There's a reason it's called retail therapy - but does it really make us happy?
购物疗法这一称呼是有原因的--但购物真的能让我们快乐吗？

Cait Flanders, the author of "The Year of Less: How I Stopped Shopping, Gave Away My Belongings, and Discovered Life Is Worth More Than Anything You Can Buy in a Store," decided to implement a year-long shopping ban and give away her belongings after she realized buying new things wasn't actually making her feel better.
The Year of Less: How I Stopped Shopping, Gave Away My Belongings, and Discovered Life Is Worth More Than Anything You Can Buy in a Store一书的作者凯特·法兰德斯（Cait Flanders）决定实施长达一年不购物的计划，放弃她的物品，这一切发生在她意识到买东西实际上并没有让她感觉更好之后。

Flanders told The Independent she decided to make the change in her life when she noticed she had 54 books in her home that she hadn't yet read.
法兰德斯对《独立报》说道，当她注意到她家里有54本还未读过的书时，她决定改变自己的生活。

The books, as with most of the belongings she gave away, were impulse purchases - or aspirational purchases. "I would immediately go on a website and buy a book and I wouldn't ask myself when I would actually read it," Flanders told us.
她把这些书和大多数其它冲动消费或希望购买的物品都送人了。"我会立马上网买一本书，根本不问自己是否真的会读，"法兰德斯对我们说道。

But once she started to go through what she had, she realized many of the purchases didn't reflect who she actually was. "A little more than halfway through I realized I held on to stuff that I had bought for an aspirational self."
一旦她开始检查自己拥有的物品时，她发现很多物品都不能反应她的真实面貌。"清点刚超过一半的时候，我开始意识到：这些东西都是为了那个更有抱负心的自我而购买的。"

"Classical novels, like I would be an interesting person if I read those books. Or a camera thinking I would like to be the kind of person that takes better pictures," she said. After realising this, and sorting her belongings by what she had bought for "the person I am right now or the person I want to become," Flanders "got rid of the stuff the real me didn't actually want."
"经典小说，好像如果读了这些书我就会变得更有趣。或者买了一个相机，觉得自己会是那种能拍出好看照片的人，"她说道。意识到这一点之后，她开始整理为了"现在的我和我希望成为的那种人"而购买的物品，法兰德斯"扔掉了那些真实的我不想拥有的东西。"

This happened to be 70 percent of her belongings. Flanders also gave up frivolous shopping - banning purchases of everything except groceries, toiletries, gifts, and experiences. And while she was able to successfully endure a year without shopping, it wasn't easy to change her habits. Flanders said: "It was six months into it and I was still thinking about buying things.
正好占她所有物品的70%。法兰德斯也放弃了无聊的购物--除了杂货、洗漱用品、礼物和经验以外，她不再购买其它物品。虽然她能够成功忍住一年不购物的冲动，但改变习惯却并非易事。法兰德斯说道："6个月的时候，我还在想着买东西。"

"After six months it got easier. After six months I was like 'okay, I can actually do this for an entire year,'" she recalled, but said she realized: "You can't just break a habit in 21 days or 66 days."
"6个月之后，一切变得容易些了。那时候，我差不多是这种状态'好吧，我真的能一整年不购物的，'"她回忆道。但她也意识到："你真的无法在21天或66天内戒掉某一习惯。"