Trying Things on for Size

I have a confession to make, I am not someone who enjoys clothes shopping.  I do not delight in visiting store, browsing the racks of clothing and then trying on outfits.  I can remember the last time I did do this, it was 2020 just months before COVID struck and I needed to buy clothes for a new role I was starting.  I went to one store and decided to make a go of it.  I started to pick out just one or two things and then someone approached me to ask if I wanted them to put things in a change room for me to try on.  I hadn't considered that I could just load up a bunch of things at once and then go through the whole trying on phase of the experience in one fell swoop.  So I did just that - I picked out armloads of things and shrugged and made my way to see if there was anything in the collection I had created that might suit me.  

I share this experience because I am realizing more and more how much this practice of trying things on for size also extends to other areas of my life.  Not only am I someone who does not enjoy shopping (in person) I am also someone who loves to plan.  Blame it on my Virgo-ness or being a first-born child, or the combination of the two - regardless, I am a person who enjoys planning, and who takes joy in trying to see what the outcome of situations will be.  And being aware of this tendency is the first step that I have taken in trying to ease up on this habit or pattern, because while I have enjoyed some successes in my life as a result of my planning and stick-to-it-iveness, I have also driven myself and others in my life crazy with this way of being. 

So back to trying things on for size, which goes completely counter to my very comfortable planning it out mentality.  I found that I needed to take baby steps with this way of thinking at first, which looked a lot like listening to intuition over impulse.  Widening my lens a bit to see what other options were out there, and looking at the ones that were the farthest from what I had been doing up to that point.  Also allowing myself to go back and revisit things I may have dismissed too quickly or before I had really given them a chance.  It wasn't an exercise of completely abandoning what I had been doing up to that point, it was more about opening myself to curiosity about options and not immediately discounting things that may not have seemed to fit before.  It was an exercise in taking chances and exploring what ifs and letting my mind wander and imagination take over.  And maybe sometimes I did wander down a new path to see what that felt like, giving myself permission to double-back without reprimand if it didn't feel right.  For me, the part about no reprimand was huge, as part of my planning focus tends to be also centred on getting things 'right'...whatever that means.  

At the end of the day, I am still not someone who is going to find joy in shopping but I am someone who can find glimmers of happiness in trying on things for size.  Experimentation and exploration can be both scary and exciting, and if we can approach them with an open mindset and no judgement, I think that they can be invaluable tools that we can rely on in our ongoing discovery of who we are becoming. 


Comments

  1. AnonymousSeptember 12, 2022 at 4:14 PM

    This is awesome, wise and beneficial Kerri. These were also apt words for me today, so I thank you… for thinking and being vulnerable and sharing.

    ReplyDelete

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