Last night my husband and I went and purchased the new iPhones. We had planned to upgrade only if we could find a plan in which our monthly bill was the same and we wouldn’t be spending any more money a month.

Long story short, we found the plan and made the purchase. Looking back now, my thoughts during this purchase were “We shouldn’t be spending money on something as frivolous as an iPhone” and “I’m giving in to human desires for material things right now and should be trying to save money not just keep things the same.”

And looking back I can see the extreme amount of guilt these thoughts were causing. So after we bought the iPhones it was late, we had been there for hours, the kids were starving and it was very easy to just go get something to eat that was not on my protocol. I realized in the moment that I was making a choice. I was choosing to eat off protocol. There was something going on that made me take that action, but I couldn’t process and write down and look at my thoughts until much later, the next morning.

So my question is, how do you look at your thoughts and process your emotion in the moment? When the kids are running around and wanting you to hold them and asking you for things. And you and your husband are trying to make financial decision. How do you pause and look at your thoughts when life is not pausing all around you?