How I'm Breaking My Midlife Consumption Addiction (And Why You Might Want To Too)

When you're in the middle of redefining everything about your life, consumption keeps you stuck while creation sets you free.

The algorithm knows exactly how to keep you scrolling. But what if you chose creating instead?

I have several creative projects sitting at 90% completion right now. Projects that mean a lot to me. Projects that represent months of work, research, passion and heart.

And yet, I caught myself recently: deep into Instagram stories about other people's perfectly curated lives while my own notebook sat unopened beside me. Consuming content that would evaporate from my memory by evening, while the ideas that could actually change my life gathered dust.

It got me thinking: When did we become so good at consuming and so afraid of creating?

The Consumption Trap (And Its Hidden Gifts)

Social media platforms aren't designed to inspire you; they're designed to keep you there. Every scroll, every double-tap, every algorithmic "you might also like" is engineered to trigger that tiny hit of dopamine that keeps you coming back for more.

And it works brilliantly.

Don't get me wrong, over the past decade and a half of working online, first with my blog, then through online businesses and social media, I've met some of the most wonderful women. I've created lasting, aligned connections that have enriched my life immeasurably. The internet has given us unprecedented access to our tribe, to mentors, to communities we never would have found otherwise.

But sometimes we need to even the score.

We consume endless streams of other people's thoughts, creations, and highlight reels while our own creative impulses slowly starve. We become spectators in our own lives, feeding off everyone else's creative energy while our own withers from neglect. We need to tip the balance back toward creating, not abandon connection entirely.

The cruel irony? The more we consume without creating, the more inadequate we feel. We see everyone else's finished products, their beautiful homes, successful businesses, and creative projects, without witnessing the messy, unglamorous process of creating them. So we convince ourselves we could never do anything that good, and we retreat back into consumption.

What We're Really Starving For

But here's what I've noticed: the same women who spend hours consuming content are the ones solving complex problems every single day.

You're rearranging schedules when life explodes. You're creating solutions with whatever's in the fridge when unexpected guests arrive. You're finding diplomatic ways to handle family drama. You're inventing organisational systems for chaotic households. You're crafting presentations that make sense of complicated information.

That's creativity.

Creativity isn't just paintbrushes and pottery wheels. It's the mental agility to see possibilities where others see problems. It's the courage to try something new when the old way isn't working. It's the willingness to experiment, fail, adjust, and try again.

Every time you:

→ Find a new route when traffic is blocked
→ Repurpose something for a different use
→ Come up with a compromise that works for everyone
→ Write an email that gets the response you need
→ Figure out how to make someone feel better
→ Solve a problem that doesn't have a manual

You're being creative.

The Creating vs. Consuming Brain

When you're consuming, you're operating in what researchers call "default mode"; your brain is taking in information but not generating anything new. It's passive, receptive, but ultimately depleting.

When you're creating, even something as simple as writing three pages in a journal or rearranging a room, your brain lights up differently. You're making connections, solving problems, bringing something into existence that didn't exist before. You're active, engaged, and, most importantly, you're the author of your own experience, rather than just a reader of everyone else's.

The difference in how this feels in your body is profound. Consuming often leaves you feeling restless, inadequate, or somehow empty despite all the input. Creating, even when it's messy or imperfect, leaves you feeling alive, present, like yourself again.

What Creativity Actually Does for Your Life

Beyond the obvious benefits (having something to show for your time), tapping into your creativity creates a ripple effect that touches everything:

Mental clarity: When you regularly create something, anything, you practice making decisions, trusting your instincts, and moving ideas from your head into reality. This skill transfers to every area of life.

Emotional regulation: Creative activities are natural stress relievers. They give your anxious mind something constructive to focus on while processing emotions in a healthy way.

Identity recovery: When you're always consuming other people's ideas, you start to lose track of your own. Creating helps you remember who you are beneath all the roles you play.

Problem-solving skills: The more you practice creating solutions in low-stakes creative projects, the better you become at navigating high-stakes real-life challenges.

Confidence building: Every time you start with nothing and end with something, even a terrible something, you prove to yourself that you're capable of bringing ideas to life.

Connection: When you create, you have something authentic to share instead of just resharing everyone else's content. Your real voice attracts your real people.

The Small Rebellion of Creating

In a culture that profits from your attention and insecurities, choosing to create instead of consume is a quiet rebellion.

You're saying: "My thoughts matter enough to put on paper."
You're saying: "My vision is worth experimenting with."
You're saying: "I don't need to be perfect to be worthy of creative expression."

This matters more in midlife than ever because this is when we're most vulnerable to the consumption trap. We're managing so many responsibilities that passive entertainment feels like the only option. We're comparing ourselves to people decades younger or with completely different life circumstances.

We've been practical for so long that we've forgotten how to play.

But what if you reclaimed just twenty minutes a day from consuming and gave it to creating instead?

Starting Small (But Starting)

You don't need to quit social media cold turkey or enrol in art school. You just need to tip the balance slightly toward creating instead of consuming.

This could look like:

• Writing three pages of whatever's on your mind before checking your phone

• Taking photos of things that genuinely interest you instead of just viewing everyone else's

• Cooking without a recipe and seeing what happens

• Rearranging a space to better reflect who you are now

• Having an actual conversation instead of consuming content about communication

• Planning something you'd enjoy instead of scrolling through everyone else's plans

The goal isn't to become a capital-A Artist. The goal is to remember that you're not just a consumer of life, you're a creator of it.

Your Creative Recovery Awaits

I know how easy it is to read this, nod along, and then immediately open Instagram. I know because I do it too. The pull to consume instead of create is strong, and it's designed to be.

But every time you choose creating over consuming, even for a few minutes, you're voting for the person you want to become instead of staying stuck in the person you've been.

Your brain is starving for something more than endless input. It's craving the satisfaction of output, the joy of making something that didn't exist before, the deep contentment that comes from using your mind to create rather than just consume.

You have ideas worth exploring, solutions worth trying, and a creative voice that's been quiet for far too long. The world has plenty of consumers. What it needs is more women brave enough to create.

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Ready to tip the balance from consuming to creating? I'm starting a FREE 12-week creative recovery journey on September 1st, where we'll practice choosing creating over consuming, together. No artistic experience required, just a willingness to remember that you're meant to be the author of your own experience. Join us here and let's prove that midlife is when creativity truly begins. 💕

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P.S. If you found yourself nodding along to this but thinking "I don't have time to create," remember: you found time to read this entire post. You have time. You just need permission to use it differently.

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Extra reading…

Quantity leads to quality - Austin Kleon: The frequency of your work, showing up at regular intervals, without worrying about results, actually leads to better results.

Quantity leads to quality.