I have successfully unsubscribed from almost every email that wants me to buy things. And I've finished looking at all the catalogs I Have gotten in the mail and recycled them.
I had this idea that if I pulled out the pictures of what I wanted from the catalogs, and just put it away for a little while that I would forget about it and stop wanting it. It's more like, now I had a drawer full of pictures of things that I wanted and knew I wasn't getting. What did I do? Online shopping naturally. BUT, but, I'm at least a little pleased with myself because I didn't go crazy and buy too much stuff, I just bought the few things that I had pulled out of the catalog. So it's not perfect, and it's my first backslide on a long road out of being addicted to materialistic things, but I'm still okay with it.
A long time ago I had decided to stop giving myself a hard time when I messed up on something. If I didn't study hard enough and got a lower grade than I wanted, I would try not to be upset, I would use it as a reminder to study harder but I'd try and skip the guilt. Or another big thing in my life is running late to every and any thing, sometime in high school I stopped rushing (since I was late anyway) and would not give myself a hard time. Skip the guilt, was my new mantra. The same applied to shopping when in college I had my own debit card and a job. Well, that debit card got over-drawn like every other weekend when I'd get paid and go shopping. I would say to myself, don't do that again! and then try and enjoy the things I had blown my money on. After all if part of the benefits to buying things (it's scientifically proven, there are benefits!) is the happy rush of yes-I -bought-something-awesome, why kill that high? That was my theory.
It's still my theory to a point. There is no reason to be too hard on yourself, it's really not healthy. But you have to acknowledge that it's something you want to change and find a way to do that, but please, skip the guilt!
P.S. my next step I'm going to attempt is to count ALL my clothes (shoes too). Wish me luck!
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