Would you believe me if I told you that the clothes you wear can influence how happy you feel and the kind of day you have?
Color, it turns out, does make a difference.
In this article I’m going to reveal how simple it is to dress yourself happy.
Whether you care about fashion or not, there is one fashion trend that I believe we should all be aware of.
Dopamine dressing is what it’s called.
Many of us experienced a genuine loss of control as a result of the pandemic, and we had to put on hold many of the things that used to bring us delight.
Thankfully, we still retain control over the one thing that has been proved to make us happy.
It is, believe it or not, our clothing.
The link between our outfits and our overall mood is being investigated more and more recently.
That piqued my interest, and I decided to learn more about the concept of dopamine dressing.
I have to tell that what I discovered astounded me.
What is Dopamine Dressing?
Dressing with the goal of increasing your own mood is known as dopamine dressing.
After doing some research, I realized that fashion, particularly the colors we wear, can influence how we perceive ourselves and other people, whether we like it or not.
However, when you consider that our moods are influenced by how others respond to us and vice versa, things get a little more difficult.
Take a moment to consider that.
That is to say, the way people react to us has a direct impact on how we feel.
If the clothes we wear have such an impact on our emotions and the reactions of those around us, it begs the question of whether we should be spending more time and attention on the colors we wear on a daily basis.
Color, style, and texture have all been scientifically established to have psychological correlations, and they’re typically linked to our memories.
Color can transport us to a different time and place in the same way that music can.
It’s also been established that stepping out of your normal routine and wearing a different color or an interesting dress that pushes you to your limits can cause the release of dopamine, a happy hormone.
I’ve been wearing my bright shirts and colorful tops a lot lately, and it’s made me feel a lot better.
I’ve also observed that people respond to me with a smile and in a more pleasant manner.
All of this contributes to a virtuous circle of enjoyment.
It makes me feel fantastic when people respond well to you, or more specifically when they respond good to me.
It’s similar to having a great hair day. Everything else appears to fall into place when you have a good hair day.
But the fundamental question is if fashion has the ability to make you happy.
Enclothed cognition was the subject of a Northwestern University study.
In their report, the researchers define it as “the systematic influence of clothing on the wearer’s psychological processes.”
It refers to what your clothes are saying to you, rather than about you, and how they make you feel.
Essentially, dressing a certain way helps you transform your interior self.
This whole concept of enclothed cognition basically proves that you should dress for how you want to feel rather than how you feel.
You can, in theory, dress yourself happy if you wake up feeling flat and dreary.
If all of this sounds a little bit woo-woo to you, rest assured that color therapy has been practiced for centuries.
Color therapy was extremely essential in medical procedures in ancient Egypt, Greece, and China.
They possessed what they referred to as color halls, which were utilized to treat and heal people.
Basically, you’d be taken to a bright room and your illness would be treated there.
Color therapy is essentially just a way of studying how color affects our overall well-being.
Given the pandemic, this has piqued my interest since it makes me feel that color has the potential to provide us a greater sense of control over not just our physical but also our emotional well-being.
I’m not claiming that wearing bright clothes will make you feel better and allow you to stop taking your medications.
But I believe there is something in this that is worth experimenting with even if it is just for yourself.
As I previously stated, I’ve been playing with colors without even noticing it, and it’s had a significant impact on how others react to me.
As a result, how I’ve felt about myself has changed.
I know that sounds far-fetched, but it has had a significant impact on my way of life.
What that means to me is that we are not only what we wear, but we can also become what we wear.
Consider how you feel when you’re wearing some of your own clothes. Consider a time when you donned an outfit that made you feel fantastic.
Was it a particular color, a style, or a fabric texture that made you feel amazing?
It’s worth looking through your closet and taking a quick glance at some of your outfits, attempting to feel how you felt when you wore them.
Is there anything about a certain dress that makes you feel powerful, sexy, or in command?
Your clothing clothes offer a message to others around you. After that, those individuals answer.
It’s commonly known that we judge a person within the first second of meeting them, whether right or wrong.
So it really makes me realize how much what we wear, particularly the colors we wear, can have an affect on others, which then has an influence on us.
What we dress reflects how we want to be perceived, which makes perfect sense to me.
Dressing choices have an impact not just on how others perceive us, but also on how we perceive ourselves.
It makes perfect sense to me that the concept of dopamine dressing is gaining traction and that more and more people are discussing it.
Because we could all use a little more support right now to deal with the crazy world we all live in.
I discovered the idea of dopamine being triggered by merely dressing outside of your comfort zone while conducting some study on this topic.
This can also be accomplished by integrating some intriguing new colors into your palette.
Or perhaps finally deciding to dress the way you’ve always wanted to dress but have been afraid to do so for whatever reason.
Dressing outside of your comfort zone has also been shown to cause dopamine release.
It’s got that feel-good factor.
Key Colors
Without getting too technical, I thought now would be a good opportunity to take a look at a few of the major colors that are both on trend and readily available this year.
Scratch the surface of those colors to see how they’re supposed to make us feel when we’re wearing them.
Here are some of the hottest colors for 2022, and how you can expect to feel if you wear them.
Red
The color red is associated with self-assurance, power, and allure.
Red is a seductive color, as we all know. It’s renowned as the color of love and romance, and it emits a lot of energy, according to color therapy regulations.
You give off the impression of having a lot of energy while wearing it, yet it’s also a color that keeps you grounded.
Pink
Oink is a color that conjures up images of femininity, romance, and loving, nurturing, and sharing. It exudes a distinct sense of delicacy.
It is considered to generate a sense of tranquility in the user and is a cheerful, lively color.
Blue
Another color that is really popular this year is blue. It’s a strong color, yet it also has a soothing and relaxing effect.
While blue is a soothing color, psychologists caution against using it excessively in your life because it might produce feelings of despair and loneliness.
Orange
I’ve been wearing orange a lot lately and really like it.
Warmth, acceptance, positivism, and originality are all connected with the color orange.
It’s warm, stylish, upbeat, a fun youthful color, and it uplifts and stimulates dialogue.
Green
Another color is green. It’s a color of peace and well-being. It’s a warm, soothing color that represents security and growth.
Green is often associated with hope, wealth, charity, and good fortune. It’s essentially a calming, relaxing, and energizing color.
Fuchsia
This year’s color of the year is fuchsia, which represents maturity and certainty.
It’s a warm, inviting color that exudes trust and trustworthiness.
This is the ideal color to wear on any day when you need a little extra confidence boost.
White
Because white is such a popular color this year, I’ve included it as well.
This year, we may anticipate to witness a lot of lovely white gowns.
People that wear white are frequently perceived as kind, clean, and orderly, but they are also innovative.
Black
I’ve always been a fan of the color black. The color black denotes authority and power.
The color has the ability to elicit admiration and respect. It’s also a color that represents sense-sufficiency.
While the clothes we wear may not be the solution to all of our mental health problems, I believe they do have an effect on how we feel about ourselves.
They have the ability to influence the type of day we will have.
As a result, I believe it is critical to concentrate on color therapy and the colors we wear in our daily lives.
At the end of the day, whether or not fashion has the capacity to make us happy is up to us, as it is with most things in life.
But if it means that a stranger smiles at us or that we have a little more good engagement with people we meet on a daily basis, it’s worth at least paying a little more attention to the clothes we wear and the colors they come in.
