Give Thanksgiving Some Love

Intro Music:

Welcome to An Owner’s Guide for Your Life, the podcast that combines psychology, coaching, common sense and fun. I’m Tracey Browning, an entrepreneur, life coach, and lover of people. Now let’s talk about how to live love, make money and change the world.

Tracey:

Hey, I’m glad you’re here.
I am going to be the President of the Thanksgiving Day fan club for just a few minutes.

I think Thanksgiving gets neglected. It doesn’t get the love and attention it deserves.
It’s like the redheaded stepchild of holidays.

It’s sandwiched between Halloween and Christmas, and Halloween has got all the candy and the costumes and all the fun stuff. And then we’re done with Halloween.

We’re right into November, and we’re, like, catching our breath. And the retailers are already playing Christmas music. I mean, it wasn’t even the middle of November, and I’m out and about hearing Christmas music. I think what they’re doing is setting us up to feel the pressure to buy Christmas presents. So they’re setting us up for Black Friday. And Black Friday is a bigger holiday than Thanksgiving these days. What’s up with that?

Let’s just take a few minutes and appreciate Thanksgiving.
It’s a slower, more peaceful, relaxed holiday.
I love that about Thanksgiving, and I think that really fits with the idea of giving thanks. Plus, okay, any holiday that pushes eating lots of turkey and lots of carbs and we eat it and then our blood sugar crashes and we want to take a nap. Any holiday that is about food and an afternoon nap- that is my kind of holiday.

So we’ve got food. We’ve got family.
And, yeah, there’s usually way too much food.
And for some people, there’s usually way too much family.

I know that bigger family gatherings aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, but it can be good to gather whether you’re in person or you’re doing it virtually or maybe you’re just doing it in spirit.

But it’s good to gather with people who mean something to you. It reminds us that we belong in whatever way that belonging takes shape.

And it reminds us that life is bigger than just us. It’s good to be reminded of that. It’s good to belong.

Now I also know that not all of us feel like we belong in our family. So I want to offer this thought to you. Can you find a point of connection? Even if you really, really have to dig deep, you might have to get, like, super creative. It could be fun to think of. Okay. How can I feel connected to this group of people?

Maybe you can feel like you belong, but it only lasts for an hour. Well, if that’s the case, stay for 55 minutes so you can leave feeling good.

Maybe you want to set some boundaries for yourself. That could mean that you gather differently. Maybe you meet on a different day. My family has, for decades now, we’ll celebrate on Thanksgiving Day with my husband’s side of the family. And then the Saturday after Thanksgiving, we celebrate with my side of the family. It’s just been a way that’s worked out well for all of us. So Thanksgiving doesn’t actually have to happen on Thursday.

Maybe you don’t come to the larger family meeting time.
Maybe you just send your love.
You do whatever takes care of you.
But remember, too, if you can’t bear to be there in person, maybe you can just kind of be there in spirit.

Or maybe you need to find a different family- the friends that you choose to be your family.

Maybe the family you were born into isn’t the family that you need to gather with on this holiday for whatever reason.

But the original focus of Thanksgiving was to celebrate the harvest, food and all the other blessings.

So let’s take time to do that. Don’t let the retailers rush us through this holiday to get us buying for Christmas.

Let’s give Thanksgiving the love and attention it deserves.

Slow down, savor and give thanks. Now let’s go live, love, make some money, BE THANKFUL and change the world.

For a transcript of this episode or for more information about life and mindset coaching, visit my website https://www.tbrowning.com/.