Six Ways Your Clothing Can Affect Your Mood

“Without a word, your clothes tell a story of who you are. Say something interesting.” –Author Unknown

Every single day, we think of choosing clothes as a mindless and perfunctory activity that is almost negligible as it is a part of our routine, but this should not be the case. Unless we are incredibly fashion forward individuals who have a keen eye for fashion ensembles, there are only a handful of special days wherein we are a bit more meticulous as to what we wear. Otherwise, we think of dressing up as another essential part of our regular everyday habit we have to get on with. However, this should not be the case as your clothes—trifling as they may seem—actually play a pivotal role in affecting your mood. In fact, this is readily seen as to how you will instantly get a confident boost from loving what you are wearing—so, indeed, dressing for your mood is indeed a thing and is actually a real concept. If you are unconvinced, wear the best ensemble you have sitting in your closet among the assortment of clothes and take a gander at yourself in the mirror. If it makes you look good then it would inevitably make you feel good—regardless of whether these clothes are branded retail buys, thrifted clothes or even wholesale clothing. So, the next time you head out to the office, you might want to ponder on these points and make a more deliberate choice in selecting your office tie or work shoes:

1. What you wear can make you feel powerful

One study published in Social Psychological and Personality Science took a number of volunteers to wear formal business attires and perform a series of experiments that would challenge their cognitive processing abilities. It has been shown that people who dressed up and more deliberately felt more powerful and in control of the situation than their under dressed counterparts. From this, we can readily assume that power dressing is indeed a thing as evidenced from this successful study and experiment.

2. What you wear can make you fitter and healthier

While it seems like a far fetched concept, what you wear actually contributes to a fitter lifestyle by making you exercise harder sans the difficulty that entails. In a sense, what you wear can actually make arduous and strenuous exercises feel easier. This has been backed up by the observation made in the 2004 Olympic games where athletes in red clothing won more events than their competitors who wore blue. This phenomena prompted researchers to see if there was a relation between the clothing and the success in sport. It has been found in the Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology that people who exercised in red clothing could actually lift heavier weights and had higher average heart rates (meaning they worked harder than those in blue). It might seem like there should be no correlation between the two, but considering how this study has backed up the theory, wearing red indeed contributes to success in sports.

3. What you wear helps you think better

Apart from feeling empowered and more powerful, it has also been shown that subjects who dressed in business formal clothing can come up with better and more creative ideas on their feet than their underdressed peers. It has been speculated that the way you dress plays a role in your perception of objects, events and people around you which would prompt a new point of view or fresh ideas

4. What you wear helps you focus

Most jobs—especially those that are seen as a bit tedious and boring, require a lot of focus. Unfortunately, that is only half the battle and when it comes down right to it, focusing on something that is boring is not exactly easy. With this, a study published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology has found that people who wore smart looking doctor’s labs were able to focus longer and better than those who thought they were just wearing a painter’s smock. This phenomena as explained by authors is caused by a physician’s tendency to be rigorous, careful and meticulous when it comes to detail—so it would be as if like the wearer is embodying some of those qualities. In a sense, they are trying to live up to the expectations of the outfit.

5. What you wear can make you smarter

Although the correlation is hardly evident, dressing in clothing that is associated with intelligence can not only make you look smarter but act smarter as well. In the same study conducted above, subjects were given doctor’s lab coats though none of them were physicians. They were then asked to perform a series of complex tasks. It has then been shown that people in white clothes made fewer mistakes than those who worked sans a physician’s lab coats. The same experiment was again performed but this time everyone was given lab coats. However. They told half of the participants they were given paint smocks while they told the rest that they were wearing doctor’s coats. Similarly, those who were told they were donning doctor’s coats performed better in the tests. This experiment shows that it is not just what you wear, but rather what you think of what you wear that matters more.

6. What you wear can make you lose weight

While clothing can make you appear slimmer and svelte with ingenious slimming illusions, it can also provide an avenue for losing weight. An example would be wearing snug pants for example or tightening your belt more than usual which would give you a subconscious signal to stop eating the moment you are full. For this reason, a lot of French women have been known to tie a ribbon around their waist underneath their clothes whenever they are going out for a meal. It keeps them conscious of their waist—especially as the ribbon starts to feel a bit tighter in their midsection as the meal goes on.
And the last but not the least is that what you wear can cheer you up. If what you wear makes you look good, you will inevitably feel good as a result. In fatc, it has been show that more often than not, we dress how we would like to feel or how we want others to perceive how we are feeling. As a result, clothing can cheer us up wheneverwe are particularly feeling under the weather. So, the next time you assemble an assortment of clothes from your closet, remember that you are not only dressing to look good, but to feel good as well.

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