The saying is, "You are what you wear!"... or something along those lines!
The moment you get dressed in the morning, you should feel confident and ready to face the day. If you’re not feeling that way, there’s a problem. You should turn around and head back into the closet immediately.
The reality is that you are what you wear will influence your mood in one way or another.
The old saying that advises us to "Dress for the job you want, not for the job that you have," also applies to our moods. Dress for the mood you want, not for the mood that you’re in at the moment.
Color Psychology
Various colors can play a role in how you feel. They’ll shape your emotional state so that you’re calm, anxious, or even powerful. Understanding color psychology a bit can help you to choose hues based on how you want to be throughout the day.
The colors you wear can not only affect your mood but also help others to perceive you in a particular way.
White: Pure and innocent
Black: Authoritative, sleek, and intelligent
Gray: Practical
Red: Romantic and intense
Orange: Enthusiastic and sophisticated
Yellow: Cheery and attention-getting
Green: Healthy and fertile
Blue: Loyal and focused
Purple: Wealthy and prosperous
As you look at what these colors mean, choose wisely. For example, if you’re going into an important business meeting, you may want to choose black, gray, or red so that you can show that you’re authoritative and maybe even a little intense. If you’re entertaining people or educating a room of small children, you might want to choose yellow.
You may even find that certain colors no longer work for you because of the mood that they put you in, regardless of color psychology.
Go ahead and purge these from your closet. There’s no use hanging onto clothes that don’t make you feel good. They’re just taking up space that could be occupied by new and more congenial wardrobe staples.
Identify the Mood You’re In
If your goal is to feel comfortable throughout the day, identify the mood that you’re in—whether happy, nervous, frustrated, or even tired—own that emotion, and dress accordingly. The right wardrobe choice can ensure that you feel as comfortable and as confident as you need to be successful throughout your tasks.
Feeling frustrated? After a frustrating day, maybe dealing with frustrating people, transfer those emotions onto your clothes. Changing out of the clothes you’re wearing can change your mood immediately. Then, figure out why you got so frustrated so that you won’t associate that negative reaction to that outfit in the future.
Feeling confident? Take the time to wear something that shows off your body a bit. It can help you to feel strong and let your confidence be known by everyone else.
Feeling nervous? Make sure that you won’t fidget by wearing something simple that doesn’t have a lot of buttons, zippers, or fringe for you to mess with. Dress as sharp as you can so that you can exude confidence as you step out into your day.
Feeling tired? You could certainly grab a cup of coffee or mud\wtr, but some clothing choices can give you a boost of energy, too. Consider changing up your outfit a bit outside of the norm with some brightly colored shoes or a new and energetic printed dress or blazer.
Dress for Comfort
There’s never a time when you should feel uncomfortable but there will be times when you feel as though you need a bit more comfort than normal. Your boyfriend dumped you. Your boss yelled at you at work. Whatever it is, you need to choose a healthy outlet to deal with those negative feelings.
Clothes may be just the thing. When you look good, you feel good. Treat yourself to one of your favorite outfits to manage stress and unpleasant feelings.
Identify the one or two things in your wardrobe that make you feel happy above anything else—such as a cozy sweater—and always put you in a good mood. Those can be marked as your go-to things to wear when you simply need to wrap yourself up in comfort.
Give Yourself Permission to Shop Intentionally
Often, we don’t want to buy new clothes for ourselves. The reality is that new clothes are important periodically, regardless of what your career might be. Even stay-at-home moms or people who exclusively work from home need new clothes. There’s something exciting about buying new clothes. It allows us to feel like we look good and it allows us to treat ourselves to a new trend, a new color, or even a better fit. It’s a way of signaling to yourself that today is a new start.
If you’ve ever stood in front of your closet only to be disappointed by everything you see, it’s time to give yourself permission to shop.
There’s a term called enclothed cognition that is used to describe how clothes affect a variety of psychological processes, ranging from the way that we self-evaluate to our attitude to the interpersonal interactions that we have.
If you don’t have clothes that make you feel happy or powerful, it’s time to shop intentionally.
Remember what you learned about color psychology. If you don’t have any red or pink in your wardrobe and you want to feel romantic, that’s a problem. If you want to get everyone’s attention and don’t have sufficient amounts of yellow, you may not have the tools you need to get there.
Think of your wardrobe as a painter’s palette of colors. If you want to paint a sunset, you’ll need yellows, oranges, and pinks. Setting the tone for a fun, happy day also requires the right colors and materials.
Set a budget for your wardrobe every month or every quarter - read chapter seven of The Creatives' Closet. As you buy clothes, DO get rid of clothes that no longer give you joy or are not aligned with your brand and style.
Eventually, you’ll be able to dress confidently for every social interaction and ensure that your mood is right where you want it to be!
Sources
- arttherapyblog.com – Color Psychology: The Emotional Effects of Colors
- entrepreneur.com – How to Deal with Negative People Who Just Aren’t Going Away
- sciencefocus.com.com – Why Do We Fidget?
- sunshinebehavioralhealth.com – Stress Awareness Month: Healthy Ways to Fight Stress
- brainfodder.org – 7 Ways Your Clothes Change the Way You Think
