走神是大腦的一種自然狀態，它大大削弱了我們的專注力，讓我們無法集中精力在重要的事情上。專注力低下已經成了信息時代的普遍問題，那麼怎麼才能提高我們的注意力，把自己從一次次的神遊中拉回來呢？

演講部分摘錄（中英對照）：

So what do all of these studies tell us? They tell us that attention is very powerful in terms of affecting our perception. Even though it's so powerful, it's also fragile and vulnerable. And things like stress and mind-wandering diminish its power.

那麼，我們可以從以上的實驗中 得到什麼樣的啟示？ 那就是， 注意力對於認知的影響是巨大的。 雖然注意力能帶來強大的正面效益， 但它也很脆弱，很容易受影響。 比如壓力和走神都會影響注意力。

But a growing body of literature suggests that we mind-wander, we take our mind away from the task at hand, about 50 percent of our waking moments. These might be small, little trips that we take away, private thoughts that we have. And when this mind-wandering happens, it can be problematic.

但當這場演講的時間越來越長時， 我們就很容易會走神。 我們每天清醒的時間裡邊， 有50%都在走神。 像是走神、沉浸在自己的想法裡邊的這些情況，事情雖小， 但是當我們注意力不在的時候， 很可能會出現問題。

So we might ask why do we do this? Why do we mind-wander so much?

所以我們不禁要問，為什麼會這樣？ 為什麼我們這麼容易走神？

Well, part of the answer is that our mind is an exquisite time-traveling master. It can actually time travel very easily. If we think of the mind as the metaphor of the music player, we see this. We can rewind the mind to the past to reflect on events that have already happened, right? Or we can go and fast-future, to plan for the next thing that we want to do. And we land in this mental time-travel mode of the past or the future very frequently. And we land there often without our awareness, most times without our awareness, even if we want to be paying attention.

一部分原因是 我們的思維是一位時間旅行大師， 我們的思維很容易 就會開始進行時間旅行。 如果把我們的思維比作音樂播放器， 就像這樣， 我們可以倒帶回到過去， 冥想過去發生過的事情， 也可以快進到未來， 計劃我們未來要做的事情。 像這樣，我們的思維會 非常頻繁地進入時間旅行模式， 而且通常是無意識的。 當我們想要集中注意力的時候， 也經常會無意識的走神。

This happens to us. And when this happens, when we mind-wander without an awareness that we're doing it, there are consequences. We make errors. We miss critical information, sometimes. And we have difficulty making decisions. What's worse is when we experience stress. When we're in a moment of overwhelm. We don't just reflect on the past when we rewind, we end up being in the past ruminating, reliving or regretting events that have already happened. Or under stress, we fast-forward the mind.

走神這件事在我們每個人身上 都經常發生。 當我們無意識的走神的時候， 會有一些後果。 我們會出錯， 有時我們會忽略了重要的信息， 我們會變得抉擇困難， 更有甚者， 當我們在壓力之下的時候， 當我們臨近崩潰的時候， 一方面我們容易會沉湎於過去， 我們不斷的反省、重現、後悔 過去的事情。 在壓力之下，我們也容易陷於未來。

Not just to productively plan. But we end up catastrophizing or worrying about events that haven't happened yet and frankly may never happen. So at this point, you might be thinking to yourself, OK, mind-wandering's happening a lot. Often, it happens without our awareness. And under stress, it's even worse -- we mind-wander more powerfully and more often.

不是在制定未來的計劃， 而是在擔心、懼怕 未來尚未發生的事情， 甚至有些事情其實根本就不會發生。 到目前為止，你們應該都理解了， 走神經常發生， 而且是在我們不經意之間。 在壓力之下會更糟糕—— 我們可能會更頻繁、更嚴重的走神。

Is there anything we can possibly do about this? And I'm happy to say the answer is yes. From our work, we're learning that the opposite of a stressed and wandering mind is a mindful one. Mindfulness has to do with paying attention to our present-moment experience with awareness. And without any kind of emotional reactivity of what's happening. It's about keeping that button right on play to experience the moment-to-moment unfolding of our lives. And mindfulness is not just a concept. It's more like practice, you have to embody this mindful mode of being to have any benefits.

那麼我們有什麼應對策略嗎？ 我很高興地說，有。 通過我們的工作，我們瞭解到， 壓力和走神的對立面是專注。 專注力能幫助我們將注意力 集中在現在， 並且排除不良的情緒的影響。 專注力是活在當下， 充分的的感受和體驗生活中的 一點一滴，一分一秒。 專注力也並不僅僅是一個概念， 它更是一種實踐。 你需要將這種專注深深植入靈魂， 才能獲得它所帶來的好處。

So I want to actually end by sharing my call to action to all of you. And here it is. Pay attention to your attention. Alright? Pay attention to your attention and incorporate mindfulness training as part of your daily wellness toolkit, in order to tame your own wandering mind and to allow your attention to be a trusted guide in your own life.

留心你的的注意力。 明白嗎？ 留心你的注意力， 讓專注力練習成為 你的日常練習之一 來幫你馴服自己走神的大腦， 讓你的注意力成為 你人生中值得信賴的嚮導。 謝謝。 （掌聲）

來源：普特英語聽力網