READing Your Style: Don't Think. Just "Blink."

Remember in my August Letter From the Editor when I mentioned how one of my favorite books, "Blink." by Malcolm Gladwell helped me to understand the power of 'thinking without thinking'? As I have done more research on this topic, I found more and more how this inner power is very valuable when one raelly focuses on those unexpected feelings we have about certain things, As promised, I have outlined a few key points from the books 1st chapter which explains the meaning and significance of using our intuition. 

The Adaptive Unconscious: a part of our brain that leaps to conclusions like the above (not to be confused with the ‘unconscious’)

                This new notion is thought of as a kind of giant computer that quickly and quietly processes a lot 

                of data we need in order to keep functioning as human beings.

                               o Think: A car is barreling towards you as you cross a street. Do you have time to 

                                   think of all you options: NO! The adaptive unconscious is capable of making 

                         very quick judgments based on very little information.

                 Psychologist Timothy D. Wilson writes in his book “Strangers to Ourselves”: The mind operates 

                 most efficiently by relegating a good deal of high-level, sophisticated thinking to the unconscious, 

                 just as a modern jetliner is able to fly on automatic pilot with little or no input from the human, 

                 ‘conscious’ pilot. The adaptive unconscious does an excellent job of sizing up the world, warning 

                 people of danger, setting goals, and initiating action in a sophisticated and efficient manner.”

                                o Wilson says we toggle back and forth between the conscious and unconscious modes 

                                    of thinking

*We live in a world that assumes that the quality of a decision is directly related to

the time and effort that went into making it.*

                 We only trust conscious decision making, but “Blink” aims to prove that decisions made     

             quickly can be every bit as good as decisions made cautiously and deliberately.

                  o It also aims to explore when we should trust our instincts, and when we should be wary of
                     them.
                  o Lastly, it aims to show that our snap judgments and first impressions can be controlled.
                  o We can cultivate this ability for ourselves!!!

*Whenever we meet a new person or confront a complex situations or have to make a decision under conditions of stress, Gladwell postulates that, “When it comes to the task of understanding ourselves and our world, I think we pay too much attention to those grand themes, and too little to the particulars of those fleeting moments.” * 

Take this example:

Beautiful Illustrations by Brian Cronin

This was excerpted from the August 2011 issue of O magazine-the focus for that month:Intuition and Instinct. It was funny to me because this very experiment above is brought to our attention in "Blink.". Oprah is always speaking of how trusting her instincts got her to the successes she has made and her August issue offered a more summarized justification to our adaptive unconscious and "The Science of Intuition" (the article even mentions "Blink" as a good source on the subject). 

The three piece feature starts by first explaining that our "gut feeling" is our friend and that we should try to pay attention to that feeling more often. Next it goes into detail about "intuitive counseling" and how to learn to listen to your intuition, and lastly the article highlights how intuitive power is available in everyone by listening to certain cues from our body such as through our eyes, stomach, and nose. Here are the most important bits of information I took away from the feature that might help you on your quest to harness the power of your intuition. 

Go to the following to learn more about Following Your Inner Wisdom

EDITOR'S LETTER: August 2012

After doing a lot of thinking about Acceptance last month, it was funny that towards the end of the month I received this email from Will and Guy’s Joke of the Day . It was a series of quotes from the popular 19^th century author, wit, and quite the dandy, Oscar Wilde. Please take these in, for in my fashion they speak a lot for the ironic truths of our world.


Statue of Oscar Wilde by Danny Osborne in Dublin's Merrion Square

After reading these funny observations about life, parlaying from the subject of Acceptance, I knew that this month would just have to be about how being “Smart is Beautiful”! As I said in my last Style Maven post, ignorance is debilitating, and keeps us from learning the truths of life we need to know in order to be the people we need to be so we can help others.There is a promotional page that runs in Vogue that always proclaims the phrase “Smart is beautiful” and I have to agree, full-heartedly. Why do you think Vogue is such a revered magazine for the fashion onlooker? Because since 1892, they have documented the smart people who have been able to leave a significant mark in the history of their culture, and how they were able to rise above the masses and manifest an individual persona that left a certain impression on the people of their time. As I have found, no one knows everything there is to know about life, so it would make most sense to say that smart people are those that tend to put in the thought power and energy into making the most sense of a particular subject (i.e. fashion/style, sports, geography, cooking, and biology). In my fashion, strength in our modern society is using your wits and intelligence to do as much work for us as is needed to complete a certain task or goal. It’s interesting because while watching the Olympics I realized that there is a lot of hand-eye coordination that athletes must be in tune with in order to be successful. One has to be astutely aware of their own motions, and the motions of others, in the interest of beating one’s opponent, an opponent who has worked just as hard as you and wants that medal just as much as you. As late psychologist, Howard Gardner postulated, that of the nine types of intelligence we humans are to possess, this high type of intelligence would fall under bodily-kinesthetic intelligence [source]. People can be intelligent at many things including: fashion, sports, television, electronics, nature, animals, poetry, rocks, etc. There are so many things to think about! We weren't given this mental capacity of all the species on the planet to sit around not using our brains to explore all that is here in life to explore, physically through our environment, as well as interpersonally, for the mind is the single most unexplored continent on this planet! We are all capable of understanding life; it just depends on how much you make your brain work to pay attention to all the details of life. By learning from our experiences, which according to Wilde’s philosphy, is simply “the name we give our mistakes”, we are able to find our strengths and talents to use them to fuel our thinking, so we can know how to conquer forces of life that oppose us.



Mine and Dwight’s sartorial choices come from the energy of imagination, deliberation, and invention, which fall into a natural rhythm all our own, maintained by innate discipline and a keen sense of pleasure.

Considering the back-to-school season is right around the corner, I figured this would be an appropriate time to emphasize making the right choices (sartorially, and in our every day decision making), being more conscious of the things that happen in one’s environment, continually searching out knowledge, and being able to know how to use your gut when choosing your next steps in life. Just the same as when you have that overwhelming feeling of, “This was made for me,” when selecting that perfect garment in the store, is the same feeling one should have when shopping for the right decisions to make one’s life fulfilling, in all instances of one’s life. As is said in this past July’s Vogue cover profile of Emma Stone who has become an arbiter of a bit of wisdom she took from co-star, Ryan Gosling, who says, "Picking roles is like listening to songs on the radio: "There can be a lot of really great songs in a row, but then one comes on that just makes you want to dance." If you are not doing something in your life that's not making you want to dance, then maybe it’s time for you to reconsider your steps.