before/after.
*make sure to read all the way to the end because there’s a surprise waiting there*
On Monday, I mentioned that the preparation for A Year of Familyness, in and of itself, has been amazing. The research that I’ve done has changed the way I see myself, my family, and the powerful affect familyness can have on our individual life as well as our family as a whole.
One of the things I came across just recently, as I was wrapping up my research, was an online course and book called Dressing Your Truth. When I first heard about it I was intrigued but had no idea, at the time, of the impact it would have on me.
I share it here now because I think it could help your own familyness in a profound way. Dressing and living your truth can have a direct influence on your life and your family. If you believe in God, I think that the course helps you to see how amazing you are and that He created you to be beautiful and have an influence in a way that is a natural part of who you are.
At first glance it seems like this course is only about wearing the right clothes, colors and hairstyle for your energy and personality type.
And I do love that part but to say that the Dressing Your Truth course is only that would be a huge understatement. The course has greater depth than that…
I’ve always hated shopping and generally come home with clothes that I don’t like. They either don’t fit right, the fabric feels weird, or I just don’t like the way I look in them. Now, I’m excited to go shopping knowing what colors, textures, fabrics, design lines, patterns, and jewelry (I’ve never been a jewelry wearer because it always felt awkward) look good on me.
I love the program for all of those things but it is so much more than that!
The course starts by introducing you to four Types. Each type has different movement, facial features, body language, thoughts and feelings, and more.
Dressing Your Truth is about you knowing you.
You seeing you.
Once you learn about the four Types you follow your own intuition, trusting yourself, and listening to which Type you relate to most. This isn’t a test of multiple choice where the test tells you who you are at the end. It’s you recognizing yourself and realizing YOU are pretty amazing!
I love the freedom it’s given me to be myself instead of the grown up version of myself (or someone else) that I conjured up in my mind as who I should be.
For the past 20 years I’ve been fighting against what is awesome about me. I’ve been thinking that I need to be official, grown up, sophisticated, a go-getter, appear intelligent, and apologize for or be embarrassed about my enthusiastic ways. I’ve been trying to fit myself into a box of my own making, a perfect woman that I created in my head, that looks nothing like my natural gifts…
Why do we do that to ourselves? Why do we negate what is beautiful and amazing and powerful about who we are and instead try to be a twisted version of someone else? It’s time to be the beautiful, gift-filled woman that we already have inside us!
My words just can’t do the Dressing Your Truth course justice! You have to experience it.
There are so many wonderful aspects of this program that can bless every person’s life. The impact it can have, not just on yourself but also on relationships and families is powerful. Once I took the course I started looking at my family differently and loving them for who they are even more.
Almost everyone in my family has completed the course and, those who haven’t, I’m pretty certain that I know what type they are. With that knowledge I can look with compassion and understanding on who they are, why they do the things they do, and be okay with their preferences and embrace their gifts.
It also gives me permission to let each of my kids (and my husband) be who they are…and not only allow that, but to embrace their quirky, wonderful selves. As a mom, I’ve felt like I’ve done that pretty well already for my family (part of that is because of my Type) but this program has helped me to understand my sweet family even better and to appreciate the individual people they are and always have been.
And that’s the reason I want to share this course before we go full on into A Year of Familyness next week….I want you to have the chance to take this course and to understand yourself, know yourself, and embrace YOU before we start trying to make your familyness stronger, richer, and more fun. First, we need to make sure those things are happening for YOU!
As you already know, two of my girls entered middle school this year. It’s been so important to me that they know, now, who they are and embrace that and love their amazing selves. I don’t want them to get to a point somewhere in the middle of high school and raising 4 children where they forget that they are beautiful and powerful and have gifts to give the world just as they are…they don’t have to try to be someone else.
My girls can live their truth now and let that inner beauty carry them throughout their entire lives.
It’s worth it. This course is transformative.
You are worth it!
Below are my before and after pictures!
I haven’t gotten my ideal haircut yet for my Type 1 self but that’s coming soon. I did try to fix it in my Type 1 style a bit though. 🙂
And! I went shopping yesterday and it was incredible! I had no idea I could accomplish what I did…I put together a personality piece all by myself! (anyone who knows me or has been shopping with me knows what a huge deal this is!)
I usually walk into a store pick up about 100 items, take them to the dressing room, try them all on, and leave the store with nothing.
Or I shop only when I’m desperate for something to wear because I’m going to a conference. I always hope that I’ll buy something that shows off my personality but inevitably I default to solid color t-shirts and jeans.
Epic fail. Every time I shop. Until this time.
I walked around the store and, in my mind, I knew what fabrics, design lines, colors, textures, and patterns my Type 1 self would wear. As I looked through the racks I would say to myself:
“Nope that’s a Type 2, Nope. Nope. No, that’s too flowy. No that’s too muted. Hmmm…I think this is a Type 1 shirt. Color? Yes! Fabric? Yes! Texture? Yes! Pattern? Yes! Oooo! I’ll try this.”
And that’s the way it went as I walked around the store. I did I pick up a couple of items that didn’t fit my Type 1 checklist just because I thought they looked awesome on the rack.
I went into the dressing room and every piece of clothing that I tried on that was true to a Type 1 was awesome! I loved how they made me look and feel (side note: almost every Type 1 piece of clothing that I picked up yesterday, I never would have chosen before DYT).
The items I had gotten excited about that didn’t fit my Type 1 checklist did not look good! At all. They were things that I have always typically picked out when shopping. No wonder I never had success shopping before!
Usually, I walk into Forever 21 and Urban Outfitters feeling like everyone is looking at me and thinking, “Don’t you think you’re a little old to be in this store?” But yesterday, I walked in knowing what I was looking for. I walked out of the store feeling awesome about myself, my decisions, and the gifts that are part of my Type 1 nature.
I wish I could purchase this course for every woman I know and love. I want them to feel the process (and it is a process) that I’ve been going through. Every woman should feel this confident and this good about themselves.
And that’s why I’m…
Giving away One Dressing Your Truth Membership! (This giveaway is closed. Thank you for participating!)
Through October 9th (with the link below) the course is on sale for $99 (usually $297). I want to give the Dressing Your Truth course to you!
The membership includes:
* one DYT course
* Book: Dressing Your Truth: Discover Your Personal Beauty Profile
* Dressing Your Truth card that has everything you need to shop for your Type
* videos about hair, makeup, and clothing for your type
* online brunch videos with Carol
* support for knowing your type
* club nights
* and access to support for understanding the course
To enter the giveaway:
In the comments of this blog post share with me why you need the Dressing Your Truth course. Tell me your story! I’d love to hear it and be part of your journey!
I’ll announce the winner on Monday, October 8th at noon. (If you’ve already purchased the course go ahead and enter in the comments and I’ll reimburse you, if you win.)
If you purchase through this link, you’ll also get a $20 gift card to the Dressing Your Truth store. Remember that the $99 sale ends at midnight on October 9th!
And, please, if you have any questions, feel free to ask away in the comments section of this post. I’ll be happy to answer anything about Dressing Your Truth. I love talking about it!
I believe every woman’s life can be blessed by knowing her truth.
Make sure to sign up for all of the super fun stuff I send from the Familyness Fort!
Davina Fear is a Familyness Adventurer. She’s addicted to self-help books. She knows what Wingardium Leviosa means and wishes she could have gone to Hogwarts.
She blogs at davinafear.com and loves when Hot Guy wears his brown cords.
56 Comments
I have hear about this from some friends and it looks interesting. Your post definatly makes me want to check it out, you look great!!!
Deb, you have to check it out! It’s worth every penny. What I know of the course now, I would pay that price many times over!!
You story was so moving!! I have been so lost in “LIFE”….that I have forgotten who I am!! I can still see myself but when I look at myself I don’t see me anymore! I need to find myself again! I think this is just what I need!!
Starla, it’s so easy to do that isn’t it? We get caught up in living the version of ourselves that feels necessary instead of what feels true. This course will help you live true to your innate and beautiful self!! I’ve felt that same way sometimes. So caught up in living life that I can’t even remember who I am. It’s especially difficult when you’ve had difficult years and times when it seems like nothing is going the way you hoped. You start to think it must be you and so you change yourself hoping that it will make a difference. Living from your true self is what really makes life feel brighter!
I would LOVE to win this course! I like yourself am a photographer and a mum…..I struggle to find balance….hell I struggle to find ME! I have been lost in that photographers wear Black mode for almost 10 years…..I don’t know when I lost my drive for putting some personality in my wardrobe…but I did. I would LOVE to win! love+light Emma
P.s. You kick ass! And I love your hair!!! I may be slightly obsessed with it….it and you are lovely 🙂 the end.
Emma, way to make a girl’s day by telling her she kicks a** , that she has awesome hair and is lovely! Thank you!! 🙂 I hear you, sister! Being a mom requires all kinds of reserves you didn’t know you had…and sometimes that means not using the best parts of you…your natural gifts and approach to life. You forget how awesome you are because of sleep deprivation and so much more. I love being a mom. The thing is, it’s US that looses sight of ourselves. Our loved ones haven’t lost sight of us! When I did this course and I was trying desperately to decide which Type I was my own vision of myself was so blurred. When my husband and son saw what Type I was they both exclaimed (seriously. exclaimed!), “Mom, of course you’re a Type 1! Alll those things are the best parts of you. Those things are what make you so awesome.” Yes, my 15 year old son said exactly those words! And I cried. And just writing this makes me cry again. I didn’t see it, but they did. They’ve always seen it. They’ve always seem ME. I just needed to see me. 🙂
Dearest Davina,
What an interesting post! I was really struck by your description of the depth that comes in knowing yourself and how we present it to the world. And what a change I can see in your photographs! I am entering the giveaway, not for me but for my mom. Instantly she came to mind when reading about your own journey. She was just laid off from her job in May. She has been in accounting for 20+ years, and is now having trouble finding work again in this economy, at her age, without a college degree. She knows without a doubt, that she doesn’t want to work in the same field as before, but she’s not exactly sure what to do now. Being at this crossroads, she’s considering going back to school, changing careers, volunteering, or just staying at home with her youngest 8 year old daughter. These past few months staying home have been incredible for her personal growth as she is committed to learning life differently, as she says. She started a garden, is trying to eat healthy and loose her excess weight, cook from home, take care of the house and finances in newer and better ways. Her devotion to her spiritual life remains unwaivered. I see this course, and I can’t help but think of the fashionista my mom used to be before she had us kids. She loves shoes, makeup, and little luxuries, that she rarely indulges in, because she was always taking care of us. Also, she has lost her motivation for her own fashion and personal weight management, because she’s been a busy full-time mom at work. At her now 50 some years, she still has a young daughter at home, who gets doted on instead. With her new-found time and energy, I think this course would be an incredible addition to her self-growth commitment. Especially since one of her spiritual gifts is that of encouragement- she is the best person I know at pointing our the skills, talents and personality traits of others to guide and encourage them on their own path. Unfortunately, this means she rarely sees these things in herself, to know how to cultivate and grown them. So, I apologize for being long-winded, but I wanted to give you a grasp of the point in life my mom is, and how I really believe she would love the opportunity to take this course and find this transformation ans she considers he next steps in life. Being out of work now, I know this scholarship would make a huge difference for me as a young person to give this gift to my mom.
Sincerely,
Melissa Aldape
Sweet Melissa (and one of my favorite brides. ever.), what an awesome and inspiring story about your beautiful mom! You are so right! This course is exactly what your mom needs! If she doesn’t win, I deeply hope there will be someway, very soon, for her to take it. It would be life changing for her!
Agreed. Your hair is completely awesome, and I just LOVE your new look. And yes, I would totally love to win this course. 😉
Oh, Sarah! You have to take it! I just have to know your type!!! 🙂 lol.
I’d love to win this! I’ve self typed myself as a Type 1, but constantly struggle with my hair and clothes, and what feels “right” on me!
Alexas, have you already done the whole course? I started off the course thinking I was for sure a type 3. I wanted to be a type 3 desperately! Alas, I’m a type one and I’m gradually coming to love my type one self very much! 🙂
no, I haven’t! There’s a message board that I poke around on sometimes that it’s super popular on! There’s a lot of chatting about it, and a tiny bit of typing info. Just guessed myself based on what I can google, haha! I’d love to do the whole course….I’m pretty sure (based on the little info I have) that I’m a type 1, but I lean a little toward type 2, too! I think your after is so perfect!! those colors look awesome on you!
Your words resonated with me….always apologizing for not being the person I think I need to be and not truly being myself. Ashamed. Frumpy. Frazzled. Just getting by. This course sounds completely amazing and life-changing.
Valerie, frumpy is a word I’ve used to describe myself on more than one occasion! I hear you, sister! Just getting by is no way to live when you’re the beautiful and interesting woman that you are. I so hope you win this course and that if you don’t, you find some way to take it. From what you said, it’s exactly what will you help! It’s amazing…and so are you!
Wow. The timing of this is incredible. I began a journey this summer that appears to be finally taking me back toward being healthy! Dressing Your Truth would be an awesome part of the journey.
You can see some of my summer’s journey on the twitter account I started in June: @KTealady. I don’t have any before-and-after photos of me posted on twitpic yet, because I’m still trying to figure out how to do split frames, where I can post 2 or 3 pictures in the same frame that normally one photo takes, so I won’t have to keep making multiple posts of single photos. (Don’t have iPhone for diptic; right now even Android phone is broken, but I’m kind of oldschool & would like to find a app/means to do it from my desktop, anyway.) [I have a health-&-wellness album on my personal Facebook profile where I have all the photos related to this; but that’s not so easy to do on Twitter.]
Attempting to make LONG story shorter: After a life of my weight going up and down seemingly of its own accord, in January 1998 I joined a WWatWork meeting in the building next door to where I worked, to try to take some control over this tendency. I started at 209 lbs. The then-new Points system really seemed to work for me. I reached my Goal Weight of 150 lbs. on September 01, 1998. I didn’t even start exercising until after I was already on Maintenance!
I proceeded to Maintain for 4 years after that. Toward the end of 2002, I began to notice ever-growing FATIGUE, so that it was getting harder and harder to get up in the mornings to do my exercising to Denise Austin, Tae Bo, early Zumba videotapes & do weights workouts to Joyce Vedral book. End of the day after work? Forget it. Exhausted. It wasn’t until later, in 2006, with hindsight, that I realized that what I thought of as worsening S.A.D. (lasting more and more of the year, not just winter) was more like Depression & “Brain Fog”. I even realized in 2006 that they are what was impinging on my work life: I was getting into trouble, as in being put on probation because my productivity was falling and I didn’t know why and couldn’t defend myself, and also felt “trapped” by the Depression so that I didn’t feel like I could quit working there and get a job somewhere else, so that from early 2003 to August 2006, going to work each day was sheer trauma. Totally toxic work environment.
Since my GP at the time took blood twice a year for cholesterol checks and so on, I asked her early in 2003, when this was all starting, to please check my thyroid. For whatever reason, she did not. She told me to try to exercise more—even though I’d just told her that I was so tired all the time, it was getting harder to exercise as much as I had already been. Over the next 3 years, she kept putting me off, telling me to watch what I was eating, even though I was still following WW, and exercise more. I think something “broke” inside me, probably my Hope, at the WW meeting when I weighed in ABOVE my start weight of 209 lbs. And I just kept gaining, having long since stopped exercising because I was just TOO TIRED.
Finally, in January 2006, my GP did test my thyroid, and announced early in February 2006 that the reason I’d been gaining weight is that I had a sluggish thyroid. She put me on the generic of Synthroid—-and it did no good. I continued to be Constantly Fatigued, to suffer from severe Brain Fog, and to Gain Weight. I researched Hypothyroid, now that I had a diagnosis, and discovered the sometimes-symptoms of Depression and Brain Fog and began to realize what had been going on at work.
Mid-year 2006, my husband got a new job in another state, I continued to work until August, then tried to devote full-time to getting the house packed up and ready to sell so we could move. My father passed away in September and my sister and I, as joint trustees, had to travel to where he had lived and spend about two weeks just starting to get his Trust/Estate in order. So my husband and I didn’t actually get fully moved to our new home until Dec. 2006.
In 2007 I began finding new doctors and asked for a referral to an endocrinologist. The endocrinologist explained why some people are sensitive to generics and that he thought I was reacting to the generic thyroid med like it was a water pill. He switched me to Synthroid—and it seemed to help.
I began to feel enough better that I got a part-time job at one of those prepare-your-meals (& take home & put in the freezer) places that I had gone to as a stepping-stone to real cooking again. (I had long since fallen back on the least of evils that I could find in packaged meals because cooking from scratch had become too overwhelming for my energy levels.)
Our daughter got engaged with the wedding set for a year later (July 2008), so I signed up with personal trainers who I met through the part-time job, and began working out. By August 2007, I began losing weight, and lost 20 lbs by Thanksgiving. Got sick, then it was the holidays, so at first I didn’t think anything of not losing any more by January 2008. But I never did lose any more.
Not even after my husband and I began taking ballroom dance lessons—I’d been bugging him for years, but “now” with our daughter’s wedding around the corner, he agreed. Once we started, he loved it so much that now, 4.75 years later, we’re still taking lessons. But back in 2008: I was working out with the trainers 2x a week & we were taking dance classes 2-4 times a week, and I still didn’t lose an ounce.
I cried when I couldn’t put off any longer getting a Mother-of-the-Bride outfit, because I had to get such a large one. When I saw the endocrinologist again & told him I thought we needed to adjust the dosage, he said the bloodwork showed my thyroid levels are fine, I just needed to Eat Less & Exercise More.
That’s all I’ve heard since. In 2009, still not losing any more, I tried Isagenix in addition to still following WW, thinking my body may have built up a lot of toxicity and maybe I needed a good detox and subsequent non-toxic nutrition to get past whatever I’d been going through for the preceding 6 years. It seemed to help, I lost 10 more pounds, actually bought new clothes because I could finally get a SMALLER SIZE!! —Then, while STILL following the regimen that I’d been on when I lost, I gained back those 10 pounds . . . + in the last part of 2009 after my mother passed away and I took on long-distance Trustee duties, I gained back the 20 pounds I lost in 2007.
So I was right back where I started. And I was still told I just needed to eat less and exercise more–by the endocrinologist, by a series of GPs as I kept looking for one who would take me seriously. —-The one GP who did take me seriously suddenly disappeared when he left the practice. But I was excited at first in 2011 when I found out the replacement was a woman–surely she’d take me seriously. But no: after hearing my life for the previous nearly 10 years, she announced: “I think it’s just menopause, hon, and there’s really nothing we can do about that.”
I had begun seeing a chiropractor in 2010, and while there is nothing quantifiable, I could tell that the work he was doing on my nervous system was helping a lot. I made it through winters better than I had in years. I didn’t get nearly so sick even when I forgot to get a flu shot because of Brain Fog. And so on. But I still wasn’t losing weight or particularly feeling any more energy, which takes its toll on my tea business which my husband and I began in 2008 after the wedding–I kept thinking things would get better, which is why I took on such a task, but things did not get better and it seems I am never keeping up with all I have to do.
Then in the spring of 2012, at a networking group’s meeting that I was attending the first time, I found a doctor who explained that she specializes in Functional Medicine. I told my husband what she talked about and how so many women in the meeting asked the doctor: “Where have you been the last 15 years of my life while I’ve been fighting with doctors?” . . . This doctor was out-of-network as far as insurance, but my husband had me take some of our large tax refund to go see her.
This doctor testing hormones and all sorts of other things and started me on hormone therapy AND identified Adrenal Fatigue (which that female GP totally discounted when I asked her about it; she said I had none of the red flags and it was the LAST thing she’d look for, for me). Furthermore, I had been telling people for years that I felt like What Doesn’t Get Done By Noon Doesn’t Get Done Because I Don’t Get a Second Wind. Well, she showed me a chart of my Cortisol levels over one day (from saliva test where I had to fill vials several times a day)—and my Cortisol levels PLUNGE to ZERO by 12noon and STAYED THERE until I went to bed. But wait: there’s more: She also identified a Yeast Overgrowth in my intestines, and when she explained what symptoms that can produce, well, THAT could have been the total explanation of my last 10 years right there. In addition, she felt Synthroid wasn’t adequate for my thyroid problem because it is only T4, so she has me on a thyroid med that also has T3.
In addition, she pointed out the possibility that Food Sensitivities (not necessarily allergies or intolerances) might be bolloxing my immune system and thus contributing to my problems. So I did a strict 40-day Very Low Calorie Diet to detox, where for 40 days I took hCG & ate ONLY 500 calories a day of very few choices of foods, trying to detox big time and eliminate all the foods that might cause problems. The idea being that after the 40 days, I would begin adding back foods and we could see how I react to determine if I have any Sensitivities.
Well, from the beginning of the diet until now, I’ve lost 50.6 pounds–out 85 pounds gained from my Goal Weight. My last bloodwork with this doctor as well as the last session of measurements and BMI and so on, showed things like:
Waist-Hip Ratio went from 0.88 to 0.83–with 0.80 or below as the goal.
BMI from 37.9 to 31.8.
Fat Mass pounds went from 113.4 to 78.
Lean Mass pounds began at 121.2, understandably got down to 108, then finished back up to 119.2! So I didn’t lose much lean body mass–my trainers worked with me on less-intense workouts while I was consuming only 500 calories a day to prevent muscle mass loss.
Blood pressure improved from 130/90 to 120/80—while off BP meds because the hCG sometimes causes BP to drop too much if you’re on meds.
Plus, I relocated that GP who took me seriously and saw him for the first time after the end of my program with the Functional Medicine doctor. I showed him all the results, and he was so pleased—-I have been on 2 BP meds for years, but NOW, he left me OFF of one of them. I’m only on one BP med now, and he’s thinking I might be able to go off it in time, too!!
Cholesterol has improved though not quite enough to go off med for it.
Something known as the “Insulin Resistance Score” DROPPED from 69 to 28!!
Fasting blood sugar went from 93 to 85, which is apparently very very good.
My Hemoglobin A1C, which looks at average blood sugar levels vor 3 months, went from 5.9 to 5.5. They told me at the doctor’s office that that is going from “pre-diabetic” to Normal.
Apparently this indicates I’m insulin resistant and so I do need to severely restrict or even eliminate starchy foods from my diet henceforward unless I want to return to the “before” stats.
The trouble is: I can’t continue seeing this doctor on her “Wellness Program” because she’s out-of-network and the tax refund money is gone.
Furthermore, things have become so tight with some upcoming changes in my husband’s health benefits at work which are going to cause a HUGE INCREASE in what comes out of our pockets for doctor visits and prescriptions and everything . . . we are actually afraid that we WON’T be able to continue paying for the dance classes NOR my workouts with the trainers.
In fact, at the same time I’m finding out about this Dressing Your Truth course, I’ve found out through Nourished Kitchen about a Go Grain-Free course that sounds awesome. Not only because of my new imperative to reduce/eliminate starchy foods from my diet, but because my husband is Diabetic, Type II adult onset, Insulin-Resistant—atypical because he’s never had a weight problem, but because of his insulin-resistant diabetes, he also should be avoiding grains and many starchy foods. But we’re having a hard time figuring out how to eat without any grains at all. I miss my steel-cut oats for breakfast. He eats lots of sandwiches for lunches and likes toast and jam or English Muffins. Etc, etc.
However, even though that course is “on sale” through today, there is no way we can pay for it right now.
By the same token, I also don’t have the money for the Dressing Your Truth course, even on sale.
So the timing is fantastic, but also unfortunate because I can’t take advantage of it on my own.
So, there you have it. Why the course would be so good for me right now, and also why I won’t be taking it on my own at this time.
Regardless of whether I get chosen, thank you for sharing your story and before-and-after photos. It’s the inspiration from people like you sharing their stories that has kept me going all these years instead of just giving up all hope and wallowing in self-pity.
THANK YOU.
Kathryn Isaacs
Oh my goodness, Kathryn! You have been through some very difficult years! I can’t imagine having no energy at all after noon-time! I’m so glad, though, that after years of wondering what’s been happening with your body that you’re finally discovering solutions. That would feel like such a relief. I’m sure you’ve been doubting yourself and what the next course of action should be for such a long time. I love that you’re feeling better and now able to live life in a way that is granting you some optimism again. What a blessing! Thank you so much for sharing your story. 🙂
I think most (if not all women) feel really critical of their appearance and how others perceive them. This year has been a difficult year with several unexpected medical incidents and far too many prescriptions and doctors. Several months ago I decided that I didn’t want to be on medicines and wanted to be healthy. My experience with a trainer and nutritionist has been extremely helpful. Having confidence a few dress sizes smaller hasn’t come yet. I still perceive myself in a certain way. My friends and family have been really supportive but I need to mentally break out of my own restricting thoughts. That is what touched me about your blog post. I love the way you explained how you were liberated from your own restricting thoughts by going through DYT. I would love to win DYT. It would be a perfect pick me upper for myself, which would trickle into all avenues of my life.
Belinda, you said it so perfectly! Breaking out of my own restricting thoughts is exactly what has happened. I still have to remind myself that being a Type 1 person is awesome and thankfully I have family and friends who remind me of my own gifts as well. 🙂 It sounds like you have the same kind of family. I love that you have that love built in around you.
I also love that now that I know I’m a Type 1…there’s just no denying it. It’s there in everything I do and when I play to my Type 1 strengths and energy I feel amazing! I hope that you’ll get to take the course. I’d love for you to feel the same strength in your energy and talents. 🙂
comments of this blog post share with me why you need the Dressing Your Truth course. Tell me your story!
I love your excitement and your new found confidence, Davina! You are an inspiration to me. It is always hard for me to get out of “Mommy Mode” and look into things that make me feel better about myself (inside and out). Thanks for reminding me that it is important that I take time to work on ME! I would love to win the Dressing Your Truth membership and change my own attitude toward clothes and increase my self esteem. I tend to feel selfish when I focus on me because my young family always need me for everything and I have no “me time”. The idea of being coached on heloing me focus on items of clothing, hair, and make up that make me feel like myself (just better) is a wonderful thing! Thanks for marching to the beat of your own drum, Davina. You are amazing, talented, and so full of love.
Paige, thank you! What a beautiful note from you. I so appreciate your optimistic approach to everyone and the way you see the good in all of the people around you. It’s definitely a gift that you have. Every time I talk to you I always walk away feeling great about myself. I don’t know if you realize that you have that affect on others but I hope that you see how valuable that is to others.
Paige, you already know this, I’m sure, but knowing who you are isn’t selfish. Recognizing and embracing your truth will bless everyone around you. Seeing you for the gorgeous YOU that you are can only be gift to the people you love most! I would love to see that confidence radiating for your beautiful face! You are an amazing woman!!
Oh Davina! I just love you! All of your type 1 Fun loving Brilliant Self! Thank you for being my friend! Good luck to the giveaway winner!
Thank you, Brooke! You know I couldn’t have done this without you, my dear friend! I’m so incredibly grateful for you, you awesome lady!!
I have heard about this before, but never looked into much until I saw you post about it. I can see how this would be so much deeper than just outwards appearance. When someone feel they look great, it radiates into so many other areas of their life! I would so love to win this.
Kelly, it IS so much deeper that just the outward appearance…that’s the part that makes it so powerful. I had no idea what I was getting into when I signed up. And now that I’ve taken the course I would have paid so much more for what I’m experiencing now! It’s true that what’s inside radiates to the outside and what’s outside affects what’s inside. 🙂
So fun, Davina! I’m going to have to look into this! Seriously I was looking at you last Saturday (at program practice) & thought Davina’s so cute in that coral t-shirt. The color & look just fit your personality to me. I don’t know if it’s your type 1, but it looked good! =)
Thank you, Lani! I think you noticed the coral t-shirt because it is my Type (the only shirt I owned at the time that comes close to my colors!) and I’ve also been living and embracing my truth a lot more. When I’ve been at church over the past few years I’ve been trying to be someone who is not me. I’m not sure how to describe it but I’ve felt at times like being my funny, animated self is a little too much when I’m at church…and so I’ve tried to tone it down and be the person I should be at church (whoever that is!). And now, I’m seeing that Me is awesome and I can do things because of who I am and the energy and gifts that I have because they come to me naturally. At church is where I’ve noticed it most actually…that living my truth gives me energy and life that I’ve not felt as much before. At home, I’m always living my truth and that’s why my family wasn’t as surprised as I was to find out that I am Type 1. I love the chance to embrace who I am in all settings. It’s awesome! 🙂 Thank you for mentioning that you noticed. It means a lot to me! You have to look into Dressing Your Truth, Lani! I would love to know what you find out about your Type!! 🙂
I’d love to try this. I’m a little scared that I’m a bit beyond help, honestly, and/or that I can’t wear cute clothes and be comfortable, too. I weigh more than I want to and so am hesitant to spend money on clothes now. Right now it’s stretchy pants and t-shirts which are comfy, but I don’t feel ‘Wow!’ and that would be great. Thanks for the giveaway!
Aubrey, you are not beyond help! Just from what you’ve said about loving comfort…It would be amazing for you to be able to be dressing your truth!
I always love the way you word things, very real and deliberate. This sounds like a wonderful experience, something I could use at this point in my life. In the past year I have been through a difficult divorce, which was finalized 6 months ago. It has made me question just about everything in my life and about my self. Divorce crushes confidence and self-doubt creeps in. My life has had so many drastic changes from putting my kids in daycare, working full time, all giant changes that were not how I planned my life to turn out. I am doing much better as time passes and I gain more determination and self confidence. I realize I know who I am, that I am loved, that I am a loving person, I am able to handle change and the unexpected better. I would love to portray that in the way I look, because there have been so many times that I haven’t even felt like myself in the past year that on the days I feel like me and get to be with my kids, I feel like me.
Emily, this completely breaks my heart! I had no idea you’d been going through a difficult divorce! I can’t imagine what that would be like but I believe that it would definitely make you question everything, your self, your life…
You are such a beautiful person! You have amazing gifts and so many wonderful things to offer those two little boys. I’m so glad that you’re seeing that again after having such a huge hit to your world. I hope that you get your wish! 🙂
Davina, you have been such an inspiration over the years. This is no different. I certainly don’t deserve this anymore than any other woman I know, or reader of this post. I have an amazing husband who loves me for who I am and tells me I’m beautiful. I have a roof over my head, my health, and three beautiful boys. We do live paycheck to paycheck, session to session and are often stressed. But we are blessed and fortunate in many ways. That being said, I hate getting dressed. Hate it. Hate the way it feels to even step into my closet. Hate looking into my drawers, hate being invited to an event, hate shopping. In fact, if it wasn’t on the Target clearance rack, I didn’t buy it in nearly four years. Most of that being due to money issues, but also because I don’t love how clothes look on me.
I’m a photographer, and I’m proud of that and love it. But for the past four years I’ve been writing a book. A young adult romance novel to be exact! 🙂 This August, I started email querying agents, and it has garnered a lot of interest. Currently, nine agents have requested to read my book. I’m excited, scared, and so proud of myself. I’ve put myself out there. Asked for feedback, taken rejection, and still continued on, trying to make my lifelong dream of being a published author come true. I can taste it. But do you know what I fear? I fear my dream becoming reality. I fear having to take an author photo. I fear having to get dressed for my own launch party and crying before I get there. I dread having a book signing because I don’t want people to see frumpy, yucky ol’ me.
I’d love to take this course, so I can hopefully fulfill both dreams. Not only publishing my book (fingers crossed), but also feeling good about myself. -Nicole
Nicole, first of all: Congratulations! What an exciting time to have so many agents requesting to read your book. That’s so fantastic. What an amazing sense of accomplishment!
And second: I know the feeling! Everything in your world feels awesome and then those dreaded moments when you have to get dressed for something…anything…come along and do a ninja kick and sweep your feet in one fell swoop. I so hope that you’ll get to match your insides with your outsides soon!
I would love to win this. I’ve never really felt like I knew or understood how to be me. Lately this has been amplified ten fold. I don’t feel like I belong anywhere. I feel very unsure about the future and what direction to go with life.
Malinda! Oh my goodness! This course would be such perfect timing for you. You have so many big moments coming up in your life. You are an incredible lady who has accomplished so much with a plethora of talent and beautiful gifts. You seeing You in all of your beauty would be awesome!!
These last 2 years have been a journey. An awakening. I’ve been changing the course of my work, changing and questioning who I am, what I want, what I need, and what path calls to me. but its resulted in feeling a bit lost in where i fit. Its all been a big experiment and boy could I use help with finding and embracing my true personal beauty. Im great at seeing the beauty in others before they can se it themselves, and that’s why I love my work so much. But Im unable to do the same with myself. Crazy, huh?
Congratulations, Davina! You look great! I just started watching the initial DYT videos a few days ago after hearing about it from a friend, and I am finding them interesting. No need to enter me in the giveaway… I just wanted to give you a virtual high five. 🙂
This course sounds awesome. My wardrobe always feels haphazard. Random pieces that catch my eye or more often, were just a good deal. And i always have intentions in the back of my mind to get it more together but you know how it goes… Add on the nuances of being pregnant, post pregnant, always changing sizes for the past several years *plus* now living overseas where the fashion and even sizing is quite different — makes me scared to try to shop 🙂 And I definitely hear the wisdom in needing to first figure out who I am and my style rather than always fitting into someone else’s shoes. Would love to see how this course spills past just the wardrobe details into life details.
Dear Davina,
ahem… Why I NEED the Dress Your Truth Course.
Well, as you know, I am a type one. What does that mean? It means I am in love with all the possibilities of what I could buy when I walk into a store! Being on a limited clothes budget, I would leave the store disappointed because I couldn’t choose everything I liked. And then began the soul searching questions, “What do I like?” “What kind of person am I?” “What is the statement I make to the world?” Frankly it was too much to comprehend for a quick trip into a store! I simply need the truth this course offers so that I can make my own decisions and know why I’m making them. It has resonated with me just like any truth, it has taken some getting used to. But since you have introduced me to Dress Your Truth, I’ve been able to start to answer those deep questions that were tripping me up when ever I try and go shopping! I am fun and full of good ideas and its right and natural that I dress that way. I can’t wait to see where this journey will take me! It has already been F-U-N! It has opened my sparkly brown eyes to all the possibilities of what lies ahead! AND right now I am wearing purple pants!!
Pam! I love, love, love that you’re wearing purple pants. Way to embrace your Type 1-ness! 🙂 I love seeing you know and love and understand who you are. Which is completely amazing and inspired. 🙂
I’ve been obsessed OBSESSED WITH THIS ever since you sent this email out. I don’t want to be obsessed, but I can’t help it. And of course I am, because I just learned through the videos that I’m Type 1, so I’m thinking of possibilities! And your makeover looks so amazing! I want those clothes! Thanks for sharing this! It totally applies to my writing voice, too. I’ve had so many battles with my inner editor over whether I’m allowed to say it like that, from my enthusiasm, or whether I have to be more sober & try not to be so excited. Ugggghhhhh. No more fighting! I’m just going to be me.
Kelly! We are type 1s together! I had a hard time being okay with these bright colors but they are growing on me. 🙂 I can’t wait to see you in colors, clothes, hairstyle that are going to show your fantastic mind and infectious spirit! I want to hear more about your journey and you as you go through the course!
I have been trying to figure out what to say in this comment since you sent the email out. I’ve never been fashionable. If you asked me if I was a beautiful woman, I would tell you no, Cute perhaps but beautiful, no. I put all of my energy and finance into my daughters and I know that is likely as detrimental to them as young women as they grow up as anything else. What am I teaching them about motherhood? About my womanhood? And isn’t it funny that even when its all about me, it still comes back to them.
I want this because I need my husband to be excited to see me – to physically see “me” a few days a week, and not this MOM that has taken over my body. Its effecting my client meetings, its effecting my wedding bookings, its effecting ME. I don’t feel like my self anymore. I don’t know what I look like. And its a little scary. I feel like I put myself on as a costume and its not working anymore. I want to find ME and fix myself so I can be ME again.
Oh Raquita! I hope you’ll take the course! I know many of the feelings that you’re talking about. Your family is so blessed to have you!
thanks for sharing, my friend. you are beautiful inside and out. 🙂
Thank you, Calvina!
love this so much, you look beautiful and that jacket is gorgeous!!!
I’m so excited I stumbled on this post from your newsletter. I purchased the course through Brooke’s link and I’m a Type 1 as well! I haven’t had a chance to watch the Type 1 videos yet, but I’m so excited to now that I’ve seen your pictures!
Macy! That’s awesome! Have you taken your before picture? I want to see that and your after picture. 🙂 I love before/after pictures!
[…] of who i am. i know that all sounds super cryptic, but i was inspired by the lovely Davina in this blog post and i will post back later in detail about this particular […]
[…] of who i am. i know that all sounds super cryptic, but i was inspired by the lovely Davina in this blog post and i will post back later in detail about this particular […]
I am so glad I stumbled on to your website. I know you posted this in 2012 and it is now Feb of 2014 (so it is a little late) but I wanted to tell you how this piece resonated with me. I bought the Dressing Your Truth course last month and I couldn’t be happier. I went from being invisible to being noticed and I am loving it. I feel pretty and it is so much easier to shop for clothes. Well, I won’t keep you but thank you for speaking my mind. You have a great blog!!
Oh, I forgot to mention- I am a Type 1 also!!
Guess what, Lisa?!? I found out that I’m a secondary 1! I’m actually a type 4. It was astounding to me to learn but has felt incredible. I’m learning so much. I’ve been wanting to share that story on the blog here, too! I love the type 1 part of me! I’m so happy for you!
Hello Sparkling Lisa! I’m so glad you stumbled on my website, too. Welcome! DYT is incredible. It’s changed so much in my life for me. I’ve become so much more aware of not just who I am but of who others are and how I can honor them. I LOVE that you are living your truth and that it’s helped you step into who you are and being noticed for YOU! Congratulations! I’m so glad you came back here and told me about your transformation and the change that it’s created for you. That makes me so thrilled! Yay!!
You look lovely!!I found your blog while actually was searching for DYT! I am interested myself,as I always have a full wardrobe with nothing to wear!All my clothes are black and grey-with a dash of brown.I think I am a type 3,and so far it makes sense.Cant wait to have a simple,practical wardrobe and look more pulled together!