Ask Ashley

Are You Fashionably Healthy? How what you wear affects your mental health

Fall is in the air and I AM A FAN. Autumn is a season notorious for fresh starts, whether you’re looking to up your fitness regime, improve that long lost friendship, or change careers. From the buzz of back to school to the welcome transition to hoodie weather, a theme resonant with September is (and always will be) fashion.

Surely you’ ve heard the phrase, “Dress for success,” typically touted from fashion industry insiders like stylists, wardrobe consultants, and designers, motivating us to “dress the part” for interviews, big presentations, and the like.

But dressing for success isn’t only reserved for business. I’d like to argue we should be dressing for success daily — whether the goal is to make a project deadline, finally pick up the dry cleaning, or have a fun date night. Experts of the wellness world agree. Mental health therapists, psychologists and self-improvement gurus are beginning to advise their clients and audiences that confidence and improved mental health go hand in hand. And an important area where we gain confidence is in our appearance...which isn’t just physical, but mental and emotional, all of which lead to greater self-esteem and improved mental health. Dressing Your Way Confident

I like to think of “good” clothing as wearable mantras. If I’m wearing a bright yellow sundress, for example, odds are I’m going to feel happy, energized, and confident, ready to tackle the day’s responsibilities. Contrastly, if I stay in last night’s sweatpants to work from home, run errands, and do everything else I need to do, it is guaranteed I will feel sleepy, sluggish, and self-conscious, resulting in a far less effective version of myself.

My question is, why put yourself in a position of feeling bad all day when the fix is as easy as getting dressed in the morning? Just like we eat healthy and exercise regularly to fuel our brain health, we need to dress our bodies right in order to get our minds right. Refining it further: Dressing sloppy (aka your college sweatshirt and boxer shorts) is the equivalent to eating junk food (donuts, greasy chips, whatever makes you feel sick and blah). On the flip side, dressing well in an outfit you feel comfortable, confident, and powerful in (a chic suit, perhaps?) is the equivalent to eating a superfood salad after a vigorous spin class. Your endorphins are released, your self-esteem has sky-rocketed, and you’re ready to take the world by storm.

Dressing Well is a No-Brainer Form of Self-Care

Tiffany Roe, radical mental health therapist, talks frequently on the subject of self-care, stating: “You don’t need to meet some arbitrary standard, be in a great place mentally, or achieve some goal to be worthy of caring for yourself and meeting your needs. Self-care is your right, and your needs matter.”

If you ask me, self-care is whatever you say it is, whether that’s doing yoga on the beach or dressing up just for the fun of it, self-care is what you say it is.

A powerful act of self-care then, next to reading, meditating, and bubble bathing, is the art of dressing well — taking time to brush our hair, put makeup on, and swap our pajamas out for an outfit rendered publicly acceptable, like a nice pair of jeans, pressed shirt, and wide-brim hat.

When we take the time to enhance our appearance, we are subconsciously telling ourselves we are important. Dressing well not only enhances our performance (via work, working out, parenting, socializing, etc.), but enables us to set more ambitious goals for ourselves.

So, when you’re getting ready for the day, think about how you want to feel that day. Bold? Powerful? Comfortable? Laid back? Sticking with a vibe or “theme” for the day makes it much easier to pick out an outfit to match your mindset.

What Does it Mean To Be Fashionably Healthy?

Being fashionably healthy constitutes three areas of wellness that anyone can achieve: Choosing sustainable options, buying high quality clothes, and avoiding the lure of fast fashion.

There are many ways you can shop sustainably, including buying from thrift stores and consignment shops, staying loyal to sustainable clothing brands, and reinventing new outfits from your existing wardrobe.

Some fashionably healthy rules to live by:

• Buy less, but better.

• If you love it, wear it.

• If you don’t love it, get rid of it.

• Wear what feels good to you, not the influencer you follow on Instagram.

Carmen Lopez, longtime fashion expert, explains how fashion can be considered self-care, in particular how our clothing impacts our psychology: “When you dress down in sweats or PJs, you’re subconsciously telling your brain that today’s not worth dressing up for. You’re undervaluing your day, so you’re less likely to be productive. In reverse, if you decide to dress up, your brain says that today is a great day to get stuff done, to be a powerhouse, to feel confident. You’re telling yourself that you deserve fashion.”

Conclusion:

Taking time to choose an outfit that makes you feel great about the skin you’re in shows both yourself and everyone you come in contact with that you take pride in who you are, and that you are insanely proud of that person.

When you radiate confidence, carefreeness, and positivity through your appearance, the universe rewards you by returning those same mood-lifting feelings. You get to decide who you are and who you want to be by the way you dress, so choose wisely. And remember that dressing your body right gets your mind right.

Sign up for Ashley’s newsletter all about mindset health by heading to https://ashleyalt.substack.com/welcome.