If you’re a fashion student and are preparing yourself for the real professional world out there, let us just say this–the habits you harbour right now are what will truly set the tone for your next phase. Consider this as practice for later. Moreover, who says you can’t use these mindful and nourishing habits as a fashion student?
Let’s face it–as a fashion student also, you are face-front with multiple deadlines, creative pressure, and of course, the determination to make the most of your lessons. So, your life is not all that different from a fashion professional’s life. Of course, there are differences between the two but our point is that as a fashion student also, you do go through a whirlwind. Why You Need Positivity as a Fashion Student
Fashion, being an ever-evolving and fast career that is constantly churning out new trends every season, certainly needs that speed from its industry beings too. This means that as a fashion student, you’re not only learning fashion but more–time management, communication skills, leadership, teamwork, creative upgrade, and many other such assets. What this also means is that establishing yourself and sustaining that spot in the fashion industry takes a lot of work and that work may end up being a potential stressor. Another reason behind this is that it is merely a creative field, which needs that fuelling every once in a while.
The bottom line is that being a fashion professional or even a student from a fashion academy is not exactly a seamless journey and you got to be at the top of your game with constant creativity. And, that’s exactly why we can’t even emphasize the importance of cultivating some habits that become a consistent source of positivity and inspiration for you.
How to Build and Maintain Positivity as a Fashion Student
1. Meditate
For centuries, people have been swearing by the practice of meditation–an art of tuning in and shutting off intrusive thoughts. Even today, those who practice it regularly report having a clearer mind, lesser stress, and a range of mental benefits. As a fashion student who not only needs to tackle stress but also be their creative best, meditation is a habit that we consider essential. Here is how it exactly helps:
- Helps gain a new perspective on life
- Helps develop a better sense of self
- Helps bring the focus back to present
- Helps reduce negative emotions
- Helps boost creativity and imagination
- Helps build better resilience and patience
- Helps with anxiety and depression
- Helps with asthma symptoms
- Helps with heart disease and high blood pressure
- Helps with better sleep and tension headaches
Source: Shape Magazine We say, make it a daily practice in the mornings or evenings, either beginning the day or ending it on a gentle and mindful note. So, when you start your student work, you are refreshed mentally and equipped with newfound creativity, emotional intelligence, and perspective on fashion and design. 2. Phone-Free Mornings Whether you’re a student or a professional, we bet you are surrounded by technology at every hour, for every need. Right from the moment you wake up to the time you sleep, your phone and other devices play a constant role. And, while all of these advancements are helpful in some ways, they are detrimental in others.
As a fashion student whose career is largely based on one’s creative abilities, you need to stimulate and encourage that creativity in its raw glory. So, when you wake up and engage with your phone immediately, you’re leaving no mental space for raw ideas to bud. Here, you’re instantly hounding that space with technology and the content that it has to offer you.
Besides this creative blockage, early morning phone indulgences can also send you into an overdrive of overwhelming emotions, giving rise to anxiety and stress. Now, this is certainly not the way to set the tone for the rest of the day, right? We agree, we’re all addicted to our phones and it may be a challenge to overcome that addiction, but keeping the first two hours of your mornings free from a phone can be life-changing!
Try it out and experience it for yourself?
3. Workout
They say that meditation and movement daily are all you need for healthy well-being. And, it’s tried and tested! Yes, we know that as a fashion student out of a fashion academy, in this fast-paced world, it may be hard to squeeze in some workout into your routine. But trust us, all it takes is some time management, determination, and the willingness to get to it. Once you start and stay consistent, it’ll become a habit that will transform not just your physical being but also your mental health.
Source: Daily Sabah
Lucky for us, there are umpteenth ways and options for you to do that! From HIIT and cardio to gentler modes like yoga and jogging. So, get experimenting and find out what kind of exercises suit your body and preference best and make sure to include a minimum of 30 minutes of that every day or at least thrice a week. It truly does wonders!
4. Practice your Art Yes, you’ll be doing a lot of that as a fashion student, we know. But, what we mean when we say practice your art is to indulge in free-style work that you’re doing just for yourself, by yourself. This is something that you’re neither doing for your submissions or as a part of your portfolio, but something that you’re doing using your core creativity and personal style. There are no rules here, but freestyle and unrestricted art.
How this helps, you ask? Well, for starters, it encourages your capabilities to be channelized onto the paper. When you do something professionally, you are bound by certain themes, rules, and expectations. But, when you go free-style, you optimize your complete ability and creativity, becoming more self-aware of what you specialize in and the kind of work you truly want to do. Not to mention, practising your art also makes you better at it!
5. Read about Fashion
Whether it is fashion magazines, books, or blogs, go all out and read, read, and read! The fashion world is as much equipped with a million styles as it is with resources that cover its history, present, and even future. What we mean here is that there are countless offline and online reading resources that offer insights into the bright and rich history of fashion along with the current real-time happenings, and of course, the future fashion predictions. So, while you back upon information from your study resources, also read informal sources to stay updated and add more value to your fashion knowledge.
6. Network and Be Open-Minded
You won’t grow until you grow your mind and exchange knowledge with a network. So, if you’re a fashion student right out of a fashion academy, who is preparing to become a professional, you must also be backed with an open mind and networking skills. Conversing with diverse people in and outside of the industry through events, online portals, and networking clubs is one way to do so. Moreover, asking for feedback and being open to criticism is a great way to not only build yourself as a mature professional but also to better your work.
Every phase in your career comes with some lessons and you improve your art every waking day, to some level. So, being open-minded to these changes and opinions is more or less, a teacher for you. Nevertheless, it will always come in handy to you, to build and maintain these positive habits if you want to flourish and thrive not only as a student but also as an expert later on.
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