As more and more of us receive our covid-19 vaccines and our society begins to reopen it would be easy to overdo going places and doing things. One of those things may be a shopping trip to your neighborhood mall.
I am a minimalist. I don’t buy things just for the sake of buying things. But, I do sometimes find myself at a mall. Here’s how I changed my thinking about shops to enjoy being there:
Library: every t-shirt shop, greeting card department, and poster/sign store becomes a library. I simply read and enjoy the offerings while being amazed at what other people are willing to show of themselves to the world at large.
Museum: look at the items on display without trying to take any of them home.
Multimedia: enjoy looking at the records and/or films on display.
Memory Lane: pay attention to the memories triggered by what you are seeing and enjoy those.
Playground: at toy stores think about what you would enjoy buying for your kids, grandkids, or yourself.
Self Analysis: Replay all of the above noticing what it says about you. At the Libraries notice what things appeal and wonder why. Do the same thing at the Museums. When viewing Multimedia think about who you were with or what was happening in your life at the time that particular song/film was part of your experience. Are there ways to recreate the good parts without spending money? As you travel down Memory Lane wonder why those particular memories come to mind and what they may be trying to tell you. At Playgrounds, think about what feeling each toy brings to you and think about if there’s some other way you can get that feeling.
No need to spend money to enjoy a trip to the mall.
Except for the gas you spent to get there, of course.
TTYL,
Linda
We live in a small town so I haven’t been to a mall in years. But about 35 years ago I had to drive to Albuquerque to pick Kaitlin up and some of our summer students wanted to come along to go to a mall there. We were all excited about it and separated, agreeing to meet back at a specific time. Less than ten minutes later one of the students and I encountered one another in the book store. I’m not a minimalist, but I’m sure not a shopper.
I’ve never enjoyed shopping. and for a girl especially in my teenage years it was odd.
I am totally content with what I have. I like to see it. but I have no desire for it!
and that’s really what I think you’re saying here. 😀 and it makes sense to me. xo
The older I get the more I hate shopping. I am on a campaign to get rid of stuff. At least my stuff. 🤣🤣🤣
I used to love shopping – it was one of the pleasures at a time of my life which otherwise wasn’t nice – and I loved to get bright coloured clothing and in the stores things that went together as a whole – but then I would often be seen wearing clashing items.
The reason things then did clash had to do with “bad home life” – I had everything in piles on a big shelving unit, I didn’t have time in the morning to carefully select anything – so whatever was on the t-shirt or pants or socks pile was that days’ gear. And being bright they made me happy-as…
Later when a “well meaning person” got me into black and grey – my other friends totally missed me! I’m still nearly always in dull colours even though I have some interesting prints…along with clothes items that by mistake someone was wearing when they were splashing paint around! i.e. I still am wondering why there is some stripes of gold paint on the back of a plain navy t-shirt!