Maybe you’re reading this at home. Maybe on the subway. Maybe in a coffee shop. You’ve got your own choices in front of you, you’ve got your own dreams, you’ve got your own beliefs and driving forces. But we have one thing in common.
We all start our day the same: standing in front of our closets (consciously or subconsciously) asking, “What am I going to wear today?” And depending on the answer, those nine syllables can either make us walk a little taller, or they can stir up a mess of emotions + negative self talk.
I first found myself intrigued with style once I began to realize that my relationship to clothes pointed to something deeper.
Lots of people say they don’t know how to dress themselves. That’s an interesting conundrum, and a confounding one. As human beings we’re amazing creatures, natural problem-solvers who are adapted especially well to learning. So what prevents us from this?
The usual culprit is fear, in many forms–of the unknown, of putting oneself out there, of being judged. Such negative thoughts often become so loud that they drown the fun out of our natural curiosity.
Making excuses and letting fear rule our style stop us from expressing our true selves and what we could look like at our best. We get in the way of our own potential instead of reveling in it.
Negative thought loops are self-perpetuating. If we don’t like what we see in the mirror, we either ignore it or overcompensate for it. This causes a disconnect between who we are (smart, sophisticated, beautiful, and wonderful) and how we appear (bland, sloppy, miserable).
By changing your style, you’re forced to change the way you perceive yourself. And if you can see yourself differently, you can start to feel differently. If you put on clothes that actually flatter your figure, you suddenly may not feel as badly about your body anymore.
And when the negative body feelings change–the negative thoughts change. When you can think positively about one aspect of yourself, it becomes easier to believe in yourself in lots of different contexts. Seeing to feeling to thinking to believing: These are the four stages of changing your style. -Stacy London, The Truth About Style
Kind of exciting, right?
If you change what you see, you begin to perceive yourself differently.
What do you think? Do you see style as a way to play with possibility? Do you think it could even go so far as to change your life?
I love this quote! I have felt this way for a long time about my home – if my home is messy, unruly, uncomfortable I do not get work done there. I don’t rest well, I don’t feel well – I am not happy. And I had begun to notice a parallel in my wardrobe as I’ve streamlined it and made it work for me. I’m not a morning person – so avoiding any headaches when getting dressed helps. It’s true sometimes these things give us the mental pick me up we need to tackle other issues, or just start our day on the right foot. It’s like the difference between starting your day with your regular cup of coffee, or missing your regular cup of coffee.
This is awesome!! I love Stacy London, and I absolutely think this is true… I lived it!! I once was very young and very insecure and, for instance, skipped class because I spent two hours trying to figure out what to wear and “nothing looked good,” so I ended up not going to class because I didn’t like what I saw in the mirror. Finding your style and learning about yourself in the process is so important to live a full life! I am a strong believer in the fact that we actually find our worth and identity in God, but He made each of us a unique being, and it is in exploring and embracing this uniqueness (expressed in our personality, our friendships, our activities of choice, oh yeah our style…) that we’ll live to our fullest potential <3
This post is fantastic. I agree completely.
XO, Gina