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In the hustle of our daily routines, we often find ourselves yearning for a touch of magic that can turn the mundane into the extraordinary. This is where the enchanting concept of romanticizing your life comes into play, and why we find it so fascinating.
IMO, creating a sense of whimsical allure in your daily routine is one of the best ways to elevate an otherwise ordinary existence. I make a conscious effort to put these things I talk about into practice as often as I can each day. In this blog post, I will be talking about 7 of the best ways I have found to romanticize your everyday life.
📍New York City, NY
One of my goals for this year was to become a better storyteller on this website. When you romanticize your life, you put yourself in that “main character” frame of mind (because after all, you’re the main character of your own life!).
If you want to elevate your story, strive for authenticity, and let your passion guide your narrative, you’ve come to the right place. I’m so excited for you to read about the 7 best ways I’ve found to romanticize your life here!
I believe that romanticizing your life goes hand-in-hand with self-confidence and fulfillment, so I’ll be talking about both things in this blog post. Viewing my days from a romantic lens has allowed me to change my life in ways I never thought possible. Ready to change yours too? Let’s go do some main character sh*t 😉
But First…What Does It Mean to Romanticize Your Life?
To put it simply, romanticizing your life means finding the joy and beauty in the everyday things you do. It is done through practicing mindfulness, acknowledging life’s simple moments, and appreciating the “little things.”
Romanticizing your life means stepping outside on a spring morning and noticing the brightness of the trees and the warmth of the sun. It means enjoying the smell of the breakfast you cooked or noticing how you feel when your favorite song comes on.
However, I like to take it a step further and say that romanticizing your life means learning to idealize and/or glamorize certain aspects of your life while downplaying or ignoring the less glamorous realities. It involves embracing ordinary moments with a sense of mystery, nostalgia, or fantasy to make them seem more extraordinary than they really are. I’ve learned do this by seeing ordinary things through a more whimsical lens while emphasizing emotions, aesthetics, and idealized experiences.
Again…it’s the Main Character Sh*t for me 😉
7 Ways to Romanticize Your Life
Jump to Section
- Create a “Soundtrack” for Your Life (and Always Have it Playing)
- Take Yourself on Dates
- Elevate the Everyday Things You Do That You Already Love
- Find Your Personal Aesthetic and Own It
- Look Good (for YOU)
- Manifest the Life You Want
- Travel As Much As You Possibly Can
📍 New York City, NY
1. Create A “Soundtrack” for Your Life (and Always Have it Playing)
You know how every movie has a soundtrack? You know how the songs in the soundtrack elevate whatever scenes they’re being played in? The same goes for your everyday life.
I have a Spotify playlist of songs that I would imagine would be playing if my life was a movie scene. I play it while I’m doing laundry, while I’m cooking dinner, riding in my car, etc. Call me crazy, but adding music to my everyday routine really puts me in a “you never know what’s about to happen” mindset. After all…aren’t surprises one of the most romantic things about life?
My playlist has a mix of slower, chill R&B and slightly more upbeat, dancey R&B. Many of the songs are in a minor key and sound more soulful and mysterious. Whatever speaks to you, create the soundtrack that you want and use it to put you in that romanticizing mindset.
📍 New York City, NY
2. Take Yourself on Dates
Many people assume that being alone somewhere means you’re lonely. I couldn’t agree less.
Taking myself on “dates” is one of my favorite activities. I love to find a place with an appealing aesthetic and have a night to myself. I have found the most gorgeous, seductively-decorated bars, cute, rustic-chic cafes, and flowery, feminine restaurants to sit in and be present with myself and my own thoughts. My solo date nights are where a lot of my best creative ideas hit me – in fact, I wrote the outline for this entire blog post on a solo date night!
I’ve come to the realization I need night out to myself once a week. If you’re single, this is your opportunity. You never know what can happen or who you might meet or who will sit at the bar next to you (and trust me, I speak from experience!). Some of the most romanticized moments in my life have started out this way.
If you’re not single, I still encourage you to take time for yourself and go out on your own. Being alone helps you relax and recharge so you can be more mindfully present in your everyday life.
- To view some of my favorite bars, restaurants, and coffee shops from around the world with gorgeous interiors AND amazing food & drink, check out my page: The Aesthetics: Restaurants, Bars, & Coffee Shops
♥️ Solo Date Nights ♥️
Some Personal Nostalgia
When I travel alone, I often sit at the bar and meet so many people this way. Some are locals, others are on a mother/daughter trip, and others have even turned into date nights that have gone to the wee hours of the morning.
Sitting at the bar in a new city or foreign country is one of my favorite ways to romanticize my life. Most bars are intricately decorated and have a certain aesthetic that puts you in an “anything can happen” mindset.
One of my favorite date nights was when I went to a bar/restaurant in New York City and met their head bartender. A simple “just-gonna-have-one-drink” turned into him taking me to one of the city’s most elite bars, an underground speakeasy, and an Italian restaurant that I will forever recommend to everyone who will be near Times Square.
On your solo date nights, I encourage you to always be safe but also seize the moment when a good one presents itself. I have had countless drinks at the bar by myself that turned into some of the best nights of my life. 🖤
3. Elevate the Everyday Things You Do That You Already Love
This glass of wine I’m drinking? Best I’ve ever had. The walk I take every morning? It’s the perfect thing to cleanse my soul. Really paying attention to the things you love and being present in the moment are two of the best ways to romanticize your life.
When you make yourself a cup of coffee in the morning, notice everything about it. The way it smells, the way the first sip tastes, the way it makes you happy. Taking the time to notice the little details AND how they make you feel helps you to more deeply appreciate things that you already love in your life.
Treat yourself for no reason other than you deserve it. Want the best for yourself. I have no shame in telling you that I deny myself absolutely nothing (within reason, of course).
Notice what brings you joy and find ways to deepen it. If you love your morning cup of coffee and you also love reading, spend your Sunday morning curled up in a blanket with a soft light, a Nespresso and your favorite book. When you pay attention to the little things, your life will naturally start to feel more romantic.
📍 New York City, NY
4. Find Your Personal Aesthetic…and Own It
I love dressing up. Heels, skirts, dresses, sparkles, my favorite Chanel perfume, smoky eyeshadow, curly hair…the works.
More often than not, dressing up for me is a production…and I would have it no other way. I do it because I love it and it puts me in my element. It makes me feel like I’m being my true self. I can radiate positive energy, confidence, and good vibes out into the world without even trying.
Finding your own aesthetic is one of the most powerful things you can do as a woman. I have always held the belief that someone’s true personal aesthetic is essentially a visual representation of who they are. When you portray your authentic image out into the world, you are naturally able to romanticize your life because of the confidence that this gives you.
- Pro Tip: I think one of the easiest ways to begin finding your aesthetic is to create a signature “thing” about your look – think Taylor Swift and her red lipstick. For me, one of my favorite signature looks is to throw on one of my Gigi Pip hats that I wear in a lot of my Instagram photos.
📍Pittsburgh, PA
5. Look Good (for YOU)
Let me re-iterate from the last section: I love dressing up.
But let me be SO clear: when I dress up, I do it for me. (And even when I’m in a committed relationship, I still ultimately dress up for me. My man just happens to reap the benefits.)
I think it is so important to dress up FOR YOU, to work out FOR YOU, to look good FOR YOU, etc. **claps hands**
I know this echos the last section I wrote about, but it bears repeating.
Throughout your life, you will have a lot of people try and influence you to do certain things or look a certain way. In the pursuit of self-fulfillment, remember that your happiness is the ultimate measure of success. Society’s standards may change with the seasons, but the satisfaction you derive from embracing your true self is timeless.
Always remember that you are your only competition and the only person you have to please. You are able to more easily romanticize your life when you are being your true authentic self, AND when you look and feel good about yourself.
📍 Paris, France
6. Manifest the Life You Want
There is nothing more internally romantic than pursuing the life you want, and the best way to do that is by hard work and manifestation.
When I was working to become a travel blogger, I made up my mind that I was going to tell people that was my job, even though it paid absolutely zero of my bills. Of course, I could really only do this when I went on vacation or out of town where no one knew me. But I treated my life as though travel blogging was my actual career. In fact, I lived for those moments.
Then, something strange happened. The amount of people that I met in my life who just seemed like they were put there by God to help me become who I wanted to be was insane.
I met a lady at a spa who gave me the names of all these people to follow on social media who I could learn from. I met locals who gave me inside tips for things I could blog about while in their cities. I met people who started their own businesses from complete poverty and were now millionaires (and therefore, nothing short of inspirational!).
📍 New York City, NY
I truly believe that you get to choose who you want to be in this life. You get to choose the legacy you leave behind, and the impact you have on other people. The journey within manifesting your life is often the best part, because it becomes your story that you are able to romanticize however you like.
Lastly – please know that when it comes to manifestation, I am delusional AF. The life I want is already mine, and I’m telling you that your dream life is already yours too.
7. And Finally…Travel as Much as You Possibly Can
We all knew this one was coming….
Traveling is one of the best ways to romanticize your life. It changes you in the best way and puts you in that “my life is a movie” frame of mind.
My favorite way to romanticize my life via traveling is by taking a solo trip. As a solo traveler, you become the author of your own journey, allowing spontaneity to transform into tales of self-discovery. Roaming through ancient streets, savoring exotic new foods, and connecting with different people all add up to creating the best life story.
Solo travel became an addiction for me when I felt how strongly I could romanticize my life by doing it. I felt fearless and free, curious and powerful. When I travel alone, I feel like my life is completely mine. Moreso than that, I realized that each destination became a chapter in my own personal romance novel.
📍New York City
