30 chic days: day 14: being true to oneself

                           

What is chic?

A very quiet day today. Just being. And reflecting on the value of chic in the way that we live our life, as a carry on, really, from yesterday's post.

Chic is defined as: stylishness & elegance, typically of a specified kind.

So, we can be chic in many ways, not just our appearance. As an example, most of us have lives whereby we no longer decorate our homes in a stylish & olde world type of elegance. But we can have a home with another type of style & elegance, one which expresses our personality. A friend, for example, has a mixture of olde world shabby chic-type charm in her home, in a fusion with crystals & chakras. It is very chic, &, her personality is similar: olde world charm whilst living in truth with her spiritual ethics.

As we express ourselves, on all levels, more & more with chic, our personality can be more easily expressed through not just our appearance, but also our manner. Someone who is always dour, whether life is good or not, does not reveal themselves as stylish & elegant in any way. For when we cannot see any beauty in life, we are not stylish, we are not elegant. We are not chic. We also do not look good, in our appearance, nor in our expression of personality, nor our values.

Chic and values

So to be truly chic, we need to have a stylish & elegant manner of expression, which arises from being true to oneself, via our inner convictions. Therefore, it helps to know which values & ethics matter to you. If it matters to be true to oneself.

From time to time we might need to redefine, for ourselves:

• what actually matters to us? 
• what is our "bottom line"? What do we resolutely refuse to do.
• what do we aspire to do, to be, to act in accordance with? 

It is impossible to be chic when we are not able to live according to our inner stylishness & elegance. The outer expression of our values & ethics, in a stylish & elegant manner, could be called "charm". (or, in some cases, lack of charm) 

What is stylishness, elegance, & charm, in regards to the inner beliefs, to you? What elements of these do you want to take on board in your life? I know that I want, always:

• to be a person who can live according to my conscience
• I don't want to harm others
• I want to associate with decent people
• I want to be a good person

Chic is a skill

Apparently, chic is probably a french word from the mid 19th century, & it is believed to have derived from a german word, "schick", which means "skill". So, a chic person is being skilled in being stylish & elegant, both within, & also in our outer expression - home, food, clothes, manner, values, speech. We can become skilled in having a chic personality, we can become skilled in being true to ourselves.