Visual stimulation
I realized yesterday how quiet my life is not compared to what it was when I lived in Massachusetts. Not just because I don’t commute 80 miles a day anymore and because now I live on a quiet country road. Not just because there are less people around.
When I spent my 15 years in retail, it was a busy world. The store I worked in was beautiful. It had gorgeous displays of fruit or seafood or prepared foods, or in the case of my department, lotions and potions and good-for-you vitamins and herbs. We made it a point to be beautiful. I moved in a fast-paced world. In my department alone, there were an average of 10,000 products that I was in charge of making sure my capable buyers kept shelves stocked and beautiful. Often the store was busy, there was music in the background, the hum of the registers in the air and people talking all around. It was what I was used to, what I knew and what I thrived in.
Yesterday after church RP and I went north to the Box Store Area of northern Vermont. We had an antenna to return to Best Buy that didn’t work. We also went into Linen n’ Things which is going out of business and the Christmas Tree shop. RP isn’t a shopper by nature, though he could have spent hours in best buy in the music section. He was a good sport to go into the other two stores. I am a veteran shopper. I love it…or so I thought until yesterday. I had missions, so as not to get too distracted. Because in a Christmas Tree Shop you could spend hours getting stuff that you didn’t know you needed until you got there!
What I realized after we stumbled out of the third store into the sunshine was how visually overstimulated I was after just a short time in each store. My brain could barely take in all that was offered and I could sense a dull headache would be approaching at some point if we stayed too much longer. There was too much noise, too much stuff and too many people.
It was amazing to me when I realized how different this was from when I worked in retail. In the area where we live, there aren’t any big box stores. There is only a very small Wal-mart which I avoid like the plague because I think it is the plague. The biggest things around here are grocery stores, Big Lots or tractor supply stores. It’s not often we get to Big Box Land. I guess I’ve lost the shopping habit over the past few years….and that’s ok.
There is less stuff in my house and that’s a good thing. There is less money bleeding out of my checking account and that’s a good thing. There is less time I am spending in the pursuit of things and that’s a good thing, too. There is more time in my small town and house on the dirt road with my family. That’s a very good thing.
How are you visually stimulated/overstimulated?
I am a 41 year old woman lucky to live in Vermont. I live with my husband, Running Professor, and my 8 year old daughter, lil moonspun. Read more about me in
October 27th, 2008 at 2:55 pm
I feel that way when I watch TV. Which is why I don’t watch TV. I read somewhere that the average time before an image on the screen changes is some small amount (less than 2 seconds?) – which has been deemed to be the average attention span of Americans. I’ve also read that many psychologists attribute this type of TV programming to the rise in ADD in children.
Either way I know TV makes me feel horrible, so I stay away for the most part.
I’ve also had very similar experiences while shopping too. Your need to get out of there is something I’ve experienced too. Best Buy makes me NUTTY. A half hour in there would make me insane enough to want to kick puppies or something. If I ever have to go I make sure I’m in and out in less than 10 minutes.
October 27th, 2008 at 3:07 pm
I have a tumultuous relationship with those box stores too. Especially those Home Goods/TJMAXX/Marshalls ones. buy buy buy and it adds up quick then I realize what I’ve done and need to turn the car around and return a portion of the purchases that fit OK but for $10 I’ll make it fit.
Yes, generally shopping and being on the computer playing games etc are what get me feeling brain dead and grumpy. I need to go for a cleansing walk or yawn for a good hour afterwards to get back to where I once belonged.
Being a consumer in general is tiresome though. That’s interesting that you noticed the change.
October 27th, 2008 at 3:25 pm
Eight, in our parent/teacher conference FFO was talking to the teacher about something she studied in graduate school in relation to media. Apparently what she learned is that some tv is purposefully programmed to be a stimulant. She called that ‘caffeine’ tv. (She was trying to point out to the teacher that she doesn’t let lil moonspun watch ‘cafeeine tv’ but that’s another post). It’s interesting in the contest of your comment. Maybe you are just too overstimulated by it. I don’t watch a huge amount of tv, it for sure makes me lethargic very quickly!
Pec: Those stores you mention are good examples. Though any store you can get caught up in…in the wrong way. I tend not to return something unless it’s broken, though, as returning things TOTALLY stresses me out!
October 27th, 2008 at 7:34 pm
Shopping gets to me too. Especially during the holidays. I avoid it as much as possible, and do most of my Christmas shopping online. We typically go to the grocery store and make one big trip at the beginning of the month and see how long we can go without grocery shopping again.
October 28th, 2008 at 12:54 am
Lately, everything hurts my brain and sometimes my soul. TV is too much unless it’s comedy. The election crap and the economic disaster have gotten to me. The local news tonight started with plots to kill Obama and a hundred other random black people, quickly followed by the story of an EIGHT-YEAR OLD BOY who shot himself in the head with an UZI, an f’ing UZI, at a “fun family day” at a Westfield, MA gun club. A well-respected ER doctor actually allowed his son to go out and shoot an uzi under the “supervision” of “trained professionals,” and now he’s dead. They showed his gorgeous little face, and it wrecked me!
The next story was about a guy who dragged his Australian Shepherd ten miles tied to his truck because he supposedly forgot in his drunken stupor that his “beloved” dog was tied to the back of his truck. All I wanted to see was the weather, and that’s what I got.
Then I went shopping for party supplies for Friday – big mistake – and then I had to go replace my cell phone – bigger mistake. Yeah, shopping has started to make me as sick as the nightly news.
October 28th, 2008 at 7:59 am
Heather: That’s a good idea…stocking up once a month!
Lola: I hear you about the news. I watch it more now than I ever did (now that I am married to a professor) and it’s often disturbing. Ok, most times.
Next time, maybe get the weather online!
October 28th, 2008 at 10:52 am
Lola, I avoid the news most of all – for the same reasons you outlined. I read the headlines online and control what goes into my brain and what does not. Just the stuff I need to know, not the sensationalized misery that is so abundant.
Moon, I’d be interested to hear more about FFO’s caffeine tv.
October 29th, 2008 at 10:01 am
I loathe going to the Christmas Tree Shop. It’s too crowded and the shoppers there are brutal, at least at the one nearest to me.