the black friday within

Every November, the same wave begins to rise. The colours darken, the fonts grow bolder, the words 'limited', 'exclusive', 'act now' start appearing everywhere. Before we know it, Black Friday is here... and the world feels louder, faster, and somehow more demanding.

You might not plan to take part, however it’s hard not to feel its pull. The collective energy shifts; inboxes swell; even scrolling for a recipe becomes a battlefield of flashing discounts. What started as a weekend sale has become an emotional and energetic event.

What if, though, Black Friday isn’t just about shopping? What if it’s also a mirror - one that shows us how we respond to noise, pressure, and the illusion of lack?

THE PSYCHOLOGY BEANEATH THE SPARKLE

Marketers call it “FOMO” (fear of missing out). Every urgent timer and headline is designed to activate that fear. The brain interprets scarcity as danger: 'If I don’t act now, I’ll lose something valuable'. It triggers a small surge of adrenaline and cortisol, the same hormones released in moments of genuine threat.

For a few seconds, you feel a rush: alert, excited, a little breathless. It’s not joy, it’s stimulation. And the body starts chasing that feeling, confusing urgency with importance.

From a growth-mindset perspective, this is a fascinating classroom. You’re watching your own nervous system being marketed to. The more aware you become of the pattern, the more choice you regain.

THE EMOTIONAL HANGOVER

That “rush” often fades into something else: guilt, regret, or emptiness. You might look at what you bought and wonder, "Why did I need this?"
Or maybe you didn’t buy anything, yet still feel oddly flat... as if everyone else joined a party you didn’t attend.

This is the emotional hangover of collective hype. When millions of people move from excitement to disappointment at the same time, the energy field becomes heavy. Sensitive souls like you and me, and almost everyone in our spiritual community, will feel it even if they’ve been careful with their choices and money.

That drop in frequency isn’t punishment; it’s information. It tells you where your energy merges too easily with the collective current, and where your boundaries can strengthen.

THE ENERGETIC TRUTH

Every “act now” message pulls energy upward into the mind: think faster, decide quicker, spend before you reflect. This upward movement disconnects you from the body, from breath, from grounding. Energetically, you start floating - alert yet unanchored. That’s why Black Friday can leave people tired or irritable even when they haven’t bought a thing.

Spiritually, that disconnection matters. When your energy rises without balance, intuition becomes fuzzy. You’re less likely to hear your inner guidance; the same quiet compass that whispers, "not this, not now, you’re already enough".

Grounding restores that connection. It brings energy back down through the body, reminding you that safety and sufficiency come from presence, not possession.

A CONSCIOUS CHOICE

This year, I’m choosing not to offer Black Friday promotions. You’ve already received gentle invitations throughout November, each one aligned with growth, not urgency, because I’d rather you make decisions from calm curiosity than from fear of missing out.

Perhaps, this week, your practice can be to watch the world around you with new eyes. Pause, and take time to notice how your body responds when the emails arrive, when the ads flash, when others start sharing their purchases.

Do you lean forward, hold your breath, feel a quick lift in your chest? That’s your energy responding to stimulation.

Then see what happens after. Do you crash, feel cluttered, or crave quiet? That’s your system asking to ground.

This observation itself is spiritual practice - a real-time lesson in discernment.

THE GROWTH MINDSET IN REAL LIFE

A fixed mindset reacts automatically: "If everyone’s doing it, I should too". A growth mindset, in contrast, pauses and asks: "What can I learn from this moment about myself?"

You might discover that you’re more influenced by collective energy than you realise. Or you might notice how empowering it feels to wait, to breathe, to choose differently. Either way, you’re learning... and that learning is growth.

Each time you notice without judging, you strengthen the neural pathways of self-awareness. You begin to re-educate your energy field: it learns that urgency isn’t safety, stillness isn’t loss, and silence isn’t absence.

THE SPIRITUAL DIMENSION

From a soul perspective, Black Friday isn’t “bad”, it’s contrast. It shows us what happens when the collective focus shifts entirely to the material world.
That in itself is valuable information because it reminds us just how easy it is to forget that we are already whole.

When you step back and observe rather than participate, you can almost feel the energy waves moving through the collective. The first wave is excitement: bright, glittering, fast. The second is depletion: scattered, empty, searching for the next fix. The third, if you allow it, is awareness: the quiet realisation that peace was never on sale.

That’s the moment of awakening inside the storm.

HOW TO STAY GROUNDED

If you start to feel pulled, pause. Close your eyes, place a hand over your heart and another on your lower belly. Breathe in through the nose, slowly, counting for four. And exhale through the mouth, counting for six. Repeat three times, letting your exhale ground you into the earth beneath you.

Even thirty seconds of conscious breathing rebalances your energy. Your awareness drops from the head into the body, from the collective back into the self.

If you’d like deeper support, I’ve created a Grounding Meditation for Overwhelm - a gentle audio you can listen to anytime this week if the noise feels too loud or you need help to come back to your centre.

INTEGRATION

The world won’t change its rhythm overnight. The emails will keep arriving. The sales will still run. However, your relationship to them can shift completely.

When you approach this week with curiosity instead of reactivity, you transform it from a test into a teacher. You realise that peace and clarity aren’t things you earn by acting quickly, they’re the natural state that returns when you slow down enough to notice.

So if the noise feels too much, step outside. Breathe cold air. Touch the ground. Remind yourself that real abundance is measured in awareness, not in what’s owned. Because when the rush fades and silence returns, you’ll still be here - grounded, conscious, and whole. And that, truly, is the only kind of Friday worth keeping.