My Antidote To Emotional Distress

During my college days, I was always fascinated with the psychology faculty, though I never got the chance to attend her wonderful lectures regularly, since I opted for commerce stream. But on few of the lucky occasions I got the privilege to attend her sessions, in terms of absentee period. It was a complete new chapter of my life which made me break few of the conventional approach I had about life. I learnt, that only yoga and meditation, are not the only two ways to de-stress yourself, but even shopping can be…yes you heard me correct!!! It’s shopping which can de-stress you in a better way, this therapy was taught to us on our 2^nd last day of absentee period. At first, I found it to be the biggest joke, cracked by our faculty, as the way she initiated was, ‘’how many of you today want to go on shopping to….’’. On listening this much we all girls, who shared the almost 1/6^th of the student ratio, stood our hands with a bright smile, but sooner our faculty finished the line….”get rid of STRESS”. On listening this a huge burst of gag could be heard from the opposite gender. We all suddenly dropped our hands in our laps, and gaped at our faculty, on which she smiled and wrote on the board; Retail Therapy.

I listened to her as if some saint is dissolving the sugar cubes in my ears repeatedly, since shopping has always been my favorite genre and amalgamation of my interest with de-stressing exercise, proved a blessing in disguise for me, since I could escape to shopping at any moment now, to de-stress myself. Her teachings were enough for me to know about the de-stress therapy, but I didn’t pay heed to it too much, since I was naive enough to understand the severity of the topic. The only difference I got was, that now I opted for shopping, with a big reason in my pocket, and for me stress become a more vulnerable subject to get the blows of shopping time and again.

But, over the years, I got mature enough, to realize the actual significance of retail therapy. It helped me at various aspects and phases of my life, whenever I switched to a new job, or battled through a personal or professional struggle, or I was unable to share my shell of stress with anyone, then I always headed to a nearest shopping destination to ease down my mental pressure.

For me shopping is a de-stressing exercise, and it can be nothing much better, if it comes with the online facility, since, everything has gone online, so the retail therapy also, no doubt it has come with a bundle of joy within an online shopping cart, since there are many online shopping destinations, with a huge number of wonderful varieties, I believe this shopping creates the wonders for the stress breakers.

Retail therapy, going online has changed the way we shop, dramatically. Retail therapy is giving way to e-tail therapy, and more people are shopping online. Best part is, it’s now not limited to apparels merely, but has widened it’s approach to purchase online books, accessories, gadgets, music and list is endless, that too while sitting at your home and avoiding the sarcastic laugh of climatic, commuting and listless challenges. The report suggests that 77% of Internet shoppers in South Korea buy apparel online, while the number is 68% in India, and it is not just domestic shopping- 74% of online shoppers in India are also buying from E-Commerce platforms based in other countries.

Just to wrap my thoughts in beautiful set of words, I think of the benefits of “Retail Therapy,” as my escape from stress, my dose of entertainment and rejuvenation of my Mind, Body & Soul.

Meenakshi Shukla