Dressing my truth

This post might be a little strange, and will probably be quite long ... but here is a little about what's been going on in my own personal life since the middle of August. This post is just barely starting, and it's already feeling slightly awkward that it's all about me. I don't tend to focus on myself almost ever ...
Also, some of the photos in this post are not too bad, and others are not great ... not even close. The only reason I even put them on here was to try and show what I was talking about. Alright, here we go.

Just over a year ago, my mom and her friend Debi made a pretty noticeable change in their appearance. In July, Ber got married and I wanted to wear a chunky statement gold necklace to make my dress pop. I knew that Debi always wore chunky cute gold necklaces, so I asked her if I could borrow one. While I was over there, we talked about what her and my mom had done for the past year. She told me how she never felt feminine and confident in what she was wearing. She hated shopping and never thought she looked like she felt. A co-worker had gone through a noticeable change and Debi talked with her about it. (I'm trying to make a very long story relatively short). It ended up being a program called Dressing Your Truth.  It's more than just a makeover, it helps you understand who you are on the inside and it teaches you to dress to show your "inner nature". Another reason I was anxious to try it out, was I hoped that if what I wore on the outside complimented what was on the inside, my body might feel better about itself and I might be able to kick the postpartum depression thing a little faster and without meds. After seeing before and afters of my mom and Debi, it obviously works ... so I wanted to give it a try too.

Debi and my mom January 2012

My mom and Debi at Ber's wedding July 2013

The first step to the program is to read the book by Carol Tuttle called Dressing Your Truth, Discover your type of beauty. It explains a little bit about what she's trying to accomplish and then it goes into details about the different "Types" of people. There are 4 types and you read to book to figure out which type you are. After pondering about it for a while, I finally came to the conclusion of which type I was and then I took the challenge that end of the book. The challenge was to try it for 30 days and see how you feel.

I have always felt really awkward in front of cameras and I usually get really goofy to make it less awkward. I've never felt like a very photogenic person, so some of these pictures are quite painful to look at. Some are not too bad, but hopefully they show the point I'm trying to make a little.
Here are a handful of my "before" photos. Now that I've been doing the program for just over 3 months, I can see things in myself that I didn't notice before. When you dress in other types that aren't you, the clothes wear you instead of letting the true you shine through and show your most beautiful self. In a lot of these before photos, my eyes are squinty and really dark, my face seems to be pulled down toward the ground, I have a lot more red marks and blemishes on my face (which surprisingly cleared up quite a lot when I dressed in the way that honored my true nature!). I just don't look as comfortable in my own skin.

At Ber's wedding, two weeks after I had my baby:

I always wore black. It was what I thought I felt comfortable in. I always wanted to wear other colors, but had NO clue what colors I would look okay in.

Even though I wore a ton of black, I always wanted a color that popped with it!

This is a typical 'Kelsie doesn't feel comfortable with the camera on her' face

I thought that maybe if I grew my hair out long and made it curly and cute I would look and feel better, but it never worked. (I tried it lots of different times!) It seems to pull my face downward because my hair looked too heavy.

Alright, and now on to the "after" photos! Looking at myself, I see myself with eyes that are more open and that sparkle. My skin looks more healthy and has color and life to it. After I started, Mart told me I finally looked my age!

Overall, I have been really happy with the changes. Some of them were hard (no black at all, my metal color went from my very favorite silver, to a warm bright gold, and lots of bright colors that I was SO not used to!) My closet was very empty for a while, but it's slowly getting back up and I like it a whole lot more than I used to! I used to have a ton of shirts that never got worn, but now I seem to be rotating through everything and it's all getting used now which is awesome!

If you have been feeling less than confident with your outward appearance and maybe that something just doesn't feel just right. Maybe you change your clothes 5 times before you leave in the morning ... or you are just never sure what to wear. I recommend maybe thinking about giving it a shot! I mean, what have you got to lose? If you want to check it out, she has a free course about figuring out your type (without the book) on her website www.dressingyourtruth.com.

**On a side note, I will tell you that the program is pricey. It goes on sale quite often, so if you really decide that it's something you want to do, wait until it goes back on sale before you purchase it. I happened to be the same type as my mom, so I was able to just do her course which was awesome!**

Okay, I think that's quite enough pictures of me in one post. I think I've reached my quota for the year. *wink*. Now back to regular blogging ... :)