Cultivating Personal Taste: A Journey Toward Authentic Self-Expression
A Whole New Level of Understanding. One of the most important things I learned in my early twenties is the idea of “personal taste”. It is the concept of developing a taste for things and ideas that truly speak to me, rather than simply following what’s popular or trendy. I believe that this concept has the power to transform many areas of our lives.
Taste isn’t just about likes and dislikes; it’s also about developing a sense of how you want to live and making decisions that support that vision. It’s the vehicle that bridges the inside of your mind to the outside world, so you can manifest a life that feels like your own. Without it, you’re just reacting to things, making decisions that feel random or dictated by short-term fashion. With it, you feel like you’re on solid ground and everything becomes a chance to get what you want. But to do it, you have to realize that taste is something to be developed, not discovered.
In observing, we allow ourselves to see the colors, patterns, shapes and textures around us, to ask ourselves why a color or design gives us a good feeling and why it doesn’t. It’s by this process that we begin to identify the trends of what we like and don’t like, and develop a sense of personal taste that isn’t based on what others think we should like. And it’s through this process that we eventually become able to make purchases that aren’t based on impulse, but on an understanding of what will enhance our mood and our life. We not only enjoy beauty, we come to understand its importance to our mood.
Taste is further developed through experimentation. It gives us permission to push our comfort zone without fear of criticism. We test out different aesthetics, fabrics, patterns, shapes or hues to gauge which ones suit us. The ones that don’t make the cut are eliminated. We avoid what might have been a mistake through experimentation. This process helps us perfect the definition of what works for us. Taste loses its rigidity in the experimentation phase. We can accommodate a few imperfections that imbue charm. The phase takes what was once a reception process and converts it into an act of creation.
Reflection is the base that ties everything together, the place where your observations and experimentation are synthesized. Writing in a journal or simply speaking your observations to yourself regularly helps your tastes gel, making them coherent by revealing the ties between things that seem separate. Reflection means that your taste is developing, that it’s changing with your life and developing your ideals. Reflection means you’re making proactive decisions instead of just reacting, that you feel aligned in all parts of your life. Reflection reminds you that your taste is alive, and the more you reflect on it, the more beautiful it becomes.
The beauty of taste, then, is that it not only makes our daily lives more enjoyable, but also makes us feel more whole and fully alive. It encourages us to make every choice a reflection of who we are. As our taste grows and develops, it affects our friends, our job, our hobbies and the like, spreading joy and inspiring others. The gratification is in the satisfaction of knowing we have earned our tastes, through time and dedication. And so, the journey of creating our tastes is a lifelong process, with no end of pleasure and delight.
