Day 53: Jennifer Butler

November 22, 2009 at 2:12 am, Category: Inspiration

“Sometimes we’re the last to discover and know about our human potential and really how beautiful we are, and I think when we don’t compare but we spend time focusing on what is great about ourselves, that is really the most nurturing.”

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Toni Reece: Jennifer, thank you so much for your time and attention to the Get Inspired! Project, and before we begin can you please introduce yourself?

Jennifer Butler: Yes.  My name is Jennifer Butler, and I am a coach for people who want to look inspiring and impactful in their lives through the way that they dress.  I’ve been doing my work for over 30 years, so I feel like I’m doing my life’s work and enjoy it every day.  And just love your program because one of my heart virtues — I have three heart virtues — and a heart virtue is kind of looking at what your life is about and what you’re committed to, and so I’m committed to inspiration, essence, and transcended beauty.

Toni: Oh, I love that!

Jennifer: Isn’t it wonderful?

Toni: It is!  Three heart virtues – can you say that again for our readers?  Inspiration … what are the other two?

Jennifer: Inspiration, essence, and transcended beauty.

Toni: Well, fantastic – that leads us beautifully into the very first question which is, Jennifer, in the work that you do, your life’s work that you do, who do you inspire and how do you go about that?

Jennifer: Well, I’ve been doing events in my home for all of these 30 years, and they are what we call a guest event.  And it’s really to inspire women and men to embrace their beauty and to let go of any negative illusions that they have about themselves.  And I teach people about their own authentic beauty so they’re inspired to look like themselves instead of trying to look like someone else.

I think we’re in a culture where every time we open a book it’s about whatever movie star, or it’s always about looking better, but there’s never a focus on how do I look the best to be my own individual.  And so, many years ago, about 30 years ago, I had the privilege of really meeting a woman who brought to the planet the fact that the way that you and I look physically is at one with our divine essence.  I think that was kind of a bold statement and she led her life.  I met her probably in the early 80s and she had been doing this work about 40 years.  Her name was Suzanne Cagill.  Then I became her protégé and the next generation of her work, and then my background is I’ve done a lot of the personal growth trainings, everywhere from the forum to women’s work, and I’m a member of the Agape community.

Toni: I’m sorry, the what community?

Jennifer: The Agape community, Reverend Michael Beckwith.

Toni: Okay.

Jennifer: So, when I open my book, which is called Seven Strategies for Looking Powerful and Impactful and Inspiring, one of the things that you get is a bookmark and it says that “my life getting dressed is a spiritual experience because I believe that my presentation is an extension of my soul.  Here are ten principles that I live by; I invite you to integrate these positive affirmations into your life as well.”  So a lot of them are looking at that we are a unique expression of God on the planet, that when we let go of our negative illusions that we’re free to embrace our natural self.

Toni: When you take this approach with others to inspire them, to look at how to be the best for themselves and look the best for themselves, how do you think that translates into exploring their potential?

Jennifer: Well, I think one of the things that explores our potential is we have to begin with a self-appreciation and self-love, and when I work with someone, I’m working with 4,000 colors.  I’m giving them a personal portrait — we call it their DNA Color Portrait.  And all of these colors, like I am trained – it would take me about 6 hours to paint everything that I’m trying to paint, your skin tone and the lights of your eyes and your hair color — and we call that the sacred triad — the hair, skin, and eyes.  And then all the other colors expand from there so that you finally have a coordinated wardrobe.

Now what happens with that is all of a sudden people see you for yourself; you’re not masquerading as someone else.  You’re not choosing clothing that’s not you anymore.  Now what happens with that is then all of a sudden you change the design of your house to look like you, and the design of your car; so everything around you has this sympathetic resonance, and it’s being congruent and you have this personal integrity, that for me I was looking for.

I thought there’s got to be a way to look that’s going to be nurturing to me and to where I’m going to feel at home with myself, and that’s what this work offers.  So what happens is, when you express the best of yourself to what you wear, then all of a sudden that starts impacting all of the different areas of your life.

Toni: That sounds really fascinating.  When you’re doing this type of work, I would imagine that you have to also stay very inspired yourself, so what do you need to be inspired?  What do you seek for inspiration?

Jennifer: I think because my work came from Mother Nature, that to me is really the key, so I try to spend a lot of time outside.  I’m always looking at flowers.  I go to the museum.  I do lots of yoga and meditation.  So it’s all about calming my system so I can be in the moment and really enjoy what’s around me and really practice unconditional with myself and others, because when you look at someone, usually we’re voting.  Do we like the outfit?  Could we wear it?  And so, when you look at it from the fact that everybody’s beautiful in your own way, all of a sudden I’m seeing, “Wow, that that color really is a reflection of your eyes, and when you wear your eye color you’re reflecting your soul”; and when I’m wearing my skin tone, I’m creating a relationship with other people; and when I wear my shade of red, I’m creating romance and emotional persuasion.  So there’s a whole psychology that has me see that I can be not only inspiring to myself, but to others.

Oftentimes I go out in the world and people will comment and I will say, “Well, today I’m practicing wearing my hair color and can you see that the silver of my skirt matches the silver of my hair?”  And they’ll go “Oh wow, I hadn’t seen that before!”, you know, so it started like creating excitement and realizing that we can do through what we wear not so much … like usually what we wear, we’re wearing to impress people, right, or have this edge.  It’s really none of that, because when you’re focused on your own beauty, you’re celebrating Mother Nature’s creation of you.

So where I go to be inspired is, I would say, first really out into the world in terms of walking and appreciating people’s homes and how they are designed, and great works of art, but not from a comparison way, from that everything is right in its own way.

Toni: Did you have a moment, Jennifer, when you started to really focus on this?  Was it a moment of inspiration for you that led you to focus on your own beauty and then in turn that led into the business on helping others focus on their own beauty?

Jennifer: You know, it’s interesting, I think.  Many years ago I was at Bloomingdale’s, and I was in their executive training program, and I had this woman come up to me.  This would have been around 1969-1970, and she said to me, “I’d like your help.”  And I said “Of course, where would you like to know that things are; I know the store really well.”  And she said “Well no, that’s not really what I want to ask.  I want to know if you can help me develop my personal style?”  And I thought “Whoa – that’s a great question!”  And of course I had to answer that I didn’t know how, but it started me on this inquiry of how do we discover who we are?  And it’s interesting to see that the shape of my face determines my neckline, and the geometry of my facial features determine my accessories.

I didn’t realize that there was this ownership that I could have of myself that had me feel so at home, and then people would acknowledge that.  I think when you look in a way that’s inspiring to people or people notice a difference, they know that you look alive or that you come in and you radiate.  And so what happened is that people would just ask by word of mouth; that’s how my business was created was really word of mouth.

Toni: When you are reaching for tools or methodologies, resources currently to continuously explore your own potential, what do you do?  What do you reach for in order to move and grow that potential of your own discovery?

Jennifer: You know what?  I decided that I’m very visual, so that’s where my expertise is.  This year, believe it or not, I’m learning the computer which is not a comfort zone for me, and also the yoga because I would rather … and I do Curves and I do aerobics … but yoga is again not an area where I feel like I have an expertise.  Like you know, you go and some people move really easily … and what it’s doing is it’s putting me more in touch with my body.  And a person’s body is what I am accessorizing, and so it’s having me train people to actually look at themselves in the mirror.  Most people, when they put an outfit on, don’t really look at themselves.  They look at the outfit and they’re voting whether they like it.

So it’s this wonderful training.  And now I just turned 62 and I just feel like this whole new world has opened up, because I’m really relating the physical design of the body to … it’s almost a study of our physicality that we haven’t taken on before.  Like if I asked you right now, what is the shape of your eyes and your brows and the shape of your face, do you really know that?  I mean, have you even taken a second look at yourself?  We’re just so busy hurrying around we really don’t know how we’re designed.

Toni: Or, if you’re looking in one of the magazines and they are showing pictures of people’s faces saying this is a heart and oval and you’re trying to fit yourself into that picture and you can’t!

Jennifer: The key thing … I did a wardrobe for a client who wanted to start making clothes.  She couldn’t find them and she loves prints, so I went over to her house and she’s done studying with me and she said “Oh, I made all these skirts.”  And of course they were A-line skirts, and she has an inverted triangle so she needed a pencil skirt, which she decided she didn’t like those; she wanted the A-line.  So she came to this boutique at my house — we do a boutique once a year — and I found a skirt which was perfect for her.  And she was so happy because finally she was able to recognize her own body type.

Sometimes we’re the last to discover and know about our human potential and really how beautiful we are.  And I think when we don’t compare but we spend time focusing on what is great about ourselves, that is really the most nurturing.

Toni: And so the tools that you reach for to do that for yourself, which is what is beautiful about you — and you are using yoga and you said going out of your comfort zone a bit by learning the computer – are there other resources that you might look for when you’re exploring your own potential so that you can keep moving forward in this industry of helping others to focus on their own beauty?

Jennifer: I focus a lot on personal growth work.  As I said, I’m a member of Agape, and I have a women’s group, a prayer group, and we do a prayer every Tuesday morning together.  And it’s like looking at what our intention for growth is, really aligning with our higher purpose of being of service, of seeing where we can contribute, so it’s almost like looking at each moment as being in the moment but also this way to inquire further about ourselves.

Toni: And all of that … I can only imagine by doing that for yourself how that translates into what you do for others, and that’s what is so fascinating about how you come at inspiration and how you inspire others to look at their own beauty and to work with that and to focus on what works for them.  I can imagine that that just transfers and pays forward in so many dividends for self-esteem and getting out of their own comfort zone.  So my gos,h that payback is huge, and then to also do that for yourself.

It’s been wonderful to learn about this approach to inspiration from you in this short snapshot of time, and the benefits that you are going to provide to those that are listening and reading this project page.  It’s amazing, and for that I thank you.

Jennifer: Thank you.  I love being in touch with what I call a bigger vision of ourselves.  I think that’s exciting, particularly in terms of the physical beauty.  My last heart virtue I said was transcended beauty, because that really lives in … I think that what you were saying being continually inspired by our own  potential and the potential of other people, and when we focus on that, that’s what we create as opposed to all the different ways that we could look at ourselves that would not be as nurturing.

Toni: It certainly is powerful, isn’t it?

Jennifer: Yes it is, thank you.

Toni: Well thank you so much again for your time, Jennifer, and I hope that we speak again soon.

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For more information about Jennifer Butler:  www.JenniferButlerColor.com

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