I have a confession.
I don’t know how to dress down.
How do you feel better about yourself?
I’m the girl you see in the grocery store wearing a dress and heels. Besides going to the gym, I don’t leave my house without at least mascara and eye liner. When I was on a boat deployment I made time to paint my nails once a week. I may have had to wear Navy issued uniforms but enlisted Victoria’s Secret in helping me feel like a girl. The only pair of sweatpants I own came from boot camp and until this past year I didn’t even wear leggings as lounge clothes. My friends give me shocked looks when I wear jeans and a t-shirt (fitted usually) because it’s such a rare sight. I just don’t know how to do the relaxed thing.
This summer I had a surgery that knocked me off my feet for a month. I wasn’t allowed to get my foot wet for 3 weeks which meant no showers. And I don’t know about you, but I never feel clean after a bath and forget trying to wash my hair there. Just isn’t working for me. After just a few days of trying to prop my bandages out of the tub and wondering what the secret is to second day hair I didn’t even feel like myself anymore. It didn’t matter that no one saw me in my super cute pajamas. It didn’t matter that I was supposed to be resting and recovering. When a friend volunteered to come over and wash my hair for me in the sink, I jumped on the offer. Just that little thing made me feel leaps and bounds better about myself.
I used to wonder if there was something wrong with feeling not like myself unless I pulled it all together. I saw girls in college that were perfectly happy to run to class in what passed as pajamas to me. I was in A-school with Sailors who saw no reason to wear anything that wasn’t military issued, even out in town. My friends laugh at me when I pack my nail polish just in case I get a chip on vacation. Am I really that strange?
Maybe I am. But maybe it’s not such a bad thing.
People say that when you look your best you’ll feel your best. It’s why people like my husband spend hours in the gym and on his bike. It makes him feel better just to be active. While I don’t share his love of the gym, I can get behind the idea of feeling good because I look my best. I don’t do the hair and makeup and wear dresses to get attention. I do it because I just feel better when I am put together.
It might be silly but you know what, it works for me. So what is it that works for you?How do you feel better about yourself? What silly thing makes you feel better, feel like yourself, even when life starts to get the best of you?
How do you feel better about yourself?