As soon as the seasons start changing – whether you’re moving into winter or summer – you’ll notice that there are sales in all the stores. Even if it was only a few short months ago that these new fashions were being touted as the latest ‘must-have’ items, they are suddenly old news and need to be cleared out to make way for the new fashions.
The fashion industry is relentless and highly efficient in getting you to spend your hard-earned money! What was highly desirable a few weeks ago is now suddenly already out of date and unattractive. You just have to look at the sale rails to see how these, once prized items of clothing, are now treated. Sagging, creased and randomly bunched together, it’s hard to believe that these sad clothes were very recently the greatly longed-for height of fashion.
In no time at all, the new styles will be in the stores again, supported by huge, glamorous and enticing images on the walls, in magazines and on television. Fashion articles will keep you abreast of ‘what’s in’ and ‘what’s out’ so that, whether you’re aware of it or not, you start to feel a subtle sense of discontent with your very recent purchases and excited and ready to own the latest things on offer.
Notice how you feel about fashion
While you may have become used to this regular system of seasonable fashions, it’s a system that may not have your best interests at heart. To get more self-awareness of how you may be influenced by fashion, pay attention to any feelings you get that you’ll be more confident and attractive when you wear the latest colours and styles. Notice if you have a really strong drive to stay up to date with every season’s new fashions.
Remember that the fashion industry has a vested interest in your wanting to keep buying. It is a business and needs to keep making money – and one of the best ways to do this is to make each season decidedly different from the previous one. This means that, if the winter/summer colours and shapes were tight and bright, then it’s pretty likely that the summer/winter colours and shapes will be pastel, floaty and ‘romantic’ – or vice versa.
The obvious changes are what make you feel ‘out of fashion’ in the ‘old’ styles and colours, even if the clothes you recently bought are still in good condition and still look good on you. It’s the system that manipulates you to feel that you’re not ‘quite right’ unless you look like everyone else in the latest fashions.
See the system for what it is
Apart from the system that encourages you to spend money whether you can afford it or not, it’s not healthy for any of us to believe that our self-worth comes from being fashionable. While it can certainly be hard to resist a fashion system that has whole magazines dedicated to it, once you can see it for what it is, it will be easier for you to get off the relentless roundabout of consuming more and more.
As a unique soul with a correspondingly unique body, the endless cycles of fashion are arbitrary and will sometimes suit you and sometimes not suit you. It’s not possible for every fashion to suit your shape, your colouring, your personality and your lifestyle so it doesn’t make sense to keep buying the trends, whether or not they look good on you, just so that you can feel ‘fashionable’.
Treat yourself with respect and do what’s right for you
It isn’t worthy of you as a smart, authentic, empowered and independent soul to be caught up in the fashion system. Why not use the change of season as an opportunity to assess what really suits you and what you really need so that you buy only what will make you look and feel your best. This is how fashion becomes your servant and not your master!
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Your essential nature is spiritual so you will never be able to satisfy a spiritual hunger with material things.
When you’re clear about 
When this awareness fills you, you will find that you need fewer and fewer material things.
