The light hits differently in early summer. Mornings feel slower, stretched with possibility, and the days carry a softness that makes everything—your thoughts, your breath, your pace—feel a little more spacious. It’s a season that invites slowness, spontaneity, and sometimes even solitude. And for me, that invitation couldn’t have come at a more necessary time.
For the first time in my life, I’m in a caregiving role—supporting someone I love through a difficult illness. While I’m deeply grateful to show up in such a meaningful way, I’ve also had to learn, in real time, how essential it is to pour back into myself. To stay grounded. To hold compassion without burning out. Planning a summer solo date—an intentional stretch of time to reconnect with myself—has become one of the most restorative ways to do just that.
What is a summer solo date?
At its core, your solo date is a few dedicated hours spent doing something you love—on your own, for no one but you. It’s not about productivity, performance, or self-improvement. It’s about tuning in, slowing down, and choosing pleasure for the sake of it.
A summer solo date is that it can take whatever shape you need. It can be planned in advance or completely spontaneous. It can be quiet or active, indulgent or grounding. What matters is that you’re choosing to spend time with yourself. Nothing more.
Here are a few ideas to get you started:
- A picnic in your favorite park, complete with your go-to sandwich, fresh fruit, and a book you’ve been meaning to read. (I can’t put down Annabel Monaghan’s latest release: It’s A Love Story.)
- A museum or gallery visit paired with a coffee or matcha at a nearby café.
- A morning bike ride or walk, followed by a slow brunch at home.
- An afternoon at the farmer’s market, then cooking a dinner just for you.
- A “yes day” where you follow every whim—window shop, write in a journal, go to a matinee.
There’s no wrong way to plan your solo summer ritual. The key is choosing activities that make you feel more like yourself. That remind you that you don’t need an occasion—or a partner—to experience joy.
Designing a Nourishing Summer Solo Date
This time to yourself doesn’t have to be elaborate to be meaningful. It’s often the simplest moments that feel the most luxurious. Wandering through a bookstore, stretching out in the grass with a good novel, savoring a meal made exactly the way you like it. It’s about choosing to be with yourself in a way that feels intentional. Alone time isn’t a retreat from life, but a return to it. And in a season that’s so often marked by movement and momentum, creating space for stillness can be a quiet form of self-respect.
Ahead, I’m sharing a few of my favorite ways to plan this time—so you can step away, slow down, and come back to yourself.
Alone time isn’t a retreat from life, but a return to it.
Start With Spaciousness
Make your morning feel like a slow unfolding.
There’s something powerful about choosing not to rush. Especially in the summer, when the air feels soft and forgiving, the way you begin your morning can set the tone for the rest of your day. If your summer solo date allows, resist the urge to leap out of bed and start “doing.” Ease into your day instead.
Stretch beneath the covers. Sip your coffee without distractions. Open the windows. Write a few lines in your journal—not because you have to, but because you get to.
Here are a few prompts to help you start inward:
- What does my body need today?
- How do I want to feel by the end of the day?
- What would bring me joy, even in a small way?
This isn’t about checking a box—it’s about softening into yourself. Spacious mornings remind us that we don’t always need to push to feel fulfilled. Sometimes, presence is enough.
Wander Without a Plan
Let your curiosity guide you.
One of the gifts of this kind of time is that no one’s waiting on you. There are no reservations to rush to, no conversations to keep flowing. You get to move entirely at your own pace—which is rarer than it should be. So why not spend a few hours following your own delight?
“To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work.”
—Mary Oliver
A few simple ways to wander:
- Explore your local library and sit with what you find.
- Visit a weekend market or flower stand—no list, no agenda.
- Take the long way through a neighborhood you love.
- Pop into an art gallery or museum you’ve never visited.
- Step inside a shop you’ve always passed but never entered.
The point isn’t to do anything impressive. It’s to release your grip on structure and let pleasure take the lead. This time—unmeasured, unhurried—is often where inspiration lives. Let the day surprise you.
Make a Meal a Moment
Eat something that feels like a love note to yourself.
When you’re alone, a meal can easily become an afterthought—eaten standing up, phone in hand, halfway between tasks. But one of the most restorative parts of a summer solo date is making something ordinary feel extraordinary. A meal, especially when made just for you, becomes an act of self-devotion.
You don’t need to go all out (though you can if that brings you joy). Maybe it’s a baguette and peak-season peaches, eaten on a blanket in the grass. Maybe it’s the pasta you’ve had bookmarked for weeks, finally made with music playing and a glass of something chilled and yummy in hand. Maybe it’s a solo lunch at your favorite spot—ordered exactly how you like it, eaten slowly.
Let this be your permission to make it beautiful. Use your favorite plate. Chop the herbs with care. Light a candle if you feel like it. The point isn’t perfection—it’s presence.
Need a little inspiration? Here are a few favorite recipes that feel just right for a solo summer meal:
Wherever you eat—on your balcony or barefoot in your kitchen—let it feel like a tiny celebration. You’re not just feeding your body. You’re reminding yourself you’re worth the care.
Rest as a Ritual
Stillness can be the most magical part of the day.
It’s easy to think of rest as the pause between the “real” moments—the activity before and the productivity after. But on your summer solo date, rest is the moment. It’s the part where you let yourself be held by the day you’ve created. Where you stop reaching and simply receive.
Maybe you stretch out in the sun with your eyes closed, letting the breeze graze your skin. Maybe you lie on your bed with a calming playlist and let your breath deepen. Or maybe you take a nap without setting an alarm. There is no wrong way to rest—only your way.
So often, we treat rest like something we have to earn. But what if it were part of the rhythm of your day, not a reward at the end of it? What if you let your solitude be sacred? On days when I’m holding space for someone else, this kind of stillness helps me return to myself with a little more softness.
Here are a few gentle ways to invite rest into your solo date:
- Lie in the grass and cloud-gaze.
- Listen to a guided meditation or sound bath.
- Take a slow bath with a few drops of essential oil.
- Read something beautiful that has nothing to do with productivity.
- Sit in silence and simply notice: how your body feels, what the air smells like, the sounds in the distance.
Let this be a reminder: you don’t always have to do to be. Sometimes, being with yourself in stillness is the most meaningful act of all.
How a Summer Solo Date Reconnects You to You
It can feel radical to choose stillness. To spend a day with no one but yourself and call it enough. But that’s exactly the magic of a summer solo date. For me, carving out this kind of time has become essential—not just because I need rest, but because I want to stay rooted in who I am, even while showing up for someone else.
However you spend your day, let it reflect what you need. Let it feel like you. And when the day ends, may you feel a little more present, a little more full, and a little more connected to the one relationship that carries you through everything: the one you have with yourself.