By Joe Cirillo, Consultant, Organizer and Author
In my book It’s Your Time, which was featured in Oprah’s O Magazine and in my workshops, I helped thousands of people to let go and get organized at home and work.
Since writing my book, I have spent several years researching the emotions that drive us to over buy. Why do we tend to buy more than what we need? Why does buying make us feel good and give us pleasure?
And is that fleeting feeling worth the clutter, which in turn affects us mentally and physically through stress, financial burden and the loss of valuable time?
The science of why we experience pleasure from buying:
My interest in helping people and in human behavior inspired me to learn more about why we do what we do, how our feelings, habits, impulses and thoughts function and how they impact our decisions.
I conducted extensive research, collaborating with an evolutionary psychologist and neuroscientist into the science and the biological roots of primitive human behaviors.
From this research I learned the relevance of our biological roots and the powerful influence our subconscious mind has on how we make decisions to buy and sometimes over consume.
The subconscious is where memory and emotions emanate from. When we shop for food, clothing, products and homes, an innate auto response is triggered in the subconscious as it visually and emotionally processes the pleasure it will experience.
Our decisions to buy are influenced by the pleasure center of the subconscious, which makes 95% of our decisions after determining if there is safety, reward and/or pleasure.
This response is biologically connected to memory and the survival need of food, water, clothing and shelter that makes us feel safe.
These are survival instincts in the subconscious that influence our feel better mood when we shop. This gives us pleasure in the moment, encouraging us to buy more than we need to make sure that we have enough to survive.
Why we experience fear from discarding:
How many times do we feel a jolt of fear from the thought of letting go of possessions we don’t use – canned and packaged foods we may never eat, clothing we never wear and files of documents we no longer need?
This jolt is the survival instinct of subconscious processing that, “I may need it someday” and “Will we have enough to survive.”
These instincts prevent us from discarding attachments, some emotional, some not, or memories connected to certain possessions that make us feel good and safe but in reality create clutter and anxiety.
Discarding eliminates clutter that blocks our ability to process important information effectively.
When we finally let go, we experience the euphoric feeling of freedom and see a clear path to being organized. Rather than losing valuable time we start to appreciate that we can gain time in a world that seems to move at mach speeds.
How we can understand ourselves better:
The significance of our biological past is relevant to learning how we can make informed decisions, not just in the shopping environment but in our daily lives, by understanding where our emotions and feelings come from.
Having knowledge of the powerful subconscious can be life changing in learning how these biological survival instincts control our emotions and decisions.
It will help us to take control and buy only what we need, eliminate stress from clutter, unexpected high credit bills and lead to a more productive, happier life.
To learn more, contact Joe Cirillo and schedule a free consultation session via email at joe@itsyourtimeco.com or phone at 310.795.1045.
