A big reason for why my spending has been so out of control is that I use spending to cope with negative emotion. Oh, I’m feeling bad let me buy some dresses. I’m sad let me go buy a $9 latte. I fall into this trap of spending money in order to alleviate the bad feelings.

The issue with this is it causes a reaction in me. I just spent so much money when I’m in debt which brings up more shame and sadness. This in turn causes me to want to spend more to deal with negative emotion.

The good news about negative emotion is that you can just kind of sit with it. If you sit with your negative emotion long enough it will begin to dissolve.

That’s the thought process behind my wallmaxxing constraints the avoidance of music and podcasts is designed to help cultivate mindfullness so that I can make better choices and sit with my negative emotion instead of feeding them.