Imagination as Inspiration

One of the best gifts that we are given as human beings is our own imagination. The freedom to dream up anything we want in our minds is not just a great escape, it’s the secret to unlocking our fullest potential and the highest versions of ourselves. Style is one of those tangible tools that we can use to crossover an idea that we’ve cultivated in our minds and bring it into our actual lives. Your imagination is limitless if you allow your mind to just play.  When you use your imagination to create a vision, a goal, or an ideal scenario that you’d like to experience, style is such a great way to begin to give life to the idea regardless of how simple or extravagant it may be. How so, you ask? Let’s play.

Growing up, I was taught that anything can be a game in your mind if you allow it. “Have fun with it”, I was told. And listen, just because you have fun doing something doesn’t mean that you can’t simultaneously take it seriously. Big things like your career, your goals, or your devotion to your family, can be meaningful and fun. It creates an enthusiasm and an optimism for just about anything- and it all starts in your mind.

Let’s use an example from your everyday routine. Have you ever had something you needed to do but you just didn’t feel like it? Maybe it’s running errands or cleaning your house.  Maybe it’s a work from home day and you have to send a bunch of emails or finish up the project that you set a self-imposed deadline for. Whatever the situation, your imagination can become the most beautiful tool to turn something mundane into a total adventure. You just need to decide that it is and have fun aligning your actions.

Here’s how style can work beautifully with your imagination to bring it all into your actual life. Think of something that you need to get done this week. Maybe it’s a work project or a family commitment. Next, make yourself the leading lady in your mind. Would your leading lady finish that project begrudgingly and complain through the whole task? Of course not! If you are playing the leading lady, maybe you would decide that she is an effortless, on-the-go woman who shows up to work in a wrap dress and pumps (even if it’s just down the hall in your own home) and you imagine the entire experience. It could be dreaming up what she would wear, how she works, how she handles incoming calls. All of it. But she is totally enthralling- and the best part, she is you.

Need to commute to work this week and not looking forward to the heavy traffic or the time spent in the car crossing over bridges and tunnels or riding the train during rush hour? Not a problem! In fact, time for your imagination and style to kick in and manifest the best-case scenario. Dream it up! Does she wear a silk scarf, roll the windows down, and listen to jazz music during her travels? Does she have a chic work bag that suggests a woman who is on-the-go, sophisticated, and effortless? Does she keep her sunglasses on for the entire train ride and compliment those shades with a wide brimmed hat so as not to be “discovered” enroute? Sound silly? I think it sounds fun and worthy of some further thought in your mind. Do you have a commuter lipstick? Do you have a to-go coffee mug that gets stained with red lipstick as you look over notes on the subway for your 9:00am meeting? Tap into your imagination, dream it up, and let your mind have fun with it. Your closet and personal style become tangible tools to bring it all to life.

If you are reading this and thinking that there is no way you could wear a silk scarf tied under your chin to commute across the Throgs Neck bridge because…. who does that?? I would challenge you to style your mind a bit differently and have some fun with it.  I do this all the time. And I’m not concerned that the person on the train may be looking at me like I’ve lost my mind. I’ve found, within my mind, one of life’s greatest gifts- my imagination, and I’m using it to bring my inspired narrative to life.

I encourage you to give it a try. And if by chance, we happen to see each other on a morning commute to the city, a knowing glance will be shared between two leading ladies bringing the inspiration to life- and as I was taught, we’re having fun doing it. Cheers!