Why dressing up is important for self-love and empowerment

Fashion doesn't define you.

Fashion doesn't say who you are. But fashion can help you understand that dressing up is important for you. While so many of us have had to learn to work from home in the last years, for some it has really become a struggle from wearing sweatpants on the bottom and a cute shirt on the top for our zoom meetings to deciding to not even dress up at all. (No judgements)

But let me tell you why dressing up became a priority for me way before the pandemic hit our lifestyles. 

Dressing up is and should always be, for you

What I mean by this is that how many times have you thought: "I won't wear that cute blazer or dress because I won't even go out of my house today. Maybe I should just toss on a pair of leggings and get through with my day".

It happened to me when I had to move to a different country and rediscover my life's purpose. I wasn't able to work for my previous job, so I had to quit. And there I was a newly wed 25 year old woman sitting on her couch thinking about what I was going to be doing all day long.

The thought of being a regular stay at home woman terrified me. And I don't have anything against stay at home moms or women, I'm just being transparent, I firmly believed I never wanted this lifestyle.

I have always been ambitious. I had a clear vision that my professional path would be to scale up the corporate ladder, and possibly lead a team one day, specifically in an office environment.

So when I was there, powerless, sitting in front of my TV and waiting for my husband to come home, I felt lost. So lost that I didn't even care about getting dressed up. I thought "what's the use" if I'm not even going to go to work today, then why do anything?

And then one day I said: NO! "Natalia if you're going to adapt to your new life, because you have no other option right now, then get up and get dressed for you".

(Credit to the sustainable skirt from an awesome brand called Passion Lilie)

Dressing up for myself in times of uncertainty made me start a sustainable fashion blog

I've talked about this story in other places, but in a long-story-short-version when I was forced to step out of my comfort zone and what I thought were the next steps in my life (getting married, working for that dream job, having kids, etc) I realized that society's stereotypes can make us live our lives doing things that we don't even know will fulfill us for the rest of the lives.

I dressed up, opened my laptop everyday and started exploring what I could do with my life now. The options were endless, and I got so inspired to start my own digital business, so I started having fun doing what I remembered that used to be my passion when I was a kid, and had completely forgot about, which is writing.

Shortly after, this sustainable blog pivoted into Natalia Maganda where I get to help brands and people that align with my purpose every single day.

Staying motivated while working from home starts with self-love

This has been my mantra ever since I was forced to learn to work from home and try new things. When I learned to dress for myself, to make myself feel better, to have a sense that I was dressing for going to my own virtual office that I called office even when no one was paying me a salary (yet) was so powerful, trust me.

Being an entrepreneur is all about mindset really. And the more I felt like a girl boss starting a business, the more I started to believe it, and it actually happened. There I was blogging from 9-5 (or more honestly, because when you start doing what you love, you'll find a magical energy that you can't stop).

And then, people started to believe in me. Brands started to want to work with me. I started sharing marketing advice and then thought, well, this could actually become my own business, and so it did.

But this would not have been possible if I hadn't stayed committed to showing up for myself, putting on my favorite clothes, wearing that pink lipstick and looking at myself in the mirror mentally saying: you've got this, and you look beautiful.

Dressing up is important for staying motivated, even when you won't step outside of your home

And that's why fashion has been my therapist basically over the past 3 years. I've learned to love myself more, discover my passions at a deeper level, and nurture that relationship with myself where I choose to dress up for me, and for no one else.

Nurturing your mindset with positive things can help you overcome fear as an entrepreneur and it can help you unleash that empowered woman that is waiting to do something life-changing like starting a business.

I never knew that dressing up would have led me to start my own business, to take fear of failure and turn it into action and to find a purpose that drives me with passion. It even motivated me to quit my job after I was able to move back to Mexico and work again.

I had the opportunity to go back to my previous work, and after experiencing the perks of being my own boss, I no longer had fear to work from home, and had learned to do what I love. It felt pointless to work for someone else doing what I had been doing for the past 5 years with stress, anxiety and overwhelm for a paycheck that I could easily double being my own boss and working hard for it.

You never know what doors can open, and most importantly, what you can make out of your own life when you choose to take control and get to know yourself at a deeper level.

I hope that the next time you're thinking about dressing up, you think twice about who you want to become and dress like it.

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