Embracing Mindful Consumption: Insights, Reflections, and Our AI Agent Solution

Reading time 10 minutes

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In today’s newsletter

• Intro

• How big is the problem

• We’ve all done it

• A bit of research

• Quote

• What AI tools are available to help

• A surprise AI solution from us - Meet BuyLess

• The takeaway message

• Our mission

• Share your story

Introduction

This one is for those who feel overwhelmed by the amount of stuff you have or break out in a cold sweat when you see your credit card bill. In a way, this is a good thing because you recognise that there is a problem. And that problem is the inability to say no to buying stuff.

Let’s admit, we like shiny new stuff and enjoy the dopamine hit of the delivery turning up at our door. Thanks to next-day delivery, it’s like Christmas, and you can have one tomorrow. Social media and email subscriptions make it worse because we are constantly bombarded by adverts of the latest eco-techy toothbrush or a new keyboard, the latest version of the phone you have. The list is endless.

So, how big is the problem globally?

The global statistics on consumption and consumer debt highlight the significant and growing impact of consumer and household debt on the global economy, reflecting the challenges associated with excessive consumption and its consequences, including compulsive shopping and its link to debt and hoarding. 

• Consumer Debt: According to Experian, consumer debt grew to $16.84 trillion in the second quarter of 2023, reflecting a 4.5% increase since Q2 2022. Credit card and personal loan debt saw significant growth, increasing by 16.3% and 21.3%, respectively.

• Household Debt: The total household debt in the United States rose by 1.3% to reach $17.29 trillion in the third quarter of 2023, as reported by the New York Federal Reserve. 

• Debt as a Proportion of Household Income: In the UK, debt as a proportion of household income rose from 85% in 1996 to 156% at its peak in 2008, as per the House of Commons Library. 

• Household Debt as a Percentage of Net Disposable Income: The OECD provides data on household debt as a percentage of net disposable income for various countries. For example, in 2021, household debt was 25% of net disposable income in Mexico, 37% in Latvia, and 37% in Russia. 

We are also our worst enemy, inventing ways to justify the purchase: it’s excellent quality, it will last forever, I will use it all the time and so on. In all the excitement, we forget to be honest and consider the actual value of that item to us, so we end up having an excellent, expensive bicycle in the garage that we use three times a year. Let’s admit the bike costing three times less would have been perfect, or even the one you already had with good service and some upgrades. 

Hands up if you have outfits in your closet you bought because they looked nice on a model and convinced yourself that you’d wear them all the time, but it doesn’t fit in what you’d wear every day. 

We’ve all done it

I myself am guilty of buying that lovely expensive watch just to sit in the drawer because it turns out it is just a bit too dressy or valuable to wear every day. I also remember my last phone upgrade, thinking this new one did not give me anything more than the previous one, but I fell for the marketing blurb. Well, we learn and get better, right? 

Now, I am a lot more considerate with my purchases. I am honest with myself now and admit if something doesn’t fit my lifestyle or won’t get used. I am not buying the £2,000 guitar because it is a hobby for me, and I only play for my own entertainment and to avoid torturing other people, and my budget one is perfect for that. Or I am not getting that fancy car because I know that my lifestyle means I will not make the most of it; it would sit on the driveway four days out of seven, losing value. 

Everything we have occupies a part of our mind. Once you own something, it moves into your brain, occupying space. Now you have to deal with the responsibilities of maintaining it, looking at it every day, being reminded that it was a wrong decision, worrying about it breaking, and better things you could have done with your money. Just writing this is stressful.

Naturally, as a curious person and one who is on a self-improvement journey, I wanted to look into what’s behind compulsive buying and what we can do about it.

A bit of research 

Scientific research and articles on consumerism and excessive buying list three main REASONS people cannot resist buying things. These are often rooted in psychology and emotional factors:

• Emotional Influence: Positive emotions can increase the likelihood of purchase, while negative emotions can lead to avoidance. Emotional motivators are twice as powerful as rational motivators in driving consumer decisions.

• Psychological Factors: The need for status, belongingness, self-expression, convenience, and the appeal of visually pleasing aesthetics can significantly influence consumer behaviour.

• Compulsive Buying Behavior: A propensity for mood repair often drives compulsive buying, and individuals with better emotional regulation exhibit lower levels of materialism and compulsive buying. 

So then I started wondering about the deeper underlying issue that might TRIGGER compulsive buying:

• Emotional Deprivation in Childhood: A need to fill an inner void and an inability to tolerate negative feelings may drive compulsive shopping behaviour.

• Stress and Emotional Pain: Masking negative and uncomfortable emotions such as stress, anxiety, and boredom.

• Instant Gratification: The release of endorphins and dopamine in the brain upon making a purchase as the instant reward and pleasure outweigh self-control.

• Escaping Negative Feelings: Shopping to escape negative emotions such as depression, anxiety, boredom, and anger. 

• Social Comparison and Approval Seeking: The need for approval and social comparison can also be triggers for compulsive buying behaviour. 

The ACTIONABLE STEPS suggested by the authors below unsurprisingly resemble some of those I talked about before when discussing self-awareness. 

• Identifying Triggers: Recognising the triggers that lead to compulsive shopping, such as stress, emotional pain, or social influences.

• Emotional Regulation: Learning to manage emotional responses to marketing tactics, sales pressure, or societal expectations to avoid succumbing to emotional impulses.

• Mindful Consumption: Practicing mindful and intentional consumption (such as the Value-based approach above) to reduce the negative impact of compulsive shopping on their well-being. 

• Financial Counseling and Psychotherapy: Seeking professional help to address the underlying emotional and psychological factors driving compulsive shopping. 

Quote:

“I make myself rich by making my wants few.” 

 Henry David Thoreau

Are there any AI tools to help?

In my search, I could not find any AI (or other) tools to help with this specific problem. What I found are several mental health applications that leverage machine learning algorithms to offer personalised suggestions, record progress, and give users real-time feedback. They can identify cognitive and behavioural patterns and adjust them according to users' real-time data for emotional regulation and behaviour tracking in mental health and wellness.

• Mood Tracking and AI-Driven Psychotherapy Apps: These applications use AI to analyse self-reported mood data and offer cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), dialectical behaviour therapy, and mindfulness-based interventions.

• AI Chatbots for Therapy: AI chatbots can deliver psychoeducation and self-regulation strategies based on CBT, positive psychology, and other therapeutic approaches. 

• Emotion Regulation Applications: There are AI-powered emotion regulation applications that offer services such as mood tracking, mindfulness exercises, CBT techniques, and stress reduction tools. 

• Journal Apps for Therapy and Mental Wellness: Some journal apps, such as Clarity – CBT Thought Diary and MindDoc, combine CBT principles with mood tracking to help manage mental health and offer insights into symptoms, behaviours, and emotional well-being. 

A surprise we have been working on

Choosing this subject for today’s newsletter was no coincidence. Michal and I are very excited to reveal that we have been working on an AI Agent for this specific problem. 

We feel the effects of compulsive buying and gathering possessions on ourselves and have seen it affect many people we know.  We think this is a global problem that not only affects people's mental health but also has a massive impact on our environment, so we decided to develop our own AI Agent called BuyLess.

We are demonstrating and trying it in our podcast episode, so please see if this topic resonates with you. You can find all our podcast links at mindfulway.ai.

Try BuyLess here*

*Available for free in the OpenAI GPT Store for premium ChatGPT subscribers. If you don’t have a premium account but want to try the Chatbot, you can book a test session with us by clicking here. We'll be happy to jump on the call and explore it with you.

What’s the takeaway message?

As we navigate through a consumer-driven world, it’s important to remember that true wealth lies not in the abundance of possessions but in the richness of experiences and the freedom that comes from making intentional choices about what we allow into our lives. 

A step towards a mindful life involves taking a moment to reflect on our habits, understand our triggers, and take meaningful steps towards decluttering our spaces and freeing our minds from the stresses of owning too much. 

One of our aims here at mindfulway is to help our community transform their relationship with material goods. We want you to make a more mindful decision when purchasing things and buy only those that bring value to our lives, which brings us to this week’s surprise announcement.

Our mission

At mindfulway we don't just want to talk about how AI might help improve our lives, but we actually want to do something about it. 

By developing our own chatbots, we are employing advanced AI technology to create personalised AI Agents for self-improvement. Our AI Agents are designed to interact with users in a deeply personalised manner, offering advice tailored to the unique circumstances of each user. 

Stay with us and subscribe to be the first to know when we release our next bot in a series of mindfulway-developed applications.

Share your story. We’d love to hear from you!

We believe in learning from others just by hearing about their experiences, so if you find that you relate, why not share your story? Have you used any AI tools in your self-development journey? Would you use one? 

Let us know, and share your journey or join us on our podcast. We want to dedicate a section of our content to sharing your experience so we can all learn something valuable. 

Please get in touch with us; we’d love to know what you think about the content we are producing and if you enjoy our chats with Michal.

Thank you for joining me, and see you in the next one.

Andras