How I Plan To Romanticize My Life Before Summer Ends..

Hello everyone and welcome back to my blog. If you are new here, welcome! Today’s topic is on romanticizing your life. It’s summer down here in the southern hemisphere and in South Africa , we are currently experiencing one of the worst heat waves in a long time. Despite this, I believe summer is a better season than winter, people are just happier and more outgoing during summer.

Here is my short to-do list before this season starts fading away, hopefully you find inspiration or insight.

1. Start My Day with Lemon / Rosemary/ Cucumber Water

I want to do all this before summer ends because it is quite hard to drink 2 litres of water daily during winter unless you are taking warm water. Another thing is our doctors tell us drinking water is good for our health, but they don’t mention how mundane it is to stick to drinking 2 litres of water daily. I have come up with an idea on how to trick my brain to achieve this. I will squeeze a bit of lemon or throw in a slice of cucumber or a few chops of fresh rosemary into my water. This will inject some excitement into my morning routine because of all these three choices. On Monday I can go with rosemary, on Thursday lemon and Sunday cucumber! Next week I will switch it up again! That way my brain gets excited to drink water every day.

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2. Curated Playlists

My “Romanticize Your Morning “playlist on Spotify currently has 15 songs. The concept behind it was “Your life is a Netflix romcom movie and you are the main character”. I tried my best to capture songs that reflect this concept. For the rest of the summer season, I will avoid opening social media immediately after waking up. Instead, I will open my playlist and watch the sun rise while playing my collection of songs. Sun rise in summer is underrated because winter has very gloomy starts to the day. I will appreciate the bright sunny starts to my days while the opportunity is there. I know a lot of people would roll their eyes at this but life is already boring anyway. I would rather live in color than despair. Playing songs in the morning might just be the little boost you need before you start your day.

3. Watch Sunsets

This is something that I always talk about on my socials. Watching sunsets is a great way to romanticize your life but it is also a great way to enjoy the summer. Sunsets are at their peak during this time, you get to appreciate the beauty of nature. This, in my own opinion, helps you stay connected to your spirituality because you recognize that there are forces at work that are higher and greater than you. Your problems might be big but there are bigger forces. I have always thought this was a humbling experience. It keeps you grounded and sane. So, sunsets are on my to-do list for romanticizing my life this summer.

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4. Ice Cream Dates

If you follow my Twitter you would know I live a low processed sugar lifestyle. I do not believe it is sustainable to be “sugar free” and occasionally I love me a good cone of vanilla or chocolate ice cream. I think I had ice cream about 4-5 times last year and loved every moment of it. Sugar free advocates would probably crucify me but there is romance in ice cream dates that I can’t seem to explain. Maybe this is a borrowed concept I get from romance movies, but I genuinely believe there is romance in ice cream dates whether with friends or your partner. Besides that, it’s a great way to cool down from all the heat. It’s flaming hot down here, and I would kill (figuratively speaking) to go on an ice cream dates.

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5. Evening Swims

There are two pools that are 2 mins away that I have unlimited access to, but I have never used them since around 2019. For the past three summers I have procrastinated, and each summer has passed without me taking a swim. While the weather is hot, I will start taking swims in the evenings after 6pm just for the romance and poetry. Also, just to appreciate things I have taken for granted. As I have mentioned earlier, I spent 3 summers without utilizing pools that were easily accessible and romanticizing my life means appreciating the things around me that I take for granted which can help in creating a happier routine and quality of life. Therefore, for the rest of the summer season I will take evening swims.

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6. Daily Reflective Journaling

My journaling habits have fallen off over the past few months. I suspect it’s because of blogging which is a form of digital journaling by the way. Despite this, I want to go back to more intimate journaling and I will try to use the classic “ Dear Diary, today I…….” prompt. Have you noticed that when it is used in movie storylines the character is usually self-aware and mindful? I want to borrow this concept in real life. Also, there is romance in journaling your summer memories. One day you are going to read them and appreciate the romance in writing down your memories because you realized that memory is fallible and you captured everything in the moment before it slipped your mind.

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7. Writing Poetry

While the sun is out and shining, I will use it as a muse for my poetry. Last year, I wrote two poems inspired by sunsets in my favorite cities. I think I want to channel that energy again this year and use the sun as my muse. Beyond sunsets, I want to observe everything around me, the people, the trees, the sky, etc and find poetic inspiration. There is romance in being rooted in the moment and soaking in everything around you. Therefore, I will use the sun and summertime as my muse. I will use this to write more poetry before the summer ends.

My Final Thoughts

Romanticizing your life sounds like superficial advice. People who do it are viewed as delusionally optimist or seeking an escape. My view is that it is a better “escape” than a lot of things normalized in society like drugs, alcohol and clubbing every Friday night. I would argue that it is a healthy coping mechanism even though people are cynical about it. Another important point is sometimes it does not offer instant gratification especially if you are new to the concept. It takes being intentional about doing it to start realizing the mental health benefits in the long run. Also, it is not a fool-proof way of “ attaining happiness” but it will keep you somewhat excited about life because there is a lot to complain about life. I will end my rant-like conclusion here. Thanks for reading and see you soon!