{"id":30207,"date":"2023-05-13T08:56:00","date_gmt":"2023-05-13T06:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/danceofchaos.com\/?p=30207"},"modified":"2023-05-06T20:29:02","modified_gmt":"2023-05-06T18:29:02","slug":"me-and-branded-things","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/danceofchaos.com\/de\/blogpost\/30207","title":{"rendered":"Me and Branded Things"},"content":{"rendered":"

Guest contribution by Lalitha<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inner battle of desire, conditioned logic, and hard reality<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I hail from a simple ‘middle class’ South Indian family. I was always taught the importance of valuing money and spending it wisely. Throughout my childhood and up until my marriage, I was provided with very good quality products, especially clothes. When I came to Germany right after my marriage, a lot of things dawned on me. Running a household had never been my job and I had to manage our finances somehow. Most of the clothes and kitchen utensils were brought from India, as regarding finances it was a hard phase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"picture<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Slowly, after almost 2 years, I became financially stronger and moved to a beautiful city called Aachen. I happened to live in the city centre and often saw a lot of shops with all branded products on display. I always wondered why they were so overpriced. I remember buying a pair of jeans for 5\u20ac in a super sale and a new winter jacket for literally 4\u20ac. I loved wearing them and every time someone would ask me where I got the jacket from, the first thing I would say was that it had only cost me 4 euros. I mention this just to give you an idea of how far removed I was from branded products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, deep down there was always this desire to own or wear something branded. But my conditioned, logical brain would always ask me why? Why would I want to spend ten times as much on a product that could be bought for much less price and of good quality? I could afford it, yet I was very reluctant. I just could not break open my mental ties and go the the market to swipe my card carefree. I realized; it is not about having enough money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The joy of breaking open my mental ties<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gradually, our finances in general as a family, further got better and my desire grew stronger for buying some branded products. I started to read about why branded products are more expensive. It was very interesting to know how much detail and design is involved and how these products are curated for a specific market. I always loved to do my own research on anything new to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I now had the financial freedom to buy some of the branded products I had been eyeing. First on the list was the Fj\u00e4llr\u00e4ven K\u00e5nken bag. Each time I put the bag in the shopping cart and thought about whether it was really worth buying. I had to work on my beliefs about money and finances and it took some work. Finally, I got the bag for my 30th birthday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Honestly, it felt liberating from the inside to have bought something expensive. I wore an extra wide smile whenever I carried the bag. It also made me realize how amazing, branded products really are. After that, I bought a few more branded products – wallet, sweater, personal care products, kitchenware, shoes, perfume, etc., some of which were pre-loved!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My transformed relationship with money<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is not that I only buy branded products these days. I only buy things when I need them, and I am also a big fan of pre-loved products. It is not that I want to upgrade my lifestyle to only expensive things, it is that I want to appreciate these few branded products and feel a sense of joy in owning and using them, a state of mind to be okay with spending 100-200\u20ac on a single product occasionally, to learn to enjoy my life now and do a few things that my heart has always wanted! Over the years, I love the way my relationship with money, pre-loved products and brand products has transformed for good. I love how living in Germany has changed my perception on many important things and helped me to discover myself better!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Notebook, Journals and awesome journaling stuff now sale in DanceofChaos<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

I am Lalitha, a freshly minted graduate in Germany. My newfound love is writing these days. I love reading books and I am very passionate about cooking and baking. Music and coffee help me navigate tough days. I like hiking and cycling. I live in Aachen and I am truly in love with my life.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Inner battle of desire, conditioned logic, and hard reality I hail from a simple ‘middle class’ South Indian family. I was always taught the importance of valuing money and spending it wisely. Throughout my childhood and up until my marriage, I was provided with very good quality products, especially clothes. When I came to Germany […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30213,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":"","_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":false,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"","_twitter_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type":"","_pinterest_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"","_medium_share_type":"","_threads_share_type":"","_google_business_share_type":"","_bluesky_share_type":"","_mastodon_share_type":"","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[58,139],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-featured-posts","category-lifestyle"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/danceofchaos.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/branded.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1817,"url":"https:\/\/danceofchaos.com\/de\/blogpost\/1817","url_meta":{"origin":30207,"position":0},"title":"Personal Reset for Durga Puja 2020","author":"DanceofChaos","date":"Oktober 31, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"1\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Introduction \u00a0Durgapuja is the biggest festival for a Bengali. 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