It's five minutes before your big job interview. As you wait in the outer office, your palms start sweating, your feet shuffle back and forth, and the butterflies in your stomach are fluttering double time. Butterflies in your stomach?
離你那場關鍵的面試只有5分鐘了。你在辦公室外面等待著,你的手心開始冒汗,雙腿來來回回拖著,胃里的蝴蝶顫抖得更厲害了。什么,你的胃里有蝴蝶?
In the late 1940's, a pair of medical researchers came across an unusual patient a soldier with a permanent opening between his inner stomach and his skin. The researchers used this opening as a window on the patient's stomach physiology. If the patient was put in a stressful situation, the researchers discovered a sudden decrease in the amount of acid that the stomach produced. They also discovered a decrease in the blood flow to the stomach. The butterfly sensation is part of what happens when your body goes into “fight or flight” mode.

19世紀40年代晚期,兩位醫學研究者遇到一位不尋常的病人,他是一名軍人,在他的胃部和肚皮之間有個創口。研究人員將這個創口當作觀察病人胃部生理結構的窗口。他們發現如果病人處于壓力條件下,胃部產生的酸會突然減少。他們還發現流向胃部的血液也會減少。這種蝴蝶感應正是你的身體進入戰斗-逃跑模式時的反應。
If you're confronted with a highly threatening situation, an important job interview, perhaps adrenaline floods into your bloodstream. This adrenaline raises your overall metabolism while it increases your heart rate and blood pressure. It also increases the sensitivity and strength of the smooth muscles in your stomach. This added sensitivity is what causes the fluttering sensation. Butterflies are just one way that your stomach can react to extra adrenaline.
如果你面臨著高度危急的情況,一場重要的求職面試,或許腎上腺素會像洪水般涌進你的血液中。腎上腺素會加快你全身的新陳代謝,讓你心跳加快血壓升高,同時還會使你胃部平滑肌的敏感度和力度增強。敏感度的提升又會導致蝴蝶感應。蝴蝶感應只是多余的腎上腺素作用于胃部的方式之一。
If the adrenaline level continues to rise, the electrical activity in your stomach muscles increases and your stomach will begin contracting more frequently than usual. You will stop feeling butterflies, and your stomach will start feeling “tied in knots” instead. The best way to deal with these problems is to convince your body that it's not in actual physical danger. Take a deep breath and relax. Job interviews aren't that dangerous, are they?
如果腎上腺素持續上升,胃部肌肉的生物電活動會增多,胃也會收縮得更頻繁。這時你感受到的不是胃在顫抖,而是胃在打結。對付這個問題最好的辦法就是說服自己——身體沒有陷入任何危險。深呼吸放輕松。不就是個求職面試么?