How do people with 'imperfect' bodies find the motivation to dress nicely?

Ok so try not to judge/hate me for asking this because I'm simply asking out of curiosity because I don't understand and I want to change my own way of thinking Bear in mind that I think everyone should look and dress as they please and have nothing against people's lifestyle choices.

Basically when I see females ( and males) who are considerably overweight but who are into fashion/dress in nice clothes I always wonder where their motivation comes to wear nice clothes from as they are not slim/healthy. Don't get me wrong I think that it's good if people make an effort but I'LL try and explain what I mean

Im probably weird for thinking like this but I have only ever thought of my body as being 'a good one' if it is toned and healthy. I got diagnosed with a chronic illness though (autoimmune) and since then have not thought of myself as having a good body. I've lost motivation to wear nice clothes etc as I feel that whatever I wear I will just be covering up a faulty body. Kind of like wrapping a broken toy in nice paper. I've not told anyone this as it sounds odd but it's just how I feel about it I can't help it. I want to get away from this mentality but don't know how. Ever since I was a kid I've never been interested in fashion and dressed like a tramp most of the time because to me having a good or what I perceived as a good healthy body was all that mattered to me.

When I see other people who don't have what is stereotypically a 'good' body ie overweight interested in clothes/fashion I always think well they mustn't see things the way I do. I think well I should be more like them, instead of focussing on the faults with my body (illness) I should just focus on appearing good with clothes. But it's hard for me to do this I just see clothes as fickle/temporary and have always felt that what really matters is a body that's in good shape and is healthy.

So yea how can I get out of this mentality? How do most people find the motivation to dress nicely?

You're right that a lot of people don't think in such extremes. I'm sure many overweight people lack confidence with their bodies, but I'm sure dressing nicely is a way to make you feel better about it.
As for your outlook on the subject, you need a good pep talk!

There’s a Buddhist monk named Ajahn Brahm, he was a junior monk and had begun work on building a monastery in Australia. His task was to build a wall, and anyone who knows about bricklaying will know, it’s difficult to keep everything level. It took a long time, and he took his time to get it perfect. It was only when it was finished, and he stepped back to admire his work he noticed that 2 bricks were crooked. He tried to scrape the mortar out, to reset the bricks so they could be perfect; but the mortar was hard so he couldn’t scrape it out. He asked another monk who was with him if they could knock it down and start again, because those bricks ruined the whole thing.
But they were stuck with it. They were too poor to do anything with it.
So for three months, every time he passed that wall he saw his mistakes, and felt so sad, and the worst part was that you couldn’t hide it, everyone could see his failure. Whenever there was a visitor and he was there, he would purposefully take them somewhere else; avoid the wall.
It got to the point where he would dream about the wall; nightmares of the ruined wall he had put so much time and effort in to.
Until one day there was a visitor who saw the wall and he said to Ajahn Brahm “that’s a beautiful wall”.
The monk just couldn’t believe what he had heard. For three months he had been suffering so much with that wall.
“Are you blind? Have you left your glasses in the car? Can’t you see those two crooked bricks?”

The visitor then replied: “yes I can see those two bad bricks, but I can also see the 998 good bricks as well”.
For three months, he was the one who had been blind. All he could see was his mistakes. This was the first time that he could see the bricks above, below and to either side of the bad bricks, and it really was a beautiful wall.
The negativity and fault finding inherent within us, to the point that he wanted to destroy that wall.
This is where depression comes from. If all you see are those few bad bricks, then you will be totally blind to everything but the faults.






There's an old Buddhist story about a man who has just got married, and his new father in law called him over and said to him, "I know you love my daughter", and the newlywed responded,
"of course! She's perfect, she's wonderful! Everything she does is just charming."
The father in law responded, 'that's how it is when you first get married. But in a few years time, you will start to see the defects in my daughter, and when you do, son in law, please always remember this: if my daughter hadn't had those faults to begin with - she'd have married someone much better than you!



I truly hope you can find it. Best wishes.