'Rage Cleaning' 是什么意思？

Rage means anger. 這個并沒有一個很好的翻譯, 所以咱們暫且把它翻譯成‘憤怒清潔’或者‘憤怒清掃’.

First of all, let me ask you a question. Nowadays, our lives are filled with stressful situations. I'm sure everyone has had that moment of feeling extremely stressed and you have so much anger inside you.

You just need to let it out.

Some of us might go for a 5-mile run. Some might indulge in alcohol or start smashing things about.

But then there's a group of people who would let out their anger by deep cleaning their house.

For instance, a long stressed out day at work leads you to break out the carpet cleaner or a rough day with your kids has you scrubbing the dishes with fury?

我們現在的生活是充滿各種各樣的壓力, 很多時候我們心里憋著一股氣, 這股氣到底撒在哪兒?

有的人可能會運動, 有的人可能會暴飲暴食, 或者會砸東西. 但是也有這樣的一群人, 他們對抗壓力的方式就是 rage cleaning, or angry cleaning.

Basically this is the act of tackling a cleaning project with the express purpose of releasing pent-up emotion.

具體來說就是通過大掃除來release pent-up emotion or pent-up anger來發泄這種壓抑在心里的情緒, 特別是怒氣.

It sounds like a joke, right? You probably would say who would clean when they're angry, but rage cleaning is real.

02 'Rage Cleaning' 背后的心理學依據

According to psychology experts, it's a natural reaction that many people experience and is actually kind of healthy,

because pushing yourself physically forces you to expel that pent-up energy while focusing on a task instead of dwelling on negative thoughts.

為什么心理學家會認為這種rage cleaning其實是一種還蠻健康的應對壓力或者應對憤怒的一個機制,

主要是 pushing yourself physically, 耗盡你的體力去做大掃除的時候, 你就沒有時間一直在那dwell on negative thoughts, 一直在那內耗, 一直在那琢磨那些負面的想法, 這可以幫你把心中的一些不滿、怒氣還有焦慮都發泄出去.

It also puts you in a position of control. 同時也能讓你重新找到掌控權.

Often times anger or stress springs from situations in which we feel helpless.

其實很多時候我們生活中的一些焦慮, 包括憤怒都來源于我們的無助感.

For example, you can't shout back at your irresponsible boss or track down the thief who stole your credit card.

But what you can do is power through a cleaning project, get it done and experience the satisfaction of having one less chore to do.

比如你工作中的禿頭老板, 或者你生活中遇到的種種不滿, 你都沒有辦法真正去掌控, 但是你們家的衛生你是可以掌控的.

Clinical psychologists say that people who rage clean are just taking control of what they can.

“When we feel disarray in our mental or emotional world, the easiest or most concrete way to counter that is to make our physical world tidy and neat, the way we want our mental world to be. It’s a very natural reaction.”

臨床心理學家就認為這是一種再正常不過的反應.

當我們的情感或者說是心理世界出現了各種各樣的問題, 特別是當我們感覺我們的心理和情感世界亂七八糟的時候, 千頭萬緒, 這個時候我們掌控不了自己的心理和情感世界,

我們起碼可以讓自己的physical world, 也就是我們實際的身邊的世界, 具象的世界, 身邊的環境能夠變得更加tidy and neat能夠整潔美觀.

這其實是我們希望能夠理清自己思緒, 搞清楚自己精神世界的一種外向化的表現.

You have such an intense sensation that feels like it needs to be released and you don't want to do it on a person. But you can do it on an object.

特別是我們心里有這種壓下來的邪火, 或者那種很強烈的負面的情感的時候, 我們又不想把這種情緒發泄給身邊的我們在乎的家人、愛人.

因此有些人就會選擇把這些情緒發泄到物件上, 比如說家務事上.

03 'Rage Cleaning' 的好處是什么？

Cleaning is actually a great way to channel that because it is focused.

You can take that negative energy and displace it onto something inanimate.

It also allows you to take a break from whatever it is that triggered you.

Now when you come back to whatever triggered you, you can come back to it more grounded and use more parts of yourself to tackle that issue.

比如工作上或者情感上遇到一個特別大的煩心事兒, 這個時候你越想越生氣, 越想越窩火；

這個時候索性不去想了, 來一次徹頭徹尾的大掃除, 等你耗盡了自己的體力, 再回到困擾你的這些問題的時候, 你的腦子會更清醒, 也能做出更加理智的判斷.

Taking a negative emotion and turning it into something else is actually a psychological coping mechanism.

其實心理學上還有一個專門的說法,

there is a psychoanalytic term that applies to this kind of coping mechanism called sublimation, 叫sublimation, 升華.

It's the idea that you take some kind of impulse, urge, or emotion that's undesirable and diverted into something more socially acceptable as an outlet.

所謂的升華就是你把你心里的一些不是特別好的一些沖動也好, 情緒也好, 引導他們去找一個更加socially acceptable, 更加可以讓人接受的一個出口一個發泄口.

To put it in simpler terms. Instead of trying to binge eat or binge drink, take drugs, what you do is simply cleaning your house inside out.

也就是說與其去什么暴飲暴食, 甚至用一些更加傷害自己身體的方式來發泄這些情緒, 不如直接來一次rage cleaning, 憤怒清掃, 在心理學上就可以被認為是一種sublimation升華.

When we sublimate, it's a defense mechanism, but it's one of the better ones.

According to psychologists, controlling what you can is going to help you in dealing with the lack of control that exists everywhere else.

Rage cleaning除了能夠發現你自己的情緒, 最大的一個好處, 就是能幫你找回控制感,因為其實讓我們抓狂的往往是生活中無處不在的這種失控的感覺.

If cleaning is your chosen outlet, wonderful, it's better to choose cleaning than many other outlets that are far less desirable.

Psychologists say that if it means putting yourself in a timeout to clean your closet so that you avoid yelling at your kids, great.

But there is one reminder, if you're using rage cleaning to avoid something really important because it's going to take a lot of emotional work and time or maybe cooperation from another person, then it probably makes more sense to eventually come back to work on that.

雖然心理學家認為這種rage cleaning在發泄情緒方面算是一個無傷大雅的, 比很多其他方式都更好的一種應對機制.

但是也提醒我們, 如果你是用rage cleaning這樣的一個發泄方式去逃避一些, 比如說跟你的伴侶之間更深層的交流, then you probably have to rethink about it.

Now let's move on to the sample sentence.

例句示范

Sample Sentence：

-Psychologists say that rage cleaning might serve as an effective coping mechanism when we are faced with stress.