Ever tried making a 7-foot-long fiberglass banana with eight insect legs?

No?

What about repurposing an abandoned pay phone into a positivity portal that delivers a joke, a ridiculous dance request or some encouraging words for absolutely anyone who picks up the beaming yellow receiver? 

Sounds like a strange dream or the fantasy of a 5-year old, doesn't it?

But in Ryan McGuire's world, a limitless imagination combined with a rigorous anti procrastination discipline and a mad scientist mentality results in a playful world for joy junkies or anyone craving a jolt of possibility or polka dots amidst an ordinary day. 

And this creative dynamo, founder of a burgeoning community arts organization, photographer, photo shopper, web designer and all around wild man, Ryan McGuire, is our guest expert in The Life Feast this month.

Because in a world dominated by deadlines, routines, to do lists plus the daily drudgery of life maintenance (did you call that plumber or file that insuran...

Buckle up Creative Buttercups...

Because we're about to embark on a wild ride that'll blow your pragmatic, practical, oh so efficient and logical mind wide open!

Say hello to the one and only Phyllis Lane—pro photographer extraordinaire by day, and a mystical creative alchemist by night.

Her style is an infusion of creative and photographic FLOW that'll leave you wondering if you accidentally stepped into a parallel universe.

Better than Netflix, scrolling instagram, paying bills, shuttling kids to the pool, working your tail off or swatting mosquitos away this July...

Are you ready for this crazy creative adventure with Phyllis? 
Yes, you are!

Because no matter what the project is (personal or professional), Phyllis is absolutely committed to listening to the moment calls for (it often calls for dancing!). Allowing the moment to speak to her, making room for magic.

Breaking the Rules (and Shot Lists!):

Phyllis Lane doesn't play by the usual camera rules. She's been shaking...

Casie's photo on the left (running feet), Linnéa's photo (dog whiskers) on the right

A few years ago, A Day in the Life photographer, Casie Zalud, came to a crossroads in her work. Her photography felt stale, stagnant and a little too literal. She was looking all around for inspiration, then it dawned on her that inspiration was right in front of her all along. 

On a whim, Casie gave an old, inexpensive digital camera to her then 6-year old daughter, Linnéa, and from there, the Relinquish mother/daughter photgraphic conversation project was born. 

Linnéa's pint-size self-esteem could fill the frame and then some. Her 6-year old perspective was clean, simple and undeterred by the demands of the every day. 

As any self-assured child would, Linnéa took the creative lead on the project and taught Casie the merits of handing over the reins to her capable 6 year old hands, slowing down, being present, patient and never missing an opportunity for play. 

After her daughter would take a ...

In this Life Feast bonus dream interpretation and numerology workshop, Monica Kenton will show us how we can use dream interpretation and numerology to follow our own unique signs and symbols and hear our souls’ wisdom amidst the noise of everyday life.

Numerology and dream interpretation can help you navigate the unique roadmap of your soul.

Monica uses these tools to demystify certain obstacles on your life path to guide you toward more ease and grace.

Numerology can help enhance relationships with people in your life, tap into your intuition, give you greater insights and make sense of synchronicities and numbers that cross your path ... house numbers, license plates, your birthdate, these all can have soul messages that intrigue, delight and direct you to a purposeful path you might not have noticed otherwise. 

While numerology can be very personal, the year 2023 has its own universal message for all of us ... it is a wake up kind of year, where we are invited to get curious an...

photo credits: Byron Wolfe from Everyday, a yearlong photo diary

What if for the next 365 days you took one photo of your life everyday?

Snippets of real life, love and loss, not just snapshots for your own personal social media highlight reel.

Before everyone and their breakfast wallpapered the internet, before we all carried around a camera in the palm of our hand, photographer Byron Wolfe, challenged himself to this daily photographic practice to see his daily life through a different lens.

He had to take one interesting and compelling photo a day between his 35th and 36th birthdays.

This was 21 years ago.

Between grading papers at work, changing diapers at home and "date nights" with his wife at the grocery store, he didn't have time to take one “compelling”picture a month let alone one every.single.day.

No, he didn't pack a bag and summit Everest in order to catalog the world's best scenery for the glossiest version of his photographic diary.

Instead, the vistas were of ...

Did you know January is known as the looooongggest month of the year?

Ok arguably, at 31 days, it's actually not longer than December or August, but without all of the holiday hoopla or sunny summer days, it feels long!

And the joyless January feeling actually is so common, that, yesterday, was not only the revered MLK Day, but, to psychologists, it's also known as BLUE Monday. 

Between the holiday credit card bill, a lot less sunshine, a fall off of resolutions (hello ice cream!) and all the twinkly lights tucked away ... January can feel longer than any other month.

But I've got the antidote. 

It'll calm your mind, invigorate your spirit and help you feel more JOY.

It's part positive psychology pep talk, part creativity, part journal, and it's exactly what mid-winter January blahs call for.

Life Feast Guest Expert Workshop on 1/19/23
3 Tools to Find Your JOY and Thrive in January (and all year long) with Jennifer King Lindley
Sign up => here.

We'll cultivate self-compassio...

I lived in Provence, France during my junior year in college with a French family in a tiny apartment. 3 adults, 2 kids, one bathroom and no clothes dryer.

The mother of the family would kindly wash my clothes and hang them outside to dry on the clothesline. 

This might conjure up romantic images of lavender-scented crisp linens in the French countryside, but the reality was that my undies were hanging over a parking lot, my blue jeans came off the line stiff as cardboard and the towels were as soft as sandpaper. 

This certainly wasn't the great tragedy of my youth, but I will say that when I returned home, I had a new appreciation for clothes dried in a dryer. I had clearly taken the luxury of having a clothes dryer for granted my entire life.

As the chief laundress of my own household, on days that I'm less than thrilled to delve into a week's worth of wash, I can easily switch from being resentful to grateful. 

I think about how grateful I am for warm clothes, jeans that can't wal...

Gratitude is a social emotion. Gratitude wants to go out dancing, not be locked away in the dungeon. This is why writing in your daily gratitude in a journal is really only half of the gratitude equation.

Because the best gratitude practice is both reflective and expressive.

In fact, a recent study published in the Journal of Clinical Psychology showed that people who reaped the biggest benefits from gratitude do both.

This means you not only write privately in your gratitude journal, but you also GIVE THAT THANKS AWAY as we do in the #gratitudegravy challenge.

According to psychologist Sara Algoe’s, find, remind and bind theory, gratitude is so social, it helps us find new relationships, reminds us of our existing relationships and helps us to nurture and pay attention to these relationships that bind us together in community.

This suggests that gratitude has a distinct evolutionary purpose as this is all excellent for the continuation of our species.

We’ve already been pr...

Gratitude GRAVY 6

Today's gratitude challenge is so easy, you can do it in your sleep. In fact, that's exactly where I want you to do it! 

Sleep is a critical process that restores our bodies and our brains. It doesn't matter how much gratitude we have for that daily jolt of caffeine, we cannot survive without sleep. I personally am a bit of a train wreck when I don't get enough sleep! 

My mother's favorite coffee mug. Yes, my dad has a matching one! I'm grateful for my irreverent parents and their sense of humor!

In another gratitude study from Dr. Emmons Ph.D., in conjunction with the University of California - Davis Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and the University of Miami, a group of participants were given the task of practicing gratitude before bed. Control groups were asked to either write about neutral events, hassles or social comparison before bed.

Not surprisingly, the majority of participants who were in the gratitude group showed significantly higher p...