Episode 49: Welcome Back + What’s To Come!
with Liz Higgins, Host of The Millennial Life Podcast
The Millennial Life Podcast is back!
Tune in this week as Liz welcomes listeners back and sets up this season where we plan to share ways for you to enhance your connection, improve communication, and create healthier, more fulfilling relationships. It’s what we’re all about!
This episode especially focuses on taking intentional time "off" and learning to prioritize the most essential things in order to promote your personal wellbeing and relationship health. We think you'll hear lots of applicable tips this time.
Episode notes:
Sometimes “doing all the things” means doing the things that serve you. That you’re good at.
Many of us are overwhelmed and aren’t paying attention to the areas on our “life plate” that deserve a pause.
Our childhood experiences shape who we are in our adult relationships.
Our relationships are life-giving environments in our day-to-day.
Liz Higgins: (00:03)
Hey y'all! Liz Higgins here. And welcome to the Millennial Life Podcast, where my goal is to share conversations that will inspire you and drive you toward the life and relationships you desire. As your host, I'm here to share what I've learned as a licensed therapist, and bring you the transformative voices of other professionals and experts that want you to cultivate relational wellness for life. Thanks for listening and enjoy the episode!
Liz Higgins: (00:32)
Hello, hello! This is an exciting episode because it's actually the return of the Millennial Life Podcast. So woo-hoo! The last episode that I did was actually in May, 2023, so it's been a long time… um, over a year. So what's been going on since then? 'Cause we, we had quite the track record before that of putting out some consistent episodes and stuff, and… And so today is a bit of a personal share as well. I, I thought about how I wanted to ease back into this podcast, and I think it warrants just some open and honest sharing because, to me, that is modeling being relational and, you know, leading with your true self and standing in that truth and letting others hear it. Because it can, it can feel inspiring. So, coming to you from that place today. And I hope that some things land. I mean, yeah, in the past year - and however many months - MLC has been growing, and shifting, and continuing to serve clients in Dallas and across Texas. I'm just so proud of the team that we have.
Liz Higgins: (01:40)
You can go see everybody on our team on our website, which interestingly continues to comprise of only Licensed Marriage and Family Therapists or Associates and interns in training that are all studying couples therapy, relationship dynamics, and all of that. It is truly our core focus here to help our clients develop these amazing relationships and lives. And so we have just really harnessed that specialty of working with couples and -typically- two people in the therapy session. A lot of individuals, too! But I'm, I'm really proud of that regarding our team. We have focused a lot of attention in our practice on developing a strong leadership team. And so that's taken a lot of my time and, and energy, really, just as we've refined our purpose and mission and, and stood in certainty around slow and steady growth. There's a lot of like '“chase big, fast and, you know, put a lot of grit into it” and all these things, but, and especially in the mental health space, there's a lot happening in the mental health space.
Liz Higgins: (02:54)
I mean, you can find a therapist in the palm of your hand! One that will text you back or operate on call, um, at your beck and call. And I think that's great on some levels. But I'm really proud that we have sustained a high level of intentionality in our practice and a focus on our growth and development as relational therapists. Um, personally, I have also learned a lot this last year about what it means to do all of the things. And by do all of the things, I actually mean not do everything, but to do the things that I do well. So that's been something I have personally really tried to meditate on and just get really intentional about because, as you may know from past episodes where I've shared bits and pieces about my personal experiences, I can be a hero child, overachiever, perfectionistic, people-pleasing, over-functioner.
Liz Higgins: (03:53)
I think I already said that. And I'm really aware of that about myself. So committing to not being in that role and allowing myself to back off in areas where it was just, like, draining me… because I had no capacity to fully show up in those areas was, uh, something that… yeah, has been coming up for me and happening for me. One of the things I committed to myself, probably as we started coming out of the chaos of COVID and reintegrating to a more normal life again - whatever normal means - was that I absolutely refuse to compromise my personal relationships and my personal mental health for the sake of success or anything else external. And that was really huge for me to come to, because again, I don't wanna say no to things and I ideate a lot and I have big ideas that pop out left field and right field and whatever, and I wanna follow those things… But I had to get really clear with myself around the expense that took of me energy wise, capacity wise, and just in my relationships.
Liz Higgins: (05:07)
So this didn't mean that I stopped working or even that I immediately scaled back on a ton of things. It was actually more of a just a intentional mindset shift. And from that newfound value system, I've really been able to make decisions based around that and keeping that the priority. So yeah, not to be too vague, um, I, I'm happy to share, like, I have two young kiddos. And so this time in their lives feels really important for me to have a strong presence. And part of this is also due to my own work and training that I've been doing the last few years to become a developmental and relational trauma therapist. That whole process of training and doing that work with clients really brought me full circle with myself to really acknowledge and attune to these historical parts of myself - just the inner child parts of me that were really keeping me bottlenecked in some areas of my life.
Liz Higgins: (06:07)
And so being able to develop a different relationship to my own internal parts has been on my plate the last two years as well, really like two to three years. And so I think about this last year, that was definitely something that I was devoting a lot of time and energy to being intentional about. I feel like that is a red flag word for this podcast - Intentionality. Um, in therapy, I'm mostly with individuals these days doing work around their childhood experiences and the impact that’s had on who they, who they've become as adults in their relationships. And I am personally working with a lot of entrepreneurs, CEOs, business owners, people that are just navigating kind of being in these positions of authority, leadership, visionary seats… But that are also just really overwhelmed, and have no capacity, and don't see the spaces where they can stand to pause or outsource or just take time to tune in to who they are and what they need.
Liz Higgins: (07:14)
Our team at large, um, like I mentioned with our relational training, are seeing a lot of couples. And we're just having more and more couples come to our space that are just itching and so, so eager and, and just yearning to learn how to connect more deeply with each other. And gosh, you guys. I, I'm sure you're just sitting in your own world of all the things going on, right? Well, we see that with our couples and I just want you to know that you're not alone because life can just be overwhelming. Just so overwhelming. I don't know why right now I have this visual in my mind of a person standing with, like, a million bees flying around them, buzzing around them. Um, I think life can feel like that, you know? A bee representing the tasks you've gotta get done, the responsibilities that you have at work or at home or wherever you're involved, and then all your relationships that you care about that you wanna attend to. There's so much that can just feel like it's buzzing all around you.
Liz Higgins: (08:18)
You, you can't even figure out how to, like, turn to your partner anymore, let alone self care. Take care of yourself, right? So part of why I wanted to share this with you is because obviously the podcast itself took a back burner for a while. That was really hard for me because in allowing myself to scale back from keeping the podcast up, I was still really aware of all the other podcasts out there rising up and, you know, you start to get that FOMO real fast and it's like, I could be doing that or I should be doing that, or why can you not? And you know, there's other people over there nurturing their online presence and continuing to share, make this difference in people's lives. So I did go through the experience of just carrying guilt, um, about what felt like neglecting this piece that really has always been very fun for me to do.
Liz Higgins: (09:13)
I genuinely enjoy doing this stuff! But I realized a few weeks ago when I was working with my business coach that a part of why the podcast fell off the table (this is like my deep personal stuff here) is because it represented something that I actually enjoy and love doing. I had to sit with that for a minute and it actually made me emotional because I realized this theme had emerged for me the last few years. And I can only imagine some of y'all may relate when life is busy, when we have a lot of important responsibilities, people tend to… Outside of ourselves, we can be really quick to let the parts of life that we actually enjoy and that actually nurture us in really important ways drop off. Well, that 100% was the case with me in a few different areas. The podcast being one of those, it's an example in the work realm for me, something that I just love doing.
Liz Higgins: (10:12)
And like I'm telling you, it got to a point where I was just racking my brain around like, you know, the guilt and “Why haven't you done it yet? And why are you letting this lapse?” And just, but the capacity was so low. Um, I think, you know, there's other areas where this stuff comes up for me and, and for you, I'm sure with physical health, taking care of your body, um, committing to nutritious eating and just like really taking care of yourself, right? And relationships. I don't wanna forget that most important piece, that our relationships are life-giving environments in our life. We're not meant to navigate stuff all alone, but if we're in the midst of chaos, if we're just in overdrive and have no capacity, it can feel really hard to even text a friend to say, ‘Hey, how are you doing?‘
Liz Higgins: (11:06)
You know? So I'm coming to you now, just a few weeks out of making more significant changes in some of the categories of my life that I needed to, so that I can reprioritize things that I love doing and that I know will make a difference. And with the podcast, I cannot wait to bring you some more incredible conversations! We have a lot of great and relevant things to share with you. And yeah, it's feeling good to ease back into the spaces where I'm really supposed to be. And I'm wondering, as you listen to this, how does this connect in with you? I really want to hone in on this idea that life is a continuous opportunity to make consistent practices that bring you health and joy. Stagnant is never fun. And I think most millennials, I'm generalizing, like to chase better, stronger, faster, more.
Liz Higgins: (12:07)
We have to remember that the goal isn't the outcome or the destination is the journey. It's the practice of something. So, just like this podcast is a practice for me, I wanna work at it and maintain and get better at. There's not gonna be this one day where I realize I made it. The podcast is enough. I'm sure like there could be exciting milestones that you hit along the way, and we, and we have had that experience, but I'm trying to really hone in on even this as an artful practice that I have the opportunity to show up and participate in. And I just know me. I think I'll always have things to share and explore and learn. I'm a lifelong learner. Our relationships are the same way. We don't really ever arrive. I think that we can establish safety and certainty in certain relationships, but it's still something that we have to bring daily energy and intentional practice to, and even more so because it involves more than just one person.
Liz Higgins: (13:10)
So I think that for me, my partner relationship's been really strong the last few years. And, and I feel proud of that because that is a relationship that I could have let really fall to the wayside. And, and, and I'm not saying there aren't ways I could have offered more and devoted more of my energy, you know, over the last couple years, but I feel really proud that our relationship is in a strong place. It feels like a really healthy, safe space for me, and that is something that I feel proud of protecting and prioritizing recently in my life. But, you know, if you think that I, or anybody else that you maybe admire or listen to or tune into for, for insights and feedback or whatever, if you think that we have it all figured out, I'm here to tell you that every single person is on a unique journey of figuring it out.
Liz Higgins: (14:05)
Some are just better at hiding the less glamorous parts behind the scenes. I don't know how glamorous I've been, but I've had my moments, I'm sure. So I'm hoping that this season of the podcast brings you an authentic message and relevant conversations that help you grow in all areas of your life. You know that our specialty here is relationships. And I wanna remind you that relationships are literally everywhere - in our workplace, with our kids, with the providers you see in your life, in our partnerships, with people we date, and deep within ourselves. So if there's something you wanna learn more about from a therapist, a relationship expert, and the other experts that I have, join me on the Millennial Life Podcast. Seriously, email me directly and let me know. My email is liz@hellomlc.com. I would love to hear from you. I want to make this podcast something that you receive that enhances your life.
Liz Higgins: (15:09)
And doing this podcast brings me joy. But you know, helping you out is also my purpose. That's my core purpose. So let me know what you need, what you're interested in. And thanks to those of you who have listened in so far. It's because of you. I, I see these numbers on the back end, and I know you're out there listening and we get that feedback from clients. And it really, because of you, I, I wanna keep this going. It's such a critical piece of sharing really important messages. And I think hope, especially in a world where there's so much going on and so many reasons for us to pull back because of fear and just the unknowns. And I really want this to be a, a space of encouragement to lean in and do the hard stuff and remember that you matter and your relationships matter. So I guess that's it signing off for today, and I look forward to speaking with you more soon. Thanks for listening.
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