Picture this:
You’re in scrubs on your break, scrolling through TikTok and Instagram. Another video pops up — someone making yogurt from scratch in a beautiful flowy dress. Her hair is perfect, her nails glossy, her lifted lashes flutter effortlessly, her blush placed with angelic precision. Her life looks effortless.
You sigh and think, I am in the wrong career field.
In fact, maybe you shouldn’t have picked a career at all! You could’ve saved yourself student loans, lack of sleep, and unnecessary stress by just staying home and recording your everyday life.
And suddenly, it becomes easy to believe that living the “soft life” is just one bold decision away:
Quit your job.
Move to Bali.
Buy a flowy linen dress.
Worrying will become a thing of the past. Money flows effortlessly, bills are magically paid, and multiple yearly vacations show up on the calendar.
It all looks magical… until you realize something:
✨ The soft life looks expensive, really expensive! ✨
The Comparison Spiral Hits Hard 😮💨
As another influencer floated through Santorini taking aesthetic pictures and talking about “letting life be easy,” I looked down at my scrubs — hair pulled back, mentally noting CEUs, groceries, gas, bills, tasks, everything piling up.
Another soft-life reel appears on my FYP.
I felt like a shrew.
Like Nurse Frumpy.
Quite the opposite of soft and flowy.
But here’s the truth I had to remind myself:
💛 I didn’t become a nurse to quit nursing. 💛
I became a nurse because I love helping, healing, and bringing hope. Watching someone recover or breathe easier adds meaning to my life.
But I also had to be honest with myself:
Once “critical-thinking-nurse-Mari” is turned on, she does not turn off easily.
I wanted to stop worrying about the roses and actually smell them.
I wanted softness too — without abandoning the career I’ve worked so hard for.
The Aesthetic Soft Life didn’t align with my Real Life
TikTok made it seem like the only way to be soft was to:
✨ Quit your job
✨ Manifest everything
✨ Buy pretty things
✨ Wake up glowing
Meanwhile, my reality looked like:
- Night shift fog 😵💫
- Charting at 2 AM 💻
- Telling myself, “I’ll soft life when I’m off…”
…And then when I was finally off?
I was tired.
Like… forget-everything-on-my-to-do-list tired.
And let’s be honest:
🧺 Do I really need weekly lashes treatment, gel manicures, expensive dresses, and farmer’s market photoshoots just to be considered “soft”? 🧺
As tempting as the viral content was, it didn’t align with my responsibilities… or even my personal preferences.
I needed to embrace my own version of a soft life.
Starting Small — Really, Really Small 🌤☕
Instead of sleeping away all my days off and waking up at midnight (when nothing is open except my fridge), I made one tiny change:
I set my alarm for noon.
I woke up — even though I wanted to stay in bed.
I made coffee. ☕
I sat in bed and let the sunlight hit my face. 🌤
And guess what?
For those moments, I felt like a day-shift person.
Someone who gets to live when the world is awake.
Someone who can breathe and just be.
That’s when it clicked:
✨ The soft life isn’t about quitting your job. It’s about creating softness inside the life you already have. ✨
What Softness can also Look Like 🌿
It doesn’t have to be flights to trendy destinations.
Cosplay or vintage looking dresses (though let’s be honest, those dresses are gorgeous).
Standing in the kitchen for hours creating everything from scratch.
Sometimes softness is simply:
🛒 Groceries delivered
🌤 A quiet morning
✨ Not answering texts right away
🚫 Saying “no” on your off day
💛 Choosing peace over people-pleasing
😴 Letting your body rest without shame
Soft Life as a Nurse — My Version 💛
I didn’t quit nursing to embrace the soft life.
I’m learning to embrace it while being a nurse.
In my real, imperfect, everyday life.
Because softness doesn’t come from the outside — not from lashes, linen, or latte art.
🌿 Softness comes from the way you let yourself live. 🌿
Right now, for me, that looks like sunlight…
Being awake and present for myself and loved ones during the day…
Resting when it’s time…
And learning to be gentle with myself, one moment at a time.
And who knows?
One day I will buy that $200 flowy dress,
do my makeup just right,
and take that Instagram-worthy photo just for the heck of it… cause why not?