Skip to main content

A Purple Velvet Mess


Afternoon folks! As a self-proclaimed mess of a human, I thought I'd entitle this post 'A Purple Velvet Mess,' and write a little bit about why uncertainty and the messiness of life can be empowering in its own way. 

It is no secret that human nature desires growth, progress and generally for things to go to plan, and yet infinite progress and perpetual growth are entirely impossible, and as we all know, things rarely go as planned. And so, we are frequently thrown by life. Plans are made only to crumble, our work does not seem to pay off and eventually every project will tail off, bowing to the next big thing. 

We are ultimately victims of our own expectations.

The answer? Well, there isn't one, but I have my own idea about how we might best manage something which can be desperately frustrating. 

I try to embrace the uncertainty and trust that whatever higher power there might be is weaving the threads of my life into a beautiful knitted scarf, or tapestry, or at least pair of colourful socks. As an INFJ (Myers-Briggs), I experience uncertainty as a kind of horrific anxiety, but over time I have realised that I have very little control over what happens in my life. I can only actively choose what makes me happy, what benefits others, and try to let go of the dread that encircles when something I wanted to happen, doesn't. 

Whether you believe that something/someone has a plan for you, or you decide to trust the randomness of a universe we do not understand, please try to indulge the idea that 'when one door closes, another door opens,' because there is so much truth in that mindset. 

The universe makes no sense. We are inescapably finite. 

The best we can hope for is to achieve contentment, or even happiness. 

Right, if you got through all that, let's see the outfit! 


For some strange reason, I look odd when I look at the camera... And so I pose.... And look away... 



Outfit details
Cardigan: Joules via charity shop
Top (underneath dress): Miss Selfridge
Dress: a clothing exchange at uni (unknown brand)
Socks: Topshop
Shoes: Dr Martens
Necklace: ASOS Marketplace (years ago)


Well, that was a juxtapositional post, eh? An outfit and some deep thoughts. I hope you enjoyed either/both of the elements. Let me know in the comments what you thought. 

Check out my instagram if you should feel so inclined! @jumper.dweller

Over and out! 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Not-Dinner-Party-Appropriate: anecdotes from the mental hospital

 I feel like a time traveller. I've awoken in 2021, sleeping through a pandemic and my teenage years, now in my mid-twenties. I have no dinner-party-appropriate anecdotes. Only mental ill-health with bouts of questionable wellness. I have been in four different mental hospitals, which I predict could be four more than most people. No one talks about it, including me. Like, at all.  Whenever someone talks about mental illness, there is this most impenetrable silence, followed by: 'I knew someone who was depressed once.' Or a casual, almost nonchalant change of subject. I mean, we talk about mental health a lot - how to keep it afloat, how to do 'self-care' in a commercially-assisted sense. It's all body butters and face masks.  I don't like it when people reduce preventing mental illness down to looking after yourself or not. That is a large part of it, a whole team of people looked after me at my worst. Most things cannot be made better with a face mask.  It...

Imposters: a story about a Capgras delusion

  It's cold. I'm always so cold. My hands quiver blue and wrists bloom purple, after days of bang, bang, banging my wrist on the arm of my chair. I don't think I'm okay, but I don't think I'm not okay either. I think, I think, I think I'm breaking. I am on the children's ward. I have not seen my real parents for months. Some strange people visit sometimes. I hide from them. They are not my parents. They are often nice and I begin to trust them, then they'll do something off-kilter and I shy away again, like a beaten dog.  I had climbed out of a window, bawled through the lane outside the house and taken solace at a friend's home up the road. Gently I was led back to my childhood home and bundled into the car, driven to the hospital and admitted in hopes of finding a way to avoid another inpatient admission. We couldn't find one.  I arrive at the unit, brittle. Last time I was in this position, I had a home, but now I'm adrift. My parents ...

Dressing Up - the benefits for mental health and these tough times

****disclaimer**** I never got round to publishing this archived post on my blog, Jumper Dweller, aka where you find yourself now. It seems now quite pertinent in light of current and recent events. I’m sending love and positivity to whoever and wherever you are, all of you! So anyway, here’s a post from long ago, dragged from the archive. Enjoy! ****disclaimer over**** Good day, folks! It's been a while since I last blogged, but today I felt inspired when it came to today's topic: self-soothing using fashion/personal style and how that can help with recovery. Self-soothe is a DBT technique, which is designed to help manage distress and reduce maladaptive behaviours. There are many ways to practise self-soothe - you might use nice smelling hand or body cream or read positive messages given to you by friends to trigger positive emotions. Today I wanted to propose that personal style and 'dressing up' in particular can act as a self-soothe activity. Dressing up ...