Self-reflection for positive change. My Almost Midlife Crisis.

Jennifer Villamil’s career passion has been advertising. She has worked in the industry for 18 years but her other great passion is podcasting. In mid April 2022 when she was 13 weeks pregnant she was laid off from her advertising role and the changes she was going though made her feel that she close to having a mid life crisis. She really didn’t know what was next.

During the pandemic she had been in lockdown in Chicago, which was operating strict health guidelines. She was due to get married in May 2020 but as soon as the pandemic started she realised it was going to be a big deal and she started a journal. She kept this though the whole pandemic for her own self-reflection and as a way to document moving her wedding multiple times and reevaluating her life during the pandemic. It was during this self-refection that she decided to start her podcast as a way to come to terms with approaching middle age and all the emotions that come with it.

Jennifer feels that the term mid life crisis has a really bad reputation but that it can be a time for positive change and far more exciting and interesting than we think. The idea of a mid life crisis is now defined differently. Jennifer feels it can start at different times. The reason why it was originally seen as a mid life crisis is because at the mid point of our lives we start reevaluating things. This still holds true but the pandemic has caused many people to have a mid life crisis simply because they had time to think about their life choices.

That’s really what a mid life crisis is. A time to reevaluate what’s going on in your life whether it’s your career, relationships, who you are as a person, whether this is who you want to be or whether this is what you want to be doing in the next chapter of your life and then introducing changes to ensure the next chapter is better than the last and that we benefit from the changes that we make.

The reason why mid life crisis tend to occur a little bit later in life is because of the difference in our sense of mortality.  At 18 you feel you have all the time in the world but the older you get, the more you start realising that a lot of time has passed and that you don't have an unlimited amount of time. A sense of mortality creates anxiety or uncomfortable feelings around the idea that we need to make changes. When some people feel this sense of mortality they suffer from an urgency to make changes and can go out and something destructive like wreck a marriage or long term relationship by having an affair. The key is to hold off on doing something rashly and take the time to self reflect and understand why we feel uncomfortable and what is creating this desire for change. If we can understand this we can make the right choices in a healthy way.

Jennifer feels that going though big life changes later in life is completely different because the way you think about it and that the things that matter to you are so different in your 40’s than they were in your 20’s. There is a fresh approach to ageing now although conventionally a mid life crisis still occurs around the age of 40. Jennifer thinks that 40 is a milestone but at the same time its exciting, a new chapter in a place where you are comfortable in who you are but are also trying to be better physically mentally or spiritually. There are still so many opportunities to make things better going forward.

You can learn more about Jennifer at myalmostmidlifecrisis.com. where there are details about her ‘My Almost Midlife Crisis Podcast’ and her "What a Year, a COVID Journal’ book.

You can listen to the podcast in full and find out further information here. Our upcoming guest list is also available along with our previous blogs.
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