How to Bring Play and Creativity Back Into Your Adult Life with Lara Galante

<p><b>Somewhere between childhood and retirement, play gets treated as something you're supposed to grow out of. The decades in the middle are for being productive and serious. Lara Galante doesn't buy that.</b></p><p></p><p><b>In this episode of A Category of One, I sat down with Lara Galante, the founder of Find Your Inner Parakeet, where she runs creative workshops that help grown adults remember how to play. Her events are low pressure and tactile, with paint pens, feathers, and gem stickers on the table, but the real work happening in the room is permission. Permission to make something imperfect and to stop performing competence for a couple of hours.</b></p><p></p><p><b>Lara is honest about how she got here. The idea sat in her head for years. She took another nonprofit job she already knew wasn't right because it was familiar. It wasn't until she quit, flew to Bhutan to mountain bike with her best friend, and came home wide awake at midnight that the whole business poured out of her in a single night.</b></p><p></p><p><b>We also got into something a lot of people carry: the story someone told you about yourself when you were young. A teacher who said you couldn't sing. A friend who said you weren't creative. Lara and I both got versions of that, and much of this conversation is about deciding that story isn't the one you have to keep.</b></p><p></p><p><b>In this episode:</b></p><ul><li><b>Why play stops being "allowed" in adulthood, and what that costs</b></li><li><b>How Lara turned an unhappy career detour into Find Your Inner Parakeet</b></li><li><b>What actually happens in a room full of adults handed paint and permission</b></li><li><b>Rewriting the labels you picked up as a kid about what you're good at</b></li><li><b>Why "life is short" stopped being a phrase for Lara and became how she makes decisions</b></li></ul><p><br /><b>Connect with Lara Galante:<br />Website: </b><a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.findyourinnerparakeet.com/" target="_blank"><b>https://www.findyourinnerparakeet.com/</b></a></p><p><b>LI: </b><a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="http://linkedin.com/in/lara-galante-416766196/" target="_blank"><b>linkedin.com/in/lara-galante-416766196/</b></a></p><p><b>IG: </b><a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.instagram.com/findyourinnerparakeet" target="_blank"><b>https://www.instagram.com/findyourinnerparakeet</b></a></p><p></p><p><b>Connect with Leslie Silverman:</b></p><p><b>IG: </b><a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.instagram.com/lesliesilverman/" target="_blank"><b>https://www.instagram.com/lesliesilverman/</b></a></p><p><b>LI: </b><a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/leslie-silverman-hive180/" target="_blank"><b>https://www.linkedin.com/in/leslie-silverman-hive180/</b></a></p><p><b>FB:  </b><a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.facebook.com/leslie.a.silverman" target="_blank"><b>https://www.facebook.com/leslie.a.silverman</b></a></p><p><b>Website: </b><a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://lesliesilverman.com" target="_blank"><b>https://lesliesilverman.com</b></a></p><p><b>Hive180 Branding Agency: </b><a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://hive180.com" target="_blank"><b>https://hive180.com</b></a><br /></p><p><b>Chapters:</b></p><p><b>00:54 Rediscovering Playfulness in Adulthood</b></p><p><b>01:49 The Journey of Creativity and Chaos</b></p><p><b>01:51 Finding Your Inner Parakeet</b></p><p><b>06:55 The Importance of Playfulness</b></p><p><b>11:34 Creative Expression and Adulting</b></p><p><b>16:23 Overcoming Self-Doubt</b></p><p><b>21:28 The Power of Community and Connection</b></p>