'Rage Cleaning' 是什么意思？

Rage means anger. 这个并没有一个很好的翻译, 所以咱们暂且把它翻译成‘愤怒清洁’或者‘愤怒清扫’.

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?

我们现在的生活是充满各种各样的压力, 很多时候我们心里憋着一股气, 这股气到底撒在哪儿?

有的人可能会运动, 有的人可能会暴饮暴食, 或者会砸东西. 但是也有这样的一群人, 他们对抗压力的方式就是 rage cleaning, or angry cleaning.

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

具体来说就是通过大扫除来release pent-up emotion or pent-up anger来发泄这种压抑在心里的情绪, 特别是怒气.

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' 背后的心理学依据

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.

为什么心理学家会认为这种rage cleaning其实是一种还蛮健康的应对压力或者应对愤怒的一个机制,

主要是 pushing yourself physically, 耗尽你的体力去做大扫除的时候, 你就没有时间一直在那dwell on negative thoughts, 一直在那内耗, 一直在那琢磨那些负面的想法, 这可以帮你把心中的一些不满、怒气还有焦虑都发泄出去.

It also puts you in a position of control. 同时也能让你重新找到掌控权.

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

其实很多时候我们生活中的一些焦虑, 包括愤怒都来源于我们的无助感.

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.

比如你工作中的秃头老板, 或者你生活中遇到的种种不满, 你都没有办法真正去掌控, 但是你们家的卫生你是可以掌控的.

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.”

临床心理学家就认为这是一种再正常不过的反应.

当我们的情感或者说是心理世界出现了各种各样的问题, 特别是当我们感觉我们的心理和情感世界乱七八糟的时候, 千头万绪, 这个时候我们掌控不了自己的心理和情感世界,

我们起码可以让自己的physical world, 也就是我们实际的身边的世界, 具象的世界, 身边的环境能够变得更加tidy and neat能够整洁美观.

这其实是我们希望能够理清自己思绪, 搞清楚自己精神世界的一种外向化的表现.

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.

特别是我们心里有这种压下来的邪火, 或者那种很强烈的负面的情感的时候, 我们又不想把这种情绪发泄给身边的我们在乎的家人、爱人.

因此有些人就会选择把这些情绪发泄到物件上, 比如说家务事上.

03 'Rage Cleaning' 的好处是什么？

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个特别大的烦心事儿, 这个时候你越想越生气, 越想越窝火；

这个时候索性不去想了, 来一次彻头彻尾的大扫除, 等你耗尽了自己的体力, 再回到困扰你的这些问题的时候, 你的脑子会更清醒, 也能做出更加理智的判断.

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

其实心理学上还有一个专门的说法,

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

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.

所谓的升华就是你把你心里的一些不是特别好的一些冲动也好, 情绪也好, 引导他们去找一个更加socially acceptable, 更加可以让人接受的一个出口一个发泄口.

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.

也就是说与其去什么暴饮暴食, 甚至用一些更加伤害自己身体的方式来发泄这些情绪, 不如直接来一次rage cleaning, 愤怒清扫, 在心理学上就可以被认为是一种sublimation升华.

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除了能够发现你自己的情绪, 最大的一个好处, 就是能帮你找回控制感,因为其实让我们抓狂的往往是生活中无处不在的这种失控的感觉.

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.

虽然心理学家认为这种rage cleaning在发泄情绪方面算是一个无伤大雅的, 比很多其他方式都更好的一种应对机制.

但是也提醒我们, 如果你是用rage cleaning这样的一个发泄方式去逃避一些, 比如说跟你的伴侣之间更深层的交流, 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.