Here are 14 lovely ways to enter your ‘soft girl era’ and create more joy, warmth, and coziness in your life.
You might have seen the ‘soft girl era’ in your feed at some point or another.
It’s often represented as an aesthetic lifestyle involving things like fancy coffee, pretty dresses, and cute claw clips.
But in real life, it is so much more than that.
I got to experience soft girl lifestyle firsthand on a recent trip to Goa.
I thought I was already good at keeping things slow and soft in my life, but that place taught me real softness. I don’t think I’ll ever be the same again (not that I want to).
More than touring around, I spent my time in Goa adopting their slow lifestyle. They actually have a term for it there, called ‘Susegaad’, and I tried my best to imbibe it.
It’s been more than two weeks since I came back, and so far, I am doing a good job of staying in my soft girl era. Miraculously, work and other commitments have not been affected but actually improved.
In this post, I am sharing all the lifestyle and mindset shifts I am practicing to stay in my soft girl era, which any woman will genuinely find helpful.
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Before we jump into the tips, I want to make it clear that being in your soft girl era does not mean you stop being ambitious. It doesn’t mean you don’t experience sorrow either.
Being in your soft girl era means approaching everything in life with soft energy — your body, mind, home, relationships, habits, work, and even your deepest thoughts.
It is your way of ditching the hustle culture and doing things the way we women are meant to (slowly, with joy, and intention).
So, if you’re ready for softness, comfort, and intentional living, then please read on. Let’s get you into your soft girl era properly.
14 Tips To Start Your Soft Girl Era
1. Start your mornings slow
The fastest way to enter your soft girl era is to stop starting your day in a rush.
Every morning cannot be perfect (life is real), but your morning energy sets the tone for everything that comes after.
Soft girl mornings are less about doing a million productive things and more about beginning gently, so that your brain doesn’t feel overused at 8 am.
Try waking up and not touching your phone for the first 20 minutes. Give yourself a buffer where your mind belongs to you, not your notifications.
You can do simple things like washing your face, drinking water, opening your curtains, making your bed, or playing a calm playlist while you get ready.
Even if you just sit up in bed and breathe slowly for one minute, it still counts.
Just move through your morning with tenderness, so that you don’t feel like you’re late, but like you’re entering your day gently.
2. Do morning yoga or some gentle movement
Yoga has this quiet magic to it. It doesn’t just tone your body, it brings you back into it.
It helps you breathe deeper, stretch out stress that’s been stored in your shoulders, and mentally feel like you’re starting fresh.
Even a 10-minute flow in the morning can change your entire mood, especially if you usually wake up feeling heavy or low-energy (which I have a tendency for).
The soft girl approach to morning exercise is simple: it has to feel good. It shouldn’t feel like punishment, but a ritual that your mind and body love doing.
You can do morning yoga, take a slow walk while listening to soft music, stretch while your coffee brews, or do Pilates in your room while the sun comes in.
Anything that makes your body feel cared for counts!
3. Build a ‘soft girl sensory routine’ using scents
If you want to romanticize your life instantly, bring in scent. Seriously.
Your soft girl era is not only built through habits, but through how your life feels.
And scent is one of the quickest ways to shift your energy. I like to think of it like emotional styling.
If your room smells clean and warm, you’ll automatically feel calm too. If your skin smells like vanilla, you’ll feel put together too.
If your bathroom smells like lavender, your night routine will naturally feel like a spa moment.
You can use perfumes, body lotions, hair mists, incense, candles, essential oils, roll-on fragrances, room sprays, fresh flowers, or even a scented hand cream.
Pick one signature scent for daytime that feels feminine and fresh, and one for evenings that feels cozy and warm.
Your brain loves sensory cues, and soft girl living is basically you creating cues that make you feel safe, relaxed, and taken care of.
4. Upgrade your skincare routines into rituals
There’s a difference between doing something quickly and doing it intentionally.
The soft girl era is all about rituals — small moments where you slow down and treat yourself with care.
Skincare is the easiest place to start because you already do it, so it’s not a whole new habit you’re forcing.
But instead of rushing through it, you need to do your skincare like you’re pampering yourself.
Wash your face gently, apply your moisturizer slowly, massage your jaw for a few seconds, and use lip balm like it’s a tiny luxury.
Put on body lotion with your full attention, light a candle while you do it, and play some music.
Make your skincare routine feel like something you look forward to instead of something you hurry through.
And if you don’t even have a skincare routine right now, that’s okay, too. Your soft girl era doesn’t require a 10-step routine.
Start with the basic CMS with intention (cleanse, moisturize, and SPF), stick to it, and you’ll be good.
5. Declutter your space like you’re clearing your mind
I know decluttering doesn’t sound soft at first, but clutter creates mental noise.
Soft girl era is peaceful, cozy, light, clean, and calm. And it’s hard to feel soft when your room is screaming at you with a mess.
You don’t have to turn into a minimalist or do deep cleaning in one day.
Just start with one small area. It can be your bedside table, your desk, the bathroom shelf, your handbag, or your wardrobe chair (we all have that chair).
(See: 21 Essential Things To Declutter For A Mess-Free Life)
When you make your physical space calmer, your mind feels calmer too. And softness starts feeling natural instead of forced.
6. Romanticize your home with cozy details
Your environment influences your mood more than you realize, and soft girl living is basically you designing your life to feel gentle.
Now, you don’t have to spend money to romanticize your space.
You can rearrange what you already have, fold your clothes neatly, light a candle, play soft music, open your windows, or use a bedsheet that feels luxurious.
Keep your room smelling fresh, keep your desk clean, and keep your mirror area cute and organized.
Personally, for me, these are the things that help me romanticize my space:
- Warm lighting, not harsh white tubelights
- Clean bedsheets, soft blankets, and pillows that make you want to lie down and stay there
- Cute mugs and pretty trays
- A small plant on the desk
- A vase with flowers, even if they’re just local ones
- Fresh towels
- A cozy corner to sit and drink tea and pretend you’re the main character
- And of course, a scented candle (a new one every month)
Might help: How To Create Good Vibes and Bring Positive Energy To Your Home
7. Dress with softness and without pressure
These days, fashion and style are so omnipresent that we often end up trying to look like someone else.
But when you’re in your soft girl era, you don’t need to worry about being trendy.
You just need to wear things that make you feel comfortable, feminine, and at ease, knowing that you deserve to feel cute even on normal days.
Choose clothes that feel like your body can breathe. Clothes that don’t make you feel tight, annoyed, or overly aware of yourself all day.
This can include flowy tops, soft cotton sets, co-ords, oversized shirts, knitted cardigans, a clean pair of jeans with a fitted top, simple dresses, comfortable sandals, or plain jewelry.
If you want a simple rule: wear clothes you can sit in comfortably and still feel beautiful in. It works well for me every day.
8. Start walking more and treat it like a mental reset
Despite all the hype around walking these days, I still believe it to be underrated, but it’s honestly one of the most soft girl habits ever.
It’s calm, meditative, and doesn’t require a gym or equipment. It clears your mind, regulates your mood, and makes your day feel more balanced.
A walk also gives your brain space to breathe, which is something we don’t get enough of when we’re constantly staring at screens.
So, start walking more, and do it with the intention of clearing your mind. The physical benefits can just be a good addition.
You don’t have to do speed-walking with intense motivational music (unless you love that). It can be slow, peaceful, and a moment of fresh air and quiet.
Put on a podcast or soft songs, or just walk in silence and let your thoughts settle.
And if you can walk during golden hour? Even better! Because it’s like free therapy with pretty lighting.
You’ll come back feeling healthy, gorgeous (even with all the sweat), and of course, soft.
9. Build a slow productivity routine instead of hustle culture
You can absolutely be ambitious in your soft girl era, but you need to do it differently. Don’t treat your life like a machine, and don’t expect yourself to perform perfectly every day.
Start working with your energy instead of forcing yourself through exhaustion.
Plan your day around how you actually function, do your hardest task when you’re most focused, and take breaks without guilt.
Create a realistic to-do list, give yourself breathing room between tasks, eat properly, and hydrate.
Beautify your workspace, exercise space, and the kitchen (all the places where you work), so that you actually want to spend time there. Scented candles always help me set the mood.
Snack on fruits, nuts, and veggies throughout the day to keep your energy up, and sip healthy drinks to feel refreshed.
Also, please stop multitasking so much. Do just one thing at a time with full attention. This will keep your energy up and your soft era intact.
Slow productivity will give you confidence and consistency, and best of all, it’ll actually last.
10. Eat meals that feel nourishing and comforting
It’s not possible to talk about softness without talking about your eating habits. After all, what you consume defines your health and wellness to a great extent.
You don’t need to be on a strict diet. You just need to think about nourishment.
Choose meals that make you feel cared for, drink enough water, add fruits and veggies to your plate, and treat your gut with kindness.
Make a cozy breakfast bowl, homemade meals, soups, veggie-loaded wraps, or a simple plate that looks and feels wholesome.
And yes, slow down when you eat instead of eating while scrolling. It will help you stay mindful and show respect to your food.
When you eat in a way that supports your energy, all of you will become softer. You’ll also feel like you’re in your wellness girl era!
11. Create an evening routine that helps you decompress
Most of us end our day with overstimulation (phones, screens, notifications, racing thoughts). And then we wonder why we can’t sleep peacefully.
But soft girl nights change all of this. Not because of some 2-hour routine, but because they help you transition from ‘doing’ to ‘resting’ mode.
Here are some tips you can use to make your evenings soft:
- Dim your lights
- Put your phone away earlier if you can
- Wash your face slowly
- Drink something warm
- Change into clean and comfortable clothes
- Tidy your room lightly, so you wake up to calm energy
- Put on a calming show
- Read something cozy
Even 20 minutes of intentional winding down can make you feel like your life is softer, and that’s the goal here, right?
12. Bring softness into your relationships
As much as I love being alone in my room with a book and candles, I also realize the importance of connection with others.
It’s something I saw on my trip to Goa: couples being cute together, friends sitting in a circle on the beach, and families swimming together.
In your soft girl era, you need to decide how you choose people, and these choices need to be healthy and good.
This means not having relationships that make you anxious, nurturing friendships that feel safe, and avoiding conversations that drain you.
It also means being respectful in life and being with people who don’t make you prove yourself all the time.
A soft life includes boundaries. It includes saying no. It includes protecting your peace. It includes not forcing connections where you feel small, dismissed, or unwanted.
You don’t have to cut everyone off dramatically. You just have to stop abandoning yourself to keep others comfortable.
And you also need to start being more loving, kind, and tender with those in your life who deserve it.
Because a soft life needs soft connections, and only you can build these for yourself over time.
13. Speak to yourself gently (even when you mess up)
If you want a true soft girl era, this is the most important part: your inner voice.
You can light all the candles in the world, wear the prettiest outfits, and have the cutest routine. But if the way you talk to yourself is harsh, your life will feel hard.
Start noticing how you speak to yourself when you’re tired, when you’re bloated, when you’re not productive, when you fail, and when you’re behind.
If your inner voice becomes cruel the second things go wrong, softness will always feel temporary.
You need to replace self-criticism with kind words, like ‘I am having a hard day, but still trying. I’m still learning. I can do this slowly.’
You are not in this life to have it all together. You are here to hold yourself with care while figuring things out.
So, be soft to yourself, because that positive energy will carry all your other soft girl habits forward.
14. Make your life beautiful today (don’t wait)
The last soft girl secret I can give you today is this: Decide your life is worth romanticizing now.
Don’t wait to make things good when you lose weight, when you move, when you become more confident, or when you become richer or more productive. Do it now!
Light the candle today, use the perfume today, wear the pretty outfit today, play the music today, and make the matcha today.
Take the walk today, buy the flowers today, sit by the window today, and make your life feel like yours today.
Softness is not a reward, pretty lady. It’s a choice you make every day.
You deserve to feel good while you are growing, because that’s the phase that makes up your life, not the action part or the end goal.
You’ll love: How To Make Happiness A Habit: 10 Tips To Be Happy Every Day
Are You Ready For It, Girl?
One reason why women struggle to start a new era is that they try to aim for perfection.
But you don’t need perfection to embrace a new version of yourself, especially a softer you.
You don’t need perfect habits, perfect routines, or a perfectly curated home.
What you need is a reason, and your reason for inviting more softness into your life is that it feels good!
I know this because I choose softness every morning when I pick up my journal instead of my phone, and it brings me peace.
I spend my day alternating between work and self-care (even if it’s just five minutes), and that makes me work better. I end my day with a book in hand, and that brings me joy.
Your soft girl era can be messy, simple, and small. And yes, it can be imperfect.
Just don’t give yourself any reason to delay it further. Start with any one tip from this post, and start building your soft girl era.
You will love every second of it, I can promise you that.
Read next: 25 Feminine Hobbies To Make You Feel Soft and Cozy
If you had to describe your soft girl energy in one word (besides soft, lol), what would it be? Let me know in the comment box. Thank you for reading till the end!
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