Hi guys, I'm Eileen. Today i want to share with you the things i would do
whenever i feel like doing emotional shopping. Some of you told me you have done a lot of
emotional shopping in the last year because of low mood, the lack of social interaction, and just the
general feeling of uncertainty, so you just wanted to cheer yourself up with shopping. To be honest i
completely understand this compensating mentality because i had done it myself many times before.
And just to give you an example, about five years ago i had a very bad day at work, i can't
really remember what exactly happened but i was just really stressed out and i came home early.
I remember telling my husband i have to go shopping and treat myself. Lo and behold we spent
the entire day in town and even ended up having to pay £40 for parking, which by the way is a lot for
where we are. Now if i did have something to buy, it would have been okay i guess, but the truth is,
we were just strolling from one store to another hoping to find something to buy. Eventually
i came home with some new clothes, but instead of feeling better, i was exhausted and i even felt a
bit guilty. Luckily i now have a list of things i turn to whenever i feel a bit down or unmotivated.
And now without further ado, let's get right into it. First of all, if i've had a bad day,
i'll treat myself to something delicious. This is one of my favorite ones because i think it's so
much better to nourish my body and satisfy my taste buds instead of cluttering my home with
more things. So if you are thinking to do some really expensive emotional shopping, probably
consider going to your favorite restaurant and order that dish you never allow yourself to order,
and maybe treat yourself to some dessert as well. For me i don't actually mind cooking at home.
My husband and i sometimes will do a nice steak dinner and we'll crack open a bottle of prosecco
as well. Seafood pasta is another favorite of mine, especially if there are a lot of scallops
and king prawns in it. Having something delicious and nutritious always makes me feel better.
Another thing i now do more often whenever i feel down is just taking some time off. I'm quite a
hard worker and sometimes i do push myself to the limit, so i would say a lot of the stress
i have comes from my day job. In the past, when i reached my limit, that's when i went shopping. I
would tell myself i deserve a Chanel handbag or a Louis Vuitton wallet because i work so hard. After
a lot of failed luxury purchases though, i now realize what i deserve is, to treat myself and my
health a bit better. So now what i do is, whenever work feels like it's getting a bit too hectic,
i'll plan to have a day off, and this is the day i really rest and recharge and i always feel so
much better after. If you are a workaholic like me, do not underestimate the importance
of rest. I don't know about you, but sometimes having a power nap gives me as much pleasure
if not more compared to going shopping. The next one might sound a bit off-putting but
i actually have a spreadsheet which details how much money i've lost from selling my luxury items
in the last four to five years. I've done a video about this so i'm not gonna go too much into it.
Anyway whenever i feel tempted to buy something unplanned, i'll refer to this spreadsheet because
it reminds me of the buying and selling vicious cycle i might be getting myself into again.
Sometimes after looking at the spreadsheet, i might still decide to make the purchase after all
but i can tell you doing this has helped to reduce a lot of expensive shopping regrets.
The next one is something i'm doing more and more nowadays. I think we all have days when
we feel bored and unmotivated. I used to feel like that on the weekends, that's why i went
shopping to try to uplift my mood. Whereas now, instead of killing my time with wasting money,
i use that time to explore new ideas and learn. This year i've been learning so much on Skillshare
and i want to thank Skillshare for sponsoring this video. Skillshare is an online learning platform
with thousands of interesting classes. This year i've taken so many classes, such as meditation,
business ideas, journaling, investing, and so much more. I love the idea of exploring topics
which i'm quite unfamiliar with, for example two weeks ago, i took a class by Meltem Demirors
and it's called demystifying cryptocurrency. Meltem talk about how cryptocurrency works,
how it started, and how it might affect the way our money works in the future. To be honest,
i don't really invest in cryptocurrency but i just think it's so interesting to learn about something
that's completely outside my scope of knowledge. If you want to try out Skillshare i have a link
for you guys in the description box down below and the first thousand people to click on the
link will get a one month free trial of Skillshare premium, so make sure you take the opportunity to
explore new ideas and make good use of your time. Something else i now do to keep myself grounded is
keeping a gratitude journal. This works really well for me especially on days when i feel like
i'll never be happy again unless if i go out and spend a lot of money. So i have a planner,
this is from Personal Planner and i really enjoy it. On the back of this planner,
there are 12 pages of gratitude journal, so that's basically one box for every single day.
So at the end of each day, i will take some time to write down something that i'm thankful for,
which usually doesn't take more than a minute to do, and it doesn't have to be anything fancy. I
try to write down something new every day and i feel like i've become more receptive to all
the little but wonderful things around me. So for example, i have on here, i can walk, i have a job,
i am loved, new retainers, Isaac is such a good eater, delicious barbecue, and so on. And i
feel like when i flip through these pages, it just reminds me that i have so much to be thankful for,
and it just helps me to refocus on what i already have in my life instead of fixating on my negative
emotions and what's lacking. So i would suggest to give gratitude journal a try, it's so much more
affordable than emotional shopping and it might change your life. Something else i now do to cheer
myself up is spending time in nature. Now if you told me 10 years ago to spend more time outdoor, i
would think that's the most boring thing you could do. I mean shopping is so much more exciting,
of course i want to spend the whole day in the shopping mall where there are beautiful handbags,
shiny jewelry pieces, and wonderful customer service. To be honest, I only started exploring
more outdoor activities after having Isaac, my little boy because to keep a young child
entertained, we do rely a lot on outdoor activities like picnics, walks, hikes and you
name it, and now i really appreciate the beauty of nature. When i take a walk in the park for
example, it just reminds me that it's so wonderful to be alive and that happiness can be so simple.
I know life is full of ups and downs but when i look at the big trees, the birds, and the river,
i just have so much peace and calmness in me. And this is something emotional shopping doesn't
do for me. I think when you're buying something on impulse, deep down you know you're not doing
the most rational thing, and so when the initial excitement wears off, the guilt and the anxiety
will start to resurface. So i highly recommend you to spend more time in nature, it might give
you a different perspective on a bad day. The next one is not something i'll recommend everyone to do
on a very regular basis, but on days when i feel like i need to rely on shopping for happiness,
i'm quite unapologetic about it, and that is allowing myself to be unproductive for a short
while. And being unproductive can really mean different things for different people. My husband
for example, gets a lot of pleasure from playing games, whereas for me, it's binge watching a very
good series. To be honest I don't really watch a lot of TV, it's really something i reserve for
special occasions, or on days when i feel like i need extra TLC. I guess it's a bit like luxury
shopping, if you do it every other day, it just doesn't feel very special anymore. Anyway when
i feel really uninspired and lazy, sometimes i just let myself be that way for a short while.
For example last year i binge watched the Korean drama Kingdom season one and two in like two days,
and it was actually really good. So pick something that you feel guilty about doing and just indulge
yourself for a little bit, whether it is watching youtube, having late night snack, or sleeping in,
as long as you remember to pick yourself up and come back to reality when the time is right.
So those are the things i do now on days when i feel like doing emotional shopping. To be honest,
i feel like many of us do emotional shopping not only on days when we feel stressed out or down,
it also happens when we are super excited or if we are in the mood to celebrate something.
This is why we go on a shopping spree when we are away on holiday or if there's a special occasion.
So identifying these emotions, and addressing the influence they might have
on our shopping decisions is the key to reducing shopping regrets.
I'm a lot more intentional now but i'm still not perfect so if you have any other suggestions,
please share them down below. So that's it from me, thank you so much for watching,
and don't forget to share, like, and subscribe. I will see you in my next one, have a nice day.