《活著的理由》(Reasons to stay alive)是英國作家馬特·黑格(Matt Haig)的著作。這本書記錄了作者在二十多歲時罹患嚴重抑鬱症的過程，以及他是如何在絕望的邊緣慢慢重拾生命希望的。黑格用直率生動的文字，形象化地描述了抑鬱症給他生活帶來的巨大困擾——焦慮、恐懼、絕望、對生命失去信心。他詳盡地記錄了自己與抑鬱症抗爭的過程，包括服用藥物的反應以及試錯的心理治療。在最黑暗的時刻，是詩句「這也會過去」給了他活下去的勇氣。這是一本為所有在生命中遭遇挫折與痛苦的人而寫的書。它以真實動人的方式展示生命可以是如此脆弱與可貴。同時，它也給予我們希望—這些痛苦會過去，生活會更加美好，活著總是值得的。這是一本值得每個人閱讀的書。
書的未尾作者列了40個忠告，我認為這些忠告不單適合抑鬱症的患者，也適合現代社在壓力中、艱難中的人。
如何活著的40個忠告
- 當幸福降臨時，請珍惜。
- 小口品嘗，不要大口牛飲。
- 對自己溫柔點，工作少一點，睡眠多一些。
- 過去的一切你是無法改變的，這是基本物理。
- 留意星期四和十月。
- 寇克．馮內果說的沒錯。「就目前我們所知，閱讀與寫作是靜思最營養的形式。」
- 聆聽多一點，話講少一些。
- 不要因為閒散覺得有罪惡感。工作帶給這個世界的傷害也許比閒散還要多，但讓你的閒散完美，讓它是自我覺醒的。
- 覺察你是在呼吸的。
- 不管你身在何處，在任何時刻都試著去發掘美好的事物。一張臉、一段詩句、窗外的雲、一些塗鴉、一個風車農場。美麗淨化我們的心靈。
- 仇恨是你內心無意義的一種情緒。就好像吃掉一隻蠍子做為它螫你的處罰一樣。
- 去跑步，然後做些瑜珈。
- 在中午以前沖澡。
- 看看天空，會提醒你想到宇宙。有機會就找尋廣袤，好看見自己的渺小。
- 仁慈。
- 要知道想法就是想法。如果想法不理智，就把它們理智化，即使你己經沒有任何理由可用了。你是自己心靈的觀察員，不是它的犧牲者。
- 不要漫無目的地看電視，不要漫無目的地在社群媒體上逛。永遠知道自己在做什麼、為什麼而做。不要小看電視，多看重它一些，那麼你就會少看一些電視。沒有檢視過的娛樂活動，會讓你心煩意亂。
- 坐下來，躺下去，靜下心來，什麼事都不要做。觀察，聆聽你的心，放手讓它去，不要做任何評論。放手，就像電影《冰雪奇緣》裡的冰雪女王。
- 不要擔心那些可能不會發生的事情。
- 看看樹，接近樹，種種樹。（樹很棒）
- 聽YouTube裡瑜珈老師的指示，而且「走路時就好像是用自己的腳在親吻土地一樣。」（Eric補充：這句話應是出自一行禪師的)
- 活著、去愛、放手。三招。（３個L：Live, Love, Let go)
- 酒精算術。酒是相乘的概念，你擁有愈多，你就想要愈多。如果喝完一杯停不下來，三杯喝完後就不可能停止了。加法就是乘法。
- 小心間隙。間隙存在於你實際所在與你想要去的地方之間，若一味想著間隙便會加大，最後就會掉進去。
- 讀本書，但不用去想要把它讀完。讀就對了，享受每個字、每個句子和每個段落。不要希望讀完，或是希望永遠讀不完。
- 在全宇宙沒有任何藥物可以讓你在最深處感覺較好，只有對別人友善仁慈才做得到。
- 聽聽哈姆雷特，文學史上最有名的憂鬱症患者，跟羅森克蘭茨和吉爾登斯特說了什麼：「世界事全無好壞，全為思想使然。」
- 如果有人愛你，讓他們愛，相信那份愛，為他們而活，即使你覺得毫無意義。
- 你不需要世界來了解你，沒關係，有些人就是真的無法理解那些他們沒有經歷過的事。有些人則可以，心懷感激。
- 朱爾．凡爾納（譯注：Jules Verne，被喻為科幻小說之父）提到「活出無限」。這是一個充滿愛與情感的世界，就像一片「海洋」。如果我們可以潛下去，將會發現自己內心的無限，和我們要活下去所需要的空間。
- 凌晨三點鐘絕對不會是試驗與整頓你人生的時機。
- 記得，你沒有什麼怪異之處，你只是個人，你所做所感都是很自然的事，因為我們是大自然的動物。你就是大自然，你是原始猿人。你在世界裡面，世界也在你裡面，萬事萬物互相連結。
- 不要相信好或壞、得與失、勝與敗，或起與伏。在你最低點或是最頂峰，不管你是快樂或絕望或冷靜或憤怒，你都會有個核心是始終一致的。就是這個你才重要。
- 不要煩惱你失去了一段深陷在絕望的時光，你之後擁有的時光價值是加倍的。
- 對自己坦白，為心靈蓋一座溫室，好好觀察。
- 讀愛蜜莉．狄金森、讀格雷安．葛林、讀伊塔羅．卡爾維諾、讀馬雅．安吉羅（Maya Angelou），讀任何你想讀的書。讀就對了，書籍有許多可能性，書是逃離的途徑，他們是你沒有選擇時的選項。任何一個都可以是你未生根的心靈的家。
- 如果陽光燦爛，你能出門，就出門去。
- 記得，地球上有關生命的關鍵就是改變。汽車會生銹、紙會發黃、科技會落伍、毛毛蟲會蛻變成蝴蝶、黑夜漸化為白晝，憂鬱會減輕。
- 當你覺得自己沒有時間放鬆時，告訴自己這就是你最需要安排時間來放鬆的時候了。
- 勇敢、強壯、呼吸，然後繼續，之後你會感謝你自己。
How to live (forty pieces of advice I feel to be helpful but which I don’t always follow)
- Appreciate happiness when it is there.
- Sip, don’t gulp.
- Be gentle with yourself. Work less. Sleep more.
- There is absolutely nothing in the past that you can change. That’s basic physics.
- Beware of Tuesdays. And Octobers.
- Kurt Vonnegut was right. ‘Reading and writing are the most nourishing forms of meditation anyone has so far found.’
- Listen more than you talk.
- Don’t feel guilty about being idle. More harm is probably done to the world through work than idleness. But perfect your idleness. Make it mindful.
- Be aware that you are breathing.
- Wherever you are, at any moment, try and find something beautiful. A face, a line out of a poem, the clouds out of a window, some graffiti, a wind farm. Beauty cleans the mind.
- Hate is a pointless emotion to have inside you. It is like eating a scorpion to punish it for stinging you.
- Go for a run. Then do some yoga.
- Shower before noon.
- Look at the sky. Remind yourself of the cosmos. Seek vastness at every opportunity, in order to see the smallness of yourself.
- Be kind.
- Understand that thoughts are thoughts. If they are unreasonable, reason with them, even if you have no reason left. You are the observer of your mind, not its victim.
- Do not watch TV aimlessly. Do not go on social media aimlessly. Always be aware of what you are doing, and why you are doing it. Don’t value TV less. Value it more. Then you will watch it less. Unchecked distractions will lead you to distraction.
- Sit down. Lie down. Be still. Do nothing. Observe. Listen to your mind. Let it do what it does without judging it. Let it go, like the Snow Queen in Frozen.
- Don’t worry about things that probably won’t happen.
- Look at trees. Be near trees. Plant trees. (Trees are great.)
- Listen to that yoga instructor on YouTube, and ‘walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet’.
- Live. Love. Let go. The three Ls.
- Alcohol maths. Wine multiplies itself by itself. The more you have, the more you are likely to have. And if it’s hard to stop at one glass, it will be impossible at three. Addition is multiplication.
- Beware of the gap. The gap between where you are and where you want to be. Simply thinking of the gap widens it. And you end up falling through.
- Read a book without thinking about finishing it. Just read it. Enjoy every word, sentence, and paragraph. Don’t wish for it to end, or for it to never end.
- No drug in the universe will make you feel better, at the deepest level, than being kind to other people.
- Listen to what Hamlet – literature’s most famous depressive – told Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. ‘There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.’
- If someone loves you, let them. Believe in that love. Live for them, even when you feel there is no point.
- You don’t need the world to understand you. It’s fine. Some people will never really understand things they haven’t experienced. Some will. Be grateful.
- Jules Verne wrote of the ‘Living Infinite’. This is the world of love and emotion that is like a ‘sea’. If we can submerge ourselves in it, we find infinity in ourselves, and the space we need to survive.
- Three in the morning is never the time to try and sort out your life.
- Remember that there is nothing weird about you. You are just a human, and everything you do and feel is a natural thing, because we are natural animals. You are nature. You are a hominid ape. You are in the world and the world is in you. Everything connects.
- Don’t believe in good or bad, or winning and losing, or victory and defeat, or up and down. At your lowest and at your highest, whether you are happy or despairing or calm or angry, there is a kernel of you that stays the same. That is the you that matters.
- Don’t worry about the time you lose to despair. The time you will have afterwards has just doubled its value.
- Be transparent to yourself. Make a greenhouse for your mind. Observe.
- Read Emily Dickinson. Read Graham Greene. Read Italo Calvino. Read Maya Angelou. Read anything you want. Just read. Books are possibilities. They are escape routes. They give you options when you have none. Each one can be a home for an uprooted mind.
- If the sun is shining, and you can be outside, be outside.
- Remember that the key thing about life on earth is change. Cars rust. Paper yellows. Technology dates. Caterpillars become butterflies. Nights morph into days. Depression lifts.
- Just when you feel you have no time to relax, know that this is the moment you most need to make time to relax.
- Be brave. Be strong. Breathe, and keep going. You will thank yourself later.
