HOUSEKEEPING: Season one wrap up, highlights, & your input for season two!
Come check out the top stories from season one and share your feedback to help me pick a theme for season two!
I announced the winners of my book giveaway on my instagram last week! Make sure to check my reel titled “Giveaway Winners” to see if you won. If you didn’t win, I have a thank you gift for entering. Read the caption of this reel to redeem it <3
Welcome to the FINAL WEEK of season one of The Messy Middle.
I am so incredibly grateful to you for your readership. I started my Substack in January, and there are now 600+ of you here. WOAH.
Season two starts April 3rd and your feedback is welcome!
I will be taking next week OFF to rest, center, and prepare for season two.
And I would LOVE your feedback before I prepare. To keep this readable, there are polls sprinkled throughout the newsletter!
A quick reminder: The Messy Middle consists of three components:
The Monday Messy (weekly newsletter with tips & journaling prompts)
We Met in the Middle (weekly stories of humanity/conversations with strangers)
Mess Hall (community chat)
If you’re just joining us feel free to go back to week one and review the season one archive, and join the Mess Hall chat to check out the forum. To access all the newsletters you’ll need to be a paid subscriber. You can do a 7-day Free Trial below XX. To access the chat you’ll need to download the app, instructions to do that are at the end of this newsletter :)
My goal with this publication was to:
A) Tell honest stories about my eating disorder, divorce, depression, and suicidal thoughts.
B) Provide consistent, weekly tips, journaling prompts, and helpful tools
C) Develop community through a private chat space that helps us connect outside of comparative and overstimulating platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok.
My idea was that every “season” I would have a central theme to inform the newsletters, stories, and chat space. This is now the last week of our first season. The theme was “presence,” and I tried (sometimes we strayed a wee bit from the theme, but hey—MESSY IS THE NAME OF THE GAME) to center stories and tips around this topic.
One thing I struggled with was putting a newsletter out ON Monday.
The Monday Messy, by name, insinuates it comes out Monday. Duh. But Mondays are usually my most braindead/getting organized/finding-the-energy-to-begin-the-week day. I’m debating moving the Monday Messy to another day, both for my sanity and so that maybe y’all get some better writing out of me LOL.
Some of my favorite moments included:
The story about my bikini waxer that turned into a viral Instagram reel :|
lol the comments section on this sent me Finding out what kind of eater I am (and you are) in this post on ED recovery and what I’ve learned in grad school about food and addiction
When I decided to come home after *another* depressive episode and wrote about the decision to seek ED treatment
Then six weeks later facing some doubts and questions about ED treatment, and whether it’s right for me (it’s me, hi, I’m the problem it’s me)
Top Tip & Recommendation, & Journaling prompt from the Monday Messy newsletters:
Top Tip: Learning to “Micro-Pause” in Week 7 and help navigate triggers
Top Journaling Prompts: Our very unconventional NYE journaling prompts (which honestly you can use for any transition!)
Top Recommendation: The TedTalk and book I recommended in Week 9 about the parts of our brain that make up our personality (hello left brain/right brain wisdom).
Thank you!
I am so eternally grateful you are here. Without you my writing means nothing, and you keep me going. I could not be here today if it weren’t for your support, readership, and shared vulnerability. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Here’s to another messy, wild, and uncertain season of The Messy Middle.
All my messy love,
Rach
You can learn how to join Mess Hall chat here. You can read chapter one of my book free here. Download my free guided journals here. Take my Writing Masterclass here.
