Reducing Anxiety 减少焦虑

    A great many worries can be diminished by realizing the unimportance of the matter which is causing the anxiety.

     I have done in my time a considerable amout of public speaking; at first every audience terrified me, and nervousness made me speak very badly. I dreaded the ordeal so much that I always hoped I might break my leg before I had to make a speech, and when it was over I was exhausted from the nervous strain.

    Gradually I taught myself to feel that it did not matter whether I spoke well or ill, the universe would remain much the same in either case.

    I found that the less I cared whether I spoke well or badly, the less badly I spoke, and gradually the nervous strain diminished almost to vanishing point. Agreat deal of nervous fatigue can dealt with in this way. Our doings are not so important as we naturally suppose; our successes and failures do not after all matter very much.

      如果我们了解到，造成焦虑的事件是多么微不足道的话，就可以减少很多焦虑。
   我一生中发表过不少公开演讲；刚开始的时候，我一看见听众就寒怕，所以紧张的讲也讲不好。这种痛苦的考验让我怕的不得了，因此每次在演讲之前，我都巴不得摔断腿；而在演讲过后，我又往往因为神经过度紧张而疲惫不堪。
   可是渐渐地，我告诉自己，讲得好不好并不重要，因为不管是好是坏，对世界一点影响也没有。
   我发现自己越是不在乎演说的成败，就讲得越精彩。渐渐地，神经紧张几乎已经消失无踪了。许许多多的神经疲乏，都可以如此应付。我们的所作所为，并没有自己想象中那么重要；毕竟，我们的成功与失败都不是什么举足轻重的事。