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If you're on TikTok, then you've definitely heard the audio which says 'You have to start romantacising your life. You have to start thinking of yourself as the main character because if you don’t, life will continue to pass you by and all of the little things that make it so beautiful will go unnoticed. So take a second, and look around, and realise that it’s a blessing for you to be here right now.' It was one of the first audios I used when I first started making TikToks, (I'm dancinginasnowglobe, if you're interested!), and I loved it, because it's so true, but it wasn't until recently that I started thinking about what that actually means. How do you romantacise your life?
As I do with most things, I did some digging on Google, and I found that it's about realising that your life is beautiful, and special, right now. We've all done it. We've treated moments of our life as transitionary periods - maybe we said something like 'I'll be happier when I get a new job, or when I move out, or when I can finally leave school'. All of these statements pull us away from recognising how beautiful our life already is right at the exact moment that we're wishing it all away. It's about falling in love with being alive. Sounds lovely, right?
I totally get why you might read that and think 'okay but we've been in a pandemic for almost a year now, I've barely even been outside. What do I have to romantacise?' I get that, too. This post is not going to be telling you about how perfect my life is, because it's not. Sometimes it is genuinely really hard to make it out of bed before noon during lockdown, but I'm trying. If I've learnt anything, it's that thinking about how awful things are only makes me feel worse. So it makes sense that thinking about how wonderful it is instead, would make me, and you, feel better, and it does.
With all of that said, here are some simple things I've done to romantacise my life:
I notice the small things that make me happy, and I'm grateful for them. I've kept a weekly grateful diary for over 3 years now, so I'm pretty predispositioned to seeing the positive side of life, but even so, romanticising my life is a bit of a step up from this. I now find joy in choosing which outfit I'm going to wear in the morning, even though I'm just sat at home every day barring our daily walk or grocery run, I'm finding getting dressed and putting on my make up makes me feel happier. I make hot chocolates as soon as I wake up, and meals that we love, and appreciate that due to lockdown, we can spend a bit more time waking up and starting the day. I know that every day can feel the same at the moment, especially as we're both unemployed, but I know we're going to miss moments like this when we're both working again. There's nothing wrong with being in an in-between stage of life, and we don't have to wish it away to rush towards the next part.
Speaking of our daily walks, we recently ventured out on a slightly longer walk along our local riverside. We saw the swans and Canada geese, took photos during golden hour, (the most romantic time of the day in my opinion), held hands on the bridge and just watched the world go by. It was one of the best days, and it didn't cost us anything at all. Simply venturing out into nature and looking at how beautiful the world still is, is all it took. I've actually heard that taking photos of absolutely anything that you find beautiful is one of the best ways to start being grateful if you're trying to develop that habit. I recently bought softbox lights so that I can shoot at-home photography/tik toks of my calligraphy for my store, which I have been doing, but it has also been so much fun to just have at-home photoshoots. 10/10 recommend.
After our walk, I treated myself to a pamper evening - the kind where you use your favourite, sweetest smelling shower gels, wash your hair, put a face mask on while you're waiting to wash off your hair mask, and then smother yourself in a rose gold glittery body lotion, light all the candles and paint your nails. I'll write about my self-care routine in more detail in another post soon, but for now, I'll just say - I had the best time, and ended the evening feeling absolutely brand new.
While we're speaking about sweetly scented candles and body gels, I've also been wearing perfume while I'm just chilling and sitting around the house, and that's made me feel much happier, too. I recently bought my wedding day perfume so I've been excitedly wearing that some days!
I've been doing a calligraphy challenge where I letter something every day in January, just for me, not for my store or anything, but just to practise, and to enjoy my hobby. I started lettering because I loved it, and I still do, so it's important to do so just for myself, sometimes. I've been experimenting with little drawings to go along with the prompts, and using glittery watercolour paints, too. I've loved waking up every day and knowing I'm going to spend some time doing something fun that is just for myself.
I've mentioned this before during the first lockdown, but cooking has become so much fun again because we have the time to properly spend time on it, again. This week, we've made a selection of gorgeous meals including lamb moussaka, spicy salmon pasta, beef enchiladas, chicken stir fry, and even a delectable chicken dipper sandwich for breakfast one morning. Cooking meals which I love, and truly fuel my body, is one of my favourite ways to romantacise my life.
More ideas:
Give everyone you see a compliment (this one is in line with my 2021 daily act of kindness habit, so I love it!)
Donate and volunteer
Start a garden
Try yoga or meditation
Bake bread, or cookies (or a cookies and cream cake!)
Make a new playlist (sometimes we use our Spotify Duo to help us create a playlist which we just keep adding to, and dance around to it for the day - it's the best!)
Ralph Waldo Emerson once said 'Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year', and I truly want to live by that, now. Join me? Let me know how in the comments.
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