We don't often think about it, and may never discuss it with others at all, but pretty much everyone has voices in their heads.

我們不常思考這件事，也可能完全不曾和他人討論過，但滿確定的是每個人心中都有聲音

A murmuring stream of thoughts that run along inside our minds most of the time.

大多時候一連串想法低吟著流經我們腦海

Sometimes, the inner voice is encouraging, calling for you to run those final few yards, "You're nearly there, keep going! Keep going!"

有時候，內心聲音很激勵人心，鼓勵你跑完最後幾碼：「就快到了，再加把勁！再加把勁！」

Or urging you to calm down because you know it will all be okay in the end.

或是要求你冷靜下來因為你知道最後一切都會沒事的

But sometimes...

然而有時...

...the inner voice is simply not very nice at all.

...內心聲音一點也不好

It is defeatist and punitive, panic-ridden and humiliating.

它是失敗主義者，帶有懲罰性、造成恐慌、讓你羞恥的

It doesn't represent anything like our best insights or most mature capacities.

它並不是我們最好的遠見或最成熟的才能

It's not the voice of our better nature.

它不是我們良善天性的聲音

We find ourselves saying, "You disgust me," "Things always go to shit with you," or "You useless little idiot."

我們發現自己說出：「你讓我噁心」、「事情到你手上都會出事」、或「你這沒路用的小白癡」

Where do inner voices come from?

內心聲音從哪來的呢？

An inner voice always used to be an outer voice.

內心聲音都是從外在聲音來的

We absorb the tone of others: a harassed or angry parent, the menacing threats of an elder sibling keen to put us down, the words of a schoolyard bully, or a teacher who seemed impossible to please.

我們吸取別人的語調：煩躁或生氣的家長、兄姊迫切想要修理我們來勢洶洶的威脅、校園霸凌者的話、或是難以取悅的老師

We internalized the unhelpful voices, because at certain key moments in the past they sounded compelling.

我們將這些毫無幫助的聲音內化，因為在過去某些特定的重大時刻它們聽起來很有強制性

The authority figures repeated their messages over and over, until they got lodged in our own way of thinking.

權威者一再一再重複他們的訊息，直到它們深植入我們的思考模式

Part of achieving happiness and maturity involves altering our inner voices

得到快樂或變得成熟偶爾會改變我們的內心聲音

which means encountering equally convincing and confident, but also helpful and constructive varieties of voices over long periods

也就是長期以來遇到各種同等具說服力、可信的，同時又有助益、有建設性的聲音

and taking care to internalize them.

並花心思將它們內化

They might be the voices of a friend, a therapist or an author.

它們可能是一位朋友、治療師、或是作家的聲音

We need to hear them often enough and around tricky enough issues that they come to feel normal and natural responses, so that eventually,

我們必須夠常在夠棘手的事件聽見它們，它們才會成為正常、自然的反應，這樣一來最終

They come to feel like things we are saying to ourselves.

它們會變得好像我們對自己說的話

They become our own thoughts.

變成我們自己的想法

The best sort of inner voice speaks to us in a gentle, kind and unhurried way.

最好的內心聲音以一種有禮、親切、從容的方式說話

It should feel as if a sympathetic arm were being put around our shoulder

它感覺應該要像慈愛的手臂環繞我們的肩膀

by someone who had lived long and seen a great many sad things, but wasn't embittered or panicked by them.

由某位已經活了很長一段時間並見識過無數傷心事，卻沒有因它們而受苦、驚慌的人

In certain states of humiliation around work, in many of us, there is a mocking and contemptuous voice inside one's head.

在工作中某些特定的恥辱階段，我們之中很多人的腦袋裡會有一個嘲弄、輕蔑的聲音

It suggests that love, respect, and kindness only ever come via worldly success and competence.

它說愛、尊重、友善只會經由世俗的成就與能力而來

Our failure: not being able to make a public speech, taking time to learn to drive a car, not being especially brilliant at sales, rightly debars us from love and appreciation.

我們的失敗：不敢在公共場合演講、花很多時間學開車、在銷售方面並不特別靈光，正當地將我們和愛與感激分隔

We need to incorporate a voice that separates out achievement from love,

我們需要內建一種聲音，將成就與否和愛分離

that reminds us that we may be worthy of affection, even if we fail, and that being a winner is only one part, and not necessarily the most important part, of one's identity.

提醒我們就算失敗了，我們仍值得被愛，還有成為贏家只是我們身分的一部份，而不必然是最重要的部份

This is, traditionally, the voice of the mother,

這個通常是媽媽的聲音

but it might also be the voice of a lover, a poet we like, or a nine year old child chatting to his or her mom or dad about stress at the office.

但聲音也有可能來自戀人、喜歡的詩人、或是9歲小孩和爸媽聊到辦公室壓力

It is the voice of a person who loves you for being you, outside of achievement.

這是一個愛原本的你，而非你的成就的人的聲音

Many of us grew up around nervous people: people who lost their tempers the moment the parking ticket couldn't be found,

我們很多人成長在緊張的人周圍：找不到停車證就發火的人、

and who were knocked off course by relatively minor administrative hurdles, like the electricity bill.

還有被小小的行政障礙亂了陣腳的人，像是電費帳單

These people had no faith in themselves, and therefore, without necessarily wanting to do us harm, couldn't have much faith in our abilities either.

這些人並不相信自己，因此，不必然想要傷害我們，對我們的能力也不抱有太大信心

Every time we faced an exam, they got more alarmed than we did.

每到考試時，他們比我們更驚慌失措

They always asked multiple times if we had enough to wear when we went outside, they worried about our friends and our teachers.

當我們出門，他們總會問很多次我們穿得夠不夠，他們擔心我們的朋友、老師

They were sure the holiday was going to turn into a disaster.

他們確信假期將會成為災難

Now, these voices have become our own,

現在，這些聲音變成我們自己的

and cloud our capacity to take an accurate measurement of what we are capable of.

並且遮蔽了我們精確測量自己能做甚麼的才能

We have internalized voices of irrational fear and fragility.

我們已將非理性的恐懼和脆弱內化

At such moments, we need an alternative voice that can pause our runaway fears

在這種時刻，我們需要另一種聲音來暫停我們四處逃竄的恐懼

and remind us of the strength we have latent within us, which the currents of panic have hidden from us.

並提醒我們擁有潛藏的力量，被驚慌所隱藏的力量

Our heads are large, cavernous spaces.

我們的頭腦是巨大、多穴的空間

They contain the voices of all the people we have ever known.

包含了我們曾經認識的所有人的聲音

We should learn to mute the unhelpful ones, and focus on the voices we really need to guide us through the thickets of life.

我們該學習將沒有幫助的聲音關小聲，專注在我們真正需要能夠帶領我們穿過生命密林的聲音

We humbly offer this voice, as one of the more helpful ones we might take on board.

我們僅將這個聲音，作為我們航向生命所攜帶的有用的聲音

[Outro video, left side] From a young age, we're taught it's a terrible thing.

【片尾，左側】從小，我們就被教育這是件很糟糕的事

So when we feel it, as we all do, we are inclined not to examine it, we just feel---

所以當我們感受到了，我們每個人都是，我們傾向於不去檢視它，只是感受它...

[Outro video, right side, man] ---Regional Italian. Whatever that means. *Chuckle*

【片尾，右側，男】...義大利方言。管它什麼意思。呵呵

[Woman] It got some amazing reviews online.

【女】線上有一些很讚的回顧