I love seeing this word ‘whimsical’ these days. We are really in need of a little whimsy in our lives, and I’m so glad that people are looking to add a little more whimsy and fun to their lives.
Without knowing this word, I think unknowingly I’ve always been pretty whimsical.
I have not let the seriousness of this world take away my playfulness and wonder.
I don’t see the world as serious and only with practical, logical eyes, and I love to see it with awe and magic.
For isn’t this world so full of magic?
It’s just because we have seen it so many times now that we don’t see the wonder in a flower, in the moon, in a tree, in plants, in mountains, but actually this whole world is so magical.
It’s just because we consider it normal now, but it is actually pretty extraordinary and so magical and mystical. Being born. This life. This breath. Even death.
But as adults, I know how easy it is to get caught up in the routine of everyday life.
It sucks me into that hole too, and I tend to forget to leave a little room for curiosity, creativity, and the simple joys of being alive.
So I wanted to write today about being whimsical and how we can choose to experience our lives.
If you’d like to bring a little more magic, playfulness, and wonder into your everyday routine, here are some simple ways to start.
What Does It Mean to Be Whimsical?
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To be whimsical is to approach life with a little more imagination, playfulness, and wonder.
It’s finding as many things you will say “Wow” to in your day.
It is to stop seeing life with adult eyes and stop seeing things as just normal and ordinary.
To be whimsical is to be in touch with that side of yourself that sees this little life as pretty magical.
Being whimsical doesn’t mean taking life less seriously when it matters.
It means remembering that life can be practical and responsible while still leaving room for a little silliness and magic and joy.
How to Be More Whimsical
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1. Look At Everything With Fresh Eyes
Pretend that this is your first time ever living. Start seeing everything again with fresh eyes. And the next time you see a butterfly, you’ll be amazed!
The gift of paying attention is delight.
So pay attention to the little things. This is indeed your first time living on Earth.
I loved this carousel on Instagram, and made a collage out of it.
You were magically born out of nowhere, and you will magically die. And in these in-between moments, you get to live, you get to love, you get to visit places, you get to see trees, waterfalls, stars, flowers, and experience everything.
Isn’t this life, this Earth, our bodies, already a wonder?
Bring wonder into your life.
Look at things with awe.
Even a flower you have always passed by but hardly looked at; if you pay attention and look at it with fresh eyes, it will bring you great joy without anything else happening in your life at all.
And that is a wonderful way to live and a wonderful way to be more whimsical.
2. Romanticize The Little Things
How can you make your ordinary Tuesday feel a little more wonderful? A little warmer? A little more cozy?
Whimsy starts with romanticizing the Little Things.
Add more life to your life.
And how to do that?
Be good at having fun with your life. Make living itself a joy. And there are so many ways to do that.
- Drink your morning tea from a beautiful cup instead of your usual mug.
- Put fairy lights in your room
- Keep pretty nails
- Wear nice clothes even at home
- Watch the changing colours of the sky as if it’s a little performance.
- Put warm lights and avoid harsh lights in your home to make it look cozy.
- Keep fresh flowers beside your bed, even when there is no occasion.
- Decorate your diary that you normally use.
- Decorate your balcony, your room, and places you use.
- Light incense
- Light a candle while reading a book.
You don’t need to wait for a special occasion to make your day feel beautiful.
You living and breathing is the special occasion.
3. Let Yourself Be Playful Again
This is my fiancé’s collection of cars and our images, that he printed and arranged. I find this so sweet.
I love that we both are adults and still have our inner child close to us.
He’s responsible and playful. He acts like my dad and also like a kid.
And I think the greatest gift you can give to yourself as an adult is to let yourself be a child again.
And I’m not saying you have to be childish. I’m saying you should allow yourself to be childlike.
Are you playful or are you serious most of the time?
Society too makes us feel that if we aren’t acting serious or more like an adult, people won’t take you seriously.
But do hell with it.
Be serious? Why? For whom?
Existence is itself joyful.
Refuse to give up on things just because they are considered childish.
Wear that cute headband, bows, and whatever. Collect stones, leaves, and paint and draw.
Our core nature is joy, laughter, wonder, and happiness, not stress, not anxiety, not depression.
That is why stress makes us sick. That is why depression makes us suicidal.
It is because our bodies know that such a state of life is not who we are.
Ask yourself, in a day or in a week, how much of your time do you give to play? For fun? For enjoyment?
It’s okay if you don’t even know when you last truly had fun.
Adulthood slowly fills our lives with responsibilities, obligations, and to-do lists.
But you can start now to start seeing life as if it’s a cosmic play instead of a serious drama
You don’t have to do life so seriously. It can actually be all fun and games.
Here are some ways to let yourself be more playful again and do life less seriously
- Stop taking life so seriously. Zoom out. Look at the big picture.
- See yourself as a tiny, tiny human being in this big, big world.
- Dance more
- Listen to music when doing chores.
- Have hobbies (Very important) and give them time at least once a week
- Go on a picnic
- Draw something just for fun
- Stop doing everything for a purpose and a goal.
- Make a DIY Scrapbook
4. Dress in a Way That Makes You Feel Whimsical
You don’t need to change your entire wardrobe to bring a little whimsy into your personal style.
Sometimes, it’s the smallest details that make getting dressed feel more playful.
- Wear pretty headbands, hairclips, bows, or clutches
- Wear pearl earrings on an ordinary weekday
- Add a delicate necklace to your favourite outfit
- Choose a floral dress simply because you love how it looks.
- Wear shoes that make you feel like you’ve stepped out of a favourite book.
Experiment with your style. Have fun dressing up.
Whimsy looks different on everyone.
For some people, it’s a romantic, feminine wardrobe.
For others, it’s colourful socks, quirky jewellery, unusual combinations, or a favourite bag covered in little charms.
Dress in a way that, when you look at yourself in the mirror, you love seeing how pretty you look that you feel like jumping around and your heart flutters.
I’m sure you know that feeling, especially if you are a girl. Yes, get yourself that feeling more often 🙂
When you look beautiful, life feels more beautiful too.
5. Treat Nature Like an Old Friend
One of my favourite ways to be a little more whimsical is to treat nature as if it’s an old friend.
Say thank you to the mountains when you’re leaving, even your home when you’re leaving for a long time.
On my morning walks, when I see the rising sun shine, I bow to it and tell the sun thank you.
I tell the moon how beautiful she looks, and it makes me happy.
On my walk, I say hi to the trees and smile at the neighbor’s flowers. I truly feel that they are smiling at me too.
I have the urge to touch a tree sometimes and touch it and feel the tree. It makes me feel they are indeed a living soul.
My mom talks to her plants all the time and even tells me stories about them.
If you pick a flower, take a moment to appreciate it and say thank you for giving its life to you.
I always say thank you to my home, flowers, plants, and even my bed, my scooty for taking me places, my laptop for doing so much work, and also my body.
I talk with my pets all the time and smile at my neighbourhood dogs and say hi to them.
I love the idea of acknowledging the world around us instead of simply moving through it without a second thought.
Here, this poem comes to mind-
There’s no harm in being a little silly. Sometimes, a little imagination makes an ordinary thing much more entertaining.
6. Create a Little World of Your Own
To be more whimsical, become a person who has a rich inner world, one filled with stories, imagination, and daydreams.
You can nurture this part of yourself in so many ways.
Try these little practices:
1. Imagine the story behind an old house you pass on your evening walk.
2. Write letters to your future self
3. Follow your curiosity. See where it leads you. You could learn embroidery, experiment with watercolours, explore a new neighbourhood, try a different recipe, or read a book about a subject you know absolutely nothing about.
4. Daydream about possibilities.
6. You could also keep a little notebook where you collect interesting words, overheard conversations, beautiful observations, and random thoughts that cross your mind throughout the day.
7. Make up stories about the people in old photographs or paintings.
8. Write about what happened in your life in that week as a story. What someone said, what you did, what events happened, etc.
You don’t need to be a writer or an artist to have a beautiful inner world.
You simply need to give yourself permission to wonder about things and have fun doing it.
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7. Wear a Crown Just Because You Can
A girl on Reddit says she wears a crown while cleaning her room.
We can do that too.
Wear a crown when reading a book, doing our skincare, or simply lounging around at home.
You don’t need a birthday, a special occasion, or an audience.
You could even make your own paper crown or decorate a little headband with ribbons and flowers.
How lovely it is to treat yourself as the main character of your own little fairytale, even when you’re doing something as mundane as folding laundry.
Sometimes, all you need is a tiny, silly accessory to make an ordinary afternoon feel more magical.
8. Make Your Own Little Magic
I’ve always loved the idea of having little objects and rituals that make life feel a bit more magical.
After I read The Magic by Rhonda Byrne, I used to keep a smooth, flat stone that I’d collected from outside.
I decided it was my magic stone, the one that would bring me good luck, and I genuinely believed it held a little magic.
Here I remember an incident.
Once my friend told me about how she spent a long time searching for a four-leaf clover to give her friend going through a particularly difficult, unlucky period in his life.
One thing after another seemed to go wrong, and we genuinely felt as though God wasn’t on his side.
She wanted to give him something that might turn things around, so when she finally found a four-leaf clover, she gave it to him (I think she carefully even wrapped it and made a bookmark or something of it), hoping it would bring him some luck.
At that time, I didn’t know how whimsical that is. But this is how we add magic to our lives.
But here’s the lovely part: life really did seem to shift for him after that.
Of course, we can’t say the clover caused it, but we still talked about it and liked to believe that the Four Leaf Clover did its thing.
Sometimes, believing in a little magic makes the world feel more hopeful, even when we can’t explain why.
You could make your own magic wand using twigs, ribbons, and beads, wave it over yourself before leaving the house, or give one to a friend who needs a little good luck.
You could even keep a special stone in your pocket as a reminder that good things are possible.
These little rituals don’t have to make sense to anyone else. They’re simply ways to bring more imagination, hope, and joy into everyday life.
9. Become a Collector of Little Wonders
One thing I’d love to encourage you to do is start collecting things that make you feel something.
Not necessarily expensive things or objects that take up lots of space, but little reminders of the beauty you encounter in everyday life.
Collect postcards from places you’ve visited. I love collecting fridge magnets.
Keep pressed flowers between the pages of a book, save handwritten notes from people you love, or take photographs of beautiful things you encounter.
I have a diary where I collect and write down quotes I love and another diary where I collect the memories and sweet things my partner does for me. I don’t want to forget those little memories.
I love the idea of creating a Book of Little Wonders, where you write down three things that caught your attention each day.
It could be a beautiful sunset, a funny conversation with a friend, a kind gesture from a stranger, or a sweet moment with your pet.
The ordinary ones are often the sweetest.
Over time, you’ll have a little collection of memories that reminds you how much beauty exists in the life you’re already living.
10. Turn the Mundane Into Magic
Lastly, I think one of the loveliest ways to be more whimsical is to stop treating everyday chores as things you simply have to get through.
Do them slowly, mindfully, instead of rushing through, and you will find that the same thing transforms itself magically.
It becomes interesting, fun, and even relaxing, once you do them with a changed set of mind and eyes.
Put on a flowing skirt and a favourite playlist while cleaning your room.
Pretend you’re a witch brewing a potion while making your morning tea, or imagine you’re a character in a cosy novel while hanging out the laundry.
Light a candle while doing your evening skincare, give your houseplants little pep talks, or wear a crown while folding your clothes.
You could even give ordinary activities whimsical names.
Instead of doing laundry, you’re having a fresh linen day. Instead of cleaning your room, you’re restoring order to your little kingdom.
I have whimsical conversations about our everyday life with my partner all the time, and it makes us laugh a little more.
A Little Whimsy for Every Day of the Week
If you’d like to start practising whimsy but aren’t sure where to begin, here’s a little challenge you can try over the next seven days.
- Monday: Notice five beautiful things you would usually overlook.
- Tuesday: Wear something that makes you feel playful or romantic.
- Wednesday: Spend twenty minutes creating something without worrying about the result.
- Thursday: Do a mundane thing slowly and make it feel fun.
- Friday: Do something delightfully silly just because it makes you happy.
- Saturday: Go on a small adventure, even if it’s only a visit to a new café or bookstore.
- Sunday: Write down your favourite little moments from the week.
Don’t treat this as another checklist you need to complete perfectly.
Think of it as an invitation to make a little more room for joy in your everyday life.
If you miss a day, simply begin again whenever you feel like it.
Final Thoughts: Let Yourself Be a Little More Whimsical
Become someone who notices and gets excited over the little things.
Stop doing everything with a purpose and instead simply follow your curiosity.
Leave the evenings empty and do things you have wanted to do.
You don’t have to change your personality or pretend to live in a fairytale, or make every day picture-perfect.
Simply give yourself permission to experience life with a little more play and joy.
You can be practical and whimsical.
You can be quiet and whimsical.
You can have a demanding job, a busy schedule, and a long list of responsibilities while still finding little ways to make life feel magical.
So, wear the pretty dress. Buy yourself the flowers. Take the longer route home. Start the creative project you’ve been putting off. Read the book that caught your attention, even if it’s not particularly useful.
This ordinary life is actually extraordinary.
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