人来说都不一样，所以你必须找到适合自己的方法。
However, one thing that’s not recommended is doing this right before you go to sleep because it could wreak havoc on your sleep schedule.
然而，不推荐大家做的是，在睡前做这件事，因为这可能会严重破坏你的睡眠时间表。
If you’re the journaling type, you could also write down all your worries without putting any pressure on yourself to fix them.
如果你喜欢写日记，你也可以写下所有的烦恼，而不用强迫自己去解决这些问题。
Putting the mess that’s most likely going through your head at the moment to paper will be therapeutic in and of itself.
把你脑子里最有可能浮现的烦恼写在纸上，这本身就是一种治疗方法。
Another thing to be knowledgeable of is that chronically lonely people -- and you’re going to be getting very lonely during this time --
还需要了解的是，长期孤独的人——在这段时间里你会变得非常孤独——
have higher blood pressure, are more susceptible to infections and in the long run are even more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.
血压会升高，更容易受到感染，长期来看更有可能患上阿尔茨海默氏症和痴呆症。
You might also eventually feel that your attention, logic and verbal reasoning skills are being compromised during your time of severe aloneness.
你可能最终会觉得，在你极度孤独的时候，你的注意力、逻辑和语言推理能力正在受到损害。
Have you ever gone out after spending a whole weekend alone playing video games and found that you’ve almost forgotten how to talk?
你是否一个人玩了一整个周末的电子游戏后外出游玩，突然发现自己好想忘了怎么说话?
Why these happen is a bit unclear, but what is known is that because of the cascade of stress hormones and,
为什么会发生这种情况还不清楚，但已知的是，由于压力荷尔蒙的级联反应，
thus, inflammation that you’ll be experiencing, social isolation could equal an extreme immune response.
因此，你会经历炎症，社交孤立可能等同于一种极端的免疫反应。
But that therapeutic breathing we explained earlier will certainly help.
但是我们之前解释的治疗性呼吸肯定会有帮助。
Something else to help you move through this is to become extremely mentally disciplined,
还有一种途径可以帮你度过这一难关，那就是自律起来，
harnessing all your focus on your inner world because suddenly there’s not as much mental stimulation from the outside world.
把所有的注意力集中在内心世界，因为突然之间外界的精神刺激就减少了。
The author, Emily Dickinson is one example of a historical figure who showed that this could not only be done,
作者艾米丽·狄金森是一个历史人物的例子，她向我们展示了这种办法不仅可行，
but be used as a way to enhance one’s creativity and help him or her to hone their craft.
还可以用来提高创造力，帮助自己磨练技艺。
Dickinson’s name goes hand-in-hand with a reclusive lifestyle.
狄金森的名字与隐居生活密不可分。
She spent years living alone in her house in Massachusetts, and it’s not known exactly why.
她在马萨诸塞州的房子里独自生活了数年，具体原因尚不清楚。
Some speculate that it could’ve been because of depression or agoraphobia.
有人推测这可能是由于抑郁或恐旷症。
Regardless, she often wrote about how her solitude only helped catapult her soul and mind, and she’s one of the most lauded writers of our time.
无论如何，她经常写孤独如何帮助她的灵魂和思想得到升华，她是我们这个时代最受赞誉的作家之一。
So who knows, this forced isolation might turn out to be the best opportunity you’ve ever had to let your creative side shine
所以，谁知道呢，这种被迫的孤立可能会成为你拥有过的最佳机会，让你尽情发挥自己的创意，
and get started on that epic nine part sci fi space opera spanning thousands of galaxies and millions of years.
开始创作那跨越数千个星系以及数百万年的史诗般的九部科幻太空歌剧。
Or you could dabble in poetry.
或者你可以尝试诗歌领域。
Your call.
自己决定。
