As I plan the logistics of Thanksgiving, opening up our table, making the grocery list, figuring out who is bringing what, I am also thinking about the emotional and spiritual dimension to our time together.

Have you ever felt exhausted after an interaction where you had to pretend to be interested or interesting or smart or funny?

Apparently, I am at the start of this golden decade. How can I make sure I appreciate it and make the most of it?

When I pictured the life of an empty-nester, I pictured freedom, relief, possibility. And while I have definitely had moments of that, it has not been the defining feature of my year.

I love the feeling of abundance and feel sad that we are often encouraged to limit, to have less, to need less.

Now that my kids are off to college and out of the house, Gideon and I are rethinking how we spend our time, energy and money.

Throughout our lives we accumulate rules to follow and then we stick to these rules unaware.

A life skill I am developing and encouraging my clients to develop is spaciousness. However, allowing for space sounds easier than it is.

One of the best things I learned in Intuitive Eating is that mental restriction is almost as problematic as actual restriction. One of the hallmarks of intuitive eating is that restriction leads to bingeing. The more you restrict something the more you want it, this is the pendulum that defines diet culture.

Making time to eat a proper lunch daily has been challenging for me. I met with Glenys Oysten, an amazing Intuitive Eating/Health At Every Size (HAES) aligned nutritionist recently and one of my goals she and I came up with is to put lunch back on the table (pun intended).

One of the lessons in the movie is how restricting a talent can be if it is overused. By feeling labeled by a special power, these family members are unable to break out of their shell and ultimately their skill becomes a chore and an obligation and no longer feels like a blessing.

While taking a walk with our dogs, my friend Dave told me that he does his job with the perspective of “what if I got hit by a bus tomorrow?”. While I would never want Dave to get hit by a bus, I think this way of thinking is pretty healthy. It encourages him to make sure he is not the only one who knows how to do something, not to have secrets and try to do everything himself. What would happen in your workplace if you were hit by a bus tomorrow? Do your colleagues know what you are up to? Do they know where you keep things? How quickly could they jump in and keep things running in your absence?

One of the best ways to ensure your colleagues know what to do is to GO. ON. VACATION.

A goal I have for my business for 2022 is to do more deep work. I am so scattered these days. Jumping from one meme or one story or one tweet to the next. I want to focus on one non-fiction book at a time. Immerse myself in a topic. Learn and share, learn and share, learn and share. This is how I operate best. When the learning is in small tasters like memes and tweets, I don’t really absorb the information. I don’t find its depth. It’s a great dopamine rush, but it disappears as quickly as it came.