Remember when the ‘rona first hit and everyone decided to buy all of the pasta? Can we all agree that was both nuts and unnecessary? Let’s chalk that round of panic buying to emotions and all agree to never do it again. Here are some tips for resisting those urges in the future just in case things take a turn this winter:
- Making A List And Stick To It. Lockdown grocery shopping basically came down to a ‘monkey see, monkey do’ strategy. According to psychologist Becky Spelman, when we see empty shelves, we start to copy the behavior of stockpiling because “we think we need to be doing what other people are doing.” Resist your primal urges by making a shopping list and sticking to it. Psychologist Philip Karahassan says to “reconsider what you actually need in your home as opposed to what you feel like others are doing.” And unless you’re buying groceries for a village, you don’t need an entire shopping cart of toilet paper.
- Calm Your Mind. Instead of storming a convenience store like it’s Helm’s Deep, spend some time calming yourself down before you go shopping. Find a grounding technique or breathing exercise that works for you and do it in your car before you enter the store. And if you start to get anxious while you’re grocery shopping, psychologist Dr. Nick Earley recommends you ask yourself “what am I so panicked about.” Do some fact-checking of your worries in your head and you’ll probably realize you’re being a bit dramatic.
- Think Of Others. Remember how frustrated you were when you couldn’t find that thing you needed for a recipe or that other thing you were craving? Those went missing from stores simply out of selfishness. There was no need for people to buy out entire sections of things for themselves. This is why Spelman insists everyone tries to “stay calm, only buy what you need, and don’t stock up, because if we encourage people not to stockpile, then there won’t be any shortages of anything.”
Source:Metro