Why overcome consumerism

Mindless consumption always turns into excessive consumption. It is time to rethink our spending habits, rediscover thoughtfulness and intentionality in our purchases, and remind ourselves that happiness is not on sale at the department store. Buying more is not the solution. We were made for greater pursuits than material possessions.

And our lives should reflect that truth. How then, might we begin to rethink and challenge mindless consumerism in our lives? Consider this intentional approach:. Stop and reevaluate. Look at the life you have created. Are you finding the time, money, and energy for the things that matter most? Have your possessions become a burden on your life in any way?

Slow down long enough to honestly evaluate the whole picture: your income, your mortgage, your car payment, your spending habits, your day-to-day pursuits. Are you happy? Or is there, perhaps, a better way? Stop copying other people. Just because your neighbors, classmates, and friends are chasing a certain style of life does not mean you need to as well. Your life is too unique to live like everyone else. Just ask anybody who has stopped. Understand your weaknesses.

Recognize your trigger points. Are there certain stores that prompt unnecessary purchases in your life? Are there products, addictions, or pricing patterns clearance sales that prompt an automatic response from you? Maybe there are specific emotions sadness, loneliness, grief that give rise to mindless consumption. Identify, recognize, and understand these weaknesses. Look deep into your motivations.

Advertisers play on our motivations by appealing to our desires in subtle ways. Advertisements are no longer based on communicating facts about a product. Instead, they promise adventure, reputation, esteem, joy, fulfillment, and sex. What inner-motivations are subconsciously guiding your purchases? What motivations greed, envy need to be rooted out? And what motivations meaning, significance need to find their fulfillment elsewhere?

Seek contribution with your life and usefulness in your purchases. To live is to consume. As contributing members of society, we are going to work and earn and purchase and consume.

But we are more than consumers, we are contributors. Our presence on this earth ought to bring value to the people around us. Purchase only what you need to more effectively accomplish your unique role in this world—everything else is only a distraction. Count the hidden cost of each purchase. Too often, when we purchase an item, we only look at the sticker price.

But this is rarely the full cost. Our purchases always cost more. They require our time, energy, and focus cleaning, organizing, maintaining, fixing, replacing, removing. They prompt worry, stress, and attachment. Test your limits. Experiment with a no-shopping challenge. Go 30 days with no consumer purchases, 60 days without visiting the mall, or days without buying clothes.

You set the specific challenge based on your needs. You will break the cycle of shopping in the short-term and lay the groundwork for greater victory in the long-term. Give more things away. Adorno, this mass commodification is all a part of the culture industry. For example, every year a new phone model comes out. Now, technological advances are great — yay future advances in medicine and environmental studies!

Sure — phone upgrades are the easiest example. Instead, you can find hints of the culture industry Adorno warns us about almost anywhere you look. While the effects of this problem can lead to a cycle of consumption and waste, we are also personally damaged.

In the culture industry, businesses decide what we consume, how we consume it, and when we consume it. Even worse, the culture industry does not permit us the ability to dig deeper and discover the true meaning of things, because the goods and services it provides are all one dimensional.

In other words, everything we receive is formulaic, meaning it adds no surprises or value to our lives. Pingback: 5 tips on how to live more intentionally - The Simplicity Habit. Pingback: Methods for decluttering your entire home - The Simplicity Habit. Pingback: Learning how to be brave and persistent - The Simplicity Habit.

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