How Clothing Impacts How We Feel

Have you ever put something on and immediately felt more grounded, more confident, or more overstimulated and wondered, what the heck? Welcome back to Be Well Besties, the podcast where we talk about caring for our brains and our well-being in real life, not just in theory. Getting dressed is something most of us do on autopilot or with a lot of unspoken rules and expectations.
Lately, there's been buzz around dopamine dressing, but focusing only on trends or feel-good colors can skip over what's actually happening beneath the surface in our brains and our nervous systems.
Today's episode is a deeper dive into how clothing, sensory input, and personal preferences connect to brain health.
When we understand how things like texture, weight, color, and fit affect our nervous system,
getting dressed becomes a simple, accessible tool for regulation, self-trust, and support.
So let's move beyond the trend, get a little bit nerdy in the best way,
and explore how to use what's already in our closets to support the mood we want to have.
All right, friends.
I know Bailey's excited to get a little nerdy about things.
That's her happy place.
Always.
Before we jump in, let's do our regular self-check-in.
Just a reminder that it is at zero to five scale,
where zero is where we're calming at peace, feeling good,
and five is where we're maybe in crisis
and need a little bit of extra support.
How are we feeling?
Yeah, I think I'm at a two.
It's probably a little higher than I normally am.
Just end of the week, but still lots of things on the plate.
And yeah, yeah, two.
I'm going to put myself at like a 0.5 this morning.
Not to be nerdy or cheesy, or maybe to be a little nerdy and cheesy.
The talk of dopamine dressing actually has me super excited
and feeling pretty primed for this conversation.
I love that.
And again, Decimal's fully encouraged here.
We don't have to be linear. I am probably not a one, which is kind of my baseline, my norm.
Like Nia said, it's been a little bit of a busy week, but I'm headed for vacation, so we're doing good.
And yes, I am so excited to talk about this topic of dopamine dressing.
Selfishly, it is something I've been practicing for probably the last couple years,
and it's made this huge difference in my confidence, in my presence, in the way I show up for things,
So I'm so excited to dive in.
Now, dopamine dressing is a trend that has been happening and taking over social media for the last couple of years.
And the aesthetic is very much mine.
It's bright colors and bold patterns and fun textures.
But I think dopamine dressing is beyond that, right?
It's not just the trend, but it is dressing in a way that makes you feel good.
So I'm interested in what are your dopamine dressing habits?
Ooh, okay. So for me, it goes beyond just look aesthetic. And yes, it is comfort, but I love good conversation pieces. I'm a person who loves an organization that does that, like, buy one, gift one, where they give something to somebody in need. Or I really value sustainability. So I love organizations that are putting products out there that are sustainable for the environment.
I really love supporting local artists, like these lovely little earrings.
So anything that really gives an opportunity for connection with people, which, y'all, that's my thing, or a good talking point are something that I love.
I make my own clothes sometimes.
I thrift clothes.
So any of those pieces that if somebody compliments, I can be like, actually, did you know I get these earrings at a local artist?
And this is where you can find them.
And I just love those pieces.
But beyond that, beyond the connection piece from a sort of more sensory space has to be comfortable and practical.
We kind of joked around earlier that if the iron has to come out, it's not for me.
Yeah, 100%.
I am a no-fuss kind of person.
I need to be able to throw it on my body and move on.
I love comfort with a pop of fancy, like a skirt with a T-shirt and sneakers.
Yeah, so those are kind of the spaces where I feel most comfortable and most myself, I think.
Yeah, I think for me, it's maybe it's almost things that are out of the ordinary.
So I would lean towards the brighter colors.
I think Shelby and I kind of go for the brighter colors and Bailey's more kind of earth tones.
But I think things that pop or even things that have interesting shapes or I think Shelby
And I also have ones that have like big flowers that stick off or adding pieces to it, maybe pieces that I have that are vintage.
So pins or something from a family member and just adding that to the whole outfit, combining jeans with a blazer or leggings with something oversized.
And I think it's always fun, too, because if someone were to notice, they would notice the color.
They'd say, oh, my gosh, that blazer, it's so bright.
And I said, yeah, you know, I said something like it's fun.
It's fun to add just a little bit of pop, right?
A little bit of pop of color for your day.
And they're like, yes, as they walk on by, you know.
And in general, sorry, Shelby.
No, please go ahead.
In general, the T-shirt, jeans, blazer, and kicks is like the Be Well uniform we joke around.
That it's like if we're going out on the town and we're there as a team, we're like,
all right, Be Well uniform, that's okay, we're good.
And that's the understanding.
I also love that Bailey just threw the very millennial kicks into the conversation.
Oh, sorry.
Excuse me, my millennial's showing.
I love that.
So what I'm hearing is that it is all preferences and preferences matter, right?
Because preferences really link to our identity.
And that is so important.
Feeling like yourself, dressing like yourself really allows you to show up as a whole human, which is so important.
Bailey, can you, our resident brain science nerd, can you tell us a little bit about what is going on in our brains when we, that old adage, look good, feel good.
what's happening when we really are like feeling an outfit and feel more confident or more comfortable
or more whatever we want to feel. Well, there's so there's not a lot of
research specifically about dopamine dressing. And there's questions even about whether dopamine
is the chemical or the only chemical that is being produced when we're dressing to feel good. Right.
So because there's lots of feel good hormones, there's oxytocin and serotonin.
Yes, oxytocin dressing does not sound as fun.
That's really fun. We love an alliteration. So dopamine dressing just kind of like rolls off
the tongue, right? I would say for me, probably it's more likely serotonin dressing because I'm
looking for the connection, right? So all of that to be said, there's not a lot of research,
but if it feels good, like that's what we do. Now, the cool thing there, there is research on this
psychological phenomenon called enclothed cognition. And that is all about how, what we
wear and put on our bodies, changes are the way we feel, think, behave, and our perception of the
world. And we can kind of assign different meanings to all different kinds of clothing.
So the phrase enclothed cognition originated and was coined by Adam and Galinsky in 2012.
And they did this really, a couple, a series of really cool research studies where they had
people, they had a control group, and then, of course, the group that was a variable.
And they gave them lab coats and had them do an assignment. So it was a focused attention.
And what they found is the folks that wore the doctor's lab coats improved and performed better
on those tests. Well, they did a follow-up to say, like, okay, is this just because they have
this extra thing on. And the second study was they had this exact same lab coat and they had
three groups this time. They had the control group that wore no lab coats. They had the group that
they said, okay, this is a doctor's lab coat. And then they told a third group, this is a painter's
coat. And what happened was substantially the individuals who were told that they were doctor's
lab coats, again, performed better because they had this idea of, or the theory is that there is
this idea that I'm wearing this very formal official thing. I'm going to perform better,
and I'm going to pay better attention. So what that can kind of point to, or the research sort
of starts to suss out, is that when we have a certain perception of a type of clothing,
that it can actually improve our performance. It can make us feel more confident in ourselves.
But I would argue to say that could be anything. So if mine is, I feel more confident and like I
perform better in yoga tights and a t-shirt, then that is my doctor's coat, my lab coat.
And there's not research to suss that part out yet. But that's what I'm assigning to it,
is if we add the context to it, it can be the thing that makes us perform better. If that's
a power blazer or if that is your favorite pair of kicks or if that is a bright color,
whatever that might be.
Thank you for giving me language to this phenomenon that I have recently realized within
myself. Y'all, I am 31 years old and I am just realizing this, that if I get home and
I immediately put on my comfy, cozy house clothes, I'm done for the day. I am not doing chores.
I'm not doing anything that I am assigning as work.
But if I get home and I leave my work clothes on,
I am totally motivated to do my dishes
and the laundry and vacuum the floor.
And I did not have language to put to it until now.
It's a weird thing that's happening.
Well, and for me, like Home Bailey,
the second I get home, I'm like, get me out of these clothes.
Like Home Bailey needs to feel comfortable and cozy
in order to be able to get those things done.
Like I can't, I will get so distracted.
and like why am I still wearing this blazer
when I'm not at work,
that it's the first thing that has to happen
for me to be able to focus on the other things
that need to happen in my home.
Yeah, so it's all preferences, right?
I am super interested in how clothing can tie
to like our sensory input,
because if I put on something,
if I put on an itchy wool blazer,
I am getting nothing done that day,
because I am only concerned about how uncomfortable I am.
Yeah. What's happening in our bodies and our brains when we're uncomfortable or we are comfortable?
I think it really does lean into, again, those preferences. I mean, we probably have things in our houses, in our closets that we picked on purpose.
You know, maybe sometimes we did first go for that bright color or that earthy color.
But if we think about it, we're probably reaching for those same things that are that are the most comfortable.
Like for me, I have a pair of, they are dress pants, but they are really big and kind of flowy.
And now that we're talking about it, I think I pick those mainly on Monday mornings, right?
To start the week off at work, still looking sharp, but being really comfortable.
You know, so I think, right, if we are distracted by anything, right?
We have enough distraction already going on through all the different things that are on our to-do lists and the things that we want to get done.
And I think it is true if we had on something that was not fitting well or that, like you said, the fabric that didn't fit well or something that was just not tight.
It makes you kind of feel off.
Our brains are already overwhelmed with all of the sensory inputs.
Our clothing is just an additional thing, but it is something we can control, right?
And some of us have higher sensory processing things or needs or sensitivities than others and just being aware of that.
Like, no matter how trendy a wool blazer is, if it makes you feel super uncomfortable, is that something you want to wear on your body for eight hours a day?
And probably when I was younger, I would have been like, well, I'm just going to kind of push through this feeling of discomfort because it's trendy and it looks cute.
But nowadays, I'm just like, no, if it doesn't feel good, I'm just not going to put it on my body.
Let's dig in to the trend thing a little bit.
We live in a world where trends change, A, so quickly.
But also, if you're not trendy or you're not following the latest trend, it is really easy to feel excluded, which is something our brains don't like, right?
No.
Well, and this is the other space that research kind of actually looks at clothing and in groups and out groups.
So we've talked about a lot.
We survive best in healthy healing connection with other humans.
and when we feel like we're on this sort of social edge
that can put our brains into survival states
because we're excluded.
We're on the outskirts, right?
So there's research studies on what uniforms do
for social cognition and social behavior
and how we feel part of the in-group
and what it feels like if we don't show up in the right.
And I think that there's probably many of us
that have the experience where you are like,
I'm feeling confident in this outfit
and you show up to the thing, whether that be, like, I can think of a time where I showed up to
a work presentation, and I'm like, I'm going to wear the normal things that I wear to present.
I've got my blazer on. I had not, like, fancy pants on, but dress pants. I had flats on.
And I walked in, and it was not the vibe and not the audience. And I immediately was just like,
all my confidence just got drained because everybody else is in like t-shirts and work boots
and Levi's or Wranglers and I was like I stick out like a sore thumb and so that's an example
of a time where our clothing can kind of put us on but or we perceive that our clothing puts us
on the social outskirts and can feel very uncomfortable and very threatening and I think
there's probably lots of people who have had an experience like that in your life where you didn't
get the memo on what you're supposed to dress up as and you walk in and you're like 100%
well mine's a little different so there was a time i didn't get the memo and there was a certain
event i went to and it was a color theme and asking around and my lovely friend then invited
me um knows of course that we're all individuals and everybody's going to have kind of different
outfits on anyway so i put on a well a hot pink what do you know a hot pink flowy dress and of
course, I'd taken time to get ready. And this was a dressy event. And I just felt really good.
I get there, and I would say 98% of the other people had on the other color. And I thought,
well, look at that. So to me, it was funny. And to me, even later, I don't know that I noticed it
so much. It didn't bother me because I was still appropriate for the event. I had prepared to go
this dressy event. And later when I was showing somebody the picture, they're like, oh, well,
look at you standing out as a, you know, the bright peony in a sea of whatever, you know,
what do you know? A sea of leaves. A sea of leaves. Yes. Well, and I also think about what
clothing communicates in other kinds of settings, right? So if we go to see our favorite, I love
baseball. We're a big baseball family. If I go to a baseball game and see other people wearing my
team automatically i know that like yes that's community that communicates like oh we're rooting
for the same thing and we use clothing to communicate that all the time in different
ways that's a visual reminder i hmm there are multiple ways i want to take this um but i think
i'm interested and i think our besties might be interested in how can we stay true to ourselves
stay true to our identity and our preferences when we are in spaces where there are perceived
dress codes or there are actual written dress codes or there is a perceived norm. So I want
your hacks on how you stay you even when you're in spaces where there is an expected norm that is
maybe not quite fitting with you. Well, I think it's just adding the you-ness to it. So maybe it is
If we talk about a time, maybe a time that I'm dressing up and wearing a suit,
let's just go for maybe I celebrate Christmas.
So maybe I have on a suit, but I want to kind of zhuzh it up.
So I would add I happen to have some vintage brooches.
And the ones I'm thinking of right now that come to mind,
because we're talking about kind of colors and that dopamine,
I'm specifically reaching for my ones that are kind of bright colors.
And I put them in kind of a big collage on my side.
And I think that could be the same thing too,
if it's even if it's a maybe an op you know working in the office you know there's certain
things that a lot of offices need us need us to wear to between safety and just kind of policy
but i've seen even people that even on their badge reel there is a there's actually a company i i
should have looked this company up but they have they've made the little um doodads that you put
on top of that on the badge reel so people just really each day they're so excited to get to work
because now I get to match even my little badge reel to my outfit or just have that little piece
that shows who you are. Exactly. Well, and I think for me, when I was in grad school, I worked for
a company where we had a very tight dress code and it was like a black polo or collared shirt,
black pants, black shoes. That was the dress code. And I don't love the way regular polos fit. So I
intentionally looked for black polos that were like either the athletic fabric or that have a
particular shape because I don't like the way the other ones feel or look on my body. And so
I think there are, even if we have to stay within the realms of a dress code, we can still find ways
to make it comfortable and make us feel as confident as possible in whatever that is.
And that's all supporting our nervous system, right? One of my favorite hacks is something you
can use even if you're in a uniform, right? If I need extra comfort or it's a day where I know
I'm going to be overstimulated, I wear fuzzy socks. Nobody has to know, right?
I love this. I love this because I'm also a person. My feet are perpetually cold. So I'm like,
give me all the fuzzy sock hacks, please. Bonus. Well, and they still come in fun colors too,
right? You can have every color under the rainbow for the fuzzy socks. And I've seen
I've seen lots of people do this.
People who are wearing suit pants
where they're very formal or dressed up
and then they have fun socks underneath
as a kind of a personal touch
or even, again, another talking piece.
Like we were at a conference recently
and we were talking to somebody
and he was like, yeah, look at my socks.
And it's like they're conversation starters.
So there are little ways that we can
kind of integrate who we are in those spaces
and still feel like ourselves.
I love that.
And it's, again, it's so important
to feel like we are expressing our identity in spaces.
And we are not saying by any means to go out and buy a whole new closet to chase trends or anything like that, right?
We are just saying if you put a little intentionality into getting dressed and you notice your preferences,
then things can be, like I said, you can use getting dressed as a support for every day.
And it can be a little scary. It can be a little scary to wear something that is maybe outside of
the norm or outside of the perceived norm. But if it helps support you, that's all that matters.
Right. And I think the big thing is knowing what our preference, like until you brought this to
my attention, I was like, I don't know what my preference is. I have preferences and I choose
them instinctively. I love the earth tones that remind me of nature, which is one of my safe
places. But I've not intentionally been like, oh, I will only choose earth tones because it makes
me feel this way. So even just bringing attention to what are your preferences, what textures do
you like, what fabrics do you like, what colors do you feel most comfortable in is a kind of
unique way to start. Well, the good news is our next episode is exactly that. It's preferences.
So besties, if you will join us in our next episode, we're going to explore what it means
to dress for the mood you want using the things you already have in your closet. We'll see you
then.