Mood Dressing (Take 2)

Happy day, dear reader!

Each Sunday night, I post a Sunday Night Reminder & Monday Morning Outfit Inspiration for my FB business page followers. One woman mentioned to me that she loves the ideas, but never sets her clothes out the night before because she doesn’t know what kind of mood she’ll be in the next morning… I get it. Sometimes a plan needs to adapt or change, but I thought I’d share a previous post I wrote about just this topic!

Control Freak?

When I suggest to people that they choose the next day’s clothing the night before to save time and stress in the morning, the most common reply is “But what about my mood? I may not feel like those clothes in the morning! Then I’m starting all over again.” I don’t mean to sound unsympathetic, but who’s in control in that situation? Are you in control of your mood, or are you letting your mood control you? If you have been up all night long with a sick child, and are now going to the doctor instead of work, I understand you need easy, wash and wear comfort clothes. Go change. The suit and pumps you chose last night aren’t going to cut it for the day’s activities!

Dress for How You Want to Look and Feel

I would suggest that on 90% of the other days, we don’t even really know what kind of mood you are in (except the Need More Sleep and Coffee mood) when we get dressed in the morning! To be honest, I’m not sure I want to see what the Need More Sleep and Coffee outfit looks like… The problem with letting your mood control your dressing is that moods are temporary. They flit from one place to another, up and down all day long. Do you really want to drag a lousy morning mood along with you all day? I posit that dressing for how you want to look and feel is a better choice. Studies by a UK researcher in the showed that when people wear superhero shirts, they feel more likeable. Even more powerful, test subjects wearing white coats (that they are told to be doctor’s coats) do better on mental agility tests than test subjects wearing the same coat but told it was a painter’s coat! What we wear affects not only how others perceive us, but how we ourselves feel and behave.

Try it for a Week

So, let’s do some science! Make yourself the subject of a dressing experiment. Take two minutes at bedtime Sunday evening to lay out or hang up your clothes for Monday. Repeat each evening. (I know a man who does this on Sunday for the whole week! That’s a bit much, even for a planner like me…) See if your mornings aren’t less stressful. Or how often you were compelled to change the outfit for your mood. On Friday, come back and let me know how your experiment went. Please do, I am insanely curious!

So, what works for you? Do you prefer to take the time at night to get ready for the next day? Or are you a morning preparer? Is it a mood thing, or a morning lark vs. night owl predilection? Let’s start a conversation in the comments below! I love to hear from you!

Stylishly yours,