This half-page ad in one broadsheet caught my eye: “The healing power of shopping… Sign up now and experience the wonders of retail therapy.”
Huh? So shopping works like a healing balm? Who was it who said that malling with the multitudes stresses rather than relaxes?
Being new to the concept of “Retail Therapy,” I checked Wikipedia and was surprised to find out that the phrase “Retail Therapy” really does exist.
According to this free encyclopedia on the web, “Retail therapy is shopping with the primary purpose of improving the buyer’s mood or disposition. Often seen in people during periods of depression or transition, it is normally a short-lived habit. Items purchased during periods of retail therapy are sometimes referred to as ‘comfort buys.’ ”
Personally, I think shopping in order to relieve stress is not a bad thing per se. Many stressed people resort to malling to get an instant mood-boost. Advocates of Retail Therapy even claim that some of them don’t buy anything from the Malls, or if they do at all, their purchases are not necessarily inappropriate or inadvisable.
No issue with that. However, when the shopping therapy thing goes a notch higher and graduates into “Shopping Addiction,” then a serious problem occurs. As in anything, too much of a good thing is bad. Those who believe in the healing powers of retail therapy may do well to remember that overindulgence can cause further stress — the financial kind that hits the wallet hard. The other thing to guard against is Oniomania, which is a psychological problem, more commonly known as compulsive shopping disorder.
Which brings me to an antidote to stress and depression that has been ignored lately but is more effective than shopping, I think. It’s called “Silence.” Some call it “solitude time,” others “prayer time.”
Whatever name it is called, being silent has become a must in today’s hurrying world. As experience has taught us, solitude has an enormous power to restore and revitalize our mind, body, and spirit. It gives us a renewed focus on the things that we really value and matter most to us.
Too busy to find time to be still? Really now, who does not claim to be busy? But as American author and philosopher Henry David Thoreau noted: “It is not enough to be busy, so are the ants. The question is: What are you busy about?”
May I add a thought that is less profound than Thoreau’s? Here it is: Silence is to the soul what gas is to a car. Really, if we are too busy driving to stop by for gas, one fine day, when we least expect it, our car will just stall in the middle of the road.
I know this may sound a little ominous, but if we don’t find time to be still once in a while, we might just find our souls stalling – not in the middle — but “somewhere down” the road.
Down there, no amount of shopping therapy will do… even for fire extinguishers or airconditioners.
Quote for the week:
“We need to find God,
and He cannot be found in noise and restlessness.
God is the friend of silence…
We need silence to be able to touch souls.”
–Mother Teresa
Huh? So shopping works like a healing balm? Who was it who said that malling with the multitudes stresses rather than relaxes?
Being new to the concept of “Retail Therapy,” I checked Wikipedia and was surprised to find out that the phrase “Retail Therapy” really does exist.
According to this free encyclopedia on the web, “Retail therapy is shopping with the primary purpose of improving the buyer’s mood or disposition. Often seen in people during periods of depression or transition, it is normally a short-lived habit. Items purchased during periods of retail therapy are sometimes referred to as ‘comfort buys.’ ”
Personally, I think shopping in order to relieve stress is not a bad thing per se. Many stressed people resort to malling to get an instant mood-boost. Advocates of Retail Therapy even claim that some of them don’t buy anything from the Malls, or if they do at all, their purchases are not necessarily inappropriate or inadvisable.
No issue with that. However, when the shopping therapy thing goes a notch higher and graduates into “Shopping Addiction,” then a serious problem occurs. As in anything, too much of a good thing is bad. Those who believe in the healing powers of retail therapy may do well to remember that overindulgence can cause further stress — the financial kind that hits the wallet hard. The other thing to guard against is Oniomania, which is a psychological problem, more commonly known as compulsive shopping disorder.
Which brings me to an antidote to stress and depression that has been ignored lately but is more effective than shopping, I think. It’s called “Silence.” Some call it “solitude time,” others “prayer time.”
Whatever name it is called, being silent has become a must in today’s hurrying world. As experience has taught us, solitude has an enormous power to restore and revitalize our mind, body, and spirit. It gives us a renewed focus on the things that we really value and matter most to us.
Too busy to find time to be still? Really now, who does not claim to be busy? But as American author and philosopher Henry David Thoreau noted: “It is not enough to be busy, so are the ants. The question is: What are you busy about?”
May I add a thought that is less profound than Thoreau’s? Here it is: Silence is to the soul what gas is to a car. Really, if we are too busy driving to stop by for gas, one fine day, when we least expect it, our car will just stall in the middle of the road.
I know this may sound a little ominous, but if we don’t find time to be still once in a while, we might just find our souls stalling – not in the middle — but “somewhere down” the road.
Down there, no amount of shopping therapy will do… even for fire extinguishers or airconditioners.
Quote for the week:
“We need to find God,
and He cannot be found in noise and restlessness.
God is the friend of silence…
We need silence to be able to touch souls.”
–Mother Teresa
