How to Romanticize Your Life (Bookish Edition)
Guest post by Jacklyn Walters
This morning I got to thinking about the concept of infinity.
Outside of religion or the afterlife or reincarnation or the universe, I was really pondering what the best possible “forever” looks like. Then it hit me.
What if the way we spend our lives right now is the way we spend infinity, too?
When it comes down to it, am I happy with how I’m spending my day to day? Of course there are the confines of responsibilities and maintaining a home and having a family to take care of. But ultimately, am I living in a way I’m happy with? In a way I’m proud of?
Okay sorry I know that’s kind of deep for a blog. But hear me out!
If you’re lucky, you get about 85 years on this Earth. Give or take a few years, we’re talking roughly 30,000 days. I don’t know about you, but that does not seem like very many. And I know I’m going to have some bad days so let’s subtract maybe 5,000 days off the top. I want my remaining 25,000 (or however many of those are ahead of me and not already in the past) to be really good.
Needless to say, I’ve been considering all the ways I can romanticize my life.
So I’ve compiled a list of 20 ways you can romanticize your life, too, inspired by my favorite places, my favorite activities, and, of course, my favorite books.
Most are free. Some are very expensive. But all are meant to get your gears going and remind you how beautiful life is.
1. Pick Up an Actual Book
Put down your e-readers and audiobooks. It’s time to feel something real.
Like, feel actual paper with your hands.
If you don’t have anything good on your shelves at home, might I suggest…
2. Take a Trip to the Library
Put on your librariest outfit, go to the bakery for a little sweet treat, and find the coziest corner of your local library.
There’s just something about tortoise frames and a tote bag that makes me feel whole.
It’s giving Hermione. It’s giving Nesta. It’s giving someone who cares about their life and isn’t afraid to show it.
3. Make a Cuppa
Whether coffee, tea, or any myriad of little drinks, pick your poison and make it.
But really make it.
Grind the beans or select the leaves. Use a french press or teapot to steep. Sit in the kitchen and watch the ways the sun rays meet your floorboards, or the way the rain falls down your windowpane. Notice how the wind rustles the trees, and remember those leaves would be swaying whether you were watching or not.
Put your brew in a really pretty mug. Breathe in its fruity or nutty or woody aroma. Sip slowly. Enjoy.
4. Prioritize a Reading Nook
This one might be a longer-term project, but the planning is the romantic bit, too.
About a year ago, my hellish roommate moved out and I turned his closet into a reading room.
It is the home of my fiction and fantasy novels, my board games, a comfy chair, and a lamp that doubles as a candle warmer.
This reading nook was five years in the making. It still is not finished. But it is a place I can escape to. It’s a corner of my apartment that used to be full of rage and now is only full of peace and calm and the best (fictional) people I know.
5. Travel With Your Friends
Another option for the five-year plan, travel is possibly the most romantic thing you can do. “Far-off places” are just Step 1 in Belle’s 4-Step Plan to a Grand Storybook Adventure.
Every step in the process is worth a spot on your mood board. Choosing a place, finding your stay, booking flights or, better yet, packing up the car for a road trip. You make the playlist, your friend will grab the coffee.
See the world. See your friends. See yourself.
6. Make Art
Not for a purpose. Not for a crowd. Just for you.
Make music, go to a pottery studio, paint, scrapbook, collage. Do something with your hands.
You don’t have to be good at it. In fact, it’s better if you aren’t.
7. Go Outside
Savanna Sachdev recently said she never trusts negative thoughts she has when she’s indoors.
You’ll find that a lot of your little problems—the mean tricks your brain likes to play—disappear in the presence of nature.
The beach, the woods, the park, your backyard, the dirt road behind the farm across the street.
Find a place you can put your feet on the Earth. Read: not pavement, unless absolutely necessary.
8. Curate a Really Specific Playlist for a Walk or Commute
Make life feel like a movie with a proper soundtrack.
Planes, trains, automobiles, bike rides, and foot races all need good tunes. Even if you only listen to the playlist once, it’s worth every second.
9. Go to a Botanic Garden or Local Plant Shop
Give each plant a name. Find out what their actual names are. Notice the little bugs that thrive off their nutrients.
Take something home and learn how to water and care for it. Or, if you’re a serial plant killer, maybe stick with watching from a distance.
10. Host a Slumber Party
11. Watch a Movie Made Before 2000
Nostalgia, baby!
It feels good. It feels like corded phones and dial-up and CDs.
My recommendations include “Pretty Woman,” “Practical Magic,” and “Thelma & Louise” (but anything with Julia, Sandra, or Susan will do).
12. Go Get Ice Cream at Night and Look at the Stars
Grab your friend or sibling or pet. Order a chocolate vanilla twist with rainbow sprinkles. Talk about nothing and everything and think about how small you are and how cool it is that we’re made of the same stuff as everything in the galaxy.
Best done on a picnic table in my opinion.
13. Have an At-Home Spa Day
Do all the self-care things you’ve been putting off, and make it cute.
Do your nails. Wear a face mask. Pluck your eyebrows. Wax your lip. (Hey, not everything about a spa day is glamorous, okay?)
Look as ridiculous as possible. Then feel like a whole new person when you’re done.
You don’t have to go all out and spend $500 at Lush. But if you do, I’ll be waiting for my invite.
14. Ask Your Friends What They’re Grateful For Today
Think about what you’re grateful for, too.
15. Bake
Make it something nice and something not good for you and let it be exclusively a source of joy. Smell the vanilla filling up your house. Make a little bit of a mess, who cares?
One of my long-distance friends and I have virtual baking dates. 10/10 recommend for spending quality time with people you don’t get to see every day.
16. Go to a Museum
Lots of places have free museums. Find one close to you and make a morning of it.
Appreciate the art or make fun of it, either way it’s beautiful.
17. Write a Letter
A real one.
And go to the post office. I love the post office. Right now they have Barbie stamps so, you know, run, don’t walk.
18. Rearrange Your Room
Try something new. Get rid of the junk you don’t actually want but never have a reason to get rid of.
Then, if you’re like me, put everything back where it was before.
19. Clean Your House
Unpopular opinion, I know.
But there’s nothing more romantic than being taken care of. So take care of yourself. And I have a great love song playlist that’s perfect for cleaning, if you need.
20. Spend Your Morning Without Screens
I mean no screens. No checking your phone when you wake up, not even to see the time. No watching TV. No computer.
Drink water, make breakfast, journal, stretch, read. Pick one day a week and make the first two hours entirely screen free.
The secret to each of these is simple: go outside, be in your body, take care of your space, do it with intention.
However you choose to spend your day, whether it be your one sacred day off or your daily ritual, it shouldn’t just be what everyone else is doing on the internet. It should be things you like or want to try or that push you toward your goals.
My best advice to romanticize your life is to focus on the analog.
Because if this is really how we’re spending forever, we should spend more of it here. Like, really here.
Connect with yourself. Connect with others. Connect with nature. You’ll feel really good if you do.
Guest post by Jacklyn Walters
Jacklyn Walters spends more time in the imaginary than the real world, and she wouldn’t have it any other way.
Like Belle, Jacklyn prefers to live “with a dreamy far-off look, and her nose stuck in a book.” She has always found escape in reading. Ironic, since the books she read as a teen were primarily dystopian novels. But they lit up something in her. They showed her that being a strong-willed woman doesn’t mean you’re difficult, it means you’re going to save the world.
Now her passions lie in creating and making sure others can tell their stories, too.
When she isn’t working on marketing campaigns, Jacklyn can be found exploring local parks, planning grand adventures, laughing with friends, and, of course, reading.
