Eating Disorder Referral and Information Center

International Eating Disorder Referral Organization

 

Mindful Shopping

By Donald Altman, M.A. Author, Meal by Meal, Art of the Inner Meal, 12-Weeks to Mindful Eating Treatment Guide, and Mindful Eating Meal Cards

The idea of “mindful shopping” might seem like an oxymoron—two ideas or words that could never go together. This may be especially true in the U.S., where the average shopper is over stimulated an every way possible, from TV shopping networks to giant superstores that offer everything imaginable in family-sized quantities. Psychologists began studying why it was difficult for compulsive shoppers and compulsive eaters to control their urges back in the 1970s. That was when two psychologists at Northwestern University, Philip Brickman and Donald Campbell, developed the theory of the hedonic treadmill.

Their concept was founded on the basis that people are genetically wired, or driven, to seek out what is novel and pleasurable. Consumers, for example, people get a positive feeling, or reward, from buying novel things—new food items, clothes, electronic gadgets, jewelry, etc.. Like an addict, regardless of how much pleasure is initially derived, it takes more and more of the “consumption drug” to feel the same high feeling. Before long, we are on the treadmill, and things we never cared about before become things we now can’t live without.

For those who struggle with compulsive overeating, the hedonic treadmill effect is heightened by another kind of effect that I like to call the “scarcity treadmill”. This is also based on our genetic wiring—the human need to fill up and consume as many calories as possible because for tens of thousand of years in human history we didn’t know where that next meal would be coming from! Unlike the hedonic treadmill, which is driven by pleasure and reward, the scarcity treadmill is driven by fear, anxiety, and worry. For instance, think about every time there is a possible gas shortage in this country, how people constantly “top off” their tanks for fear of running out of gasoline.

This scarcity treadmill effect is profound. In the workshops that I lead based on my 12-Weeks to Mindful Eating program, I have found several people who are triggered to binge eating and bulimic binge/purge eating after shopping at those giant, mega-mart stores! Often, such “big box” retailers and other large stores offer food tasting throughout the store. The food tasting, along with the abundance of food and size of products, can lead to disordered eating behavior once people get home with their food purchases. The point here is not to pick on big box retailers, but to help people become aware of when, where, and how they get triggered.

Mindful shopping is just that, awareness before hand of which environments can be challenging. To shop mindfully requires a lot of paying attention—to emotions, thoughts, memories, the body, and hunger sensations. There are several methods for reducing the effects talked about here, from breathing and mindful grounding to reducing or managing the environment. Using skills and awareness as a mindful shopper, the experience of consuming can be a positive one, even if you happen to be in a humongous mega-mart.
 

 

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