The Beauty of a Silent Walk
无声漫步之美

In a TikTok video that has now amassed nearly half a million views, the influencer Mady Maio describes taking a walk. But not just any walk: a silent one.
在 TikTok 上的一段视频中，影响力人物 Mady Maio 描述了她散步的情景，这段视频目前已积累了近 50 万次观看。但不是普通的散步，而是无声的散步。

For her, the 30-minute stroll was revelatory. No podcasts, no music. Just “me, myself and I.”
对她来说，30 分钟的散步是一次启示。没有播客，没有音乐。只有 "我、我自己和我"。

She was resistant at first. (It was her boyfriend’s idea.) “My anxiety could never,” she said in the video.
一开始她很抗拒。(这是她男朋友的主意）"我的焦虑症永远不会发生，"她在视频中说道。

Ms. Maio described the first two minutes as mental “mayhem” that eventually gave way to a “flow state.” Her brain fog lifted. Ideas started popping into her head because she was “giving them space to enter.”
Maio 女士形容最初的两分钟是精神上的 "混乱"，最终进入了 "流动状态"。她的大脑迷雾消散了。想法开始涌入她的脑海，因为她 "给了它们进入的空间"。

The silent walk is TikTok’s latest wellness obsession, a blend of meditation and exercise that aims to improve mental health. Unlike the similarly trendy “hot girl walk,” a four-mile odyssey that requires goal-setting and giving thanks, the silent walk does not involve multitasking. There is no agenda other than to set one foot in front of the other and take note of the world around you.
静默行走是 TikTok 最新的健康理念，它融合了冥想和运动，旨在改善心理健康。与同样时髦的 "辣妹漫步 "不同，"静默漫步 "是一项四英里的奥德赛，需要设定目标和感恩。除了把一只脚放在另一只脚前，注意周围的世界之外，没有任何其他目的。

Walking in silence is an ancient tradition rooted in mindfulness, a form of meditation that helps people focus on the physical sensations, thoughts and emotions of the present moment, without any judgment.
静默行走是一种古老的传统，它植根于正念，是一种冥想形式，帮助人们专注于当下的身体感觉、思想和情绪，不带任何判断。

The fact that the silent walk is nothing new has attracted a chorus of critics; “Gen Z thinks it just invented walking,” they say.
他们说："Z 世代认为自己刚刚发明了走路。

To that, Arielle Lorre, 38, a content creator in Los Angeles, had to laugh.
对此，38 岁的洛杉矶内容创作者 Arielle Lorre 不禁哑然失笑。

“Fifteen or 20 years ago, this would not have even been a conversation,” said Ms. Lorre, who has often discussed the benefits of silent walks, most recently on her podcast and on TikTok. But silent walking feels relevant right now because many of us have become tethered to our devices, she added.
洛尔女士说："十五年或二十年前，这甚至不会成为一个话题，"她经常讨论静默行走的好处，最近一次是在她的播客和 TikTok 上。但她补充说，无声漫步现在感觉很有意义，因为我们中的许多人已经被设备束缚住了。

The question then becomes: “How do we counteract that?” Ms. Lorre said.
那么问题来了"我们该如何应对？洛尔女士说。

Walking is a well-established balm for the mind and body. Research has shown that walking for as little as 10 extra minutes a day may lead to a longer life. And a 2020 study in The Journal of Environmental Psychology found that a 30-minute walk in an urban park reduced the amount of time that people dwelled on negative thoughts. Walking has also been shown to improve creativity and help fend off depression.
步行是一种行之有效的身心疗法。研究表明，每天多走 10 分钟就能延年益寿。2020 年发表在《环境心理学杂志》上的一项研究发现，在城市公园中散步 30 分钟可以减少人们沉浸在消极思想中的时间。事实证明，散步还能提高创造力，帮助抵御抑郁。

Ms. Lorre, who walks in silence for at least 45 minutes roughly four times a week, said that since she started this practice about a year ago, she now sleeps better, feels calmer and has more consistent energy throughout the day.
洛尔女士说，自从她一年前开始这样做以来，她现在睡得更好了，感觉更平静了，一整天都精力充沛。

But for some people, the idea of a silent walk might seem torturous. One 2014 study found that, if left with no other option, people would shock themselves rather than sit alone with their thoughts.
但对有些人来说，静默散步的想法似乎很折磨人。2014 年的一项研究发现，如果没有其他选择，人们会震惊自己，而不是独自静坐思考。

“Most people seem to prefer to be doing something rather than nothing, even if that something is negative,” the study authors wrote.
"研究作者写道："大多数人似乎更愿意做一些事情，而不是什么都不做，即使这些事情是消极的。

Walking, however, can make it more pleasant to spend time with ourselves, experts say.
然而，专家说，散步可以让人更愉快地与自己相处。

Erin C. Westgate, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Florida in Gainesville who studies boredom, found in her research that being in transit, which included walking or riding public transportation, was one of the times when people most often reported having enjoyable thoughts.
盖恩斯维尔佛罗里达大学研究无聊的心理学助理教授艾琳-C-韦斯特盖特（Erin C. Westgate）在她的研究中发现，在交通途中，包括步行或乘坐公共交通工具，是人们最常报告有愉快想法的时间之一。

Walking “isn’t so demanding that it’s actually taking up a lot of your mental bandwidth,” Dr. Westgate said, which “gives us permission and license to daydream.”
韦斯特盖特博士说，散步 "要求并不高，不会占用你大量的精神带宽"，这就 "允许我们做白日梦"。

If the idea of daydreaming seems luxurious, it may be because our attention spans have shriveled over the last two decades.
如果做白日梦的想法看起来很奢侈，那可能是因为我们的注意力在过去二十年里萎缩了。

We now spend an average of about 47 seconds on a piece of screen content before switching to another piece of content, according to research led by Gloria Mark, a professor of informatics at the University of California, Irvine, and the author of “Attention Span.” Back in 2004, however, Dr. Mark found that people could spend an average of two and a half minutes on email before turning to another work task.
根据加利福尼亚大学欧文分校信息学教授、《注意力跨度》一书作者格洛丽亚-马克领导的研究，我们现在平均在一个屏幕内容上花费大约 47 秒，然后再切换到另一个内容。然而，早在 2004 年，马克博士就发现，人们在转向另一项工作任务之前，平均可以在电子邮件上花费两分半钟的时间。

Continually flipping our attention from one task to another is draining, Dr. Mark said. But a silent walk can help replenish our “tank” so that we have a greater reserve of mental energy, she added. In other words, disconnecting for a while can actually help us perform better.
马克博士说，不断地将注意力从一项任务转移到另一项任务是很耗费精力的。但她补充说，静静地散步有助于补充我们的 "油箱"，使我们有更多的精神能量储备。换句话说，暂时断开连接实际上可以帮助我们更好地完成任务。

Dr. Mark suggested taking digital breaks at other times, not just when we’re walking, and that we think about an emotional goal for the day, not just a list of tasks.
马克博士建议我们在其他时间进行数字休息，而不仅仅是在走路的时候，并建议我们思考一天的情感目标，而不仅仅是任务清单。

For example, if your goal is to feel calm, you can write that on a Post-it note and refer back to it when thinking about how you’ll spend your fleeting free time that day.
例如，如果你的目标是感到平静，你可以把它写在便利贴上，然后在考虑如何打发当天稍纵即逝的空闲时间时参考它。

“So many of us feel like we’re always behind and running to catch up,” said David M. Levy, a professor at the Information School at the University of Washington in Seattle, and the author of “Mindful Tech.” This can lead to a state of being “so distracted that we aren’t present at all.”
"西雅图华盛顿大学信息学院教授、"心灵科技 "一书的作者大卫-M-利维说："我们中的很多人都觉得自己总是落后，总是在追赶。这可能会导致一种 "分心到根本不存在 "的状态。

But in a future-oriented society we need opportunities to be satisfied with the here and now, Dr. Levy said, and drop the pressure to be productive.
但是，在一个面向未来的社会里，我们需要有机会满足于此时此地，Levy 博士说，我们需要放下压力，提高生产力。

“There is great beauty and aliveness in the world outside of whatever it is we’re doing on our devices,” Dr. Levy said.
"Levy 博士说："无论我们在设备上做什么，外面的世界都非常美丽和充满活力。

Audio produced by Kate Winslett.
由凯特-温斯莱特制作音频。