What Getting Dressed is Teaching Me About Living Well

Reflections on Turning 60

Birthdays have a way of sneaking up on you. Even the ones you’ve been trying your best to prepare yourself for.

Yep! I’m now 60 years old, and it’s all good. I have been so blessed and I have so much to be grateful for.

In the months leading up to the big day, I spent some time thinking about the best way to move forward into this new decade. When I began this series, I asked a question that was much bigger than this blog could ever answer:

How do we live life well?

For me, the answer begins with my faith. Being a Christian shapes what I believe it means to flourish. While that isn't the purpose of this blog, nor something that can be fully explored through clothing, it is the context in which I live.

So, over the last few months as I've worked through this here, the question has gradually become sharper.

Instead of asking, “How do we live well?”, I've begun asking:

“What can the ordinary act of getting dressed teach us about living well?

Pay attention

Everything comes back to one simple practice:

Pay attention.

Pay attention to what happens when you get dressed—not just what you wear, but also things like:

• What you are thinking.

• Your emotions.

• The stories you tell yourself.

• When clothing gives you confidence—or when it subtly chips away at it.

Why? Getting dressed isn't just a practical task. It's a daily experience that reveals something about us to us.

What kind of relationship do you have with your clothes?

That probably sounds like a strange question. After all, we don't have relationships with clothes the same way we have relationships with people.

However, we do have an ongoing connection with what we wear. Some things we enjoy wearing, and some we just tolerate. We attach good memories to certain pieces, and others we avoid.

Sometimes clothing enables us to feel capable or beautiful. Other times it leaves us feeling exposed, inadequate, or ashamed.

People around us respond to what we wear, too. Before we've spoken a word, our clothing has already communicated something. Friends recognize us by our style. Strangers form first impressions. Clothes become a way we relate to the world around us.

In that sense, our wardrobe isn't just fabric. It's one of the places where our relationship with ourselves—and with other people—shows up every single day.

The bigger point

We're not clothes hangers. We're living, thinking, feeling human beings.

Clothing isn't the point. People are.

That's why getting dressed can become much more than choosing an outfit.

If we're willing to pay attention, it can become a daily practice of self-awareness, which is not the same as self-obsession.

Self awareness is a skill that can help us become more intentional with our decisions, develop greater compassion for ourselves and others, and have healthier relationships—both with ourselves and others.

Where this series has led me

This is why I've become convinced that getting dressed can be a surprisingly powerful tool for well-being.

Those words—mental health and well-being—are everywhere today. Yet, what could that actually look like in our ordinary lives?

Maybe it could be a part of one ordinary moment that happens for all of us every single morning. Sometimes the smallest daily practice can become a place where we could learn valuable lessons.

Getting dressed isn't merely about clothes. It's a daily practice that reveals how we think about ourselves. It can show us where our self-trust is strong and where it needs tending. It's an opportunity to exercise agency, develop good habits, and even confront the reality of aging.

It's a valuable part of what it means to be human. Perhaps that's what I've been learning all along.