Early Morning Psyche Ponderings

The Good Morning Fairy decided to visit me today at 4am....the bitch woke me up and refused to let me return to sleep.  I gave up, came downstairs and cleaned the kitchen, then proceeded with my normal routine of coffee, newspaper, and Internet. 

While surfing the net, I ran across an interesting article by Wray Herbert regarding Awakening Your Inner Materialistic.  What he had to say hit home for me because just yesterday I had spent some time dealing with internal anger issues about a financial slight I had perceived in my job.  I had received an unexpected blessing but instead of being grateful, I spent too many minutes comparing what I received against what other, and in some cases who I perceived as "less deserving" people, had been given.  But this article gave me the wakeup call I needed in order to move past my materialistic jealousy.

Hebert outlines that people who are preoccupied with possessions are not very happy people. Consumerism is linked to anxiety, lousy relationships and poor mental and physical health.  Unless you live in a cave, you have been relentlessly bombarded since before Thanksgiving with images of goods that are novel, luxurious or necessary for personal fulfillment. Is it possible that these ubiquitous messages might awaken the inner consumer in all of us, leading to all those unsavory social consequences?

That's the idea that Northwestern University psychological scientist Galen Bodenhausen has been exploring in the laboratory. He and his colleagues suspected that even the purest anti-materialist might, under the right circumstances, respond to situational triggers, and that this mindset might have an immediate, untoward effect on well-being. This happens because a materialistic mindset activates certain values -- wealth, achievement, power and status -- while suppressing others, notably concern about others. This in turn leads to dissatisfaction with one's life, and to social disengagement.

Apparently when people start to seek value outside of the self, in extrinsic things, this mindset leads to a cascade of unpleasant effects: Self-comparisons and competitiveness result in dissatisfaction and anxiety, which in turn diminish trust and the desire to connect with others. In short, a not-so-wonderful life.

It's not clear from these experiments how long these distressing effects last. But in a way it doesn't matter. The ubiquity of these consumerist messages in everyday life -- and especially during the holiday season -- almost guarantees that, even if any single effect is not enduring, another cue will inevitably follow, reigniting materialistic thinking again and again, every shopping day until Christmas.

Hmmmm...interesting.  This article gave me a kick in the pants that my personal value is not measured upon the extrinsic rewards or possessions for which I receive.  And that when unexpected blessings come my way, I need to welcome them with open arms, being grateful for any shape and size in which they appear.  I also need to be appreciative of the blessings that others receive rather than spend time in comparison.

Deep huh?  Enough of that!!  Go forth and have a fabulous Hump Day filled with red high heels, metallic eye shadow and a splash of pink lipstick, Divas!!