If nostalgia is a word we often use to refer to “romanticizing the past,” what do you call romanticizing the future? For the last two years, the phrase “romanticize your life” has emerged on social media as a call to action, rising in popularity during some of the grimmest months of the pandemic. It asked us to appreciate what we have right in front of us and to live with intention, no matter how mundane our daily rituals might be—a reminder to look for moments of beauty and embrace minimalism.
It happens to the best of us: Life can start to feel mundane. Many of us have so many things to do each day that we don’t even notice when it happens. When our day-to-day routine starts feeling like a never-ending chore, it can be all too easy to forget that our lives require our active participation to stay fresh and exciting.
Romanticizing your life means learning what you love, what you desire, what you need and putting all those things into action. It means focusing on your own wants, goals and values. When you let yourself romanticize your future it allows you to embrace changes, learn new things and helps you grow into yourself.
But you can’t romanticize the future without investing in the present. Incorporate plenty of simple pleasures into your daily routine. Your options might be more limited than usual right now when it comes to the ways you usually have fun, but all it takes is a bit of re-organization and some creativity to reimagine how you can still enjoy your days. From a hot bath, a daily coffee, taking the time to read or catch up on your favorite shows or spending a few minutes outside, punctuating your days with little lifts like these will keep your positivity going and remind you in the midst of all this madness that there’s so much joy in the world and so much to still enjoy.
"When you romanticize the future more than the past, you move forward. But when you romanticize the present, you become free." - Brianna Wiest
Why should we romanticize our future?
The better question is, why not?
Why wouldn’t you want to be so in love with just living your life and looking forward to a beautiful future? When you start to romanticize your future, every single step you take becomes one step closer to your dream life.
