My Mini Midlife Crisis

You know those times when you feel existential & start to overthink, those are times of transition. And times of transition call for conscience effort to navigate in healthy ways. When your transition doesn’t go smoothly, a transition turns from a Mini Midlife Crisis to a full-blown crisis.

I work through my times of crisis by journaling, creating, & writing.

I have found three styles of journaling that help me in my journey best. However, there are many different styles of journaling. One I speak about a lot is prompted journaling.

Thought Dumping & Free Writing

The First style of journaling that I find that works for me is thought dumping/free writing. This is a newer format for me. Before I started incorporating thought dumping through free writing I would do something similar. I was a historical documenter, an autobiographer (if you will). I would write down more what happened during the day, not how I was feeling.

But free writing is not a new idea to me because I would use it in other forms of writing. I just never used it in my journaling. You can find out more about free writing in my blog, Thought Diving & The Sea of Paper.

Junk Journals & Letting Go

In the past I would scrapbook. I would spend hours careful placing pictures, stickers, & cute little pieces of paper in the perfect order. I helped me be creative in a very rigid & controlled way. Then I discovered junk journaling on TikTok.

The process of junk journaling includes cutting, gluing, & creating. This part of the process is very much like scrapbooking. However, I was seeing these junk journals & seeing controlled chaos. I was excited to give it a try & I ordered some supplies.

I sat down without a plan to start my junk journal because I wanted to let go & let loose. I struggled through that first page. It hit a lot of my buttons. I was frustrated & irritated but as I closed the page, I felt relieved. It was therapeutic. I felt a sense of release & relaxation. By getting over my hang-ups that things need to be perfect in my journal, I I can no longer hold myself to those same standards of perfection.

Expression Through Poetry

My final favorite way to journal is through my poetry. It can be said that poetry is not a form of journaling but I challenge you to think beyond the typical idea of journaling. At least junk journaling has journaling in the name but we have to think outside the journal here.

Many times I find that I am at a lost for words to express my feelings but when I sit down to write poetry I give myself permission to write. I go through a transition, much like I do when I write here. This transition brings me to a point were I am at a deeper connection with my feelings, emotions, & thoughts.

I have been including poetry in my journals since the beginning in 4th grade. I even went ahead & got a degree in English with a concentration on poetry & journalism. It was sometime in college when blogs started to become a thing. So I would write about my life & sprinkle my poetry throughout the entries. Now I have a separate site for my poetry blog – simple musings of melanie ann – just as I keep a journal for free writing & a different one for my junk journal. Even though there are often crossovers.

Because I have so many ways of expressing myself, I rarely will go long carrying around my feelings, emotions, & thoughts. I thought dump in ways that make me push myself, helping me from bottling up things unnecessarily. Sometimes it’s important to compartmentalized but there is also a much needed time to let it out.

It is through regular journaling, therapy, & help from my tribe that I avoid & will keep avoiding a Major Midlife Crisis! This is why I wrote my course Rewriting Your Story, to help you journal through rediscovery. Journaling is such an important tool in our mental health kit.