I have come to acknowledge that consumerism rules my life. It has been a growing force, but has become oh so illuminated when I stumbled upon the fantastic book “The Art of Frugal Hedonism.” This book is life-changing in that it has broken open something deep within me and cored out a new lens of perception.
The authors posit that in order to live an extraordinary life your spending needs to be less than ordinary. I consider myself to be pretty aware of the attention economy; anything and everything vying to get your attention. What I am beginning to understand is not only the dollar amount attached to these products and experiences, but the true cost. We are being sold a branded life, full of aesthetic but lacking in awe.
I want my life to be bursting with awe, and to do this I realize I need to tug on the seams of my own anxieties. I feel I have been operating out of this mindset of “if I have enough, I am enough.” I have been sold this depreciation of myself through a market that incites mistrust. I can no longer buy into this tenuous tirade, for I fear I will lose sight of myself.
And so I want to live a life of hedonism, enthralled by the senses and defined by simplicity. I need to continue this work of recognizing my patterns of insecurity while building a foundational relationship with my intentions. By spending according to my own values, rather than a misguided society’s, I create more resonance in my being.
What I invest in comprises my reality, and so I choose to construct one worth inhabiting.