Exploring Over Coffee | Episode 1
Get into your fall feels. Join Alexis for a coffee chat about setting the mood for fall adventures. Gain inspiration to romanticize your life and embrace your fall aesthetic.
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Here's What You'll Explore
3 steps to romanticize your life
Tips for your fall aesthetic
Weekly boost of upcoming holidays
Episode Chapters
00:00 Hello Friends
00:50 Romanticize Your Life
7:15 Craft Your Fall Aesthetic
10:25 Design Your Fall Mood Board
12:45 Weekly Boost
15:45 Wrap Up Wishes
Note: Episode chapters may shift slightly on RSS.com and other podcast listening platforms due to ad length.
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Hello, friends. Welcome to the very first cozy coffee conversation. This is Exploring Over Coffee. I'm Alexis Renae, and I am so excited to enjoy this coffee chat with you guys. Today, we're talking all about romanticizing our lives this fall. We're going to get all up into our fall feels and talk about ways to fall in love with a sense of seasonal adventure.
So grab something cozy, get comfortable, and brew a really delicious fall drink, because this coffee break is all about setting the mood for our fall adventures. Today, I'm drinking a salted caramel latte, and I'm so excited to know what you guys are drinking too. Let me know in the comments, and yeah, let's dive in.
Romanticizing your life. That's the concept that we are going to explore today. Before we brew up some fun ideas for your seasonal fall adventures, let's make sure everybody is on the same page about what it means to romanticize your life. Romanticizing your life, what does it mean? It's all about bringing a sense of joy to those everyday adventures that you go on, those little parts of your daily routine that could be looked at as mundane, but instead you reframe into a perspective that becomes more about joy. You soak up all the little parts of your day that you love, and you find easy opportunities to pour more beauty into those experiences.
It becomes an opportunity for gratitude, for time that you have to pour into your personal wellness.
Your morning routine when you first wake up. could be an opportunity for aromatherapy in your shower by adding. Eucalyptus or other plants into your bathroom experience. It's an opportunity to add affirmations to your mirror and reflect on them as you get ready for your day. Taking a 10 minute walk or sitting outside for 10 minutes to just soak up a little bit of sunshine before you start your day. Even if you don't have something major, some major adventure to look forward to every day or every week, it's about making smaller adventures, just as impactful and just as meaningful.
I like to think of romanticizing my life within three different steps. The first step is reflection. The second step is aspiration. And then the third step is immersion.
To give an example, going to get a cup of coffee from a coffee shop, right? Let's say it's... Morning, and you're a college student on a college campus. How do you go about romanticizing that experience? Reflect on your schedule.
Reflect on why you need this cup of coffee in the morning. What's happening around you on campus at that time of day? How are you feeling? How would you like to be feeling? Reflect on what usually happens during this experience. You walk in, you order the same drink, you sit down, you drink it, you scroll, you doom scroll on your phone, you get sucked into a TikTok video or something, and 10 minutes go by, you finish the drink, and that's it. That's your coffee break during school.
Now, your aspiration. What do you want this coffee break to really be? What do you want it to represent? Maybe it's that you want it to be a social experience. Maybe you want it to be a chill moment to just relax your mind before you jump into the school day.
Or maybe you want it to be a time to connect with the outdoors because most of your college courses are going to be in inside. And you would like an opportunity to just relax outdoors and get a breath of fresh air before you go about your day. So now that you have those goals in mind, what are those aspirations of what you would like this experience to look like, this routine?
And that's stage three. Really take time to appreciate this opportunity that you have to turn this into a picturesque, small, just everyday adventure that you, that you can. Experience whenever whenever you're ready. Okay, so if you want it to be a social hour invite Someone along with you to get a great cup of coffee or strike up a conversation with someone while you're in the coffee shop maybe that's an opportunity to Reach out to someone online or on the phone and have a moment to connect with your, your support network and send out some positive vibes and, and just do a pulse check on how everybody's doing at the start of the day.
If you want your coffee break to be a relaxing experience for yourself, maybe bring along a pair of headphones, and while you're in the coffee shop, you can listen to a morning meditation. Maybe you can write out some affirmations for yourself while you're in the coffee shop. It could be a journaling session, a very quick 10 to 15 minute experience, writing out how you're feeling in the moment.
Your goals for the day just reconnecting with your sense of self. Okay, maybe it's maybe it's a quiet minute, just relaxing into that experience. Maybe you try out a coffee flavor or a different beverage that has some relaxing qualities, and then if you want this to be an outdoor, fun experience for a breath of fresh air, get ready for that.
Take your coffee cup with you and go out and enjoy it in a nice, serene environment. That could be taking a quick walk around your quad. That could be just enjoying a fresh breeze. Even if the weather isn't great, you could even pull up on your phone some scenic scenes on YouTube of different nature settings just to get that concept, that idea, of a different environment to place yourself in before you go about your day.
A regular cup of coffee could become an outdoor picnic that is like a coffee experience with friends. A cup of coffee could become a recurring journaling session that you have at home in your own decorated coffee corner, no matter how small, if you have a little coffee station to just recharge and relax and have a zen moment at the start of your day, that's what the cup of coffee can become.
That's what romanticizing your life can bring. It brings a sense of gratitude for your life. It brings opportunities to re-center yourself. It brings opportunities to experience joyful moments around you more often. And then, by being so in tune with yourself, and by being so in tune with your environment, you become more and more aware of adventures that you can have, and adventures that you can invite other people on as well.
So now that we have taken time to get into the mindset of romanticizing our lives this season, I'd love to crack open that adventure guidebook and just get the ball rolling on the different types of experiences that are on our fall mood board.
Okay, so again, stage three of romanticizing our lives is immersion. And what better way to immerse yourself than engaging the senses?
make a little time each week or a couple times a month, to engage with nature, to dress in cozy clothes, to try out fun seasonal foods and drinks. To take pictures that you can remember and share online in the future, to journal with special fall journal prompts.
And yeah, just to change up your self-care and your social activities, how you engage with yourself and with other people at this time of year, because there's something special about each season. And yeah, why not take some time to celebrate that change? And I'm not just saying rush all the way through.
As fast as possible to get to Christmas. I'm saying like, take the time to enjoy every stage of the seasons.
So again, it comes down to just embracing this aesthetic, the aesthetic of fall. What, what is fall about? Fall is about transition, right? It's about harvest. It's about gratitude. Okay. It's about. It's about. Enjoying that last burst of sunshine before the winter. So, yeah, get into it. Get excited for really pursuing that aesthetic.
so When it comes to adventures, the different adventures I want you guys to think about taking as we enter the fall.
Think about taking personal adventures through Reflection, self reflection, self care, solo dates, to connect with yourself, to re-center, re-energize, and re-inspire yourself. Because, you know, you have to pour into your own cup before you pour into someone else's.
Then I want you to think about date experiences, date experiences with a special someone, date experiences with a friend, or several friends.
The next activity I'd love for us to try is something that engages with our community.
So that could be volunteering. That could be like a community arts event, like a poetry slam. That could even just be going out into a community space, like a shared community space. So, like a community garden or community museum exhibit, just something that helps you engage with the people around you.
Enjoy the culture of fall. Pull up those fun songs, pull up those fun movies, like Hallmark movies and other nostalgic shows, and things like that, to engage with fall on a cultural level. And hopefully by setting up these ideas, these categories for different types of adventures, it will be easier for us moving through the season to fill up our guidebooks and then just fully explore everything that life has to offer at this time of year.
Now that we've highlighted just in general what we want our fall aesthetic to look like and the different types of adventures that we can all pursue this season, I want you to really take time to envision what your adventure guidebook will look like this fall. Okay, so create a mood board for yourself.
I do really like graphic design, so I usually pop into Canva, find a template, and just drop different ideas into a collage just to get the overall vibe of what I want my season.
to feel like, to look like, for myself.
It's also like a practice of like, manifestation.
Because you're envisioning it's a vision board. You're envisioning what you want these future experiences to look like. The adventures that you want to take yourself on. When you set this visual example of how you want to embrace the season, it's easier to follow those footsteps, follow the path that you've laid for yourself.
Envision it in a collage on Canva, in a collage in a real-life vision board, or you can create a digital board on Pinterest and just start dropping in ideas to just create that aesthetic for yourself. Then, once you have that general idea of the aesthetic of fall that you want to pursue, crack open your Notes app or crack open your journal.
And start writing out those different ideas. And you can keep that checklist in mind. I've even seen some people online on social media put the ideas, like, in a jar, and, like, they mix all the ideas up, and then whenever they have free time to do an activity, they reach in, they pull something out, and then it's a surprise about what kind of activity they get to embrace and embark on.
I encourage you guys to do that too, like mix it up a little bit for yourself.
Now that we've talked about the different types of adventures, the different categories of adventures we like to have, I really encourage you guys to start brainstorming about those different types of activities that you can look forward to. The season may change, but that sense of adventure can stay the same. And that energy toward romanticizing your life and pouring into yourself can stick around. It adapts with you, and it can help you fully connect with what each season has to provide.
It's time for our weekly boost. For your self-care activity, I encourage you to design a fun fall space, if that is a space in your home or in your dorm room.
design a fun, fall-filled corner. That you can return to recharge, no matter how large or small, okay. Even if it's a digital space that you can go to if you redesign your Animal Crossing Island for the fall season, just create a fun space for yourself that you can return to in moments of self-care.
I love decorating for the fall. I'm definitely going to get a fun little... knick-knack, like a pumpkin or something, or a little sometimes they have like little birds that are dressed up in costumes at Target.
I have one, his name is Oakley, but I'll see if they have another one. They're just so cute. So I'm definitely going to find something cute to put up for fall.
Here's some fun holidays and observations that are coming up over the next week , that you can put on your calendar now so you can celebrate them later. International Day of Charity is September 5th. This is a great time to connect with your community. Start thinking about some of the causes that you're really passionate about. And look up organizations where you live, where you can just stop by and make a world of difference for your community. To help someone in need.
And then September 6th has several holidays at once. Like, this is the holiday, this is the day of days for September holiday experiences, so far.
Fight Procrastination Day , again, when you take time to reflect on your lifestyle, get, be honest with yourself about, like, what takes up some of the mental space, comes in and puts blocks into your processing and productivity to be able to complete different challenges throughout your day, and come up with some strategies to overcome that.
Read a book day. Get a fun fall book if that is rereading Harry Potter for the millionth time. Pick up a copy of Harry Potter and enjoy that kind of a book. Or if it is checking out one of BookTok's. New favorite reads, pick up a BookTok book.
Or. If it is time to enjoy, like a guided journal activity, even. I love guided journal books because I can uncover things about myself around different themes. So yeah, definitely check out. different types of books for book day, I'm sure we're going to dive into all different kinds of books and stuff on our podcast in the future.
And then lastly, it's coffee ice cream day. Take your coffee experience to new heights. Combine your coffee and your treat into one fun experience on freaking coffee ice cream day. So yeah, go out and enjoy a fun cone or cup of coffee ice cream to celebrate. Hopefully, these ideas give you something to look forward to, something to spice up your upcoming week.
That's a wrap on today's Coffee Chat. We've talked all about how to set intention for our seasonal adventures and romanticizing our lives this fall. Even though today's coffee break has come to an end, the adventure will always continue on AlexisReneeMedia. com. Thank you so much for tuning in to the first official episode of Exploring Over Coffee.
If you know anyone else who is a coffee lover or adventure enthusiast, share this episode with them so that we can grow this community together. I wish you a wonderful start to your fall season and look forward to talking with you next time, all about Pumpkin Spice Latte culture. Until then, remember to make life an adventure.
Production Info
Exploring Over Coffee is created and produced by Alexis Renae.
Follow Exploring Over Coffee on Instagram.
More Fall Episodes
Fall is worth savoring. Meet the Explore by Lexi Fall Magazine, a 40-page seasonal magazine filled with cozy activities, seasonal challenges, self-care ideas, journaling prompts, and more.