I am going to be honest – I dislike shopping. I haven’t been scouting around the shops for years, and not only because of straitened finances. It isn’t something that it occurs to me to do, and isn’t a way in which I like to pass my time. Despite this, there are places I would go to for a shopping spree.
I am getting into the mindset here of having won a huge amount on the lottery. Because if I am going to be dragged out shopping, I can guarantee it’s going to be to do some very serious shopping. So, the first place I would go to would be Bond Street in London and all the little back streets around there that house some of the most amazing boutiques and stores. I would also hit Knightsbridge and Kensington, again wandering around the back streets where the true gems can be found. I don’t know what I would buy, if anything really, but I would love to browse through the stores in the certain knowledge that I could afford anything I chose to have.
While I’m thinking about this, though, I am considering the perversity of shopping that I have found in my life. If you have lots of money, you can go shopping with the full intention of spending a bomb on all sorts of things only to find that it is very difficult to do so. I’ve found that I simply cannot find anything I really like enough to buy. And yet, when I don’t have the finances but am browsing the shops it is a positive cornucopia of beautiful items I would love to have in my wardrobe or house. The other thing I have noticed is that when I am my ideal dress size, I can find no clothes I like in it only in the larger sizes. Yet, when I am that larger size I can only find clothes I like in the smaller sizes. I wonder, is the universe trying to tell me something?
I am also that person who hums and haws over a purchase, especially if it is what I consider to be expensive. Even if I have the money, I will think about the purchase as I wander around. I will have started with the absolute intention of buying what I have picked up then I will look at it and think ‘will I wear it’, ‘what will I wear it with’, ‘where will I wear it’ and numerous other questions. Similarly, if it’s an ornament or a piece of furniture, I will ask myself over and over again if it’s really necessary. And I often talk myself out of the purchase. And usually that subconscious reason is because I don’t want to spend the money because I am scared that if I do, I will need the money another day for something that is truly necessary. It’s a lack mindset. Yes, it stops me from outlandish purchases but it also stops me from living a truly abundant life.
I think that is why I don’t enjoy shopping. I don’t enjoy browsing the shops and getting ideas for interior design or my wardrobe because I have a lack mentality which means when I see things I really like, my mind says ‘but you’ll never be able to afford it’ or that I will never have the house to have, say, the kitchen of my dreams. So, a shopping spree with that mindset removed would be a real experience for me regardless of where I had it.
I know how to overcome this kind of mindset, I’ve trained enough for it. It is just that sometimes, we don’t see that kind of mindset. So, I have often thought that I simply couldn’t afford what I’ve been looking at or there was the fear that I couldn’t afford it. To me, that was a reality I had but actually, it was a mindset. It was a lack mindset based on a fear that money would suddenly evaporate (which I successfully made happen on more than one occasion). It is a complex and deep-seated fear that I have, and equally one I have never truly put effort into overcoming. Because it is a comfort zone for me. I am comfortable in a lack mindset because I have played that programme for so long. Interesting.
This question has taken a turn for me I wasn’t expecting, but it has been tremendously useful and I am grateful for that. I am now going to go off and work through this lack mindset and get on top of it. Because I am going to go on that spending spree. I am going to overcome this barrier that I have put in place on me. And I am going to thrive and prosper, going on spending sprees that are tremendously satisfying!
Thank you.
Louisa Simpson 