Breathe Deeply: Workplaces Embrace Wellness
深呼吸：職場導入身心靈安適課程
By Sanam Yar

On a rainy Thursday afternoon, in a plush pink conference room in Manhattan, a group of colleagues formed a meditation circle. As they sat in their own silence, sirens and traffic wailed below. “Bathe in the joy of truly loving yourself,” a former Tibetan Buddhist monk advised them.
一個下雨的周四午後，在曼哈頓一間體面而舒適的粉紅色會議室，一群同事圍成圈打坐。他們各自靜坐，警笛聲和車流聲在樓下嗡嗡作亮。「沉浸在真正愛你自己的喜悅中。」一名前西藏僧侶提醒他們。

Over the course of an hour, the participants – co-workers at WayUp, a company that matches employers with recent college graduates and students – were guided through deep breaths, spoke to one another about “flow” and “powerful creative states,” and completed a self-hypnosis exercise.
在一個小時的過程中，參加者－－媒合雇主和甫畢業大學生與在校生的WayUp公司的員工，在引導之下做了深呼吸，討論了「心流」和「有力的創造狀態」，並且完成了自我催眠練習。

They bonded over their challenges with sleep and overworking. At the end of the session, one employee mentioned his chest feeling less tight; another described a pinch in her back dissipating.
他們同心一意面對睡眠障礙和工作過勞帶來的挑戰，在課程的尾聲，一名員工提到胸口感覺沒那麼悶了，另一人則說背部的擰痛感消失了。

“That was awesome,” said Brandon Santulli, the office manager at WayUp. It was his first time meditating. “I feel very energized now,” he said, “and that’s not usually how I feel until I get another cup of cold brew.”
「這太棒了。」WayUp行政主管布蘭登．桑都利說。這是他第一次打坐，「我現在覺得活力充沛。」他說，「通常要到我再喝一杯冰釀咖啡後才會有這種感覺。」

As companies have stressed the importance of work-life balance and mental health, and a younger, more open-minded workforce has joined their ranks, wellness initiatives have ramped up nationwide.
隨著企業界強調工作與生活的平衡及心理健康的重要性，一批年輕、想法更開放的勞動力也加入他們的行列，身心靈安適計畫在全美各地已更受重視。

These optional activities, often scheduled during company hours, include basic meditation and yoga, as well as vision-boarding (creating a collage, essentially), energy consulting, sound baths and hypnotherapy. They are meant to be restorative and instructive, without veering too didactic. And they’re not peculiar to millennial-led startups: Multinational corporations, restaurant owners and federal government agencies are among the employers calling for more wellness in the workplace.
這些自願性的活動通常安排在上班時間，包括基礎打坐和瑜伽，以及夢想願景（基本上就是製作拼貼圖），活動力諮詢，聲音靈浴和催眠療法。它們旨在修復與啟發，而不流於過度說教。而且它們並不專屬於千禧世代領軍的新創企業：跨國公司，餐廳老闆和聯邦政府官署，也都在呼籲為職場注入更多身心靈安適感的雇主之列。

“No one wants to sit down for an hour and be lectured about stress management,” said Cassandra Bianco, the founder of Wellbeings, a network of corporate wellness consultants who, in addition to leading the meditation workshop at WayUp, have performed cacao ceremonies for Spotify and hosted an intuitive eating course at the Wing, a co-working space and social club for women. “They want to sit for an hour and feel de-stressed.”
「沒有人想要坐著聽一小時關於壓力管理的演講。」Wellbeings創辦人卡珊德拉．畢昂可這麼說。Wellbeings是個由企業安適問題顧問構成的網絡，他們除了在WayUp帶領打坐課程外，也曾為Spotify舉辦可可儀式，在為女性提供共享工作空間及社交俱樂部的Wing開過一堂直覺飲食課。「他們想要坐下來一小時並擺脫壓力。」

The ultimate purpose is to encourage a corporate culture that takes a more holistic approach to employee well-being and embraces imperfection in the daily grind.
其最終目的是促成以更全人方式觀照員工安適感，並且接受日常單調工作中的不完美的企業文化。

“I’ve seen firsthand what five deep belly breaths before a meeting can do,” Bianco said.
「我親眼見過，在一場會議前做五個腹式深呼吸可以產生的可觀效用。」畢昂可說。

原文參照：
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/04/style/office-wellness-meditation-sound-baths-energy-consulting.html

2020-03-22．聯合報．D4．紐約時報賞析．莊蕙嘉譯 核稿/樂慧生

說文解字看新聞 莊蕙嘉

本文介紹美國職場流行導入「安適（wellness）」課程，wellness是指「the state of being physically and mentally healthy」，強調保持身心健康的過程與努力，中文有安適（感），全人健康，全適能等譯法。

世界衛生組織對於wellness的定義是「the optimal state of health of individuals and groups」，不但凸顯其積極意味，強調全人健康（holistic health），並且同時涵蓋個人與團體。

現代社會節奏快，壓力也大，許多身心靈事業應運而生，本文也提到不少讓人放鬆身心的課程，vision-boarding帶領學員，透過製作拼貼畫觀想自己的願望，例如漂亮苗條的模特兒、海島沙灘假期或一間大房子，鼓勵自己實現目標。cacao ceremony源自馬雅文化薩滿教，食用未經過度加工的可可製品，搭配冥想、呼吸練習等儀式，運用其能量放鬆身心。

Sound bath最常使用金屬頌缽或水晶，運用它們發出的音頻和震動，和人體產生共振，讓人放鬆，是流行的自然療法之一。intuitive eating是營養師Evelyn Tribole和Elyse Resch率先提出的概念，主張放棄節食心態，聆聽身體的需要，不必斤斤計較卡路里。她們認為鬆綁人和食物之間的緊張關係後，人們才能真正面對食物，選擇對身體有益的吃。

How Common Mental Shortcuts Can Cause Major Physician Errors
心理思考捷徑 導致診斷錯誤
By Anupam B. Jena and Andrew R. Olenski

It’s tempting to believe that physicians are logical, meticulous thinkers who perfectly weigh the pros and cons of treatment options, acting as unbiased surrogates for their patients.
我們想要相信，醫師是有邏輯、小心謹慎的思考者，完美衡量治療選項的好與壞，以無偏見的病患代理人之姿行動。

In reality, this is often far from the case. Bias, which takes many forms, affects how doctors think and the treatment decisions they make.
現實卻往往遠非如此。偏見會以許多形式出現，影響醫師的思考，以及對治療所做的決定。

Racial biases in treatment decisions by physicians are well documented. One study found that black patients were significantly less likely than white patients to receive pain medication in the emergency department, despite reporting similar levels of pain. Other research suggests that long-standing racial biases among providers might have contributed to racial differences in patient trust in the health system.
醫師做治療決定時的種族偏見已有多案可考。一項研究發現，比起白人病患，黑人病患在急診部門比較不容易被施予止痛藥，即使自述的疼痛程度相當。另有研究指出，醫療提供者間長期存在種族偏見，可能是病患對醫療系統的信賴出現種族差異的原因。

But a growing body of scientific research on physician decision-making shows that doctors exhibit other biases as well – cognitive ones – that influence the way they think and treat patients. These biases lead doctors to make the same mistakes as the rest of us, but usually at a greater cost.
但是，針對內科醫師醫療決定而增加中的科學研究顯示，醫師也表現出認知類型的其他偏見，影響他們思考及治療患者的方式。這些偏見使醫師犯下和我們其他人一樣的錯誤，代價通常卻更大。

Cognitive biases refer to a range of systematic errors in human decision-making stemming from the tendency to use mental shortcuts.
認知偏見指人類做決定時的一些系統性錯誤，源自於使用心理捷徑的偏好。

Prominent examples include confirmation bias, the tendency to interpret new information in a way favorable to one’s preconceptions; and anchoring, the tendency to overly weight an initial piece of information, even when order does not matter. Anchoring helps explain why if you see a car priced at $20,000 and a second car priced at $8,000, you might conclude the second car is cheap, whereas if the first car cost $3,000 you might conclude that the second car is expensive.
顯著的例子包括「確認偏誤」，指一個人偏好以先入為主的想法，解釋新訊息的傾向，還有定錨，指過度重視初始資訊的傾向，即使訊息順序並不重要。定錨可解釋為何當你先看到定價2萬美元的車，再看到標價8000美元的車時，你可能會認為第二輛比較划算，然而若第一輛車要價3000美元，你可能認定第二輛賣得太貴。

In health care, such unconscious biases can lead to disparate treatment of patients and can affect whether similar patients live or die.
在醫療中，這些沒有意識到的偏見會使病患得到完全不同的治療，也會影響病情相似的患者是死是活。

Sometimes these cognitive biases are simple overreactions to recent events, what psychologists term availability bias. One study found that when patients experienced an unlikely adverse side effect of a drug, their doctor was less likely to order that same drug for the next patient whose condition might call for it, even though the efficacy and appropriateness of the drug had not changed.
有些時候，這些認知偏見就只是對新近事件的過度反應，心理學家稱之為「現成偏誤」。一項研究發現，若病患使用某種藥物發生意料之外的有害副作用，他們的醫師就較不可能開同一種藥給也許需要它的下一個病人，儘管這個藥物的效力和適用性並未改變。

A similar study found that when mothers giving birth experienced an adverse event, their obstetrician was more likely to switch delivery modes for the next patient (C-section vs. vaginal delivery), regardless of the appropriateness for that next patient. This cognitive bias resulted in both higher spending and worse outcomes.
一項類似的研究發現，當分娩的產婦經歷一個不好的突發事件，她們的產科醫師比較有可能為下一位病人改變分娩方式（剖腹生產或陰道分娩），而非考慮下一位病人的適用情況。這個認知偏見同時導致更高的支出與更糟糕的後果。

原文參照：                                                  
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/20/upshot/mental-shortcuts-medical-errors.html

2020-03-22．聯合報．D4．紐約時報賞析．莊蕙嘉譯 核稿/樂慧生