What your clothes are quietly telling your nervous system
If getting dressed feels hard or heavy, don’t ignore it.
That feeling is usually telling you more than you think.
One thing I’ve noticed more and more lately, especially now that working from home is normal for so many of us, is how disconnected we’ve become from what getting dressed actually does to us. We throw something on because we’re at home. Because no one will see us. Because comfort feels like the priority.
And sometimes, that’s completely fine.
But if this is happening every single day, there’s usually something else going on underneath.
Your wardrobe is constantly sending signals to your brain. This isn’t poetic language, it’s neuroscience. What you put on tells your nervous system what kind of day you’re having.
These clothes say: we’re resting.
These clothes say: we’re going out.
These clothes say: we’re focused, alert, productive.
When you stay in ‘home clothes’ all day, your brain stays in home mode too. It does exactly what it’s designed to do, protect your comfort, look for ease, avoid effort. Which means you end up using twice as much energy trying to focus, resist distractions, or push yourself into work mode.
You’re not unmotivated.
You’re not lacking discipline.
You’re just sending your nervous system the wrong signal.
This connects directly to something else I’ve been reflecting on.
I’ve been digitalising my wardrobe for almost ten years. Long before it was trendy. I used to save outfit photos and combinations that worked so that on days I felt lost, I could go back and remember what I already owned and how I liked to wear it.
This year, the process looks different.
I’m doing wearing 100% of my wardrobe because I’m ready to invest more intentionally. Not more for the sake of it, but better. Higher quality. Pieces that actually match the life I’m living now.
And I don’t want to do that blindly.
So I’m wearing everything. Paying attention. Noticing patterns. Making a list as I go of what would truly elevate my wardrobe, instead of reacting to trends or impulse.
What’s become very clear already is that some things simply don’t belong anymore.
For example, I have a few A-line tulle skirts. Beautiful pieces. Good quality. I’ve styled them in every possible way, for different occasions, with different shoes, different tops. Nothing is a NO in theory.
But my body knows before my head does.
They don’t resonate. They don’t feel like me. And that means they’re ready to go, to a clothes swap or resale, to make space (and money) for what actually supports where I’m going.
This is where the nervous system piece becomes impossible to ignore.
If you keep telling yourself you want change, but you can’t bring yourself to dress intentionally, not glam, or ‘done,’ just intentionally, there’s usually a block underneath.
Your nervous system is wired for familiarity. It wants what it knows. Even if what it knows isn’t making you happy.
So when you start something new, a habit, a routine, a new way of dressing, you might feel energised for a couple of days, alive, and motivated. Then suddenly, you drop it.
Not because you failed.
But because your system says… okay, that was interesting, now let’s go back to what feels safe.
I’ve been there too.
And here’s the uncomfortable truth, if that cycle keeps repeating, nothing changes. You’ll end this year exactly where you started it. Same wardrobe. Same frustration. Same sense of wanting more but not sustaining it.
This is exactly why I work the way I do.
When your body resists getting dressed, the goal isn’t to fight it. It’s to acknowledge it. To notice the resistance and say, I see you, you’re trying to keep me protected. And then get dressed anyway, without turning it into a daily debate.
This is where a ready-to-wear lookbook changes everything.
When the outfits are already built from the pieces you own, you don’t have to decide in the moment. You don’t have to negotiate with your energy. You simply choose an outfit that already exists and put it on.
This is what I do with my clients as a personal stylist in London. We build more than 30 outfits from what they already own and organise them into a digital ready-to-wear LookBook, based on their real life. Work. Meetings. Evenings. At home. Low-energy days. High-impact days.
Then the work becomes repetition.
Not forcing or convincing.
Just showing up dressed, again and again.
And that repetition is what shifts identity.
We talk so much about manifestation, about changing outcomes, about vision boards and affirmations. But reality doesn’t change because you want it to. It changes when you start inhabiting the version of yourself who already lives there.
Clothes are one of the fastest ways to do that because they meet you every single morning.
When you change how you show up in something as tangible as your wardrobe, your nervous system recalibrates. What once felt unfamiliar becomes normal. What once felt uncomfortable becomes safe.
And from there, everything else begins to realign.
So I’ll leave you with this, not to judge yourself, but to get curious…
If you looked honestly at how you get dressed every day, what might it be telling you about the change you say you want, but haven’t fully allowed yet?