The Greek philosopher Heraclitus taught that you can’t step into the same river twice, for you aren’t the same person at each visit, and the water is ever flowing. It is a powerful way to represent the reality of impermanence: Everything is always changing.
Many people have tense relationships with change. They deny it, resist it or attempt to control it- the result of which is almost always some combination of stress, anxiety, and burnout. It doesn’t have to be that way.
A concept called allostasis can help. Developed in the late 1980s by a neuroscientist, Peter Sterling, and a biologist, Joseph Eyer, allostasis is defined as “stability through change,” elegantly showing the concept’s double meaning: The way to stay stable through the process of change is by changing, at least to some extent.
The river of change has been flowing mercilessly, and it shows no signs of letting up. Societally, we’ve gone through a pandemic (大流行病), its economic decline and the widespread adoption of social media, the combination of which has shifted how we live and work. In our personal lives, we continue to do what we have always done: relocate, start jobs, quit jobs, change jobs, get promoted, experience illness, get married, have children, retire and on and on.
Finding ways in this river requires both ruggedness and flexibility. To be rugged is to be tough and determined, to know your core values and what you stand for. To be flexible is to actively respond to changing circumstances, to adapt and bend easily without breaking, to grow and even change your mind. Put these qualities together and the result is a great endurance, one that helps you maintain your strong core even in fragile moments. It allows you to step into allostasis’s cycle of order, disorder and reorder — which is, of course, one and the same with stepping into Heraclitus’s river —and to chart it skillfully and whenever possible, to your own benefit.
12. What do we know about allostasis?
A.It is a contradictory concept. | B.It tends to focus on change. |
C.It advocates dynamic stability. | D.It claims absolute adaptability. |
13. Which of the following best explains “letting up” underlined in paragraph 4?
A.Being pumped. | B.Slowing down. | C.Getting polluted. | D.Rising up. |
14. What will you gain from practicing allostasis according to the last paragraph?
A.Popularity. | B.Confidence. | C.Recognition. | D.Perseverance. |
15. What is the best title for the passage?
A.Say No to Stability | B.Stop Resisting Change |
C.Fight for Flexibility | D.Balance Life and Work |