As I came home from London on the train this evening I thumbed through the usual freebie 15 minute read 'The London Paper' and scanned the cover story about the 1200 jobs that have been axed in the City.  Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs and UBS to announce more job cuts.  When I emerged from the underground to Waterloo station, the news kiosks selling the London Evening Standard proclaimed that 2000 jobs were to go in the city.  So in the space of a 10 minute tube journey to Waterloo - 800 more jobs had gone. Who do you believe?

It also struck me today as I was paying in money to my bank account  that my bank may not be worthy custodians of my money, after all, if you read the face of any bank note in the UK you will notice that our monarch pledges the following: - "I promise to pay the bearer on demand the sum of twenty pounds". (or whatever denomination it happens to be).  So in actual fact the piece of paper is a promise.  It is not actually money.  In fact if you think about it, money as such is just a concept.  A number of zero's in any currency.  As a therapist I find it fascinating that the City of London and all global financial markets are just full of compulsive gamblers.  Of course the truth is that anyone who gambles with imaginary money will eventually have a run of bad luck.  I have a whole potential incumbent market of addicted gamblers who need help to stop doing it!  What is worse, they are gambling with other people's money.  So as the ugly face of capitalism begins to sour, what changes can we embrace?

Somewhere down the line we were all convinced that more is better.  A better car, a bigger house, a new computer a holiday or a new wardrobe of clothes should fill up any hollowness or emptiness.  Quite often this is a perceived antidote to the huge stress of a demanding job and a generally stressful existence, yet so many people still feel unfulfilled at the end of it.  Instant consumer gratification has become a way of life in the 21st century.

If you have ever wondered what it would be like to enjoy de-cluttering and having less, now is a really good time to find out.  Now I think there is something very positive that can help you to take the crunch out of your credit.  I read somewhere that each household is sitting on an average of £600 of unwanted purchases that could be re-sold.  Even Amazon tell you how much you could re-sell the goods you have bought from them over the years on line.  What are you sitting on that you don't need?  How much could you make if you sold them?  What would happen if you kept your mobile phone for another year?  How much easier is it to re-distribute unwanted 'stuff' as birthday or Christmas presents?  How about giving some of your stuff up to the homeless or to charities?  What would it be like to eat at home a little more often?  To eat less of more wholesome food? 

Whilst the stores here in the UK are gearing up for their bleakest Christmas sales figures for 30 years, I think there is something quite comforting in knowing that obscene levels of consumer spending is at last about to see a decline.  Out of the decline will most likely come some far healthier insights.  The realisation that you don't need to shop to be happy.  You don't need to gamble with other people's money.  You can choose to get off the consumer carousel and get back to the things that are real, like relationships, well-being and charity.  Create your own reality by making some healthier changes.  Unlike many of the anti-depressant drugs that are prescribed to depressed and unhappy 21st century citizens, you can come off the shopping addiction immediately with no adverse effects and a long term healthy prognosis.  Change is inevitable, embrace some new ideas and feel better about having less clutter in your life.