True Life: You are already enough.

This week I shared with you how I'm helping support Hannah from Love Always Hannah in her mission to abstain from shopping for clothes for herself for six months. I wanted to talk a little bit today about some of the more emotional parts of shopping and fashion.

 Peppered throughout this post are some shots of me during this summer and last. Notice anything?

Yes, I love that hat. But I don't love the thoughts I have about that hat. Some of my thoughts include things like this: 

"Uh oh! It's almost fall. What will I do without my hat to wear?"
"Ugh. I can't wear my hat [in this situation]. How will I look cool enough without it?" 

I know! I know. It sounds so ridiculous when I type that or read what I've written, but I think things like this. You can literally see this hat getting more and more dirty, but I keep wearing it (yes, I wipe it down, too) because...well, why?

 I think that clothing can serve as a kind of security blanket for us. It's a way of expressing something (I am cool? Or, more likely, Man do I love this hat!), but also of covering something up. For me, I have pretty much hated my hair for most of my life. It's always too something. It's Goldilocks hair: too thin, too boring brown, too flat, too short, whatever the gripe of the day is. But in my hat...
I can hide all of that.

OK, now I feel like a hat weirdo and want to reassure myself: you have things like that, right? Because as fun as fashion is, I think sometimes we go shopping or we try on one outfit after another because we feel insufficient. This weekend, for example, my husband and I had an important breakfast meeting to attend. As I fussed over what I would wear (Looks too young, Way too casual, Hate these shoes with that dress, Doesn't feel like me), he pulled on jeans and the same button down he'd already worn a day or two before. Oh, I thought, you're going as yourself! Well, that's easy!

I know.

And, truth be told, part of what I love about styling (extra)ordinary women is that we're already good enough. As Byron Katie would remind us, the thought that you need something that you don't have is actually impossible. You don't have it so you don't need it. Or, as I like to remind myself when I'm feeling overly exposed or putting too much pressure on myself, you are already enough.

via