We might suppose that the best place to think would be a large room with a big desk, plenty of natural light and a window with a view – perhaps onto water or a park.
通常我们会认为最适合思考的地方，是一个有着一张大桌子的宽敞房间，再配上温暖的阳光，还有一个可以眺望风景的窗户，或许是水景或者是公园。
This is the premise behind the layout of most offices. The nearer one gets to the top of the organization, the closer one's work station will approximate to this supposed ideal: in tribute to the quality of thinking that, ideally, one would do there.Bosses tend to have big desks and even larger views.
这几乎是大多数办公室的标配。越接近高层的人，坐的位置就越接近这种假想中的状态：理想上，他能够在那里贡献优质的观点。老板们往往有大桌子和更宽广的视野。
But these assumption are not – in fact – really true to the way our minds work. The primary obstacle to good thinking is not a cramped desk or an uninteresting horizon. It is, first and foremost, anxiety.
但事实上，这些假设并不符合我们的思维方式。阻碍优质思考的最大障碍，并不是一张狭促的桌子或是无聊的景色。最主要的，是因为焦虑。
Often the most profound thoughts we need to grapple with have a potentially disturbing character. If we were to pinpoint them accurately and get clear about their significance, there could be a risk.
通常需要挠头处理的深奥思想，都特别容易让人不安。如果我们想很精准的抓住要害，搞清楚重点，会有很大的风险。
We might discover that some of our past, rather cherished, beliefs were not as wise as we'd supposed; we might realise we were previously deeply wrong about something; we might have to make some significant and tricky changes to our lives.
我们或许会发现一些我们过去非常珍惜的理念，并不如我们所想象的明智；我们或许会意识到过去对于某些事情是错误的，我们可能不得不对我们的生活做出一些重大且棘手的改变。
As these potential implications start to come vaguely into view,our inner censor, motivated by a desire for calm rather than growth, gets alarmed.
随着这些潜在影响开始隐约的出现，也许我们只想平淡而不是进取，我们内心的潜意识也会感到惊慌。
A vigilant part of the self gets agitated; it distracts us, it makes us feel tired or gives us a strong need to go online. Skilfully, it confuses and muddles our train of thought. It blocks the progress we were starting to make towards ideas that –though important and interesting – also presented marked threats to short-term peace.
自我警惕的部份骚动了起来；它使我们分心，它让我们感到疲累或者强烈地驱使着我们去上网。它巧妙地扰乱了我们的思路，阻碍我们获得一些重要而有趣的想法，同时也预示着内心暂时的宁静被打破。
It in this context that the shower emerges as so helpful to the way our minds work and earns the right to be honoured as one of the best places on earth in which to do any kind of serious reflection.
在这种情况之下，淋浴对于我们的思维方式十分有帮助，并且博得“世界上最佳思考地点”的殊荣，在那里能够进行任何形式的认真反思。
Amidst the crashing water and the steam and with a few minutes of respite before the day starts, the mind is no longer on guard. We're not supposed to be doing much inside our heads; we're mainly occupied with trying to soap ourselves and properly rinse our hair.
在一天开始之前，在水和蒸气的冲击中得到几分钟的舒缓，心灵便不再处于戒备状态。我们不用作太多的思考；主要忙于用肥皂擦身体并将头发冲洗干净。
The ideas that have been half-forming at the back of our minds, ideas about what the true purpose of our lives might be and what we should do next, keep up their steady inward pressure – but now there is a lot less to stop them reaching full consciousness. We're not meant to be thinking and so – at last – we can think freely and courageously.
想法在我们的脑袋中有了雏型，思考人生的意义以及我们接下来要做的事情，持续为内心的冲劲续航。此时此刻，意识想要彻底觉醒，反倒是不费吹灰之力。我们并没有想思考什么，但正因如此，我们总算能够无拘无束且大胆的思考了。
This quality of sufficient – but not overwhelming – distractionmight equally well be present when we're driving down the highway or walking in a forest; when there's just enough for the managerial timid side of the mind to be doing to keep it from interfering with our authentic and bolder inner machinations.
虽还不至于包治百病，但效果却是一级棒。当我们行驶在高速公路上或者在森林中漫步时也会出现类似的情形，这足以让头脑中那些怯生生的念头，不受限制地落实为真实大胆的鬼主意。
Our world places a very high premium on good ideas – but spends very little serious effort in investigating why we find it extraordinarily hard to hatch them.
我们的世界对于优质的想法非常重视，但却花费极少的精力去研究为什么我们很难想出一个好主意。
Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote: 'In the minds of geniuses, we find our own neglected thoughts. ' In other words, so-called geniuses don't have thoughts different from the ones most of us have. They're just a lot better at not allowing their inhibitions and preconceptions to get in the way of properly entertaining them.
美国文学家拉尔夫·沃尔多·爱默生曾写道：「在天才的头脑里，我们会发现被自己忽视的思想。」换句话说，那些所谓的天才的思想，和我们大部分人的思想并没有什么不同。他们只是比较擅长不让自己的压抑及预设立场阻碍思想的进行。
In a utopian future, we would get a lot more creative about what real thinking is and where it happens. We'd learn that the real enemy of good thinking isn't a small desk or a modest view: it is – almost always – anxiety, for which there can be few better cures than that library of our deeper selves: the morning shower.
在一个理想的未来里，我们对于真实想法发生的地点会更富创造性。我们会意识到一个优质思考的真正敌人，并不是一张小桌子或是一个普通的景色：而是经常性地焦虑。而要想释放内心深层的自己，最好的治疗方法便是：早起冲个澡吧！
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