Retail Therapy: Understanding the Benefits of Shopping and How To Do It

Shopping is one effective way that can improve the mood of some people – which is why the term “retail therapy” is so popular. This therapy is even considered good to maintain your mental health. However, retail therapy can also be detrimental if the desire to shop is not controlled.

In contrast to monthly shopping activities, retail therapy is a shopping activity that is done specifically to relieve stress and improve mood.  For some people, this is often seen as a ‘reward’ for the effort or hard work that has been done.

What are the Benefits of Retail Therapy?

A study shows that retail therapy has psychological and therapeutic effects that can support mood changes for the better and positive, increase the feeling of happiness, pride, and gratitude. In addition, this therapy can also provide other benefits listed down below.

1.   Triggers the release of happy hormones

The process of seeing, choosing, and finally deciding to buy the goods during retail therapy can trigger the release of endorphins and dopamine hormones, which are hormones that help to relieve pain and create feelings of happiness.

2.   Divert the mind from negative thoughts

Seeing the large selection of products that are displayed in store windows or catalog online platforms is believed to be able to divert negative thoughts that disturb the mind and will help you to instead focus on the beautiful things that are in front of your eyes.

3.   Restores a sense of control over life

When feeling sad or stressed, a person tends to feel helpless and think that they can only accept what is happening in their life without any say in it. The good news is, by doing retail therapy, it will be able to restore that lost sense of control. Because when you are in the process of deciding to choose and purchase something, the control is back in your hand.

4.   Growing a sense of satisfaction

Retail therapy satisfaction will appear when you finally purchase something using the money that you have saved. You may have saved for it for a long time, specifically just to buy it. Thus once you finally get your dream item, it will make you feel like you are getting a ‘prize’ for your effort and patience. This process can increase the amount of the hormone dopamine in the body, thereby triggering a feeling of happiness and satisfaction.

5.   Create a positive social interaction

When you shop alone at a mall or store, you will interact with store employees and other visitors. Good social interactions, such as getting positive attitudes from others, can promote happy feelings of being appreciated.

How to do Retail Therapy Properly?

Retail therapy will only provide benefits when done properly and not excessively. Instead of improving the mood, excessive and uncontrolled spending can worsen the mood due to the emergence of financial problems. To prevent this from happening, the tips below should be applied when you want to do retail therapy.

●     Adjust to the budget

When doing retail therapy and you want to buy something that is considered attractive, make sure the price is within your budget range. If you buy something too expensive beyond your means, then this will give negative consequences such as worsening financial conditions.

Therefore, you need to make a spending budget for retail therapy every month and don’t exceed the set limit. If you want something that exceeds your budget, then you should save instead of using a credit card or taking out money from another budget.

●     Shop for items that are really needed

The next tip for safe retail therapy is to only buy what you need. If there are items that are interesting but are not really needed, you can just appreciate them from afar. Experts believe that retail therapy does not mean that you have to purchase anything you set your eyes on. Even without buying, these activities can offer you the same benefits for your mental health.

●     Consider carefully before buying

Before going shopping for retail therapy, make a list of items that need to be purchased. When you get to the store, resist the urge to buy anything other than the list you’ve made. To find out if something deserves to be on your shopping list, you can wait a day or two after the list is made and then review the items that have been written down. If after waiting there are items that are not too important to be included, you can remove them from the list.

●     Choose the best place to do the shopping

Retail therapy can be done through shopping online or offline, everything is back to your preference and time availability. Nowadays online shopping is much easier to do, and at the same time can give you the same happy effect that you’re after. Not to mention, online shopping platforms usually will give its customers more deals and discounts thus shopping can be done more economically.

 

If you are currently looking for an e-commerce platform to shop away your worries, you should definitely choose Temu! Temu is a U.S.-based shopping platform that is currently loved by the customers due to its customer-centric policy and extremely low cost. You should get the full benefit of retail therapy by shopping at Temu.

Retail therapy can be a great way to manage your worry and improve your mood. But at the same time, make sure you don’t rely on this as a way to escape your problem.

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