Retrospective Lily

Just one cookie, Mom! Please!

I’m an avid watcher of YouTube videos. As a person who has acted financially irresponsible in the past, I feel captivated by the community of content creators discussing mindful consumption.

Potential topics include:

• Habits to help you save money in the long run
• Resisting temptations from influencers and advertisements
• Biological/psychological reasons we shop and/or hoard stuff
• How to have fun and find fulfillment without spending money
• Etc.

Much of our shopping is a form of self-soothing and self-medicating…hence the term “retail therapy.” But the excitement, or the relief, is fleeting.

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A funny revelation hit me recently: Americans are too privileged for our own good.

We are adult versions of children who must be shooed away from the cookie jar so we don’t “ruin our supper.”

Except that no one stands by to shoo us away. Thus, given the freedom to make our own choices, we cram those cookies down our gullets at an alarming rate.

In this metaphor, the cookies are unhealthy foods and cheap goods. “Ruining our supper” can equate to a variety of bad outcomes…like a full closet and an empty savings account, or a full belly and poor nutrition.

We stockpile our homes with junk, then rent storage units for the excess. We eat a lot of highly processed food, then suffer from health issues.

Finally, if and when we see the self-sabotaging error of our ways, we try to course-correct with methods like intuitive eating, dieting, decluttering, or budgeting. We implement self-boundaries after seeing the consequences of having none.

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I wonder what an impoverished person, or someone living in the Great Depression era, would think of this content. They are/were actually struggling for food and necessities, while many of us “struggle” with having too much.

It’s crazy to think how many creators earn a living by advising Americans on how to stop overeating and overspending. The irony is almost palpable.

Meditating on these observations makes me feel less tempted to overindulge.

Every time I want to buy something frivolous or act gluttonous, I think back to this post, and the urge dissipates.

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To be fair, some would make the valid argument that companies load junk food with addictive chemicals and market products to us ruthlessly and relentlessly. In other words, rather than shaming ourselves for falling prey to temptation, we should blame the companies that prey on us.

There is some truth to that. Also, I don’t condone an extremist viewpoint like “I’m never eating sweets again” or “I’m not shopping at all this year.”

Total deprivation makes our cravings even more ravenous (which is why fad diets and complete no-buys tend to fail eventually).

However, back to the metaphor – even if someone waves a cookie jar under our noses, beckoning us to take some, isn’t it still our choice to reach in and grab a handful?

Let’s take some accountability and develop self-control! We don’t need to constantly overindulge, but an occasional indulgence is perfectly reasonable.

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Metaphorically and literally, I have a sweet tooth. My childish half has her hand in the cookie jar. My adultish half is using my free hand to pull the other one out of the cookie jar. And, so, the war wages on.