A Thanksgiving Tale

Once upon a time, an overwhelmed woman woke up on Thanksgiving morning and didn’t give any thanks, because Thanksgiving was going to suck.

Her aunt had asked her to bring a pumpkin pie, which stressed her out to no end. She didn’t like pumpkin pie and had never made one in her life, but she knew she couldn’t just go buy one, either. Her family was judgy that way. She got out the ingredients she’d purchased the night before, and the recipe she’d found online, and got to work making a pie she didn’t want to make at all.

She accidentally burned the pie because she was multitasking, trying to get herself and her family ready and pick up the house while it was baking.

Her entire family would once again think that she couldn’t handle things. All of the other women in her family could whip up a perfect pie at any time. This pie situation was more stressful than her actual job.

She decided to run to the store and buy a pumpkin pie. It was all she could do. The car ride to her Aunt’s house was tense, the whole family understood that this was going to be stressful.

As she walked in and set down the obviously-store-bought pie, she felt all eyes on her. She knew what everyone was thinking. She had probably ruined Thanksgiving and felt like crying.

Now, let’s pull out the facts in this story.

🦃 It’s Thanksgiving Day.
🦃 Her aunt asked her to bring a pie.
🦃 She made a pie, but burned it.
🦃 She bought a pie and brought it.

All of the suffering around Thanksgiving and the pie situation were her own thoughts, a story that her brain came up with.

🥧 Maybe everyone secretly loves grocery store pumpkin pie but didn’t want to say it.
🥧 Maybe everyone is mad and disappointed about the pie.
🥧 Maybe they think she’s a jerk.
🥧 Maybe they already thought she was a jerk, before the pie situation.
🥧 Maybe they already thought she was awesome and a pie could never change that.

ANY of those could be true, but we’ll never know. We can never know what other people are thinking.

Instead, stick to the facts, and when your brain offers a story about the facts, you can decide if you want to believe it - or not!

PS If you need help replacing the gloom-and-doom voice in your head with a more positive one, I did a whole podcast episode on better self-talk - listen here! And if you're ready to really work on letting go of the opinions and expectations of others and live a less stressful life, coaching can be a huge help. Set up a free consultation here.