When the Dressing Room Triggers all the Feelings
We love finding like-minded business owners and collaborating to bring goodness to all of our clients! This month we teamed up with Amber (aka THE CLOSETEER), a personal stying coach, who sees the bigger story at work in the closets and dressing rooms of her clients. You can download “Shopping: So Much More Than Shirts and Skirts” here to better understand what may be at work for you in regards to clothing.
SHOPPING: So Much More Than Shirts and Skirts
by Beckie Stauffer, MA, RD, LPCC
Shopping, in all of its glory, is a profoundly personal thing. And while all forms of shopping can be meaningful, there is no shopping experience quite like shopping for your body.
The way you shop for toothpaste or school supplies or produce is likely quite different than how you shop for your wardrobe. Sure, on some level clothes perform a functional purpose much like a kitchen hand towel or a bedroom wall hanging, but there is more there. A lot more. More story, more self, more personhood wrapped up in the process, which is what makes clothes both wildly fun and strikingly vulnerable.
Before diving into your shopping experience, we would like to invite you to pause and take a few moments to set yourself up for a fun, kind, and enriching shopping experience. The questions are intended to help you engage with your story, your self, and your personhood in a way that feels healthy and helpful. Please allow yourself the space and attention to answer these questions honestly. This will be helpful- we guarantee it!
This is brave and daring and beautiful work. Your willingness to slow down and make contact with your body and with your story demonstrates courage. Our hope and our confidence is this: slowing down and acknowledging your story around clothing will help to put language and understanding to your next shopping experience. You don’t need to feel surprised or overwhelmed by the tapes in your head when you de-robe, because you know why they are there and how they got there in the first place. When they begin to play, be aware and attuned to what your story is telling you. Be kind to your body and aware of your limits.
The deeper question is this, are you ready for some new tapes?