Is there an antidote to anxiety? "I'm very frightened," said Julie White. But she has a remedy: the stretching and deep breathing of yoga. The practice is so calming that after the terror upgrade, White made an upgrade of her own--from one class a day to two. she says, "Yoga is my tranquilizer."

我們有沒有對付焦慮的良藥呢?“我非常害怕，”Julie White說。不過，她有應付之道：瑜伽術的肢體伸展和深呼吸。這一練習可以使她平靜下來，效果極佳，以至當恐怖升級以后，White將她的練習也升了級——從一天一次課到一天兩次。她說：“瑜伽是我的鎮(zhèn)定劑。”

You may find the lotus pose hopelessly warm and fuzzy in the face of terror. But there are a host of activities, from working out to going for a massage, that can temper the anxiety. Many of these techniques have been used for decades, if not centuries; now advances in science are showing they can reduce the hormones associated with stress and even affect brain activity. The common trait among all: maintaining control and recognizing that our concerns are a natural response to the world we live in.

你可能會覺得，面對恐怖，打蓮花坐不會有效果。但是很多活動都可以緩解焦慮，從鍛煉到按摩。這些技巧有很多已使用了幾十年，甚至數(shù)百年;現(xiàn)在，隨著科學的進步，它們能減少與焦慮有關的荷爾蒙含量，甚至能影響大腦活動。所有這些方法的共同點：保持控制，并認識到擔心只是我們對我們所生活的這個世界的一種自然反應。

The first step toward combating fear is identifying it. Keep in mind that headaches, stomachaches, sleeplessness and rapid heartbeat are all symptoms of anxiety. Confront the emotion head-on by naming it, even saying, "I feel fear about this," says Saki Santorelli, executive director of the University of Massachusetts Medical School's Center for Mindfulness. Acknowledging anxiety makes us less passive, less vulnerable and, as a result, more able to cope.

要與恐懼斗爭，首先要認識恐懼。要記住頭疼、胃疼、失眠和心跳加速都是焦慮的癥狀。麻省大學醫(yī)學院心神貫注研究中心執(zhí)行主任Saki Santorelli說，應該通過說出來，甚至通過說出“我害怕這個”，來勇敢地面對這種感覺。承認焦慮可以使我們變得更星光照耀、更堅強，因而也就更能對付它。

Understand that fear is a component of stress, the complex fight-or-flight response ingrained in us since the cave days. When we're confronted with danger, epinephrine (adrenaline) starts pumping, the heart speeds up, blood pressure increases, breathing quickens.

要明白恐懼是壓力的一個組成部分，它是一種與穴居時代俱來的“要么對抗，要么逃跑”的復雜反應。當我們遭遇危險時，腎上腺素就會大量分泌，心跳加速，血壓升高，呼吸變快。

One of the most efficient ways to reduce stress is to focus inward on one thing we can effectively control: our own breath. At the Mind/Body Medical Institute, participants elicit a "relaxation response," repeating a word - anything from "om" to "Hail Mary"--silently as they exhale. In numerous studies, Benson has found that the practice leads to lower blood pressure, slower breathing and an overall calm.

減輕壓力最有效的辦法之一就是將注意力集中到我們可以有效控制的東西上——我們自己的呼吸。在頭腦-身體醫(yī)學院，參加者通過呼氣時反復輕聲默念一個單詞(任何單詞，可以是"om"或"Hail Mary")，來達到一個“放松的反應”。通過許多次研究，Benson發(fā)現(xiàn)該練習可以使參加者血壓降低，呼吸變緩，從而達到全身的平靜。

Richard Davidson at the University of Wisconsin-Madison recently found that a form of meditative breathing pioneered at the Center for Mindfulness can affect the brain. In a small, soon-to-be-published study, Davidson took brain images of 25 members of a biotech firm who practiced meditation six days a week for eight weeks. He found increased activation in the left side of the prefrontal part of the brain, an area associated with lower anxiety, positive emotion and inhibition of the amygdala, the brain's fear center.

最近，Wisconsin-Madison大學的 Richard Davidson發(fā)現(xiàn)由心神貫注研究中心首創(chuàng)的一種冥想呼吸法能夠對大腦產(chǎn)生影響。在一個小范圍進行并即將發(fā)表的研究中，Davidson對一家生物技術公司的25名員工的大腦進行了成像，這些員工每周練習冥想6天，共練習了8周。他發(fā)現(xiàn)他們大腦額葉前部的左側激活的情況有所增加，而這一部位與較低的焦慮水平、積極的情緒和大腦恐懼中心扁桃核的抑制相關。

If sitting in one position for more than five minutes sounds impossible, you might try yoga. Concentrating on the physical intricacies of different poses forces you to filter out the "endless tape loops of chatter and fear," says Dr. Timothy McCall, medical editor of Yoga Journal, allowing you to be present in the moment. In so doing, you begin to clear the mind of future worries.

如果你無法做到保持一種姿勢坐5分鐘以上，那么你可以試一試瑜伽。《瑜伽學報》醫(yī)學編輯Timothy McCall博士說，集中注意力于不同姿態(tài)的身體的復雜之處可以迫使你過濾掉那些“如磁帶卷一般無休止的戰(zhàn)顫和恐懼”，從而使你回到現(xiàn)實中來。這樣，你就開始從腦海中清除對未來的擔心。