Treat Yourself

How indulging in small, inexpensive treats can improve your happiness and outlook on life.

What I read: “Treat culture: why indulging in small, affordable pleasures can help you cope with tough times” by Kokho Jason Sit. Published July 10, 2023.

My daily coffee ritual at my local coffee shop is a treat I give myself. Sure, I could make coffee at home. But the experience wouldn't be the same for me. It's a modest financial outlay, but it returns back so much in terms of relaxing me and starting my day off positively.

Oh, and my local coffee shop is known as a gathering place for dog people and their canine children. I get to pet at least a dozen happy dogs most mornings and that’s a damn good way to start any day.

Every day I treat myself to a 30-minute walk no matter what else I'm doing. It centers me, helps me enjoy the outdoors, and refreshes me in a way few other things do. It costs nothing.

Every couple of weeks I do a long excursion to the San Francisco Main Library and I walk around the aisles of books. I pick them up at random as they each pique my interest. I talk to others reading books about what they're reading.

Per the article by Kokho Jason Sit, I am indulging in “little treats.”

Inflation and high cost of living is putting holidays and luxury goods out of reach. In their place, indulgences like coffees, ice cream, lipstick or face masks can deliver pleasure in small doses. Treats are not expensive, nor are they a huge commitment. The ideal treat might be from a shop within walking distance of your home or office. You might even think of an episode of “guilty pleasure” television as a treat – a mid-afternoon Emily in Paris break, for example.

As someone who is trying to minimize that amount of “stuff” in my life, I’m not necessarily a fan of the retail therapy concept. The world really doesn’t need lots more stuff. However, treats in the form of consumables and experiences I can get entirely behind.

Treat culture, as the writer describes it, is akin to retail therapy but the focus is on small, inexpensive purchases.

I’m not going to discount all expensive purchases as being inappropriate treats to get us through the day. Almost every day I wear a simple leather jacket that was incredibly expensive for me at the time I bought it 15 years ago. But that jacket has brought me an incredible amount of joy and I feel sexy in it. That’s a version of costlier treat culture, but I still believe in erring on the side of inexpensive and experiential when possible. Again, the world already has far too much stuff in it and I bet your closets do too.

The positive emotions that emanate from a small treat for ourselves is typically derived from the consumption experience, not the thing itself or the price associated with it. Although, I recall expensive concert tickets to performances that I still tell stories about to friends a decade later. That’s a pretty good return on investment in my opinion.

Emotions are a key part of great consumer experiences. Research shows that experiential purchases, like meals out or concert tickets, deliver greater satisfaction and happiness to consumers than products.

We live in weird times. I could recount the challenges we all face. Climate change. Rising cost of living. Political turmoil. Rapidly changing employment landscape. The list goes on. Add to that the odd twists and turns our own lives take on an individual basis and we’re all clearly awash in aspects of life that could use a little treat indulgence now and then to blunt the impacts.

But treat culture, I believe, is a low-risk way to experience a morsel of happiness in dark times. The cost is usually minuscule (a bubble tea costs around £5), and you probably won’t be tempted to use a buy-now-pay-later scheme to finance it. To fully experience the satisfaction of treat culture, you should be able to purchase and consume the product in person, for optimal instant gratification. So, spending debt is unlikely and post-purchase remorse is unnecessary.

Alongside all the less expensive little treats you can give yourself, never forget that many treats are free. Walks in the park. Free public concerts. Reading a good book. Listening to our favorite album. But, if you’re want to treat yourself to something that costs money, maybe pick mostly small expenditures that create mini experiences that will regularly bolster your mood and outlook.

I’m going to meditate now. It’s something I treat myself to every single day with rare exception. It costs nothing. It clears my mind. It centers me. It is, in short, one of my daily treats. Of course, when I’m done meditating, I’m going to walk to the local ice cream parlor and get a scoop of some dark chocolate lusciousness. That’ll be a treat too.

Go treat yourself to something. You deserve it.

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