Because Avoiding Your Life Isn’t the Same as Living It
Let’s be real:
It’s easy to scroll on TikTok with an oat milk latte, calling it “self-care” while ignoring your laundry pile that’s now a domestic art installation. It’s easy to light a candle, throw on a face mask, and binge a show while that conversation you’ve been dreading with your sister, your mom, your own damn self, simmers like a slow-boil you refuse to turn down.
We’ve learned how to “romanticize” our weekends to escape them, but what if we learned to romanticize them while still facing our life?
Yeah, I know. Gross. Responsibility and romance in the same sentence? Stay with me.
What Romanticizing Without Avoidance Actually Looks Like
You don’t need Paris or a perfectly aesthetic matcha.
You need presence.
Go for a walk. Not to close your rings, not to beat yourself up for not running, but to actually notice the damn breeze.
Make a brunch. Not so you can post it, but so you can taste it.
Write that letter or send that text you’ve been putting off. Then go sit in the sun.
Here’s the secret: The mess doesn’t disappear when you romanticize your life, but you stop fearing it so much when you realize you can live alongside it.
Stop Using “Self-Care” to Dodge Your Life
Look, I love a good “romanticize your life” Pinterest board as much as the next tired adult, but let’s call it what it is:
Sometimes we’re using “romanticizing” to procrastinate everything that needs our attention.
Romanticizing your weekend without avoidance means:
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You finally put away that bag of clothes in your trunk you’ve been meaning to donate.
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You wash your sheets because sleeping in crisp linens is romantic.
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You meal prep something you’ll actually eat so Monday isn’t a war zone.
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You do one thing you’ve been avoiding and then go buy yourself a coffee for doing it.
That’s the vibe. That’s the grown and sexy romantic era you deserve.
Your Weekend Can Be Beautiful and Honest
You don’t need to earn your rest, but you also don’t need to hide from your life.
Put on a playlist that makes you feel like a main character, but also take out the trash. Sit on your porch with iced tea, but also open that bill and sort it out. Dance in your living room, but also journal about why you’re avoiding that conversation.
Romanticizing is not about ignoring your reality. It’s about softening it, coloring it, reclaiming it.
A Tiny Weekend Challenge for You
This weekend, do one thing you’ve been avoiding. Just one. Pair it with something romantic:
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Fold your laundry while playing your “90s R&B” playlist(If you're my age, haha!).
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Pay that bill and then treat yourself to a sweet dessert.
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Text your friend back and then light your favorite candle.
Watch how you feel lighter, more alive, more in your life instead of running from it.
Romanticizing your life isn’t about pretending your problems don’t exist under your lavender eye mask. It’s about learning to live beautifully in the middle of your mess, your healing, your becoming.
Because you, my dear, deserve a soft weekend. But you also deserve a life you don’t have to hide from.
