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If you're here right now, there's almost a 100% chance you're not in Positano. And yet in your Instagram feed, you're watching the same travel destination reel for the third time, wishing you could be transported to the Amalfi coast.
You close the app, take a look around your bedroom: phone charger tangled on the nightstand, yesterday's mug still sitting there, and the blinds are shut so tight it could be 3pm or 3am (you haven't dared to look yet).
Here's the good news: you don't actually need the coast to steal the feeling of being there. You just need to steal a few small habits and commit to them, even with a 9am meeting looming.
Here's how to go on your glamorized in-house stay-cation.
Open the blinds all the way
Do this before you touch your phone. Before coffee, before your to-do list starts running laps in your brain. Let the room know it's morning before you do.
The birds outside your window don’t know the difference between your apartment complex and the Amalfi Coast, so let them help you pretend for a minute.
Make the coffee like it's an event
Make preparing your morning coffee your personal meditation. Hear the hum of your coffee maker, and smell the sweet, bitter smell of roasted coffee beans fill the room.
Use the good mug, the one you've been saving for a special occasion that isn't coming. Sit down while you drink it. Half of it, at least, before you touch your phone.
Breathe in the aroma of your coffee, and let yourself actually taste it instead of just running it through your system like fuel.
Eat something off a plate
Not standing at the counter, not out of the bag, not while scrolling. A plate, a piece of fruit, some toast with the good butter. If you want the version that makes it feel like an actual occasion, a set of simple stoneware plates does more work than you'd think.
The food doesn’t have to be fancy, think of this as a ritual to savor every bite, just like you’re at brunch on vacation. (Bonus points if you set the table with your cutest tabletop items hiding in the back of your cupboards to make breakfast extra special).
Wear something that isn't yesterday's leggings
You don't need your best dress, wear something that makes you feel like a woman who could open the door right now without wincing from embarrassment.
The idea is to wear something that makes you feel elevated and excited, and something you wouldn't mind being seen on opening the door, or on an afternoon stroll around a quaint town.
And if you really want to feel into it, wear a proper shoe around the house for no reason. These shoes are a super chic wear to get into the vacation mood. No one has to know except you. Well, you and maybe the delivery man.
Leave your phone in another room for the first hour
This is the one you'll want to skip. Don't. The second you check your email before you've brushed your teeth, you've handed forty strangers the keys to your mood for the day.
Notice how free you feel putting your morning first, before the to-do list gets a say.
Positano doesn't know your phone exists yet. Be a little more like Positano.
Do one small, deeply pointless thing
Water a plant that didn't need it. Refold a towel that was already fine. Light a candle you've been saving for no particular reason, because that reason was always going to be today.
None of this accomplishes anything but romanticizing the most mundane moments, and that's the entire point.
Say one nice thing out loud, even if it's just to your coffee
"This is really good." "I love this light pouring in." "The air smells so sweet this morning". You might feel silly the first time. You'll also feel better.
Italians talk to their tomato plants and their tomatoes are, objectively, incredible. Draw your own conclusions.
Put your actual feet on the ground
Go barefoot on the porch, on the driveway, wherever, just for two minutes. Feel the temperature. Notice something you didn't notice yesterday. You embrace every sensation on vacation, this is something you can bring into your day-to-day too.
Before it becomes second nature, try naming five things you notice, right where you're standing. Bring that magical jet-set feeling right to your porch or doorstep by tuning into your senses.
And then, go answer your emails. You've earned it.