How to Realistically Romanticize Your Life

Between homework, stress, and trying to find yourself, it feels impossible to enjoy the everyday. 

I used to think that having the perfect routine, or lifestyle would mean I was truly living a romanticized life. This is because of how social media has trained our minds. We pick up the phone and we sit there and scroll. We look at everybody else’s seemingly perfect lives on Instagram. There, we see people who live the life that we want, and it’s so easy to picture ourselves there. However, we rarely see their struggles, it's always the good moments. This is where it starts with us. Because truly romanticizing your life is about appreciating the ordinary. Nevertheless, you don't need a picture-perfect life to enjoy the everyday.The problem? It's not just social media, it's a total of things. Between the heavy stress teens face from school, peers, and comparing yourself to people online we start to feel disconnected. From our examples we see online, It feels as if we are not doing enough and maximizing our time to the fullest. This is also how we hold off on our dreams. We wait for the perfect moment, and it feels like life is always waiting to start. Examples of this disconnected feeling show up in lots of teens. Some say they feel like their days blend together. Social media also makes the ordinary day-to-day life seem boring, there's a pressure to always be doing something productive.

Romanticizing your life can be so simple, it's so insane how we could miss it. Something else that often goes unnoticed is the feeling of music we listen to. When we're sad, we normally tend to gravitate towards sad music, same goes for happiness, and love. Through creating a playlist for each mood, we can reclaim these small moments into something deep and meaningful. 

Creating comfort could also be physical, like decorating your space! The aesthetic pleasure of where we spend our time the most is very important. You can start by changing the lighting, adding more greenery (like plants), and filling it with what you love. Your room doesn’t have to look ideal, it has to look like you. By creating this comfort, we can really turn something mundane into a relaxing, productive setting.

Of course, romanticizing is not purely based on aesthetics. It also involves taking time out of your day to focus on you. Something that really helps with this is restorative yoga. It's meant to help your body while also stressing and letting go of all tension. This kind of yoga is perfect for before bed relaxation, or starting the day's awareness. Personally, practicing restorative yoga has helped me learn to ease tension in certain parts of my body. This is kind of like one big reminder to take a deep breath and not take your stress out on your body. Yoga is a great way to focus on you, and ignore all your worries.

Lastly, a simple, realistic way to romanticize your life is by journaling. On social media, we always see journaling as a great example for wellness, because it is, if practiced correctly. Journaling is an art, it's not something you should hate doing. When journaling we need to bring all awareness to our feelings, and how could we do that if we were too busy thinking about how boring it is. So, my recommendation? Start slowly. I say this because I am also a teenager who struggles with maintaining habits. However, the smaller and slower you start the more likely you are to stick to it. Plus, this is definitely not something you wanna force yourself to do. Journaling is a wellness activity, and if your heart is not in it then there's nothing to gain from it. Moreover, there's always a beautiful thing to gain from journaling, and it's something that truly helps you appreciate little moments better. 

Romanticizing is not about pretending your life is perfect. There will be overwhelming days where you feel like your homework is eating you alive, or you can't quite figure out who you are yet. I'm here to tell you that even though we struggle, we can still turn the small moments into something extraordinary. Whether it's listening to music, journaling, or changing your environment, small changes like these can make the mundane feel more special. In a world, where teens are pressured to do the most they can't, sometimes slowing our pace can be the most helpful thing for our sanity. Sometimes, the best thing you can do is learn to enjoy your life as it is now.