Hi Choosing what we want to wear is something we do all of our lives. Every morning we go to our wardrobes and depending on what we are going to do that day we choose something we think is appropriate for the office, working in the house, pottering in the garden, day at the seaside.... the list goes on and on. Most of the time we are very comfortable with our choice of clothes and if we are going to a special event feeling a million dollars in the outfit we have chosen to wear is a great boost for our self esteem. However I'm sure, like myself there have been occasions when we have had our confidence knocked by unkind, unfair and uncalled for comments about our choice of dress. These comments can come from anyone we meet going about our daily lives and often when we least expect it. With this in mind it really started me thinking do we actually choose what we buy and wear ?
We all love our days of retail therapy, sometimes we go on our own, with a member of our family or with friends and it's great to share the experience of looking for a new party dress, holiday clothes or if our budget is a bit tight just window shopping. If on one of our girly days out we've looked around and found what we think is the perfect dress for a special event, tried it on, walked up and down the changing room a dozen times, asked "does my bum look big in this" decided it doesn’t our friend or family says "you look absolutely gorgeous" we buy the dress, go to the event, get lots of compliments and have a wonderful time. This is how it should be, buying what we like and what we feel suits our lifestyle.
However if in the past we've been criticised for our style of dress we can start believing what other people think about what we are wearing is more important than our own judgement of choice of clothes and this can prevent us from choosing exactly what want. Something that really made an impression with me was a conversation I overheard many years ago when I was in a city centre clothes shop. I had seen a lady trying on a dress and she looked stunning, the colour and fit was perfect, the conversation with her friend went like this after her friend told her how good she looked: "You are going to buy it ? " "No" was the reply, "Why ever not, its perfect for you" "It's my mum, she doesn't like lilac" "And what's that got to do with it, you love lilac ?" to which the rather sad sounding reply was "Well I really love the dress, but if I do buy it every time I wear it my Mum will remind how much she dislikes the colour and it's just not worth the hassle"
How people react to what we are wearing can have a great influence on our lives, by constantly taking notice of others we can end up looking how they want us to look instead of how we want to look. One of the most of important things for all of us is to believe in ourselves and our choice of judgement not only on the choice of our clothes but on everything that has an impact on our lives. That doesn't mean we should ignore well meaning advice it's just about us having the confidence to take comments on board, think about them, agree or agree to differ and make our own prefered choices. We might need a bit of practice at dismissing negative comments we've sometimes heard and one way we can do this is by knowing and believing that it's more important what we think about ourselves and not what other people think of us, otherwise our emotions will go up and down like a yo yo depending on what others are saying or what we think they are saying about us.
As we go through life we will meet so many people with a vast array of ideas, thoughts and opinions and by being totally comfortable in our own skin and clothes, our self esteem and self confidence will soar and be so, so good for the soul !!
Warm regards
Christine x 😊