Tup:
What you described about buying a dress to "look right" is something I can really relate to, right now! There are a lot of things all rolled up into that experience, and the letting go of it. It probably deserves it's own thread though. I even dreamed about dresses this morning...
I can also relate to the problem of "resistance" that you're going through - the sort of detached, not quite numb, but also not quite engaged - feeling. I think, for me, I've gotten so attached to my "old comfort zone" identity of who I am, that efforts to alter that in conscious ways actually increase that draggy feeling - as if it were a threat to my very existance, you know? A "don't make me do that"!!! feeling that isn't even conscious, most of the time. My brain knows very well, how energizing and freeing it is, to simply jump of that cliff and start changing me, my definition of "comfort zone", and going about my life differently... but the emotional me still wants guarantees that "everything will be alright", that others will still like me, that I'll still like myself and so it's sort of blackmailing me into hesitating, procrastinating, finding infinitely elaborate excuses. I'm sure there's a technical term for that... I just don't know what it is!! So I call it "resistance". The little kid type of resistance; the "I don't wanna"! for no good reason at all.
If I figure out a way to get past this, I'll be sure to share! Let me know, if you find something that works, too.