On Tuesdays, I talk about style. Because, seriously, it’s SUCH an accessible way for us to make significant improvement in our lives.

• By “significant improvements” I mean stuff like, you can feel happier, have good things happening and change your relationships all of it just by tinkering with with your forgotten little style nodule.

(And when I am talking about your “style“, I mean what you’re wearing, what your digs look like, how your work space is looking…)

It’s your style! It matters.

I said some things the other day. (I meant them.)

Not to be all Stacy on What Not to Wear,* but what you wear is an expression of who you are to other people and, MORE IMPORTANTLY, to yourself.

*because she’s kind of a bitch on that show

You may shave your head or have pink hair.

You may want to wear all black and put a duck on your shoulder. It all sends a message, to YOU and to the big, bodacious world.

Because how you express yourself (outwardly, through your style) is a microcosm of how you live and what you believe you deserve to have.

Kind of heavy, but, it’s true. So true!

It’s LIFE OR DEATH!

Well, not exactly that. (there’s no death)

• But you cannot change your life without changing your style, and vice versa.

Your style is a powerful metaphor for your life. In the words of ye old Martha Beck who studies (in her words — I love this) “how to cope, how to be happy and how to manifest your purpose” (and trained me to teach you how to do those things), and who also has a schmancy Harvard PhD in sociology :

Every time you make a choice about which objects you bring into your space, where to put them, or whether to remove them, you’re following psychological directives that also shape every other aspect of your life. If you feel overwhelmed by tasks and people, your home will be overcrowded with objects. If you care more about your children than about yourself, you’ll take better care of their space than you do of your own.  If you have a lot of secrets the physical manifestation of those secrets will be stowed — usually in a grubby, hidden or suffocating bundle — somewhere in your house.

Holy smokes, Dr. Martha. I feel like you’ve been to my house, and can read my mind.

But, Dr. M, why does changing my space — like, cleaning out the crap I have hidden behind my bedroom door, say – change my life?

It’s because of BUTTERFLIES.

OH!

Wait — huh?

No, wait — it’s because of the Butterfly Effect.

Huh?

You know, the Butterfly Effect, which you may know as a movie you didn’t bother seeing with Ashton Kutcher in it, but is actually a concept, based on a story written wayyyyy back in 1952 (which is why you’ve never read it).

A man goes back to the age of the dinosaurs, and steps on a butterfly. He returns to the future, and insects (not people) rule the modern world. This small change, extrapolated over eons, makes an enormous change.

If you start to pay attention, you’ll find that if you make a change to your style, or your living space, however small, it will send you down a slightly different path that you can’t see at first, but puts you in a VERY different place in the future.

Like an orange wall and a cactus.

I believe my decision not to marry this not-right-for-me person years ago is because I changed HIS living space (where I spent most of my time).

We were talking marriage and thinking dates.  Heavy.

Then, as a “fun surprise”, I painted one of his enormous walls bright orange and bought him a cactus while he was out one day (I’m a very fast painter).

With the apartment so happy, I could see, after about 3 months of the slightly different path, that we were… not. And, I picked up by bucket and paint brush and found a new wall to paint.

And that wall got me onto the slightly different path that leads to this career! (But that’s another story for another post.)

There’s also the awesome action component.

To make a small change, you have to take a small action. And that action is empowering — because that action is really what puts you on the new and better path.

And that new and better path changes your life. Which means, you just proved to yourself you can change your life with your actions.

Rock on.

And the change your patterns component.

If your space is different or you present yourself in a different way, it changes your patterns throughout the day, ever so slightly.

Your patterns shifting means they shift throughout your life… and who knows how many lives you touch with that!

The bottom line is that little tiny visual changes make big, lasting improvements in your existence. They feel good when you do them, they don’t take much effort at the time and you get to enjoy the fruits of a changed loom.

Um, life.

In the comments, please tell me:

– if you’ve every changed your home or style in any way that’s affected your life;

– did you see The Butterfly Effect, the movie, and was it like the book;

– something about your current style — good, bad or… edible. Or something.

If you liked this post, take a look at these posts.

1. Tuesday Styles #8: 10 ways to change your mood (by changing your look)
2. Tuesday Styles #10: Cheer ye, cheer ye! Change Cyclists, UNITE!
3. Tuesday Styles #3: Time Travel Edition