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Where is your attention right now?
你现在的注意力在哪里？
The human brain's attention system is actually the success story of what makes us unique as human beings.
人类大脑的注意力系统实际上是使我们作为人类独一无二的成功故事。
Because attention fuels our ability to think, to feel, and connect, what we pay attention to is our life.
因为注意力激发了我们思考、感觉和联系的能力，所以我们所关注的就是我们的生活。
For a long time, through our evolutionary history, the brain started to suffer from a very big problem which is that there's far more information out in the environment than could be fully processed.
在很长一段时间里，在我们的进化史中，大脑开始受到一个非常大的问题的困扰，那就是环境中的信息远远超过了我们能完全处理的能力。
Attention ended up becoming a very useful solution because it allows us to prioritize information, but there are qualities of the human experience that disable attention.
注意力最终成为了一个非常有用的解决方案，因为它允许我们对信息进行优先排序，但人类经验中的一些特质会导致注意力失效。
Given how powerful attention is, we need to really respect where we place this precious brain resource.
鉴于注意力的强大力量，我们需要非常尊重将这种宝贵的大脑资源所放置的位置。
The mind is no different than the body.
思想和身体没有什么不同。
The mind needs to be exercised daily to optimize our psychological well-being.
我们需要每天锻炼大脑，以优化我们的心理健康。
Knowing this, I became very interested in understanding if we might be able to train attention.
知道了这一点，我变得非常感兴趣，想知道我们是否能够训练注意力。
My name is Amishi Jha.
我是阿米西杰。
I'm a neuroscientist and professor at the University of Miami, and the author of the book "Peak Mind: Find Your Focus, Own Your Attention, Invest 12 Minutes a Day."
我是迈阿密大学的神经学家和教授，也是《巅峰思维：找到你的注意力，掌控你的注意力，每天投入12分钟》一书的作者。
The brain's attention system is incredibly powerful.
大脑的注意力系统非常强大。
There's three big ways we use attention as a fuel for having success in our daily activities.
我们有三种主要的方式将注意力作为在日常活动中取得成功的因素。
We use our attention to actually 'Think'- during thinking there's an idea that comes to mind, and then we hyperlink it to other ideas.
我们用自己的注意力去真正地“思考”--在思考的过程中，脑海中浮现出一个想法，然后我们把它链接到其他想法上。
That's what thought actually is, and the glue between those hyperlinks is attention.
这就是所谓的想法，而这些超链接之间的粘合剂就是注意力。
But it's not only used for the purposes of what we might call cognitive functioning, we also use our attention to 'Feel.'
但注意力不仅用于我们所谓的认知功能，我们还用它去“感受”。
Think about the last time you actually had a joyful moment in your lives.
回想一下你生命中上一次真正快乐的时候。
If you weren't paying attention to it, chances are you missed it.
如果你没有注意到，那你很有可能会错过它。
You didn't get the benefit of the positive emotional response.
你并没有从积极的情绪反应中获益。
Finally, the third area is 'Connecting'- our social interactions with other people.
最后，第三种方式是“连接”--我们与他人的社交互动。
Without devoting attention, we don't experience care and we can't extend care.
没有专心的注意力，我们就体验不到关怀，也不能传递关怀。
In fact, you might say that paying attention to another person is our highest form of love.
事实上，你可能会说，关注另一个人是我们表达爱的最高形式。
But while attention is so incredibly powerful, it's fragile and vulnerable.
但是，虽然注意力非常强大，但它同时也是脆弱和易受伤害的。
The three biggies that we've learned about in my labs are: Stress Threat or Negative Mood.
在我的实验室里，我们了解到的三大点是：压力、威胁或负面情绪。
Maybe you could even say they're like kryptonite for attention.
你甚至可以说，这些东西对注意力来说就像氪一样。
But we all know you can't live a life without experiencing stress, threat, or negative mood.
但我们都知道，你的生活不可能没有压力、威胁或负面情绪。
A lot of our work with high-performing groups describe this feeling of not having full access to their attention when they need it most.
在我们与高性能团队的合作中，很多工作都描述了这样一种感觉，即在他们最需要的时候，无法完全接触到自己的注意力。
So what are those circumstances?
那么，这些情况是什么呢？
There's a shorthand that we can use to think about this.
我们可以用一个简称来思考这个问题。
The term is VUCA: Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous.
这个术语是VUCA：不稳定、不确定、复杂、模棱两可。
The world today feels like it's a constant VUCA environment, but there's another challenge that our attention faces, and why many of us feel like we're in an attentional crisis.
如今的世界感觉像是一个持续不断的VUCA环境，但我们的注意力面临着另一个挑战，为什么许多人都感觉我们处于注意力危机中。
Frankly, the brain was designed to be lured by, for our evolutionary success and survival, certain kinds of information; threatening information novel information, self-related information, and even things that are fun and enticing.
坦率地说，为了我们能够成功进化与生存，大脑天生就容易被某些信息诱惑；威胁性信息、新奇信息、与自我相关的信息，甚至是有趣和诱人的东西。
I'm talking about the 'Attention Economy.'
我说的就是“注意力经济”。
Everything is being done by teams of engineers to actually capture your attention and keep it there; your attention is the product.
每件事的背后都有工程师团队，吸引并占据你的注意力；你的注意力就是产品。
Finally, the mind can be hijacked away by something called 'Mental Time Travel.'
最后，大脑可能会被一种叫做“心理时间旅行”的东西劫持。
That means that our attention is not in the present moment, so when we're thinking about the past, our attention is fully in the past, same thing with the future.
它是指我们的注意力不在当下，所以当我们思考过去时，我们的注意力完全集中在过去，思考未来时也是一样。
About 50% of our waking moments, we aren't in the present moment.
在我们清醒的时候，大约有50%的时间没有活在当下。
Now, that may seem very disempowering, like, 'How are we ever gonna fight that fight?'
这听起来可能非常无能为力，你会觉得，“我们该如何打这场仗？”
But, the good news is that decades of research in my own lab and many others has now given us a solution- mindfulness training, something that's been around for millennia.
但是，好消息是，我的实验室和其他许多实验室几十年来的研究已经为我们提供了一种解决方案--正念训练，它已经存在了数千年。
We can train our brain so that we do not need to fight.
我们可以训练我们的大脑，这样就不需要战斗了。
What we know is that when people practice mindfulness meditation, which is attending to the present moment, their attention is stronger.
我们所知道的是，当人们练习专注于当下的正念冥想时，他们的注意力会增强。
12 minutes or more a day can cultivate something called 'Meta-Awareness.'
每天花12分钟或更久，可以培养一种叫做“元意识”的东西。
What is Meta-Awareness?
什么是元意识？
It's the ability to be aware of the contents and processes of what's going on in our mind moment by moment.
它是一种能够意识到我们脑海中每时每刻都在发生的事情的内容和过程的能力。
We're paying attention to our attention.
我们正在注意我们的注意力。
Now, why would that awareness be beneficial?
那么，为什么这种意识是有益的呢？
Because every time we are aware, we have more control.
因为每一次我们意识到，就能有更多的控制权。
We can own our attention, and we have it available to us to not only enjoy the moments of our lives and feel fulfillment, but to meet the challenges and demands that we certainly will all face.
我们可以拥有自己的注意力，这样不仅能享受生活、富有成就感，还能应对每个人都会面临的挑战和要求。
Minds wander; it's a natural thing that the brain does.
思绪会飘走；这是大脑自然而然的现象。
When our mind moves away, gently return it back- simply begin again.
当我们的思绪飞走时，轻轻地把它拉回来--再重新开始即可。
