Clothing for Confidence

Sometimes we need to address some serious business, and this week we’re tackling a significant, critical topic:

Clothing!!

What we wear can be incredibly important. I recognize that we will have some who disagree, and if my husband started reading this he will already have stopped reading this. Fair enough.

BUT clothing is one of our basic human needs, and even people who practice mindfulness want to look and feel good. Since we have to (generally) wear clothes anyway, why not use our garments to give us some confidence and a positivity boost? When we wear something that looks and feels good, we tend to have a bit more of a skip to our step. We quite simply feel better! In addition, if we are comfortable with what we are wearing, we won’t think so much about our clothing during our activities and can focus on the mindfulness task at hand.

Whether at home or in a group situation with our physical mindful activities, it is time for us to get out of our jammies and put on some clothes that are optimal from both practical and aesthetic perspectives. I am focusing on clothing that we wear for yoga, but these tips can work for most physical activities.

1) Wear form-fitting but not tight clothes. When you are moving upside down and all around, you don’t want loose clothes going into your face, getting caught in something somewhere along the way, or possibly exposing body parts that you might not want to show. If you wear something too tight, however, it can be restrictive and uncomfortable.

2) It’s all about moisture-wicking fabrics, meaning fabrics that pull sweat away from the skin, through the fabric, and eventually leading to evaporation. Spandex is one of the best fabrics for moisture-wicking, and cotton is one of the worst, unless you enjoy your sweat staying on your clothes.

3) Layers! We don’t want temperature to distract us from the task at hand – come prepared to peel off or layer up throughout the practice.

4) No low-rider bottoms. In yoga and many other forms of movement we bend over. Plumber’s crack, builder’s bum, whatever you want to call it, is always hilarious on someone else, but horrifying on ourselves. High-risers are best for coverage no matter which way you move, and the right cut and fabric can offer a bit of smoothing over for those who are more self-conscious.

5) For women, proceed with caution with low-rider tops. We don’t want to be falling out on the bottom, but most of us also don’t want to be falling out on top. Even if you don't mind, someone else near you is sure to get distracted while trying to focus on their own practice.

6) Colors, colors, and more colors! Why not? I tend to wear black on the bottom, but just so that I can wear bright colors on top without too much clashing. If you like conservative darker colors, go for it, but if hot pink makes you feel good, absolutely go for that as well. Colors are very powerful and can have different effects on our mood.

It is absolutely ok to want to look and feel good. We never want to encourage worrying about how we look, but we are only human, and the less self-conscious we are about our clothes, the easier it is to focus on what we showed up to do – practice mindfulness.