Reclaiming Adornment
When you think of adornment, what comes to mind?
Someone dripping in jewels, with lots of drapey fabric and heavy makeup? Tattoos, piercings, and other body art?
I want to invite you to redefine adornment for yourself, and the definition I’m going to offer you to try on for size is this:
Adornment is simply anything you put on your body with intention.
And I want you to consider what it might be like if you embodied that definition, adorning yourself — with intention — every single day.
For a lot of us, we get dressed in the morning without much thought. When we shower, we may or may not pay much attention to the products we use or the experience of using them. And we carry that inattention to our post-shower routine.
But consider how good it feels when you’re getting ready for a special event — the extra attention you give to applying all of the body, beauty, or haircare products you use; the experience of putting on an outfit that you love the look and feel of; the uplifted self-image you have when you know you’ve put intention into adorning yourself.
And compare that to the times you throw on your ripped underwear, holey leggings, and that same hoodie you’ve been wearing for six days straight.
The biggest difference I tend to notice that separates the intentionality of the former from the IDGAF vibe of the latter is that when we’re truly adorning ourselves, it tends to be FOR other people.
When we’re dressing for ourselves, we’re often dressing “for no one.”
Think about it. How many times have you said — about your outfit choice — something like, “Nobody’s going to see me today, so it doesn’t matter.”
What you’re unconsciously saying to yourself in that moment is, “I’m the only one who’s going to see me today, and I DON’T MATTER.”
Of course, you may have partners/children/roommates who live with you. And we can talk about the extension of that vibe out to those relationships on a different day.
The point I really want to drive home here is this: YOU are NOT no one.
And you DESERVE to offer yourself the same intentionality that you offer to other people.
You deserve to adorn yourself FOR YOU.
“But I don’t have time…”
“But I don’t have the energy…”
“But I don’t CARE…”
Blah, blah, fucking blah.
Here’s the deal. When you adorn yourself with intention, you FEEL better. It doesn’t have to take any extra time at all. And it won’t TAKE energy from you. It’ll GIVE YOU energy. And while you may not care what you look like within the four walls of your own home, I want to invite you to consider why you care about adorning yourself when it’s for other people but not for yourself.
I’m not suggesting you need to get dressed up every day. Wear the damn leggings and hoodie! Just get rid of the ripped undies, the holey leggings, and wash the fucking hoodie.
You deserve to wear clean clothing that is fully intact.
You deserve to have the uplifting experience of noticing the products you use — whether that’s the fragrance of your body wash, the lather of your shampoo, the texture of your lotion, or anything else. Maybe that includes other beauty and haircare products for you. Maybe it doesn’t.
But you do all this shit for OTHER PEOPLE. And you deserve to be on the RECEIVING end of that from yourself.
Reclaim adornment for yourself. Adorn yourself for YOU. And see how that uplevels your experience of your life.
We’re focusing one of our six weeks on adornment in the upcoming Body Reclamation course — a six-week journey into reclaiming your body for YOU. The curriculum starts Wednesday, May 8. Email me for more info or to register.
