USING YOUR 5 SENSES TO FIND YOUR SPARKLE IN FEBRUARY ✨
The blog post for busy women who love versatile, stylish outfits and feeling good about themselves. One woman’s small step in celebrating being kind to the planet, others and ourselves through our clothes.
Tips to help your well-being and self-care at the end of winter. I always forget that February is the hardest month for me, probably because I’m at my most depleted from the long, grey winter (can you tell I’m not the biggest fan of winter?!). I'm convinced it's also the reason it's the shortest month of the year. This February I’ve been getting over whooping cough which is taking forever and has put pause on a lot of stuff- trying to reignite my sparkle hasn’t been easy. So, I’ve dug deep, taken a step back to focus on how I can give myself a little zhoosh and broken ideas down into the five senses so we can really give ourselves a holistic refresh. These little moments of sparkle have also been called ‘microjoys’ by Stylist Magaizine, and studies show that they can help our well-being both short and long term by balancing out stress. Hopefully these things might help you too.
- SMELL: for me, smell is the most evocative of the senses, using a new soap or shower gel is the closest thing to that golden hour feeling when we’re on holiday. My two current favourites are grapefruit (as there’s something spring like about citrus fragrances right?) and coconut (for me coconut is smell of holidays & suntan lotion), Tropic coconut bar is fab. Taking a few moments in the shower to savour the fragrance is bliss. It’s a little bit of magic when you can close your eyes and take time for you and imagine you are in your happiest place.
- TASTE- treat yourself to something that brings back happy memories. Happiness for me always seem to centre around delicious food shared with great people. If you’re on the same page then I know you can relate to this too. For me, it’s often food from a holiday. Just recently I’ve got into dried mango as it reminds me of eating mango in Australia when my kiddies were little and loving mango.
- TOUCH-I’ve invested in some facial oil and Gua Sha and use these as often as I can after I read about it in Destination Fabulous by Anna Murphy ( a book all about celebrating getting older). It’s especially magical at the end of the day and a great way to unwind and focus on this exercise.
- HEARING- compile a list of your favourite songs from different stages in your life (and one of the advantages to being older is that you have a plethora of events to choose from right?). Even better, start a conversation with some of your loveliest friends and family and reminisce about songs that bring back happy memories- guaranteed you’ll spread the moments of sparkle with them too. I also love listening to the most recent hits (to the embarrassment of my kids) on the radio and note the ones that have me dancing around the kitchen or singing in the shower!
- SIGHT- As my business is around clothes and style this is the sense that I am most passionate and knowledgeable about. I am obsessed with the psychology of fashion. Look in your wardrobe and choose your most upbeat colour. For me, at the moment, it’s red. There is nothing like red for making me feel like I own the space around me and deserve to celebrate myself. One of the outfits I get the most compliments about is my red Willow Jumpsuit. I think this is because the thing that I wear that makes me feel so confident and energised. If you’re not a big colour person then choose an accessory (Uniqlo do the most beautiful pull on beanies in some bright colours) jewellery (heart shaped earrings for example) or make-up. I have finally treated myself to a Trinny Lip pot in Swainy. It’s the most perfect red for me and makes me feel sparkly.
I’d love to know which little bursts of sparkle you are going to embrace or maybe you already have some gems in your wellness toolkit that you can share.
Thank you for being you.
Besos
Alicia x