Things I'm Romanticizing Right Now

After fully spiraling last week, I’m back with a reset episode on something that’s been helping me lately: romanticizing the small things.

From solo time and coffee walks to beach sunsets (no man required), easy friendships, and even the random little joys, I’ve been leaning into anything that makes life feel a bit softer right now.

I’m also trying to romanticize the unknown. I don’t know exactly where life is headed, but I’m choosing to see the possibility in that instead of fear.

A short, grounding episode for anyone else who feels a little all over the place lately.

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Editing by Julie Bishop

Cover Artwork by Angelina Richeson

Transcript

Intro

Romanticizing The Small Things

Solo Time

Small Activities

Romanticizing Friendships

Romanticizing the Silly Things

Romanticizing Your Unknown Future

SPEAKER_00 0:00

And that's just like a whole a whole production in itself, in my head at least. It doesn't seem like it, because it can be an easy, quick thing. But in my head, it's a whole production, it's a whole movie, and I am the main character in the movie. And this is my scene. And that's just kind of how I walk around sometimes. Welcome to Casually Spiraling with me, Julie Bishop, just a tall girl in this world trying to make sense of life, dating, money, relationships, identity, culture, you know, all the things. I've learned that my thoughts don't always land with the people around me. So I'm here to break it all down, talk it out, probably over share, and maybe find some who don't think I'm totally crazy after all. Hi! Welcome back everyone. If you are watching the video version, you may be seeing that I am in pajamas. I got my French braids. And you're like, Julie, Julie, are you vibing? What are you doing? Are you chilling and you go to bed after this? Um, no, actually, tonight is the 20th anniversary of the Hannah Montana special, and my friend Emily, who you guys met in the first guest episode, is having some girlies over, and it's summer party themed, and we're gonna watch it bedazzle, maybe, drink a little wine, and that's where I'm headed to next. So I'm in a good mood. I'm in a good mood. I'm setting the scene for the early aughts, the early aughts where our bedrooms were lime green or purple or neon pink or whatever. Early aughts, Hannah Montana cover color, and there's posters from floor to ceiling, at least in my bedroom. I had a lava lamp, I had all my CDs stacked up, I had a karaoke machine and a microphone. I was always singing my heart out to Hannah Montana as if no one could hear me in that bedroom, even though I was loud as fuck and everyone could. And my parents were probably like, shut the fuck up. But that's just the vibes. That's the vibes tonight. We're taking it back. I'm so excited. It's gonna be so much fun. And yeah, that little girl rocking out in her bedroom trying to be Hannah Montana, and look at all of us now. I feel like everyone was kind of in the same boat. Um, but very nostalgic tonight, and I'm so excited for that. But first, don't worry. First, we're gonna get into an episode. I gotta spiral first and talk to you. I would never leave you hanging. Ever, ever, ever. Okay, so today, after completely spiraling out last week, um, I wanted to talk about something that I have found very helpful when I'm in a phase of crashing out or in a phase of spiraling out, and that is going to be romanticizing the small things. Especially because I'm single, honestly, because I need all the romance I can get at this point. Okay. You can do this even if you're not single though. But you know, I could use a little extra of it. I could use a little extra of it because I'm not getting it from anyone else. So I might as well give it to myself and romance things for myself. Um, but pretty much what I mean by this is choosing to see the beauty and the joy and the small things. And like I've just been trying to take note of recently these little things that I've been doing that do like make my day a little better, make me smile, and this and that, whatever it might be. It can be stupid, it can be small, it can be big, and especially I'm just in this phase of my life, as I kind of talked about, where I don't know, I'm figuring stuff out, I'm not sure what it's gonna look like, trying to find that balance. I'm going after crazy things, and who knows where life is gonna take me. So, like, just in that phase of life, I feel like these little things and romanticizing little things that make me smile and making the most out of those things really like grounds me, holds me in the present, like brings me joy and gives me a little bit of stability, stability in a time where my future is kind of uncertain. All of our futures are uncertain, but especially if you're in a certain phase where you're doing a lot of changes or going after certain things and you may not know what your future may like, may look like, I feel like these little things could ground you a little bit, keep you calm, keep you smiling, keep you excited. And yeah, I'm really, really leaning into the romanticizing of small things right now. And as I'm reorganizing and re-prioritizing things in my life, um, this is yeah, this is what have been I've been focusing on and grounding myself with and keeping me uh bubbly and smiley and and and taking in these little things. So I just thought I'd share with you because it's been helpful for me and give you some examples and what that looks like to me. And literally it's it can be quite a spectrum of things. There's no rules, there's no boundaries, whatever it may be. And you'll see that in my examples, and maybe this will spark some things in your life that bring you a little bit of happiness, and then you can like romanticize those things. And when I say that, I feel like there's like doing something and then like a little something, but then it's like taking it in and like appreciating it and realizing like I'm happy, I'm doing this in my life, whatever it may be, or I have this, and like really taking it in, being present. That's kind of what I mean by romanticizing it, not just doing the thing, but romanticizing it, making it a whole thing, a whole spectacle, whatever you may be. So here are some of mine. Maybe these will inspire you to do these for yourself, or maybe these will trigger you to be inspired um to to think of something else for yourself, or maybe you do these exact things. I don't know. I don't know, whatever it may be. But let's go through a few and yeah, I'll explain how I'm trying to romanticize these little things in my life to keep me grounded and at peace and keep me from crashing out and spiraling every two seconds, because we know I already do that enough. Okay, so the first one is moments where I'm alone, but I'm not feeling lonely. Definitely there's times where you're alone and you can feel lonely, of course. But those moments that you're spending time with yourself and you're like, I'm actually enjoying these things being alone and enjoying my own company and not feeling lonely in these moments. And especially when I come home from working some days in the restaurant industry, and there's a lot of crazies who uh say all sorts of crazy things to me for five, six hours straight, aka the guests, not my coworkers or anything, but the guests that come in. I yeah, I could I could really much crave some winding down alone time after that. So it's been really good to feel alone in my own space sometimes. Sometimes I need it. And I used to be I used to be afraid of being alone. I used to thought I would hate it. I thought, I thought, and I do love being around people and especially the people I care about and my people. I love that so much more than anything. But I used to be really afraid about being alone, and then one year back into college, um, I lived alone for um just a short period of time, like six, seven months or something, eight months maybe, and I ended up loving it. I was like, oh my god, I feel so free in my own space and like doing little things by myself. And then, you know, once you I've moved cities, gone through breakups, this and that, I feel like after those periods, you end up spending some time by yourself during those little changing phases of your life and learning to love those periods and love like doing little things or finding that you like spending time with your own company um is exciting and I appreciate it. And sometimes when I just want to wind down and not talk to anyone and shut off, I I try to romanticize little moments of being alone, and that can be a wide variety of thing things for sure. Like whether it just be you're watching a movie by yourself and you're curled up in your blanket and maybe have a glass of wine or whatever it may be, or it's like if you just go on a walk by yourself with your thoughts and you know, take in the area around you, or going on a trip by yourself, which I may be doing next week, as I mentioned. Um, more updates to come on that. So yeah, we'll see. Hopefully on that trip too, I'll have I'll have a lot to romanticize by myself. Well, I'm gonna have to because I'm gonna be by myself the whole time. So there's no other option for me. Um, and then especially to if you do live with roommates or family or whoever, and maybe you're in tight quarters, I don't know, whatever your living situation may be. Um, I think sometimes as we get older, that can definitely get a little harder. So romanticizing the moments that you have alone in your own space, or maybe making your s your own space, whatever that may be, your bedroom or your bathroom, if you have a section that is your own in those shared spaces, really making the most out of those spaces and um prioritizing, you know, keeping them how you want to be for yourself. And those are your own spaces that you don't have to worry about anyone else in. And that's just like a good feeling. You're free in those spaces, and it's like your own little little sanctuary area. Even when I dog sit, I kind of like um that then like puts me into like house sitting somewhere for by myself forever period of time. And I like to take in those moments too, those periods, whether it's a few days or a week or whatever it may be, and like just enjoy it and romanticizing, like, oh, maybe I live in this house alone with my dogs, living this whatever life it may be. And yeah, just really making the most out of those moments. So now something else that has been a change for me that I've been romanticizing recently is a little, a little coffee walk. A little once a week, maybe walking to a different coffee shop and just grabbing a little fun coffee to start your morning. Okay, so anyone who knows me or has known me for a while, I should say I used to only drink water. I think I've maybe have mentioned this before, but I used to be water only girly, and I still like have my water bottle with me right now. I'm still a hydrated, hydrated um baddie, but and I promote drinking all the water you can, and that's my main source of liquid that I drink. But and I used to never drink caffeine and never need it, but you know, a girl gets older, a girl gets tired, and a girl is spiraling out, so sometimes she needs caffeine for that, okay? And sometimes it just like puts a little pep in my step, a little extra spark of joy every once in a while. Um, I'm not an everyday coffee drinker, I do sometimes drink Alani's, so yeah, I am drinking caffeine, but coffee specifically, I used to hate the taste as well, but then obviously you start trying different things, and the more and more you have it, you obviously get addicted. Um, and that's where we're at. No, but I'm now like really finding the joy in like once a week, because I do like my coffee sweet, so I can't have coffees every day. It is like a sweet treat for me. So maybe once a week. I and I this is an important part of it too, is walking. I love to walk to get a coffee. It doesn't really in my head, I'm like, I don't want to drive to get a coffee. Something about the walk there and the walk home in the morning. I I really like that. I really take that in. It's like a little treat to start your day. And yeah, I've been romanticizing those moments a little bit, maybe like once a week, and especially if I'm like trying a new place each time, and really appreciating too that I do live in an area that I can walk. Um, like in a city where there's coffee shops around that I can walk, and just taking in those little tiny moments and making them a whole big thing for my morning um and starting out a a morning or a weekend, right? Whatever it might be. And yeah, romanticizing that time, whether it be by myself or with a friends or whoever it may be, or walking a dog as I'm doing it. Uh it's just the little things in life that feel cozy and want to romanticize. And yeah, I did this this past a few days ago, this weekend, and I've been converted. I've been converted into liking it and having it as a fun little thing. And I was up early because I did this before work the other day, and I was almost in my head, like, should I be a morning person? I I almost had that thought because I was it was quiet and I um got my coffee and was walking around and then I was driving to work and I felt so much better. I'm like, wait, like, am I a morning person? Not that I'm not, but I do like to sleep in. I just don't ever. And um, because I have I I get up early to go to the gym and all that. So I'm not saying I'm not a morning person, but I do prefer to sleep in, but I never do. But just taking in these little these little things and making the most out of it. I've been enjoying. Um, and then another one of those things is, you know, a good old walk on the beach. You know, again, I'm lucky to live by a beach that I can do this as often as I want. Um, so one romanticizing the fact that I live by a beach. I love the beach. I grew up going to the beach all the time, and it's always been like the best place ever. So the fact that I live somewhere that has one, the ideal 10 out of 10 right there. Remote romanticizing that, the fact of that in itself. And then like a walk by itself, because look, I don't like I said, I don't have a man to go on long walks on the beach with. So I'm gonna take myself or sometimes take a friend. Um go during sunset. I live on the West Coast. We have the best sunsets ever. And you know, sometimes it's not even just the walk, it's like as you're walking, romanticizing the whole event, taking in the ocean, the sunset, the people around, the vibes, the good feelings, the salt, air, smell, like all the little things, and making the most out of them during the walk or whatever it may be, and really just like spending that time either with myself again or with a friend. And that's just like a whole production in itself, in my head at least. It doesn't seem like it, because it can be an easy, quick thing, but in my head, it's a whole production, it's a whole movie, and I'm the main character in the movie, and this is my scene, and that's just kind of how I walk around sometimes. And oh, you got it, you gotta. Um, so that's one another way, another thing that I've been romanticizing lately. Um, and then something else too that you can romanticize. Um, and this isn't even a small thing, but your relationships um can be romanticized. There may be aspects of it to appreciate um and remember to appreciate. And I don't just mean romantic, I don't mean romantic relationships, I mean like friendships pretty much. Um and friendships that feel easy and friends that you can complain to anything about, and they know they won't judge you, and they know you have the best of heart, but you just need to bend to them, and friendships that you know you're gonna feel better after a FaceTime with them always. Um, or a friend that you can tell every little detail of your day to, no matter how stupid or small it may be. Because yes, I do that sometimes. Um, so yeah, just those little aspects of a friendship is like something to make yourself smile and remember because those are the ones to hold on to, the quality ones, they're what keep us going, I feel like, and something you can always rely on to make you smile and appreciate. And yeah, just make the most because those friendships don't always come around so easy. So they're just something that remember to always be grateful for and yeah, make the most out of those moments with your friends, whatever way that may be. And like again, picture yourself in a in a ensemble friend movie, living your best life in whatever way that may be. And this is something that you can do in a romantic relationship, of course. But again, as a single girly, this is what I'm doing with my friends right now. That's where I'm putting my romance into is my girly whirly twirly pops. And they're still gonna get the romance even when a man comes. But you know, in the meantime, they're getting all my all my romanticizing, um, taking in, creating the moments, and all that. Another little thing that came up today about friendships that I, you know, really took in and started thinking about and what was romanticizing was having friends that live nearby. Because as I talked about, well, yes, I have friends all over the country and I've moved a few different times and this and that. But even just like the friends you have in your city, the ones that live close by, is just something to appreciate and make the most of, especially maybe this is just me being in LA. But obviously, if I'm in the west side and I have a friend who I'm in Santa Monica, I have a friend who lives in Brentwood, we're super close. I can last a minute text her and be like, hey, let's go to the beach, or hey, wanna go grab ramen, or hey, let's go do this or that, and uh can romanticize that like spontaneity and that adventure. But you know, if I have a friend that lives downtown or on the east side, you got you need multiple days to plan it out. You need multiple days to plan it out, you gotta, it has to be during a certain time frame for the traffic to be lower, or else it'll take a day and a half to get to see each other, and you just can't do those spontaneous things anymore. So even if you have friends that live in the same neighborhood or that close nearby was something I was romanticizing the other day, because I could just text my friend and we did just out of the blue, I was like, hey, like I have had a whatever shitty day. I'm gonna go on a walk by the beach, want to come with sunset. Yes, we did it together within 30 minutes of me texting her and we were there. So that was something that I romanticized recently because and appreciate because sometimes sometimes you need a little spontaneous moment and it turns your day around and it becomes a whole thing. And again, me making myself the main character, I feel like I'm in a in a venture day-to-day movie. Or if you have those friends nearby as well, if you need help, you have those people you can rely on. If you lock yourself out of your house and they have a spare key, hey girl, can you come over and let me in? Or the other day, Kat asked me to go check on her dog. I was like, Yeah, I'm on it. Let me go check on Shy Shy because she was she was getting into something in the house. She was being a little naughty girl. So it was also just an appreciation factor of having those people nearby. You feel safe, you feel comforted in your own life, in your own space, in your own like environment. And yeah, just making the most out of those things and yeah, appreciating that little things, it's just a different aspect of a friendship to romanticize. And then, so of course, we have like myself, we have life, we have friendships, relationships, and then there's like the small little things, and I'll give you an example. I just ordered off of Amazon a waterproof phone holder that like goes on the wall in your shower. Because I shocker, shocker, I love listening to podcasts. I have one on my phone always playing, or YouTube videos or interviews, whatever it may be. I love it. I love it listening to it in whatever I'm doing. Um, and maybe this is bad for my intention span. Um, because I feel like whenever I even try to brush my teeth without listening to anything, that I'm alone with my own thoughts for too long and I'm like mid-brush my teeth. I'm like, I literally can't do this. I have to play something, whether it be an interview, podcast, song, whatever it might be. I'm like, I can't do this in silence. And the shower has just been always somewhere that I'm like, ugh, this would be so much better if I could keep listening to my podcast or listening to whatever interview I'm listening to, or this are my music that I'm dancing to. But obviously, no one should damage your phone, and though the shower is so noisy and whatever. I'm sure everyone like has gotten over this by now, but I haven't. And this is the first time. So I just ordered myself$13 on Amazon. It's the little things, it's a little stupid thing. Put my phone in in my shower so I can do that thing. And I took a shower today and I loved it. And I'm like, oh my god, I'm so entertained as I'm washing my hair, and especially with the everything showers when you're in there for a minute and you got everything to do. I'm like, this just makes it so much better. Um, and it just brought me so much joy and made showering so much better. Not that showering's bad, but yeah, it's just a cheap little thing that I got for myself that is stupid, but it brought me so much joy, and I'm like romanticizing my whole showers now because of this little thing that just like brought me a little bit of joy. So literally, it can be in the little stupid things that you make the most out of it. And that's kind of what I mean by romanticizing. If you haven't gotten it yet, is making the most out of it. Making the most out of the little things and appreciating them. And I feel like all these little things, if you acknowledge it and acknowledge the joy it's bringing to you, it just puts a little more pep in your step and a smile on your face as you go along your day. There's also a few like everyday moments kind of things that can seem like a task or something that you can romanticize for yourself. Or like example, cleaning your room. Yeah, I would I would like to say that I am the person who cleans my room once a week and does like a two-hour Sunday reset, but I don't. I really don't clean as much as I need to or should. But when I do, if you turn on some music and you're dancing as you do it, and then everything just feels so clean and cozy after, I feel like that moment after is what I romanticize. I don't really romanticize the moment of cleaning because again, I don't do it as often I should, and it can be gross and it can be annoying and this and that. But after when everything is smelling good and you're feeling clean walking around in your own space, that feels good. That's a little joy. Something that I can dream about maybe being the person who does it weekly. I don't know. I don't know. It's not it's not gonna be me. I see you TikTokers on there making those weekly videos every single week. I don't have that time or energy or want at the moment. Maybe if I owned my place. I think if I owned my place, I would feel more, feel more precious about keeping it all clean and whatever. But not that it's dirty, but you know, the deep cleaning, the real deep cleaning stuff, not just picking up after yourself. But yeah, so like even in daily tasks as well, if you can find any aspect of it that brings you a little bit joy, then you hold on to that little tiny aspect and you make the most out of that tiny aspect, and then you're making the most out of the whole thing, and you're before you know it, you're right romanticizing the whole event and of itself. And again, then you're you know how I picture myself in this one. Like, did you see um a Cinderella story growing up? Speaking of the early aughts, um a Cinderella story, Selena Gomez, Drew Seely, and they had to choose Cinderella, she had to clean um her stepmother's house, and they're just dancing and singing and falling in love as they do it. Yeah, make yourself that main character in whatever task you have to get done, be that bitch. Also, speaking of the early aughts and Hay Montana, I miss those kind of movies. She's the man, dear John, John Tugger must die, all that kind of vibe they need to bring back. Those are my comfort movies. Um, that's a really side note, but yeah, yeah, I want to petition to get more of those movies back, please, and thank you. The last thing I've been romanticizing recently has been a more of a bigger picture, and it's more about romanticizing the future and the ideas of where life can go and where it can take me. Um, most important romanticization, is that a word? Romantization for me right now is probably this one, and it's the notion of possibility. I may not know exactly where my life is taking me right now, and I just have to have faith or believe or hope that everything is gonna work out, but because I don't know where my life is gonna take me, and I don't have like I don't have a nine to five, I'm not in a relationship, I'm not settling down right now. The thought of like the possibilities of where I may be in a year, in a month, in six months, in two years, whatever it may be, you gotta romanticize that and make it exciting. It's exciting thought, or you can turn it into an exciting thought of what may my life look like coming up. The idea it leaves room for excitement because you don't know, and like it could be fun changes and new possibilities of what I'm gonna be doing, how I'm gonna be feeling, who I'm gonna be with, and that can be exciting. And if you don't romanticize it this way, you may then just focus on the fear, the fear of the unknown. But instead of focusing on the fear of the unknown, you can change the narrative to oh my god, it could be cute, it could be fun, all the possibilities of what's out there for me and what shifts are happening in the universe for me that are setting me up for success and what opportunities are coming for me because I know that they are and all these good things are. So just romanticizing that notion of every single day, oh my God, I don't know what life is gonna bring me today. What could it be? Where could I be at when I am myself in a few months? I could be in a certain place with certain things going for me, and I may look back on this and like, what a what a romantic moment, nostalgic moment in that in itself. So this one has definitely been important for me to focus on. Um yeah, especially in my spirals, it's keeping me more sane and having that excited, excited feeling about the unknown instead of the fears around it. Because the unknown means it's just opportunity, opportunity for growth and opportunity for good things. And even though the unknown can be scary, it's can be really good and exciting and surprising and you don't know where life is gonna take you, but you know it's all gonna work out eventually. So just focusing on that and romanticizing the whole notion every single day. Like, what is life gonna bring me today? Where I'm gonna am I gonna end up? Who am I gonna end up with? Is it gonna be you? Is it gonna be you? Is it gonna be you? Just walking around waiting for the good things to happen. So that has been a big one for me to focus on in this season of my life. Um, because yeah, there's definitely been periods where you're just sitting in a ball of fear, um, because life is scary and obviously life gets real, and there's little moments of that, but then I can snap back out of it and be like, I'm feeling I'm feeling unsure right now, but usually in those moments is when the good thing shifts and the big things are coming. You know, it usually it's always those stories of when someone's gonna give up, then something flips around and comes their way. So there's always a reason, there's always good things coming. And yeah, I'm excited. I'm excited to see and excited to romanticize the notion of whatever my future may hold. And you guys will probably be along for that journey and come along with me because I just keep sharing everything on here, so you will know for sure. Um, but yeah, pretty much those are just a few examples of what I've been prioritizing recently and how I've been focusing my mindset recently, especially when a spiral comes along. I don't always I don't only always provide spirals, I also provide ways to help with the spirals. Sometimes this episode hopefully is one of those ways, and hopefully it can inspire you guys to you know think about the small things in your life that you can turn into big things. Small things that make you smile, turn them into big things because then you'll be smiling more and they'll be making you feel better and put that pep in your step and turn yourself into the main character that you are. Um, today was episode was a little bit shorter, a little bit mini after last week. I think last week I was really crashing out, it was really present. I was like, what is going on with my life? Trying to find balance. Um, so today was a little more lighter, a little more fun, a little more happy, and I hope you enjoyed it. And I think next week is when I will be back from my solo trip. So you will hear hopefully things that I learned or how it went. Hopefully it went well. Um, hopefully I didn't get kidnapped. And yeah, hopefully I didn't feel awkward. We'll see. We'll see if I romanticize the moments with myself out there instead. Um, yeah, so that's what I have for you today. I hope you all, if you want, are going to enjoy the Hannah Montana 20 special right now, as I am. And yeah, have a good week, and I will see you soon.