Speaker 1 00:00:06
Welcome. I'm Lizzie Larock, and you're listening to the Life Feast podcast, A podcast for people who are ready to find
moments of joy, even on days where it feels like life just sucked the joy right out of it. Get ready to banish your stress,
rediscover your creativity, and maybe even connect with your long lost self. We've got no bs, happiness hacks, creativity
boosts all kinds of easy ways to savor the tiny, beautiful moments of our crazy busy lives. So if you are ready for life to feel
more like a playful adventure and less like a never ending to-do list, take a seat at my table. It's time to feast on your life. I'll
tell you what, it has been hard, really hard to come back to podcasting, which is probably not how you should start
your first podcast episode in several years. But I, I'm pretty transparent and I'm an open book.
Speaker 1 00:01:03
And if you listen to the first few episodes and then notice that I went radio silent for a couple of years, then, and you're back,
then you need to know why. And if you are listening for the first time, I wanna introduce myself. I want to hold myself
accountable and to a higher standard and not back out after the next six episodes knowing that I've outed myself
fully here in this one. So I wanna say that simultaneously as I'm coming back to podcasting after too long of a hiatus, I'm
also coming back to my yoga practice. And that, quite frankly, has been incredible. Before the pandemic, I had gotten really
into a yoga studio in my area, called out here, yoga that I adore. And I had done this 40 day challenge in person, and it was a
really hard and difficult challenge. Hot yoga, power yoga, and 40 days of it.
Speaker 1 00:02:17
And it was phenomenal. I felt really accomplished at the end of it, and I was so grateful to be in this community and back on
my mat and with this regular practice. And then shortly after it ended, the pandemic hit, and then I did an online challenge. I
did a 40 day challenge. I kind of hurt my wrist a little bit, attempting to do my yoga in the sunroom of my house, maybe not
always with the most perfect posture. And then when the studio opened back up again, my kids were in sports and in
activities, and school was hybrid, and we were waiting for everything to open back up or partially open back up, or get
permission for the basketball team to, to get to have its tournaments. And everything was so difficult as, as I'm sure you
remember, and I didn't want to have my practice be this voluntary risk of affecting my kids.
Speaker 1 00:03:25
And not that if I were to have contracted covid and, and then have an exposure, and then the team would have to quarantine
and then the season would be over, and we were so grateful for the little that they got to play that year that I didn't wanna do
that. I didn't wanna affect anything, so I couldn't, I didn't go back to the yoga studio for a while, for very legitimate reasons
than after vaccines. And after I was less worried about it and wanting craving to get back to yoga, I couldn't. I was stuck like
it was, I was so out of practice and getting there, my own motivation felt exponentially hard. kinda like the
podcasting. So this past New Year's, on New Year's Eve, I was at home and no one was doing anything at my house.
Actually, everyone was not feeling great except for me.
Speaker 1 00:04:27
I was feeling wonderful, but didn't have any plans. And I decided to go to a candlelight yoga class at this favorite yoga
studio that I hadn't been back to for a couple of years. And it was magnificent. And while I was there, I decided I'm gonna do
the 40 day challenge in January again, I'm gonna get back into it. And the challenge is this wonderful container that holds
me accountable for what I want. And I was so grateful to it. And so I've been back in this challenge and it's been fantastic. I
think it's been about three weeks now that I've been in this challenge. I feel so good, so strong, so energized. I can't even
believe how long I stayed out of this studio, how long it took me to come back into it. But instead of really beating myself
about that, like I'm just focusing on how glad I am that I'm doing it.
Speaker 1 00:05:27
I'm proud of myself. And that's where we come back to the podcast , right? I'm doing the same thing over here. And
it's a really, I think that I always have this thought that when I think about the podcast of like, well, where do I start? Where
do I come back now? It's been too long that, that I haven't done it. I'm gonna have to start with this perfect first episode. I'm
gonna have to get it right. I'm gonna have to do this in this linear order. And it's so interesting because I am not at all a
linear person. I believe very much in this EDUs race. I hope I'm pronouncing that correctly. But this, you know, the Latin
writing term about starting in the middle of things, when you go to a movie and there is a hero careening down the highway
at 120 miles an hour in a a car, and you're not sure why and you don't know the backstory, and the movie didn't start with
the birth of the hero, right?
Speaker 1 00:06:26
You have no idea when she was born, where, but you're in the middle of the story right from the gate. And this is the hook.
So this is kind of where we are with the podcast. So we're just gonna start in the middle because , I, if I wait for
myself to come up with this perfect beginning, well, we will be waiting a very long time. And this actually came up in a
recent coaching session with some clients of mine in which I was consulting on business and creativity and an
entrepreneurial endeavor. And I just kept saying like, you need to be okay with the messiness and the fact that it isn't linear.
And when you're starting creating something from scratch, as much as we want to have this delineated formula of here's
what to do first, then second, then third, then fourth in business and entrepreneurship and creativity, it's not, it doesn't
happen that way, right?
Speaker 1 00:07:28
You have to make your mark when you're staring at a blank canvas and you're completely, you know, that's the, the bitch of
the blank canvas. And you just like, I can make anything. So I think I'll make nothing because I'm completely overwhelmed
by the pressure I'm putting on myself. The advice from every art teacher I've ever had is you have to just make a mark. You
have to go start in the middle, chicken scratch, do what you need to do. Ann Lamott has her beautiful saying, just write your
shitty first draft. And this is, I don't want my podcast to be a shitty first draft. And it's not. It's, we're starting in the middle,
we're restarting in the middle, but it's messy. And it goes against everything that my inner perfectionist wants for me,
because she always has something to say. She's very critical. She's incredibly annoying, she's debilitating.
Speaker 1 00:08:27
She, it's the reason why it's taken me at least two years to come back to this, that, plus in my defense, I did actually have to
have vocal cord surgery, which does make it a bit challenging to record podcast episodes when you actually can't talk
without being extremely hoarse and drinking like five cups of tea and having lozenges. But I digress because I want this to
be your permission slip to jump back in, in the middle, in the middle of your own life, wherever it is to come back to
yourself. Because if you're listening to this podcast, chances are you weren't born today. You aren't a newborn baby unless
you've got just some awesome parent who is, who's playing you. Podcasts of mine besides lullabies, I will say I did get a
high compliment from a, a guy on YouTube saying that his dog loves listening to my voice, .
Speaker 1 00:09:26
So that was the best compliment ever. If your baby is listening, if you're a baby and you're listening to this podcast in utero
or in your crib, then well done, mom, dad, whatever the parent is listening to this . But I'm gonna assume that truly,
if you're my ideal listener, you are not a newborn baby, and you're an adult and you are in the middle of your life, and
perhaps every decision that you've made up until this moment, wherever you are, aren't perfectly in order. They were
messy, they were out of order. You took some detours, some wrong turns, you went in a circle, you went backwards, you
went forward, right? It's, it wasn't even like this beautiful chacha, it was more like a tornado, who knows. But today,
wherever you are in the middle of your life, in medias race, you get to create whatever the f you want.
Speaker 1 00:10:28
There's a Brene Brown quote that I absolutely love, and I think I first heard it years ago when I wasn't as far into midlife as I
am now. She said, I think midlife is when the universe gently places her hand upon your shoulders, pulls you close and
whispers in your ear, I am not screwing around this time. Oh, powerful, right? It reminds me of my other favorite quote,
which originally thought was Hunter s Thompson, a kind of like that version of it better, but it's Confucius. So just as
amazing wiser than honor. Um, but it was, the quote is, we all have two lives to live. The second one starts as soon
as we realize we only have one, right? All eighties. So references aside, we have one life to live. We have this one precious
life, and what are we doing with it?
Speaker 1 00:11:34
And if we turn up at midlife or wherever we are, whatever age, that if we tell ourselves, oh, but I didn't, I wanna, I wanna live
out this dream, but I didn't make all these perfect decisions up until now to carry that out, that we stop ourselves, that we
tell ourselves it's too late, we're too old, we're too whatever. And it's such bs, but we all buy into it. And culture, I guess we
don't all buy into it, but a lot of us buy into it. And culture really harps on that. So recently, I, I've had some interesting
conversations with clients, with friends, with new people in the yoga studio, and a couple things that have come up is, are
this changes that people wanna make in their lives, right? I've, I've spoken with spoken with a marketing executive who,
corporate marketing executive who no wants to, no longer wants to be in corporate marketing.
Speaker 1 00:12:33
And I've talked to a lawyer who no longer wants to be a lawyer, and I've talked to someone who has gone back to work or
forging a beautifully creative freelance career after many years as a stay at home parent. And I had a dear friend say to me
the other day that she was lovingly envious of me and some things that I was creating in life right now. I also had ,
I've had several people, this is actually really funny. Several friends and two clients say, I want whatever you're eating for
breakfast, Lizzie, those exact words like, you are so on fire. And there's, I don't know if it's the Wheaties or what, but you,
you're living out your dreams in this take no prisoners kind of way. That's what a member of my life use program had texted
to me. And I think it's because I hit this milestone birthday this summer years ago, I decided that I wanted to feast on my life.
Speaker 1 00:13:44
I did not want to subsist on crumbs any longer. And I really had, I had been kind of what I would say, living on life leftovers,
just taking the scraps, putting my needs dead last in life, always. And FYI, that does not make you the most pleasant person
to be around . We might think it makes us a martyr, or somehow we've sacrificed everything for the people we love,
and then we're just a nightmare to be around. So that's not cool either. It's actually not that loving self-care. I, I believe fully
is, is a gift for yourself and a gift for those you love. So when the third person said to me, in a matter of 10 days, what are
you eating for breakfast? I want . I want what you're having. This this, when Harry met Sally Diner moment, I'll have
what she's having.
Speaker 1 00:14:36
I thought, you know what? It's probably time to talk about this to really share what I have been up to, what I'm proud of, what
tell you right in the middle, I have, I lovingly joke about myself that my business and my dreams that I am, I definitely have
taken the, I build the airplane while flying it approach , which can, it can have some turbulence. I I'll let you know
that. But it's up in the air, it's off the ground, it is in motion, which is how we get things done, right when we're stuck in that
inert show, when we can't get back into the yoga studio, when we can't get back on the podcast, when we tell ourselves
there's this perfect career trajectory that we didn't take 15 years ago. So we paralyze ourselves and we have to make that
mark. We have to let it be messy.
Speaker 1 00:15:35
We have to just start in the middle, start in the middle of your life, start in the middle of your day, the middle of the month,
, whatever that is. But don't wait till the middle of the year. Don't wait till the middle of your deathbed, like, let's do it
now. So I had an art show last week, exactly a week ago today that I had this wonderful art show. I got asked to do this art
show in mid-December, and it was for February 2nd. So I didn't have a ton of time, but I thought, yeah, yeah, I can do this.
And then I procrastinated a bit, and it was the holidays and I was a bit overwhelmed and stressed, and then January hit and I
was like, oh my gosh, I gotta get my act together and get this art show ready. And I went all in and I edited, printed, framed,
and hung 31 photos, 31 11 by 11, 20 by 20 frames.
Speaker 1 00:16:42
I did all the framing myself, I did all printing myself. And my wonderful dear friend Joe helped me curate a bit and, and hang
the show. And my phenomenal graphic designer, Beth, helped me make the most gorgeous collateral. I was like marketing
the day before. I, I don't recommend always using urgency as your deadline. I tell that to you from the trenches. I would
rather have had this planned out and had this perfect step-by-step art show in place. But I didn't, and I knew that I had an
itch that I wanted to scratch. I wanted to have this show. I want, I'm launching a website this month to sell my photography
work. I've been a photographer forever. I haven't done an art show in seven years. And the most recent one that I had done
in my own studio had been showcasing all of my life feast students work.
Speaker 1 00:17:39
So this was primarily my own work. And 31 Photos is a huge show. This was a large gallery space, absolutely gorgeous, and
a lot of walls. And because I've had, I don't know, several decades of photography under my belt, I have no shortage of
thousands of photos to choose from. And so I thought, oh, I, I'll have no problem filling these walls. Well, it's a behemoth
task to do that many and mostly by yourself. But I really wanted to, and if I had told myself I should wait until the summer, I
should wait until I have a perfect plan in place. I should wait until I've had more time. You know what? I probably still would
just be doing it in the 11th hour a few weeks before, and I would just be for the next six months, beating myself up about
how, I don't know, overthinking it.
Speaker 1 00:18:36
That's where, where I get stuck in this critical overthinking process. And I thought self-critical, I should say, not critical as in
, really important. I could do without the self criticism. And it's the bane of my existence, my inner critic. I talk about
her a lot in my life feast course and in my life Feast Collective membership. I, I talk about how to get out of my own
perfectionism to get out. I call it being in feast mode rather than beast mode. My inner beast who's always trying to shut me
down and telling me that there's some right way that I haven't figured out. And if I just have more time, then, then it'll be
perfect. And it's just that, I talked about this in one of these earlier podcast episodes. The one titled, I think it's titled
like Malibu Barbie. It's pretty funny.
Speaker 1 00:19:32
It's all about perfectionism. But I talk about a friend's restaurant who their slogan used to say like, free beer tomorrow. Like
it was always free beer Tomorrow. What a great gimmick. If you come in today, the free beer is tomorrow, you come in
tomorrow, it says the free beer is tomorrow. You just keep like putting off this deadline, this life, this big beautiful feastly life
of yours until tomorrow. And I didn't wanna do that to myself anymore. That's, that's not what I teach. I'm so great about
putting myself out there in so many different ways. But this art show piece I hadn't done in a long time. And my friend Joe
and I had been talking about how I needed to do one. We talked about maybe by December for holiday season I, that did not
happen. And then it was February, this is happening February.
Speaker 1 00:20:25
And I remember her saying to me kind of midway through in January, you think you're gonna be ready for this ?
Like a little skeptical. And I, I, she might not have been that, that's probably my own stuff. But I remember saying like, yeah, I
am doing it. I've got this covered. And it was fantastic. I'm so proud of myself. I sold work there. We had a great turnout. It's
been the catalyst to get my Shopify site going. And no, that's not in perfect order, right? Like ideally, I would've had the site,
the show would be the launch of that. Like, I'm a marketer, I know how these things work. But that's, at the end of the day, it
was, I'm still doing this, I'm doing this out of order. And that's okay. On media's race, I'm allowed to start in the middle. So
the other thing that I did that I'm really proud of in the past, I don't know, eight months or so that I did starting in the middle,
is creating a retreat business.
Speaker 1 00:21:30
The Art of Life Creativity retreats with my dear childhood friend, one of my favorite humans on the planet, Weatherly Stro.
And we both were having this milestone birthday in, you know, within like six months of each other. Hers was in January,
mine was in August. And about a year ago, we had discuss, well, many times over the years we had discussed how we both
wanted to lead artist retreats, creativity retreats around the world. And I had kids that I was just really busy with and kind of
kept putting it off, putting it off. And we were talking on the phone and you know, we were gonna do this individually. Like
she was gonna lead painting retreats. And I would lead photography retreats and thought, why don't we just do it together?
Wouldn't that be fun? I don't wanna do it alone. And she didn't wanna do it alone.
Speaker 1 00:22:29
And it would be 10 times more amazing if we combined forces. And it might not be perfect, but why don't we just give it a
go? We have no idea what will happen, but let's try it. And so last May, we rented a villa. We committed to renting a villa in
Tuscany for a week. And I wrote up a website for us and we launched it. And within three days we sold out this villa. We
maxed out this villa that the, the owners of the house had never had that many people in their bedrooms. We had
people sharing bedrooms everywhere. And we felt so bad we then had a wait list. Like we, there were so many people who
wanted to come on this retreat with us who we had to say no to that we ended up asking the villa owners if we could rent a
second week and do a second retreat.
Speaker 1 00:23:22
And sure enough, we sold that one out in about, I dunno, I think seven days. So suddenly we went from having, maybe we
should start a retreat business to, we have 21 people coming to Tuscany with us in four months, and I guess we better
figure out what we're gonna do with them, and I guess we better get a bank account and an LLC. And it was, it was
so funny and ironic, like we'd already sold out all of these spots and we're taking payments and we're doing reservations.
And we didn't, we didn't have, like, we used our own bank accounts and credit card processors, but we didn't have one
jointly together because we were just starting in the middle. We were starting messy. We were just giving it a shot and
seeing what happened. And it was so fantastic. These retreats, I can't even begin to say in addition to the vocal cord
surgery, I'll say I had had some really personally difficult years in 2022 and 2023 and going to Italy this fall and leading these
retreats.
Speaker 1 00:24:36
So personally fulfilling for me. And it made me remember who I was again, after a lot of really challenging circumstances.
Life events, awful life events, a whole lot of grief difficulties on so many, so many different aspects of my life. And being in
Italy reminded me who I was again. And we led the photography workshops, we led the painting workshops, we went on
field trips. We had the most amazing wine tastings. We had phenomenal meals. We had a surprise opera singer. We had,
gosh, what else did we do? We had a cooking class, we had private chef, the owners of the villa, Ben and Nicole are just,
just amazing. We had dance parties with Ben's amazing record collection. People played pool, we had daily yoga, we did
cold plunges . We meditated, we laughed, we laughed hysterically. And people had life-changing moments. And we
also just had so much joy.
Speaker 1 00:25:50
Oh, and we went on a bike ride that was pretty hard actually. all so amazing. It was fantastic. And what it reminded
me is really what I teach and what I profess is to feast on your life. And I started this business years ago with an idea, with a
poem that I wanna share with you today because I shared it in, I actually printed it on a poster and put it up in my art show
because I kind of even forgot where it started. What was the beginning of the life feast. And as I was sharing with people in
preparation of the show, I thought, oh, I should put that poem up. Like, it explains a lot. It explains where I came from in all
this. So this poem was up on the, or is up on the wall of my art show. And a dear friend asked me about it and she said, I
love, I always love that Derrick Walcott poem.
Speaker 1 00:26:49
And I see that you wrote in your artist statement that you found it 15 years ago during a time when things were really
difficult in your life. And she said, you don't have to share, but I'm just curious, like what was going on back then? And I
won't go into all the, the dirty details, at least not in this episode. I, I go into more of the dirty details in my life feast
course and membership when you have closer proximity to me. But, but I will share that everything, my life felt like a hot
mess back then. And um, my friend Kathy used to call it, she said, well, you're like a, an oat mess like oat couture, H-A-U-T-E
because you're just really fashionable. But yeah, things sound like a train wreck over in your life. And we, my husband and I
owned a 300 seat bar restaurant that just was so chaotic and he was struggling with a lot of health issues and then had to
have six surgeries in a matter of seven years.
Speaker 1 00:27:55
And we were struggling as a couple. We were new parents, we had toddler twins before that, infant twins. We'd been
through a lot of infertility. We were both extremely stressed out, like acute, toxic levels of stress. Like when I've gone into
therapy and I've shared some of the things that were going on back then, jaws drop the floor of, it's a lot, it's a lot
for, uh, people to go through in a short period of time. And so I remember I stumbled upon this poem in the middle of
reading an Ober magazine because I think that was my therapy back then. Oprah magazine. And it's the poem, love
After Love from Derek Walcott. I'm gonna read it to you right now. So the time will come when with elation, you'll greet
yourself arriving at your own door in your own mirror, and each will smile at the other's.
Speaker 1 00:28:56
Welcome and say, sit here, eat. You will love again the stranger who was yourself. Give wine, give bread, give back your
heart to itself, to the stranger who has loved you all your life, whom you ignored for another, who knows you by heart. Take
down the love letters from the bookshelf, the photographs, the desperate notes. Peel your own image from the mirror. Sit
feast on your life. Woo, still gets me. I remember reading that last line. It was last three lines and thinking, oh my gosh, I've
betrayed myself. I'm unrecognizable. I don't know who I am anymore. I've been so caught up in stress and challenges and
difficulties, and I don't even remember who I am. And it was interesting because like I said, this, this same thing happened
to a lesser degree, but maybe a, a lot of big intensity in the last couple of years.
Speaker 1 00:30:06
And I have a lot more tools in my toolbox, but I was still going through a lot of difficulties. And I went to Italy and it was
reading that poem again, times a thousand of just, yes, this is what things are meant to feel like. And it was interesting
because so many of our retreat participants had the same experience of, of really, oh yeah, this is who I am. And it's so
interesting because I share often in the life feast kind of this quote by Picasso that I love that art washes away from the soul,
the dust of everyday life. And what I say is that really with every adult milestone we reach our mortgage marriage, kids,
every time we adult a bit more, our lives get a more dusty. So whatever age we are, we, we might wake up one day and be
like, I'm covered in layers of dust.
Speaker 1 00:31:15
And creativity for me has been this way back to myself always. So that poem woke me up, right? Art woke me up, it made
me feel something that I hadn't felt in a long time. And in some of the most difficult times in those early years, I actually
made time for creativity, which I had zero time for with little kids and a 300 seat restaurant and a partner who was going
through a lot with his health. But I did, I took some photography classes that I hadn't done in like 10 years, and I'll talk more
about that, a different episode because it's really, it's really important that I share with you how photography has saved me
in so many ways. But I also took a, a creative writing. I was in a creative writing group, a small group of five women for three
years where I used creativity to process a lot of the stuff that I was going through.
Speaker 1 00:32:20
And so it's, my creative practices have always been like how I celebrate life and also how I cope with life. And oh, and after
we sold the restaurant, my big creative practice, this is a random one, but it was to join this theater group in my town, this
cabaret theater group, and to perform these comedy parodies annually, write them, I, i I write a lot of 'em and direct mine
and perform. And that was it's own recreation, right? Like you think of the word recreation, it's recreating. And so this
playful theater time that I did make time for in a really busy life, that it was recreating me, but not even recreating me, like
just reminding me who I once was under all those layers of dust. So as I come back to this podcast and come back to you, I
wanna really just give you permission that you are here to live this life that makes you feel lit up. Not like you're burning out,
not like you're stressing out or like you're resting out, right? Resting out like, woo. I definitely have felt rusty at
times.
Speaker 1 00:33:45
And, and your needs, your needs for doing things that feel purposeful and meaningful and just for you, your needs
shouldn't be dead last in life on all occasions, there are times in our lives where we are juggling a lot of things and I'm
entering a different phase where my kids are gonna be leaving the nest soon. But I did actually start long before, like a
decade before at least, of making sure that, that I wasn't letting myself just subsist on crumbs, that I was going to feast on
life in whatever pockets of time I had, I was still going to do at least a few things that were just for me. So this is a different
way of living than, than how our culture tells us to live, right? Especially a lot of, a lot of us women that we take care of
everybody else long before we ever take care of our own needs.
Speaker 1 00:34:49
And that I just wanna remind you, tell you, give you permission that you do not need to wait for a big milestone birthday to
live the kind of life that you want for yourself and to do things that are just for you. This podcast is your invitation to come
back to you without a perfect plan, without a paint by numbers recipe, without the most, I don't know, well thought out,
roadmap with no regrets, right? Just to start in the middle because perfection doesn't exist. It will just hold us back forever
and ever and ever. So start messy, make your mark, start in the middle and come feast with me. And I should add, if you
want to come to Sardinia, Italy with me, , there is, well, at the time of this recording, there is one room left. I don't
know if there will be, but come to my other business website, art of life creativity.com to get on the wait list or to join me in
Italy, one of these retreats.
Speaker 1 00:36:02
I have another one to Tuscany coming up in the fall. We're going to Morocco in 2025. They are absolutely incredible. We
started in the middle and now we've actually created something that is phenomenal. So you can also, if you aren't up for a
retreat, come over and life feast with me, the life feast.com. That is my awesome course and membership. And it's all, it's on
the go. It's online. You don't have to fly overseas to be a part of it. . That is, I highly recommend that. But yeah, come
feast with me, however you do it. Listen to this podcast, take a photo walk. I can't wait to hear how it goes for you. This is
what your dusty soul has been craving. Thanks for being here. I can't wait to record more episodes for you. It's so fun to
come back to this podcast. It felt scary. It actually was amazing. So if you enjoyed this, leave me a rating or review,
send me an email, a DM on Instagram. I'm at Lizzie Larock and thank you so much for being here. Let's feast on this life.
Speaker 1 00:37:21
Thank you so much for listening to the Life Feast podcast. I'm Lizzie Larock, and I am so grateful that you are here with me.
If you would do me a huge favor and leave a rating and a review on iTunes, if you haven't already, I would just that I would
be over the moon. That's so helpful. And you can also share this episode with a friend of yours, a loved one, a coworker,
anyone who you think might benefit from hearing this message today. If you are completely fired up after what you've
learned in this podcast, you've got to come check out the Life Feast, my signature online and in the Wild program where I
teach you mindfulness, awe, creativity, play, adventure, all the things. It's the most amazing spot for connection, creativity,
and community. You will love it. So you can check it out [email protected]. Hop on the wait list if we're not currently
enrolling, or jump in if we are. Definitely get ready to feast on your life.