Qianjiang Evening News Hour news trainee reporter Liu Yuhan
"The sun always has a way to shine on us, no matter where we are."
This is a sentence from the 2021 Douban most concerned book "Clara and the Sun" (Shanghai Translation Publishing House). We need the sun, especially when people are struggling with accidents.
Chen Zhengxin, a psychology expert who used to be our guest of "Book Welcome Talkshow", reminded me that if I am exposed to too much negative information, I should self-heal in time to avoid a bad impact on my own psychology. You can reduce the amount of information you receive, divert your attention, socialize more with people, and have more contact with the actual environment.
Reading books is also a great way to do that. "Words are an expression, and people's emotions will be 'fermented' and 'ruminated' for a long time, and they need to be expressed." Chen Zhengxin said, "Through reading, readers can resonate, and other people's words can express emotions for readers, and this process can dissolve negative emotions and allow readers to get healing." ”
Of course, the first choice is some positive books, humorous and witty can also be, the purpose is to relax the spirit. If you are caught in some kind of emotional vortex for a long time, reading some sunny words can also help to change the way of thinking.
For people with different reading habits and hobbies, I have compiled some "healing department" books, hoping to help you regulate your mood.
Read some lighthearted little stories
When you're not in a so good mood, you can read some light-hearted little books.
In this week's column, Bedtime Stories, my colleague Mijia Zhang mentioned Truman Capoty's "Christmas Memories" (Translation Forest Press).
After I read it, I also liked it.
The book is short, and through three short stories related to Christmas, it recalls the author's bitter but happy childhood. The novel is narrated from the perspective of a young boy, Buddy, who lives in the Alabama countryside with his old cousin, Miss Suko, and the time spent together leaves him with precious memories.
The text of the novel is plain and simple, but it can bring people the power of peace and warmth.
Chen Zhengxin was recently reading Robert Dai Bode's "Mr. Toad Goes to see a Psychiatrist" (Tianjin People's Publishing House), which is a book that we once recommended on the Chunfeng Yue Reading List. As a psychology expert, he believes that this book is a good psychological popular science book, which helps ordinary readers understand mental health problems and is also very healing.
As the name suggests, the protagonist of the novel is a laughing and noisy Mr. Toad, who somehow becomes depressed, so he goes to see a psychiatrist under the persuasion of his friends.
Under the leadership of the counselor Heron, Mr. Toad conducted ten psychological consultations, which were also ten times of inner exploration, and finally understood himself more and regained his self-confidence and happiness.
The book borrows the character image of the classic book "The Sound of the Wind in the Willow Forest", and the narrative is also very similar to a fairy tale, so it is easy to read it and substitute yourself for Mr. Toad. As I read it, I felt like I had been treated by a heron counselor.
There are many more such small stories, most of them are smoothly narrated, the story is simple, the plot is soothing, it is as comfortable to read as breathing, and it brings a warm feeling like a bedside lamp.
Book lovers also recommended some healing books, such as "Camellia Stationery Shop" (Hunan Literature and Art Publishing House), "Grandmother's Apology Letter" (Tianjin People's Publishing House), "Secret Manuscript to Emily" (Sichuan Literature and Art Publishing House) and so on.
Listen to prose poems from life
Paying more attention to the actual daily life can alleviate anxiety and uneasiness.
Some writers are very good at observing life and recording the beautiful details of life into a poetic prose. Through their words, we may be able to see the small beauty that is not easy to find.
For example, we are familiar with zhejiang compatriots, Feng Zikai. His "Essays on Yuanyuantang" (Jiangsu People's Publishing House) has written many small fragments of life and thought from them. There are about children, there are memories of the deceased, there are feelings of nature...
His style is like his painting style, innocent and idyllic, full of poetry.
Some readers commented that the book was too comfortable to read: "People sometimes want to bask in the sun, sometimes want to bask in the moon." ”
Ji Xianlin is also a person who loves life, and he has a collection of essays called "Life is Lovely" (Shanghai Culture Publishing House).
Turning the page, February orchid, begonia flowers, cats, magpies, dusk, fog and rain, all of them are cute in his pen, and the words and lines also reveal innocent humor from time to time, which makes people smile.
Similar essays are also recommended by Chen Zhengxin, who believes that humorous essays like Lin Yutang, Liang Shiqiu and others are also worth seeing.
It is said that "prose is like poetry", you may wish to read poetry as well. In addition to being warm and cold, poetry can also be gentle.
Personally, I like Tagore's "Birds" (translated by Zheng Zhenduo), each one is short and concise, each one is from the subtleties of life, between the birds, the stars, the grass, the fallen leaves, flashing thoughts about love and life.
In the "Notes on the Origin of the Temple", there is such a sentence: "As long as the vitality of human affairs is not extinguished, even if it is hit by natural disasters and man-made disasters, it will be temporarily suppressed, and there will eventually be a day to rise." This is true of individual affairs, so is the affairs of families, and it is also true of the affairs of the state and the nation. ”
The life of these prose and poetry chants is vitality.
See the world like a child
Speaking of vitality, children, represent vitality. So when we look at the world like children, we always feel relaxed and healed.
Tagore's other collection of poems, "The New Moon Collection" (translated by Zheng Zhenduo), writes the pure heart of children, and one by one innocent and lovely children jump on the paper.
Children write poems themselves, even if they may not yet know what poetry is. I was amazed by the children's poetry collection "Children's Poems" (Zhejiang Literature and Art Publishing House), and every poem in it was created by children aged 3 to 13.
For example, this one -
If you laugh too much
You'll fly into the sky
To get back on the ground
You have to do a sad thing
Without saying, I think it's hard for the reader to imagine that this is the creation of a five-year-old.
Each poem is a fusion of the child's innocence and aura, pure and interesting, inadvertently will make people shine, and then shake their heads and sigh "It's incredible". This may be the beauty of "tong".
Finally, I would like to recommend some "children's paintings", that is, picture books.
Picture books are the only books that children read in the impression of many people, but there are many excellent picture books that are suitable for both adults and children. Like children's poems, sometimes childish language can express innocent and moving emotions, or profound ingenuity.
Can I Take a Bite (Tianjin People's Publishing House) is another fresh and warm comic book by Liz Crimo after "You Look So Good Today". Like the previous one, this one also expresses humorous life interest through dialogue with small animals such as lions, zebras, umbrella lizards, and groundhogs.
Shinsuke Yoshitake's "Yes And There Is a Bookstore" (CITIC Publishing House) is also very popular with readers, but I have not yet read it; "The Invention of Patting the Head" (Guangming Daily Press), published in 1985, has a lot of brain hole inventions, and it is not outdated to read it now...
The childlike style of painting itself is extremely healing, and we sometimes need to see the world like children, with curiosity, love and hope.
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