October 2009 Article
Choose to Dress Up for Halloween

October in the Midwest, when the leaves start to turn and the air is crisp and cool, makes one think of Halloween. Halloween brings to mind costumes. Costumes suggest putting on clothing that allows you to play a role. Playing a role allows you to be someone you may have never been before. It can get you out of your comfy zone and help you express the creative part of you that hides somewhere inside.

For some people choosing a costume is fun and exciting. For others it is simply a chore. Children love to dress up and have a fun party on Halloween and later go trick-or-treating in the neighborhood. Do children pick their costumes? Highly unlikely. Usually moms choose them from among the mass produced costumes characterizing the popular figures of the day.

What if we allowed our children to actually choose “who” they wanted to be and then find a costume to depict that character? Yes, it would be a lot more work and take some pre-planning and preparation. And many times, the costume ends up being not so cute. I remember making a ghost costume for my son, Wes. He wanted to be a ghost with patches. So I constructed him a costume. It wasn’t as cute as the Casper costumes that other children had, but it was unique.

What about dressing up ourselves as adults? Do you dress up for Halloween? I do. I have been such things as a flower, a witch, a fairy, Mother Nature, a flapper, and a cat. One of my favorite times of the year is when I can go to my friend Carol’s house on Halloween and pass out candy to the children who come to trick-or-treat. Because I live in the country, my friend allows me to have the “joy of giving” at her home on Halloween. Last year I was Mother Nature and the year before I was a witch. What makes me dress up? Let’s look at what dressing up can do for you and even for your child if allowed the choice of a costume.

First, dressing up gets you out of yourself. When you put on a costume, you have the opportunity to be someone else. You can try new behaviors. You can think something new. Let’s say that you have always been shy and reserved. Putting on a Curious George costume can help you ask more questions as you play the role of being curious. Then you have the opportunity to consider whether or not you would like to be more curious in your life. You have the opportunity to change a behavior.

Second, dressing up gives your creative spirit an outlet. I remember making a flower costume in college. I found a leotard from my dancing days and dyed it green. So my body was the stem. I got long gloves to use so my arms were the leaves. I took construction paper and cut out petals in various colors. To make the petal stand up straight, I glued wire onto each petal and then put another petal over the wire so the wire was inside. The two together just looked like one petal. I attached the petals to a plastic head band. So my face was the flower and my body was the stem and my arms the leaves. I really had good feelings about using my creativity to design my costume.

Third, dressing up takes you out of the ordinary and places you in the world of imagination. You have the opportunity to imagine what it would be like to be the character you play. Too often we do not give our brain the opportunity for creative expression; for imagining ourselves being different. What are the possibilities and opportunities we miss because we do not stimulate the use of our creative part?

See how just dressing up for Halloween can bring about change in your behavior and your thinking. You open yourself up to the “you” inside that is unknown. It could lead to being more inspired in your job or your personal life. It could lead to greater creativity. It could lead to more connections. The possibilities are endless.

So when Halloween rolls around this year, you have a choice to dress up or not. If you dress up, you can choose to be creative with your costume. If you are creative, you inspire the hidden spirit in you. With a new spirit, you can choose different behaviors or new ways of thinking. When you are doing and thinking something different, you have given yourself the opportunity to change. When you change, your life has the potential for increased satisfaction. When you are more satisfied with your life, you are happier. So choose to dress up this Halloween.