What DYT Has Done For Me, Part 2 - Discovering My Wings

 I took a deep breath and clicked on the button to choose the Type 1 course.  And with that one little click, my whole world changed.


Ok, yes, I realize how melodramatic that sounds.  But it's true.  I didn't even realize at first just how true.  And it really isn't about the fashion, either - that's really just the icing on the cake.  It's new insights and breakthroughs I've had about myself that are truly exciting.

The first breakthrough I had was in trying to wrap my head around the idea that I really truly am a Type 1.  Type 1 is bright, animated, upward, light, airy, random, extroverted, bubbly, enthusiastic, cute, generating ideas.  Type 2 is soft, subtle, gentle, calm, flowing, introverted, sensitive, graceful, elegant, planning details.  How could I possibly be both?  What I needed to remember is that there is a range of levels of motion within each movement, and my unique expression is influenced by my secondary energy, my life experiences, and lots of other things unique to *me*.  I am not a "textbook" Type 1 - what I call bouncy balls and fireworks.  Rather, I describe my energy as "a dreamer, head in the clouds" energy.  It is still a very light, airy, full of ideas energy - but it also has a soft, gentle, graceful element to it.  Think Belle in Disney's Beauty & the Beast.  Thinking of it in that way allowed me to start to truly accept and embrace this part of my nature in a way I hadn't been able to before.

The second breakthrough I had came when I wasn't even expecting it.  Doesn't it often happen that way?  Since Type 1's are so animated and enthusiastic, it is common for us to feel like we need to be more serious, or tone down our brightness so we will be taken seriously.  I'd heard and read that in several places, but it never seemed to apply to me until the word responsibility came up in a separate conversation.  I haven't felt that I needed to be more serious, but I have definitely felt I needed to be (more?) grown up / responsible.  There were some pretty traumatic circumstances and events going on for most of my childhood, and as the oldest of my siblings, I ended up taking on a lot of responsibility at a very young age.  Also, and I had never even realized this before, I think I developed a belief that in the middle of all that hurting, it wasn't ok to ever *not* feel that pain.  I wish someone had told me then - "It's ok to feel hurt and sad and scared and angry.  It's good to feel those things.  But it's also ok and good to have fun and feel happy sometimes.  It's ok to just be a little girl.  Feeling happy doesn't mean that you don't still have all those other feelings, or that you don't care about the things that are happening to you and your family, or that those things don't matter.  It's not a betrayal to the people you love.  You don't have to carry this huge weight and burden all the time."  For years, I have felt like I've been living under a cloud.  I have been!  A cloud of belief that says "Life hurts.  People betray you.  You don't have any power.  Happiness is for the people who "have".  You are one of the "have-nots".  Wow!  No wonder I've struggled with depression!  What hopeless limiting beliefs!

Now I am replacing those beliefs with


It is ok to have fun.  I can be responsible and have fun too.  They are not mutually exclusive.  


Life can be fun.  


Work can be fun.  


I don't have to wait for work to make work fun - *I* can make work fun.


I can make work fun by *being* fun.


I can make work fun by being fun by being *me*.


Wow.  These are messages that are striking down to the very core of who I am.  They are heart beliefs, central to everything I think, feel, say, do, whether I'm aware of it or not.  Changing these deep beliefs has and will have a ripple effect.  Already, in just a few days, I feel so much more confident, less stressed, less anxious, free.  And it shows; I've had multiple people comment on it.  I told my sister yesterday that I feel like I've forgotten how to have fun (or maybe I never even knew to begin with) and I am just figuring it out again.  It's a revelation that fills me with awe, wonder, and excitement.

I feel like a flower blossoming.

Or like a dragonfly, just emerging from the cocoon and discovering my wings.  I have the whole sky to explore, and I can't wait to see where the wind will take me.

What DYT Has Done For Me, Part 1 - The Journey

Just as fair warning, this could get rather long.  I will try not to let it go too long, but... so much has changed for me over the last week and even just the last few days; I am being flooded with new insights and realizations and they are all just bubbling up and overflowing out of me, and I just have to share!

Firstly, a tiny little background.  If you are not familiar with Dressing Your Truth or Energy Profiling, it is a system designed by Carol Tuttle to outline 4 different groups, or Types, of people.  Everyone fits into one of these 4 Types, but the range of expression and how it plays out is unique for each individual person.  It is a really interesting way to learn more about yourself and others.  That is the Energy Profiling side of things.  What is really neat and unique is that Carol has taken it a step further for women and created some guidelines about how to dress based on your Type.  It sounds like it might be limiting, but actually it's very freeing.  The premise and foundational belief is that EVERY woman is beautiful and that when the things you wear (clothing, hairstyle, makeup, accessories, etc) are in harmony with who you are on a core level - as opposed to trying to fit a certain fashion standard or attempt to present yourself in a certain way to counterbalance perceived weakness - when your outside is reflecting your inside, it allows your true unique beauty to shine through and be a blessing to yourself and the people around you.  If you haven't already, I would strongly encourage you to visit Carol's blog to learn more about it.  And if you make it to the end of this post, I hope you'll see why I encourage it - because that's really what I want to talk about:  how learning, accepting, and embracing my Type has affected me on a very deep core level.

I first learned about DYT almost a year ago through an online message board I participate in.  It was a pretty hot topic at the time, I've always been interested in both fashion and personality profiling, and I was intrigued at the idea of combining the two.  I started trying to figure out what Type I am through conversations on my message board and by following Carol's blog.  I bought her Energy Profiling Bundle with her book "It's Just My Nature," then I bought her Beauty Profiling Bundle with her book "Discover Your Personal Beauty Profile".  I had mostly settled that I thought I was a Type 2, the Subtle Soft woman.  There was (and still is) an awful lot about that Type that really clicked for me.  Then it was suggested to me that I might be a Type 1, the Bright Animated woman, and that really threw me for a loop.  No way, I thought.  That's not me.  Of course, that very thought is actually a pretty strong indication that that IS me.  Doh.  I was really strongly encouraged to consider it, though, so I went back through the profiling courses, read back through both books, trying to come from a perspective of being a 1 instead of a 2.  And I began to see where maybe that fit better than I thought it did.  But then I had a problem - which fit more?  I express a LOT of both of those movements - which one was dominant?  I finally settled on T1 and have been trying to live and dress that way as best I could for most of this year.  But in the back of my head, I was never entirely confident that I had gotten it "right".

Fast forward to a couple weeks ago, when Carol offered a sale on everything in her store, including the full DYT course.  I'd been saving for it anyway, intending it to be a Christmas gift to myself, but the sale coincided with my birthday.  I didn't have quite the full amount saved, but close enough that my husband, knowing how important it was to me, said to just go ahead and get it.  Now I had a new problem.  You can only get the course for one type, meaning I had to really commit to what type I am.  All the questions I'd been asking in the back of my head were suddenly a really big deal.  Fortunately, I am not the only one who has had this problem, and Carol and her staff are truly dedicated to supporting women in discovering and honoring their true natures.  They had done a couple of conference calls earlier this year specifically for women who had been through the books, been through the online tools, and were still having trouble, and the recordings of those calls were available in my member area after I had purchased the course.  I only had to listen to one of those calls.  There were several things in that call that really rang true to me, and I came away from it with a new confidence and assurance that I am indeed a Type 1, Bright Animated woman.  I took a deep breath and clicked on the button to choose the Type 1 course.  And with that one little click, my whole world changed.

A Gradual Awakening

 

I am not by any means normally a morning person.  So when I decided to drag myself out of bed on a Saturday morning after being out late the night before so I could watch the sunrise on the first day of the year, I was hoping for something - well, a little more exciting than what I got.  In my mind, it would be a brilliant sky of vibrant pinks and oranges and purples, the sun bursting forth over the lake, a glorious golden ball, a promise that the new year would be full of light and excitement.  What I got was a biting cold wind and a sky full of so many clouds, you couldn't really see the sun at all.  While the  pastel pinks, greys, and blues were pretty, they were also much softer than the vision in my head.  There was no single moment where the sun burst over the horizon; rather, the sky simply gradually got lighter.  The wind was so cold that I couldn't bear to stand outside with the camera for more than a few moments, so I bounced in and out of the car, wanting to take as many pictures as I could, a little disappointed in what there was to take pictures of, and cold enough to start wondering why I had dragged my tail out of bed for this in the first place.  I ended up with a grand total of 4 photos.  On the one hand, I feel this is rather underwhelming for having achieved the momentous task of getting myself out the door at 7am on a Saturday morning.  On the other hand, there is not a great deal of difference in any of them.  Perhaps if I'd gotten up slightly earlier and gotten a few pre-dawn shots.  Or if I'd braved the cold for a little longer than 10 minutes.  Oh well.  I guess these 4 aren't so bad.

 

So why did I get up for the sunrise anyway?  Well, as I've mentioned before, I've been digging a lot into the Energy Profiling system by Carol Tuttle.  I originally thought I was a Type 2, but after some unexpected comments and a lot (I mean a LOT) of thought, I now believe I am a Type 1 with a secondary 2.  Type 1 is described as the Bright Animated woman, and the sun/moon cycle associated with Type 1 is sunrise - so while it is NOT something I plan on making a habit out of, I thought it would be a cool way to greet the new year.  Type 2 is described as the Subtle Soft woman.   So... I was envisioning a Type 1 sunrise - what I got was more Type 2.

You know what though?  I decided that was ok.  Actually, I consider it a good picture for myself.   I am excited about learning more about the Energy Profiling system and am striving to use it to gain more insights about myself and others, and most importantly to start to really live my truth (a key idea in the system).  See, even though 2 is my secondary type, I have been living in my 2ness for more years than I can even think of.  As I learn more about Type 1 and allow myself to let those aspects come out, even learn to embrace them, I am finding that I feel more relaxed, more free, and more excited - more Bright and Animated! - and I'm loving it!  At the same time, that doesn't mean the Soft and Subtle 2 is gone.  It's still there, influencing my 1ness and how it is expressed, and I'm figuring out all those nuances too.  So to me, this sunrise is a beautiful picture of my life, right now and what I look forward to in the year ahead.  Maybe the sun didn't burst forth in one glorious moment, and maybe I won't have any brilliant flashes of instant inspiration where I suddenly totally understand myself, know how to fully live my truth, and all my problems are over (don't I wish!) - but that's ok.  Maybe my walk looks more like a serious of small discoveries, knowing myself better and better gradually over time, changing old ideas and learning to live my truth a little more each day.  It's still a beautiful expression of 1 and 2 together, each new day gradually awakening to more truth.  That's my own unique style, and it's beautiful.