How to Romanticize Your Life and Why You Should

With the rise of "main character energy" in the post-pandemic, there's been a lot of buzz over the past few years over the notion of "romanticizing your life." In short, this idea urges you to fall in love with your own existence the same way you might fall in love with another person. A simple Google search yields list upon list of ways you can do this. This content is fun and zesty but ultimately flawed. Approaching your romance with yourself with dos and don'ts is as effective as wooing a crush by giving them a handbook. True romance is spontaneous and melting, not structured and task-oriented. If you're interested in romanticizing your life, there's a simpler way. 

Why Romanticize Your Life? --  The Danger of Apathy

But before I tell you what that danger is, I should tell you why you should be interested in this trendy but valuable concept. Life is threatened by many things: famine, war, poverty, and even the lifestyle diseases associated with overabundance. One threat that flies under the radar is apathy. The stability and security that allows for life to carry on unhindered is a gift, but it has a dark underbelly.

Take this normalcy for granted for too long, and you end up in a slow, steady death of boredom. Life becomes pale and watered down, and you begin to wish away your days, waiting for the next vacation, shopping spree, or whatever it is that will break up the sameness. Before you know it, you're five years older, and then 10. You find the people around you growing old and yourself with them, with little to say about how you all got there. 

Presence Is the Key to Romanticizing Your Life

The antidote to the poison of apathy is to romanticize your life, and there's an easy way to do it: be present. This may seem trite, but genuine presence is a panacea, and it's not just another buzzword I'm throwing at you. To be truly present means being awake to each second, regardless of whether it appears at first glance as exciting or not. It takes practice, of course, but the more time you spend in the here and now, the more you realize that there's not a single thing to be bored by. Magic is flitting around you all of the time in the dust motes caught in the sun, in the wrinkled faces of a stranger on the street, or in the first bite of your lunch.

The moment, when truly invested in, is always riveting, and because of this, it's easy to fall in love with. Practice presence with enough consistency, and—suddenly—you find yourself excited by the mere fact of being alive. That's romanticizing your life, and you didn't need a list to get there.

When you feel your thoughts drifting into the past or future, pause. Take a deep breath and name something you see in front of you, smell, or physically feel. Anchor yourself back in the moment and stay there. If you stick around long enough, you just might fall in love.