Is it bad to be lazy?
Would you call yourself lazy? If you live in a messy house and are reluctant to lift a finger to help out, maybe you are. But laziness is a subjective thing – sloppiness to one person might be a form of relaxation to another. And if you can be bothered to read on, you'll see that opinion is divided on whether laziness is a bad thing.
你会觉得自己懒吗？如果你住在一个凌乱的房子里，不愿意伸出一根手指来整理，也许你就是。但懒惰是一件主观的事情——对一个人来说是懒散，对另一个人来说可能是一种放松。如果你愿意继续读下去，你就会发现，对于懒惰是否是一件坏事，人们的看法并不一致。
Generally speaking, we tend to look on our laziness as a negative thing. Inertia, slothfulness, idleness and apathy are used as criticisms and insults against individuals and groups of people. We think of lazy people as unproductive or that they don't really care about things. And when we find ourselves doing nothing, we feel guilty about it. Could this be because we are not instinctively lazy creatures? And is that why we often do things we don't need to do and which are sometimes painful – like running a marathon? Writing for BBC Future, Claudia Hammond explains that "enforced and extended rest, unless we are ill and our bodies demand it, leads not to feelings of being relaxed but of restlessness and irritability."
一般来说，我们往往把自己的懒惰视为负面的东西。惰性、懒惰、无所事事和懈怠被用作对个人和群体的批评和侮辱。我们认为懒惰的人效率低下，或者他们对事情并不上心。当我们发现自己一事无成时，我们会为此感到内疚。难道这是因为我们不是天生懒惰的生物吗？这就是为什么我们经常要做不需要做的事情，而有时会很痛苦的原因吗？--比如跑马拉松？克劳迪娅·哈蒙德在为BBC未来撰写的文章中解释说："除非我们生病了，此时我们的身体需要休息，否则强制的、长时间的休息不会让我们感到放松，反而会让我们感到烦躁不安"。
Others may suggest we are naturally lazy, and that we can't help taking it easy, though it's hard to believe because we're constantly told to do more. But kicking back and living life in the slow lane could be better for our health. A study by psychologist Dr Robert Levine in 1999, for example, concluded that people living in cities with a fast pace of life had the highest rates of coronary heart disease.
其他人可能会认为我们天生懒惰，我们忍不住放松下来，尽管这很难让人相信，因为我们总被告知要做得更多。但是，放松一下并过慢节奏的生活可能对我们的健康更有好处。例如，心理学家罗伯特•莱文博士在1999年进行的一项研究得出结论，生活节奏快的城市居民患冠状动脉疾病的比例最高。
Laziness has also been shown to be good for our mental health, so having a nap or some downtime shouldn't be frowned upon. And there are other possible benefits too. Dr Masud Husain, Professor of Neurology at the University of Oxford, told the BBC: "We found that people who have tended to be more apathetic might in some ways be more creative, so that although they might be a couch potato, they might be coming up with one great idea that might be very interesting and useful." So, in our frenetic lives, maybe we should chill out, get into goblin mode and contemplate the benefits laziness can bring.
事实证明，懒惰对我们的心理健康也有好处，所以小睡一会儿或休息一下也没什么不好。还有其他可能的好处。牛津大学神经学教授 马苏德 · 侯赛博士告诉 BBC："我们发现，往往比较懈怠的人在某些方面可能更有创造力，因此，虽然他们可能是一个懒惰的人，但他们可能会想出一个绝佳的想法，这个想法可能非常有趣和有用。因此，在我们浮躁的生活中，也许我们应该放松一下，进入躺平模式，思考懒惰可能带来的好处。
词汇表
lift a finger 帮忙，尽举手之劳
sloppiness 懒散
relaxation 消遣，放松
laziness 懒惰
inertia 惰性
slothfulness 懒散，懈怠
idleness 懒散，无所事事
apathy 漠不关心，懈怠
unproductive 效率低的，徒劳的
restlessness 焦躁不安
irritability 烦躁，易怒
take it easy 放松，休息
kick back 放松
life in the slow lane 慢半拍的生活
coronary heart disease 冠心病
nap 小睡，打盹
downtime 休养期
apathetic 懈怠的，（对重要事情）无动于衷的
couch potato “沙发土豆”，总看电视的人，懒惰的人
frenetic 极为忙碌的，疯狂的
chill out 放松一下
goblin mode “躺平模式”，心安理得地好吃懒做的行为和生活态度
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