The One Accessory That Every Woman Needs
Accessory trends come and go, but there is one accessory that stays through every trend, every season and that has even stood the test of time. Do you know what that is? Do you want to take a guess? Here’s a hint - you can’t buy it. DId you guess it? Yes! That’s it! It’s CONFIDENCE!
So how is confidence an accessory? I mean you can’t just pick it up at your favorite retailer and put it on, right? Well, I wouldn’t be so sure about that. “What?”, you may be thinking. Oh yeah…read on sister!
So last week I hosted this challenge in a private Facebook group called, The 5 Day Work from Home Selfie Challenge. The point of this challenge was to dress up for three days and then dress down for two days and log how you felt in each outfit. Studies have been done that show your mindset is affected by what you wear. It’s called Enclothed Cognition. I have spoken about it before here on the blog (and you can read that post right here) and with clients, especially during the early weeks of quarantine. Basically, it’s the science of dressing for how you want to feel and not for how you’re currently feeling. In the beginning of this pandemic as offices and workplaces were shutting down or having people telecommute and everyone was trying to figure out how to pivot their businesses to work completely online, I think we were all in a state of shock and maybe even fear. We didn’t know what to do, think, feel, or even what was happening or for how long it would all be happening. This was all new territory for everyone!
During this time I had noticed two things:
1) Some people are amazing at dealing with adversity, and really find a way to pivot and keep going regardless of fear and uncertainty.
2) Other people just gave up. Which I get! I mean the spread an affect of this disease is unprecedented. We don’t know how long we’ll be wearing masks or being socially distant or if there will be a vaccine anytime soon. We don’t know how big this will get, so giving up, yeah, I get that!
But even with everything going on, we still need to show up for life. We still need to take care of our loved ones. We still need to take care of ourselves, but that always tends to be the last on the list. But why is that?
Photos by Retha Ferguson from Pexels
Well, the point of this challenge was to encourage women to put themselves first, to spend time and energy on themselves and making sure they were ready for the day. Whether it was working from home, working out of the home and serving others, keeping kids occupied, it was about them and making themselves a priority. And they made some progress!
On the first day of the challenge, most of the women were a little hesitant to post a photo or video and seemed very timid. Some were hiding their body’s, apologizing for whatever was in their picture, saying that they hate taking photos or don’t know how to. But, right away the other women in the group would jump in and comment on the photo, what they loved about the outfit, offer advice on how to pose or take a good selfie. It was amazing! No, it was mind blowing! And as the week went on, every day a photo would go up and I would watch these ladies look a little more at ease, a little more relaxed, a little more comfortable with who they are and with making themselves a priority. And by the last day they were posting photos of themselves throwing their arms in the air, striking power poses and just feeling so beautiful and confident and strong and just embracing who they are. It was incredible! I felt so blessed that I was able to witness that! Diane von Furstenberg said it best, “Confidence. If you have it, you can make anything look good.” When you see woman after woman wearing confidence in their photo because they look good and feel good in what they’re wearing, you know that it is really the only accessory that you need!