Bloom scrolling: what is it + why do it?
What began as an unapologetically escapist pastime this winter is morphing into mindful resistance this spring, through nature and aesthetics
Since November 6th, Pinterest has been my happy place.
If you’re in America, or simply alive in 2025 and not a fascist, you might guess why. To say the last few months have been bleak would be an understatement.
No single activity has brought comfort within my reach faster and with more assurance this winter than scouring Pinterest for aesthetically pleasing images to buoy my emotional state.
How quickly or carelessly politicians revoke human rights felt beyond my control, but what I placed my eyes and attention on to soothe these horrors was within my locus.
Sure, I could protest to express my discontent, but somewhere along the way in the trenches of adulting, marching in the streets fell out of alignment with my personal justice practice. The arc of the moral universe is long and at this time, I am convinced its bend toward justice involves me centering my peace and pleasure. Existing as a black woman in America is a hefty enough endeavor.
The inauguration came and went, and I bloom scrolled to fight the ominous feeling of doom and gloom that was descending upon us like an unrelenting fog. I submerged myself in hues of green and natural elegance.
The first 100 days of critical program cuts, DEI Rollbacks, bans and tariffs stormed in, and on I bloom scrolled, contemplating more levity– more frolicking.
And so a new pastime was born.
As I dove into this newfound hobby, I noticed a few things about the images that appealed to me.
Bloom scrolls looked nothing like the vanity flooding instagram or tik tok. These images did not pander for attention—they arrested it.
Most were unposed. But not always.
Some candid. But none pretentious.
What struck me most about the photos I bloom scrolled was just how consummate they were, in part and whole: the subject. the object. the setting.
The images, in their entirety, reflected the power of emotion: how being moved can move others.
Since 2025 has succeeded at highlighting the uglier sides of emotional power— the fear-based decisions of a select few determined to create tidal waves of terror and despondency—the least I could do was drop a few bloom-scroll pebbles on the scale to keep the ugliness in check, in my mind and others.
My subject of choice was almost always a black woman because, I mean, seriously—have you seen us?
But also, as a form of visualization.
What started simply as me daydreaming of what I'd rather be doing in the dead of winter, unfolded into more clarity as a subtle, peaceful, and surprisingly irresistible act: aesthetics as resistance.
As a member of the 92% of Black women who clocked fascism upfront, bloom scrolling felt like a natural, audacious and hopeful way to express my exhaustion of American antics. Our ancestors knew despair at the hands of White male property owners intimately, from the moment they were brought to this country against their will. Centuries later expose faulty patchwork in the veneer of progress.
Disappointment at self-interested and self-protecting policies that disenfranchise is a familiar feeling for Black women in America. However, deciding we are too tired to fight IS NOT. Black women have never had the luxury of being apathetic to policy- these circumstances were often life or death. And still are.
But somehow, I believe our ancestors support this. Not apathy. But a shuffling of our priorities towards nature. Bloom-scrolling is a quirky counter-response to disengagement— a bohemian push towards nonviolent resistance. It raises the table stakes and says ‘go all in’ on the switch from surviving to thriving, even if, for right now, it’s just the small act of how you spend time scrolling on your phone.
The subjects in these bloom scrolls are so engulfed in their own experience of pleasure that they seem completely unaware there is even a voyeur present, let alone capturing the moment in time for the delicacy it is. Pure, unadulterated mindfulness.
Or sometimes, the entire photo itself is designed by a visionary with such focus and attention-to-detail on naturally stunning elements, that the subject just seems to offer one more harmonizing note to an already perfected chord.
Substack has become my #2 happy place. Discovering it in December was the post-election boon I needed– to find I wasn't alone as someone who craves intimacy and needed respite from all the yelling occurring on other apps.
It was here, in sharing my bloom scrolls on Substack, that I discovered other people found the same joy and comfort in them too. My heart doubled in size. Suddenly, I wasn't alone in my desire to escape through beauty.
And it kept growing! People of all types began sharing my bloom scrolls. Black women began adding in their own photos. out in nature. beautiful. unbothered. And I just about threw my phone, gushing in joy.
Witnessing bloom scrolls come OFF-THE-SCREEN and into the real lives of everyday people like me transformed this hobby for me—it truly captured its essence at the highest expression.
So now I'm inviting everybody and their proverbial non-fascists mamas to join in :)
Bloom scrolling has only three conditions:
be in nature
be totally present
and enjoy!
Nothing would delight me more than experiencing a spring and summer of people slowing down, being deliberate about getting out into nature to slip from under the horrors of fascism and be unbothered and beautiful.
Bloom scrolling is not an exclusively Black thing. We all inhabit this beautiful, generous earth, and we have never lived in a time with greater possibility for connection on it. Anyone who reveres nature and has a healthy love for themselves is welcome to bloom scroll and share beauty with others. All of these things are under attack, perhaps because they are the precise things that will save us.
I would especially love to see black and indigenous people take on bloom scrolling. As the original and honorary stewards of this land, who have also had our connections with it broken violently and dishonorably, deliberate joy is one powerful way to reconcile it.
Bloom scrolling honors the feminine in us all. Mother Nature smiles every time we connect with her and our own inner nature. It pleases her greatly to see those who often feel restricted in their experiences of joy let loose and explore their full range of emotion. Capitalism and patriarchy try to convince us that only the masculine aspects of ourselves have value and deserve our effort, energy, time and attention. But my personal experience is that this leads to burnout–or worse. Rest, softness and beauty are our birthright—we all deserve to replenish our connection to being, not doing, in wholesome ways. Men, this includes y’all too. Bring your bromance to nature this spring.
The only thing that beats a bloom scroll is an inclusive one. May the most hodge-podgey, mixed company bloom scrolls take off! Black, White, Indigenous, Queer, Cishet, Two-spirit, Non-binary. We are stronger when we band together despite our difference.
While our individual rights and privileges experience systemic attack, which wins only when it divides us, many of us still have a few.
Some of us have the luxury of going to bed at night not in a state of panic around our citizenship. Whether we will be deported never crosses our mind. Some of you may never worry about how policy impacts the choices you can make with your body.
Let’s use our leisure in ways that stoke love– radiate it and send it out to those especially targeted and suffering in this country.
Nature enhances prayers. And enjoying nature is one of our unalienable rights. It is a deliberate and counter-intuitive form of protection in that our attention is our number one resource.
The distractions of technology with the stress of work, bills and the other ghettos of adulting may threaten our pleasure but unadulterated basking is a powerful form of prayer that draws in the realities we wish to see nearer to us.
Each season offers an array of ways to enjoy nature but the bloom in spring is powerful.
What better way to welcome spring than to align with Mother Nature, being fully engulfed in your activity of choice, as she awakens from her slumber well-rested and sprouting endless beauty?
forest bathing
having a picnic at the park
picking daisies
reading a book under a tree
reciting poetry to some redwoods
frolicking in a lavender field
knitting a blanket by a creek
sketching the shore line
rolling down a cascade of hills
Pick your highest pleasure and INDULGE!
If you happen to be with friends, take turns capturing candids of each other at the peak of your enjoyment.
If you’re alone- my personal favorite- enjoy yourself thoroughly and simply remember to memorialize the moment before you go–sans the vanity though. Thirst traps give despair, and nature is anything but that. If you're confused about the difference, simply follow your pleasure.
Experiencing pleasure is the essence of what makes a thing beautiful. Pleasure is not a thing to perform—it is a delight to experience. So less concern with ‘doing’ beauty and more on being with what you find beautiful.
If you focus your attention on upping the quality of your experience of pleasure in the moment- your fave place, in your fave clothes, on your fave day and time of day- it will be reflected when it’s captured.
When you give bloom scrolling a try, I hope you sit with the unique benefits that bubble up for you. And share them as you discover them ✨
The thing I appreciate most about bloom scrolling is how clearly it demonstrates the power of witnessing.
Both the internal experience we have as a result of what we take in.
And the external experience we create as we respond to what we’ve experienced.
Whether you decide to stay in and bloom scroll your Sunday scaries away on Pinterest, get out in nature to create your own moments of bloom to be scrolled, or cheer on a group of by-passers basking in nature, the power is amplified in sharing that joyful experience with others.
adrienne maree brown’s “Pleasure Activism” said it best: “Pleasure cannot exist under the weight of oppression”
Choosing joy is an act of resistance that benefits us all every time we choose it: from what we wear, to what we eat, how we feel, how we move, and when we praise.
If you’re on American soil, bloom scroll as a small way to command your power away from lurking fascists.
If you're a global citizen saddened by the American nightmare, bloom scroll and send us love when you bask in your land’s natural gems- we could all use it.
Centering joy is one small, but worthwhile act of resistance within everyone’s reach.
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