Dressing Outside My Comfort Zone…

A couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to see my favorite musician — Gavin DeGraw. Do you have a favorite song or artist that you could listen to all day on repeat? That’s Gavin DeGraw for me. As you can imagine, I was beyond excited to go to this concert and listen to all of my favorite songs live. Although this was my 4th Gavin DeGraw concert, I wanted this night to be extra special…and I wanted to look good.

Have you ever heard of Fashion Nova? If not, no worries, they were new to me too. But after taking a few minutes to browse their website, I knew I would be a repeat buyer. Right off the back I fell in love with their style of clothing, its very….shall we say spicy? Their clothes are a little more ‘sexy’ than what I tend to wear. Hence, I knew I wanted to purchase my ‘concert outfit’ from this site.

I started off slow, not going as extreme as I could go (yes, this is a dress). However, it was important that I still pick something that stretched my comfort level just a bit. I decided to go with this Jeanine Velvet Top in Mauve/Pink of course. My very first crop top!

I mentally prepared myself. Reaffirming my beauty, my value and my worth. Reminding myself that I am strong and beautiful no matter what people say to me. However, no amount of preparation prepared me for what actually happened.

The amount of compliments and ‘hit-ons’ I received left me reeling. While waiting outside the venue, I literally had three men approach me, telling me that I am beautiful. What!? I thought I experienced it all, but this…this was something I was NOT prepared for.

People always say that dressing good on the outside, can help you feel better on the inside. And sure, I think that’s true. However, I would also like to argue that how you feel on the inside, can also greatly impact how you look on the outside. I can guarantee you this. If my confidence had not been where it was, if I had not developed the tools I use to encourage myself when my confidence wavers, my experience at the Gavin DeGraw concert would have been completely different. I would have been uncomfortable, trying to hide and cover up. Heck, I probably wouldn’t have worn this outfit at all. Unfortunately, as my friends will tell you, I’ve never been good at masking my feelings. My uncomfortableness would have shown, and instead of a confident/beautiful woman, they would have seen a shy girl who just wanted to hide and runaway.

As Fashion Nova says on their website, “her confidence is what truly shines, but her Fashion Nova outfit adds that extra sparkle.” This definitely rang true for me. In this Fashion Nova top, I felt like a rock star, but only because I first felt like a star on the inside. This experience put everything in perspective. I feel like I’ve had many of these a-ha moments within the last year. It doesn’t matter what people think or have to say about you. It doesn’t matter if they think you’re fat, short, ugly, or whatever mean words they conjure up. All that matters is how you feel about yourself. When you feel good, you look good…point, blank, the end. So I encourage you, when you’re going through moments of self-doubt and insecurity, stop. Life is too short to be weighed down this way. Now, I know this is way easier said than done. But if you continue to live outside your comfort zone — wearing new outfits, going on crazy adventures, etc. — you’ll realize the things that once controlled you, really have no power over you at all.

Unfortunately, I lost all the photos I took at the Gavin DeGraw concert (bummer). However, I decided to wear the same outfit for a recent photoshoot I did for my doctor’s office…sans sliver of skin, wanted to keep it appropriate lol. I decided to wear this outfit again because it represents the time I am in my life right now…happy, confident, and free.

Do you have a similar experience? Let me know in the comments below!

Until Next Time,

<3

Outfit Details

Top | Fashion Nova

Bottoms | Macys (Similar)

Shoes | Madden Girl (Similar)

PinkCaboodle

Maya is owner of Pink Caboodle, specializing in Fashion and Body Positivity.