Let me preface this entry by saying I am not a writer. I do not wake up early in the morning effusive with energy and the need to express my brilliant ideas on paper which will no doubt inspire greatness in others; I aspire to get the coffee maker on and the sleep out of my eyes. The topic of connecting and creating is very near and dear to me and I do believe that writing your ideas down gives room for the spontaneous generation of others. My lab is different, though. My area of specialty is in the closet/wardrobe/room petri dish.
I wholeheartedly believe that if you feel good about how you look you will be a more productive member of society and attract positive energy because you put out positive energy. There is that dreaded feeling that most of us have in the morning of “what am I going to wear?” followed shortly by “I have nothing to wear.” Those pants don’t really fit, I have nothing to wear with that top, that skirt’s zipper is falling down, etc are all experiences we have shared and it feels like a Herculean task to figure out what am I going to put on today. I need to look smart, cute, professional, and feel good about it but I have no clue what to put on. Meanwhile, time is ticking by and you are wasting time standing there in your underwear.
We all need to clean out our closets, literally and figuratively, to help guide us on our path to a productive, happy society. I worked with a client this weekend going through her closet item by item and deciding what to toss, what to keep, and what to alter. It doesn’t matter if your closet rivals Imelda Marcos’ if you are spending excessive amount of time trying to figure out what to wear. We wear 20% of our clothes 80% of the time. But why do we waste precious mental and physical space on the other 80%? Yes, we need that special occasion outfit for a once a year party and I know you want to keep the jean jacket you bought with your own money at age 13 but that still leaves a large quantity of stuff holding you back from making what should be a snap decision and getting on with your day. We all hold on to clothes that were given to us by someone else or part of another life and they weigh us down. That energy spent looking at them and even giving them a second’s consideration could be better spent doing what you actually love doing.
So go into your closet and ask yourself the following questions about every piece of clothing you have:
- Does it fit? If it doesn’t, am I willing to pay someone to alter it?
- Do I wear it? Any season or occasion?
- Do I love it?
- Does it make me happy or have positive memories?
The last question is particularly important. We all hold on to things because we think we need to keep them or feel obligated because something was a gift. But what if we thought about it another way: what if giving it away to a charitable organization gave someone who loves it the opportunity to wear it? Then you have 2 happy parties: it isn’t taking up your space and someone is walking around wearing a blouse they think is fabulous. Get rid of things that bring you down. That expensive sweater you wore when you broke up with your significant other? Toss it! Wearing it just brings up bad memories and we need to feel positive when we walk out the door.
Life is short and wasting time wearing things you hate is not worth it. Your energy is wasted on negative thought and you haven’t even dealt with traffic yet. When you walk out of the house feeling good about the way you look you are emanating positive energy which attracts positive things to you. That does not mean that bad things will never happen to you but your attitude is different: you are happy today.
