You’ve probably heard of the trend ‘romanticising’. The young folks on TikTok like to romanticise mundane tasks or activities to make them seem more attractive and fulfilling.
Like the morning commute, or a lunch time walk, or going to the post office. You can ‘romanticise’ the activity by grabbing a coffee beforehand, playing a great podcast, and making it a more positive experience.
Will romanticising everything make my life better? Or am I being delusional?
Delulu
Another TikTok trend at the moment is the art of being delusional or ‘delulu’ as the kids are calling it.
Being ‘delulu’ can go one of two ways. You go out of your comfort zone to get something and either it happens or it doesn’t.
‘Me being delulu and asking for a promotion and actually getting it.’ Or ‘me being delulu and applying for a credit card and being rejected.’
On one hand it’s almost a good thing. It’s making us (especially girls) go for things we think are out of reach while brushing it off as being ‘delulu.’ Giving ourselves rationale for doing it (even if we are qualified enough to do it).
Think of going for a job a level above what you’re currently doing. It’s been proven that men will easily apply for a higher position whereas girls don’t feel like they are qualified to do so. But putting that ‘delulu’ hat on and going for it, is actually working for a lot of people.
If this is how we’re going to move forward for a while, then let’s keep being delulu.
Making light of the big things
However, there is also a bad connotation to the art of being ‘delulu’ all the time. Some of these things are normal and justified, yet we’re calling ourselves delusional for even thinking we can try.
We’re laughing at ourselves and encouraging others to laugh at us for thinking we can do something/attempt something that’s outside of our remit.
If you want to go for something, don’t make light of it. Do it with full force and confidence and know that you deserve it and that you’re not being delusional for thinking you can do it.
Am I lying to myself?
If we go back to romanticising things, I often wonder if I’m just kidding myself by pretending the things I’m doing are nicer than they actually are.
I’m sat in a coffee shop in London writing this, and I can take a nice picture and post it to my Instagram and romanticise the nice coffee I’m having, and the nice setting that I’m in. But if I’m being honest with myself, I’d much rather be in a coffee shop in New York or in Europe.
Even though it’s my day off, I’m thinking about all the work I have coming up as we start into the busiest period of the year and there’s nothing very romantic about that situation.
I could romanticise my evening walk, but walking along the brown water of the Thames isn’t the prettiest thing in the world. And neither is the pollution I’m breathing into my lungs on a daily basis.
Is there joy to be found in the mundane?
There are of course small bursts of joy to be found in our everyday lives. In fact, my favourite thing to do at the moment is to curl up on the sofa in the evening with my boyfriend and watch our favourite TV shows with a candle burning.
For me, that’s pure bliss and I can romanticise the life out of that.
But the everyday life stuff from morning to the evening is what I’m finding hard to romanticise. I could try my best to romanticise a Sunday walking around Shoreditch hopping into vintage stores and bookshops. But with every passing day, I’m falling out of love with London more and more.
The only things making London bearable at the moment are my best friends, social life and of course my boyfriend. And knowing that the end is in sight for my time in London.
Is it going to make me feel good in the long term?
Romanticising the small things allows for a short term feeling of satisfaction. And romanticising small things every day can lead to a long term feeling of joy.
But can I consistently romanticise my life to make the mundane things more appealing? Will I always find my morning commute romantic? Can I afford to buy a coffee each morning to make it so?
There’s nothing quite romantic about everyday life. There will be hard times and there will be things in life that we won’t want to do, but that we’ll have to.
Life won’t always be a series of romantic events, but if you can make things a little more pleasant and enjoyable from time to time, I don’t see the harm in doing so.
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