The hot, beating sun shines down onto the grass where I lay with a blanket underneath me. With a book in one hand to keep my mind entertained and orange juice in the other to keep me refreshed, I notice how a gush of wind occurs here and there to naturally cool off the outside environment. As the wind blows, the tops of the grass sway one direction to another.
As I look up to the sky, the sun shines through the edges of a flying bird’s wing, enhancing the details of its feathers. There are no sounds besides the birds chirping and an airplane flying by once in a while. By fully immersing myself in the nature of my backyard, and appreciating the tiny details around me, it is like everything and everyone has disappeared besides me and the characters in my book. My mind and body are at peace as I romanticize life for a couple of hours out of my day.
I joke to my friends about romanticizing life — going to coffee shop and imagining I’m in a rom-com. But all jokes aside, there is an importance to romanticizing life when one can for both mental and physical health.
Romanticizing life can help one find happiness, peace and love within oneself by refocusing how one sees the world. It can involve mundane activities such as getting your regular morning coffee from your favorite coffee shop, sitting in a park to read or even going to the bookstore.
[Related: OPINION: Life is what you make it]
In life, we get so caught up with what is currently affecting us and what could affect us in the future. Our minds are usually full with thoughts of what we have to accomplish that day or that week, whether it’s errands or work. Unless one makes time in their day to slow down and find joy in something, one usually doesn’t. But why put the stress of making time in the day to find peace and joy when we can do it just through our regular daily routine?
There are some that joke about how unrealistic the happiness involved in a rom-com is or for life just to work out. Why does one make fun of a happy ending in film? Is it because they believe it does not exist? Is it because they are unhappy and can’t seem to find happiness?
Whatever it may be, we are in control of our thoughts and emotions, even if we can’t be in control of what may happen around us at times. Our minds are more powerful than some realize. Not only does it regulate our body functions, but it controls how we feel. If one’s mindset is negative, then one will find most things that happen in their lives to be negative.
Eleanor Roosevelt said, “Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift. That is why it is called the present.” When most of us are gifted with a present, we get excited by the gift itself or by knowing someone thought of us, so why not have that excitement for the gift of the present day?
[Related: COLUMN: Every book has a purpose]
Death, loss, crime and failure will always be a part of life. Where there is good, there is bad, but we have a choice of what we mentally consume and focus our minds on. If we just refocus our minds and see the gifts that are naturally around us, then the same joy we get when someone thinks of us will be there by this little act of romanticizing life.
Natalie Fitzgibbons (she/her) is a junior standing studying journalism with a minor in American Studies.
