35. Enjoy Thanksgiving This Year - Yes, Even With Family Drama (Part 3 of the Have Yourself a Merry Little Midlife Holiday Series)

In this third episode of the Have Yourself a Merry Little Midlife Holiday series, we're talking turkey and gratitude because it’s Thanksgiving week!

I'm discussing some things I've learned over 25 years of hosting Thanksgiving dinner—and I'm sharing all of my secrets, including my famous grocery shopping list and Thanksgiving Day timeline.

I'm also covering the history of Thanksgiving, the scientifically-proven benefits of practicing daily gratitude, and research-backed tips for getting through tricky family dynamics this Thanksgiving.

NOTES AND MENTIONS:
🦃 DOWNLOAD the Thanksgiving Guide 

🎙 Listen to Episode #30: The Morning 5-10-5: My Secret to an Intentional Morning

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🎙Have Yourself a Merry Little Midlife Holiday Series:
🎙 #1: Healthy Habits Are This Season's Gift to Your Future Self
🎙 #2: Saying "No" Won't Land You on the Naughty List

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Transcript

0:01

Welcome to the school of mid-life podcast. This is the third episode in the series. Have yourself a Merry little mid-life holiday. In case you're new to the podcast. This series is about not just surviving the holidays this year, but actually enjoying them. Because certainly the holidays are a joyful time. Friends, family, festivities, decorations, party traditions, all of the things, lots and lots of fun. But also a lot of stress and chaos too. And it's easy to lose yourself and neglect your own personal health and wellness amidst the holiday hustle and bustle. But with some intention and planning, I think you can not only survive them, but enjoy them too. What a novel concept, right? So each week from now through new years, I'll be covering different topics about the holidays, managing stress, avoiding burnout, dealing with anxiety, hosting events that you enjoy. And. Several other topics. Each episode will have actionable tips and suggestions that you can start implementing right away. The first episode in the series focused on creating healthy habits. And the second episode was all about boundaries. If you haven't listened to those, I will. Include click bookable links in the show notes, but. We're on episode three today, and today's episode is all about cultivating gratitude during the holidays. Even in the face of challenges and division. Welcome to the School of Midlife podcast. I'm Laurie Reynoldson, former award-winning attorney turned high performance coach for midlife women. I designed this podcast is your go-to place for weekly midlife inspiration, where I'll be sharing, inspiring stories, providing step-by-step actionable coaching and introducing you to some incredible women who are absolutely crushing it at the midlife game. And you'd better believe we'll also be having candid conversations about mid-life relationships, career moves, money, menopause, and so much more. So take out your reading glasses and notebooks. My friends, because the School of Midlife is in session. Hey there friends. It's Laurie. Welcome back to the school of mid-life podcast. I am so excited to dive into episode number three of the, have yourself a Merry little mid-life holiday series with you today. Today's episode is dropping during Thanksgiving week. So it's only fitting. I feel like that we talk about. Gratitude and cultivating gratitude during the holidays. That can sometimes be a little difficult because of challenging environments that we're in or relationships or. Family members, you know what I'm talking about? Anyway. So today, um, we're talking about Thanksgiving gratitude and all of the things to be grateful for and. How we can find some gratitude, even maybe when we're not feeling it. I want to start today's episode by saying that. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. My grandma, Norma, who was my favorite person in the whole wide world. Always said that Thanksgiving was her favorite holiday. And admittedly, when I was younger. Aye. I had no idea what she was talking about. I mean, why would you want. A holiday that really didn't include any, well, certainly no gifts, but also not a lot of decorations or fanfare. the kid version of me when I was looking at Thanksgiving was like, it's a long dinner. What is the big deal? What's the big deal with a long dinner. But I have to admit that as I got older, I completely got what she was talking about because there is something so beautiful about Thanksgiving without all the fanfare and without the decorations and without the gifts. But just this simple. Time, this pause. Before. All of the chaos of the holidays, where we can take a minute and spend some time with friends and family members and enjoy a really incredible meal. And. If you're anything like me. It's not just a meal for as long as I can. Remember. Thanksgiving day has been a big damn deal. Cause it's an all day thing. Before we move before we downsize into 2020. Um, We. My Thanksgiving day was crazy and I absolutely loved it. It started at seven o'clock in the morning where I would get up and I would go to the gym and do a Turkey Buster. Turkey Buster bootcamp, I think is what they called it. But we would, um, have this great. You know, my gym family was there and. We do this, this great workout. At seven o'clock in the morning, and then I would change clothes very quickly and run the Turkey day. 5k. Which was also downtown. Several of the Jim folks were there. Mike would usually come down for that. We'd, you'd see all sorts of other people running the Turkey day. 5k. Which led into the piece de resistance for me for Thanksgiving, which was this. Flag football game in our backyard. If there is one thing that you may not know about me, it is that I am wild li. Excited about college football. the Washington Huskies in particular, but I love college football. I don't like the NFL. Um, certainly I am finding it interesting to kind of follow the Kelce brothers and the Travis Kelce-Taylor Swift. Romance, but suffice it to say, I just, they make the NFL players, they make a lot of money and they just don't put it on the line. And it's the, the crazy finishes that you have in college. A lot of times you don't have in the NFL. So I love college football. And I also love playing flag football. So each year, I would put on my Husky. Football Jersey. And then my Husky football pants and head down to our back pasture where we had this rousing flag football game. And there are. Because anybody could come. So our friends would show up and they would bring their kids. And for, for many years, their kids were young and then as they got older, You know, we've got families with college age kids that are back for the holidays. So we've got kids running everywhere. We've got dogs running everywhere, which was sometimes not the best recipe for say a knee or an ankle, because you know, you've got dogs trying to get the ball and, and thinking that it's this fun run around situation in the past year. But. Damn. I loved that Turkey bowl. It was so fun. I will say, though, there was, there was a point in time because. You can only have so many polled hamstrings. Or other injuries before people start thinking. You know what? I'm not going to play in the Turkey bowl this year. In fact, I remember. One year I sprained my thumb. In the Turkey bowl game, because somebody stepped on it. That that made it very tricky for making dinner that night. But after a few, too many competitive seasons, we had fewer and fewer adults willing to play. So to combat that we added a bloody Mary bar, make your own bloody Mary bar, which was genius because you know, you didn't have to play football to come over and partake in the bloody Mary bar, which meant so many of our friends, even if they didn't want to play football. They were stopping by on Thanksgiving and it just became this several hour. Part of my day that I just, I love to, because people would pop in, they would bring the out-of-state family or friends with them. people were drinking. we were eating some great. Appetizers. It was just such a fun, relaxed way To start the morning. we no longer have the big backyard plus with COVID. Uh, Thanksgiving looks a little different now. I think most people are back to going to the gym in the morning. We don't belong to that gym anymore though. So, um, I don't go to the Turkey Buster bootcamp I also haven't really been running in the 5k. I've just been hanging out in in fact, we have started a new tradition here where instead of running the 5k. Mike and Theo, and I go for a hike, which is actually a 10 K hike on our home trail, just outside of our. Our door here and it's, it's fantastic. It is kind of a new favorite way to start Thanksgiving. And even though we're not having people over for flag football and make your own bloody Mary bar. I still love Thanksgiving, you know, the entertaining or the preparing to entertain everybody. It's I, I just love it. It's one of my favorite things. Setting the table arranging the flowers, making the food. It's kind of surprising that. Acts of service or gifts of time. Aren't my love language, because that is how I like to. Shower love on the people that are important to me. It's having them over and making them a great meal. I will say, though, I understand that not everyone likes hosting dinner or cooking the food. there are plenty of you that maybe just want to show up and. Have dinner, maybe just bring a bottle of wine and that's cool too. I think that's the beauty of aging. Into adulthood and figuring out what your own. Holiday looks like right. You can, you can do Thanksgiving, however you want to do it. Speaking of doing the thing the way you want to do it. I always knew that. I wanted to do things differently. Then how they were when I was growing up. Not that going to my grandparents' house was stressful at all. That that was not what I'm talking about here, but if we were having people over. To our house. It was. Very stressful because it felt like there was always this mad dash to clean the house, or at least throw things in a closet or a drawer or. On the bed of a bedroom and then quickly shut the door so that no one would be able to see what was going on in that bedroom. And there were last minute trips or the grocery shore, and it was just super tense. Tons of big emotions. Sometimes upsetting and. It was this interesting mix of. Feeling. Anxiety and stress. In the moment. But with this duality of having to put on a happy face when everyone arrived, like pretend that everything is fine and everything is great. And I knew that when I was going to host Thanksgiving, Or. Any sort of dinner party or holiday or whatever at my house, we were going to do things different. It wasn't going to be that kind of last minute frenetic dash to get everything put together with. Uh, emotions flying high. It was just going to be a beautiful way to have people over and celebrate whatever it is that you were celebrating. Even if that just meant we're celebrating dinner on a Friday night. That is also why. Bringing this back to Thanksgiving, I don't make cranberry sauce. I don't make candy. Yams were actually any yams for that matter because I don't like them. I don't eat yams. I don't eat cranberry sauce. And if I don't like them and I don't eat them, I'm not going to add more to my to-do list. Just because someone who may be coming over for dinner likes them or might want them. So, what I do then is if they want the things that I'm not making and they'll know ahead of time, this is, this is what I'm making for Thanksgiving dinner. If they want something extra. They can bring it. And the beauty of that is it's like this win-win because most people want some, some sort of an assignment when they come over for dinner, whether that's, you know, if you could bring the. A bottle of wine or a bottle of champagne, or, um, bring the candy yams that your going to eat or bring the cranberry sauce the people want to eat. Whatever it is, but. I have this rule that if I don't need it, I'm not going to make it. The one exception to that is gravy. Um, I go to whole foods. I buy their pre-made gravy. Uh, because everybody, but me, I think likes gravy. I kind of wonder why you would bastardize perfectly good mashed potatoes with butter on them with a bunch of goopy gravy, but that's just my opinion. Y'all love the gravy. That's cool for you. Um, I just don't make it. And if I don't would, whatever it is that I don't like, I don't serve to the people who are coming to dinner because part of entertaining for the holidays. Is not only. You know, bringing people together, but it's actually creating. An experience that. The hostess enjoys two. Which is why. I created this Thanksgiving guide. Um, many of you have downloaded it. If you haven't, you still can download it. And here's why maybe you should think about downloading it today. Before the big holiday. I've been hosting Thanksgiving dinner for 25 years now. That's that's a lot of time, right? I first made the Thanksgiving guide during COVID. When a lot of families were, they found themselves. Trying to figure out how to cook Thanksgiving dinner for the first time ever, you know, full on middle-aged adults who had never cooked Thanksgiving dinner. Thanksgiving dinner is the easiest dinner. You can cook. It's just, we put a lot of stress on making sure everything is perfect and making sure everything comes out of the oven at the same time. But as far as. What goes into the dishes. Um, I promise you, it is the easiest to dinner that you can make. There's some chopping involved. There's some mixing involved, but most of it. Simple. So because so many of my clients around COVID, we're struggling to figure out, well, how am I going to celebrate Thanksgiving? If the restaurants aren't open, if I can't go see my in-laws. If we can't go to grandma's house because we don't want to get her sick. What are we going to do for Thanksgiving? And that is when I created the Thanksgiving guide. And this year it is. I think it's 19 pages, but in it. Are these foolproof recipes. Cause like I said, Thanksgiving, dinner, easiest dinner. You can cook. But there's also. These tools that. Even if you go on the internet and you download a recipe. they don't come with these tools that are like a grocery shopping list. Why is there a grocery shopping list and the Thanksgiving guide? Because the first Thanksgiving dinner I hosted and remember that was 25 years ago. I found myself going to the grocery store four times on the day before Thanksgiving. That is in addition to the big shop that I did for everything I thought I needed on Sunday. So think about that. The day before Thanksgiving, when I am trying to do some prep work. I was at the grocery store, four different times. And if you are someone who has gone grocery shopping on the day before Thanksgiving, you know, it is the one day, the year when you actually don't want to be at the grocery store because. The lines are long. People are a little cranky because they're there waiting in long lines. Most of the people that work there are working their asses off to, you know, restock the brussel sprouts and the green beans and the potatoes and all of the things that go into making Thanksgiving dinner. And, um, it can just be a little stressful. So, because I was there four times on the day before Thanksgiving, after I had already done this huge. Shop the Sunday before that. I realized what I needed was a comprehensive shopping list that had everything on it from the Turkey to the pickled asparagus for the bloody Mary's to. Extra butter and cream for just about everything on Thanksgiving. So I created this shopping list and it is. It's the bomb. If I do say so myself, but it's separated by produce and condiments and meat and just every dairy, everything you could think of that you could possibly need. Not everyone is going to need everything on the list. And there are even some additional. Lines for things like maybe those candied yams that I don't make, that you might want to put on your list. But you print it off. You take it with you to the store and it will alleviate. The need to keep going back to the grocery store, because maybe you forgot something there's there's spices on there too, that, that you might not have around the house. So anyway, Thanksgiving guide has this. Incredible grocery shopping lists. And then the other tool in it. That's. Beautiful. Is there are two different timelines, one. Is a timeline for the days leading up to Thanksgiving because you know, there are some things that you can do ahead of time. So that your not scrambling to do everything on Thanksgiving day. And then. There is the Thanksgiving day timeline. And this thing is a work of art.'cause like I said, making Thanksgiving dinner, cooking the food. Easy food to cook, but what can be tricky is getting the timing just right. So. What the timeline allows you to do is pick the time you want to have dinner. And then it'll say, well, 20 minutes before dinner, do this 60 minutes before dinner, do this. An hour, two hours, four hours before dinner do this. So once you pick what time you want to have dinner, where though that's two o'clock in the afternoon or three or four or five or six, whatever time you have dinner. Using this timeline you can calculate when you need to start cooking the Turkey or serve the solid course or cook the mashed potatoes. It literally helps you break down. What it is that you're cooking, what you need to reheat in the oven. And it's a total lifesaver. The other thing that it helps you do is. You just, you just follow the time so you don't have to worry about. Okay. If the Turkey's coming off at this time. When do I need to start the potatoes? When do I need to start putting the dressing in the oven? It's it's all in the timeline. So if you haven't downloaded your copy of the Thanksgiving guide yet. Go to the clickable link in the bio. Get the Thanksgiving guide, it will make your day so much easier. I totally promise. Okay. Let's move on to gratitude. Um, that that for sure is the reason of the holiday. So let's, let's talk a little bit about the history of the holiday. I think. We're all familiar with the origins of Thanksgiving in the United States, because we all made those construction paper turkeys. You know, where you remember, you would trace your hand with the brown construction paper. And that became the Turkey. We all did that in elementary school, we all learned about the pilgrims eating a celebratory meal with the native Americans. But I actually looked up the history of Thanksgiving because my history is a little shaky and I'm pretty sure that the pilgrims were not making construction paper turkeys. So I kind of wanted to figure out when did we first start celebrating Thanksgiving? And here's what I found out. Thanksgiving traces its roots back to the early 16 hundreds. When the pilgrims would hold a feast to celebrate. The first time was to celebrate their first successful harvest. In Plymouth, colony. So that was about 1621. And then. Not necessarily that year. But in subsequent years, The local warm pano ag. Yes. I had to look that up the local Wampanoags native Americans. Began participating in this annual autumn harvest celebration with the pilgrims. So that's where we get the. The idea that the pilgrims and the native American sit down and they share this dinner. Thanksgiving continued to evolve over the next two centuries. So it really wasn't a thing. Until. 1789 when president George Washington issued a proclamation to celebrate a nation. Uh, nationwide day of Thanksgiving. He did that in 1789. But it wasn't until 1863, which is much later than I thought. But during the civil war in 1863, president Abraham Lincoln made Thanksgiving an annual holiday. And he proclaimed that it would be celebrated on the last Thursday in November. Now. We don't celebrate it on the last Thursday in November anymore. We celebrated on the third Thursday in November. So I'm not sure. When that changed. I should look that up. But I'm not going to, I don't have time right now in the podcast. If you're interested. In 1863. President Lincoln said, we're going to have Thanksgiving. It's going to be on the last Thursday in November. At some point we changed it to the third Thursday in November. Which is why Thanksgiving this year. It seems a little early, doesn't it? I don't know if the 23rd is, is the earliest day we can have Thanksgiving, but you know, last year I think it was, it was one of the later days. Anyway. Okay. So Thanksgiving began is this harvest festival. Uh, to mark the end of a. A good harvest year. But over time, it's evolved into a day of expressing gratitude for life's blessings and time with family and the bounty of the earth. I think for many of us, the holiday represents themes of coming together as a community or as a family, you know, connection, reflection, unity. So for those reasons, in theory, Thanksgiving brings people together. But I think we all will agree that. This idea of people coming together and just togetherness in general. It's it's becoming a little more difficult to come by. Isn't it. And part of that is related to. The political divisions in the United States and around the world. The Israeli Hamas conflict in the middle east, the Ukraine, Russia war. Persecution of women and persons of color and LGBTQ T. Individuals. All over. So. It can feel like a lot. And what's, what's really interesting is a lot of these strain. A lot of the strain that we feel. Is finding its way into our own family gatherings. Which can make Thanksgiving tough. But I think that there are some ways that we can find gratitude. In a troubled world. And bring. That gratitude with us for Thanksgiving dinner. So let's talk about research on the benefits of gratitude and yes, There is research about the benefits of gratitude. Studies show that cultivating gratitude can have a positive impact on both. Mental and physical health. So let's take mental health first. Practicing gratitude has been linked to reduced symptoms of depression. And anxiety. Studies have found the grateful people. There's a new term for you, maybe, but grateful people report higher levels of positive emotions, life satisfaction, vitality and optimism. And what's really interesting. Is that neuro imaging studies. So pictures of the brain. They reveal that gratitude actually activates a brain regions associated with reward. Moral cognition and positive social cognition. So. When you are expressing gratefulness, or if you are a grateful person. Those positive emotions that vitality, that optimism that you're feeling. It lights up your brain. It, it goes to the regions of the brain associated with reward and feeling good. And it lights it up. It activates those regions. All good things, right. On a physical level, gratitude practice is associated with get this better sleep. Lower blood pressure and reduced inflammation. What study even found that participants who kept a gratitude journal for just two weeks. Showed a significant increase in heart rate variability. Heart rate variability. If you don't know is one. Metric that is used to determine how well you have recovered after a stressful event. And that could be mental stress. It could be physical activity. But how well your body is resting and recovering. Heart rate variability looks at that. So that's study. With the participants who kept the gratitude journal for two weeks. That showed a significant increase in heart rate variability, which is linked to better heart health. So, of course, you know, I'm going to ask you if you've been doing your morning 5, 10, 5. If you don't know what I'm talking about. Check out episode number 30 of the podcasts. I will. Add a clickable link below. But in episode 30, I talk all about my scientifically proven morning, 5, 10, 5. It's the way to start your day every day. We start with five things. We're grateful for. 10 dreams I achieved. So the 10 big life goals or. Things you want to be in your life, be or become in your life. And we write them as if we have already achieved them. And then the last five in the morning, 5, 10, 5 is five things you're looking forward to today. So every day. We start with gratitude. And if you're doing your morning, 5, 10, 5. The research shows that gratitude leads to better heart health. Better sleep. Lower blood pressure. I mean, come on. You can do all this in less than 10 minutes a day. So why wouldn't you. If you, you don't need the best life planner and habit tracker to do this, although you could pick up a copy of that. And through the end of the year, they are buy one, get one free. So. You can do your morning, 5, 10, 5. You can help with your blood pressure. And. Your gratitude practice and better heart health and sleep better. Um, And. Because it already comes wrapped in tissue paper and you get buy one, get one free. Then you have a free built-in gift to give to somebody else. How great is that? There, there's a link for that in the show notes too. So. So if I said to say, gratitude is good stuff. In addition to the personal benefits, gratitude has also been shown to strengthen relationships. Studies on. Relationships and how gratitude plays in plays a part in healthy relationships. Studies have shown that the act of thanking others. Improves interpersonal connection and satisfaction. Expressing. Thanks promotes. Social behaviors like kindness. And forgiveness. So gratitude then helps people appreciate the value of social bonds. You're going to be, you're going to want to be around. People that are showing kindness and forgiveness. The fact that. People are showing gratitude that they are grateful for you or the relationship. He just makes you want to be around them more. with this basis, that gratitude is good for our mental health. It's good for our physical health. Let's talk about reality though. A lot of us have tricky. Family relationships. So Thanksgiving, when we're all supposed to gather with this feeling of. Gratitude and gratefulness. That might not ring true. I know. The holidays can be a difficult time for a lot of us with, you know, not only the divisiveness, but. Loneliness and grief. in fact, my coaching clients and just women in general, but I talk with, talk about. Thanksgiving is tough for them for a number of reasons. You know, they, some of them have mothers who are critical of how, how. Clean their houses, you know, they'll, they'll walk over and they'll talk about. They need to dust the table or the baseboards are dusted, or the mom talks about. You know, makes a comment about difficult. Why can't you just lose the extra weight or why aren't your kids, you know, who aren't little kids anymore, but our teenagers, why, why aren't they more engaged with us? Why can't they just, why aren't you making them put their devices away? So we've got family members that are critical of us. Um, and that could be mom. That could be dad. And in addition to those. Strained or potentially difficult relationships. You might also have the uncle with the bigoted beliefs about other races. In fact, I was talking with one woman and. Her kids are mixed race. And she has a family member that says racist things a lot. Now, when she challenges this person, The, the, the family member says things like, oh, I'm not talking about you and your kids. Except they are right. I mean. They, you can't just decide that you're going to say racist things about other people. It's, it's all part of the thing. So. When we deal with difficult relatives or difficult situations. It's important to understand that. You have the choice. To create and set boundaries ahead of time with these people. Of what you will. And what you won't tolerate. What kind of topics are. They're not allowed. We're not even going to go there. We're not going to talk about. Gaining weight. We're not going to talk about a, um, a recent divorce. We're not going to talk about whatever topics. Make you uncomfortable. And you can establish those expectations ahead of time. In fact. I think managing expectations a lot of time is the key to not only getting through that Thanksgiving dinner. But actually enjoying the day. Part of. Preparing for Thanksgiving is not only setting the. Boundaries. But also having an exit plan, if the conversations become heated, or if there are topics that are brought up that. You're not comfortable with that. Violate the boundaries that you have communicated with everyone else in attendance. There are ways to focus on finding common ground and positive interactions. I know a lot of families at before the meal. they'll, they'll go around the table and each person will declare what they're most grateful for. I know other families that. keep a. I guess we'll call it a gratitude jar. All year long. And whenever something happens. That they are grateful for, or there is a moment they're struck with. Some reason to add a piece of paper to the gratitude jar. Dennett Thanksgiving before dinner. They go around the table and each person pulls several pieces of paper out of the gratitude jar. And they. Read each piece of paper. That has been added to the gratitude jar all year long. So it's this interesting and beautiful way to relive an entire year of simple moments. It may be just as easy as. Savoring some of the simple moments too. Being present with who you're there with. Giving yourself permission to do less and simplify traditions. Manage those expectations. So that. Everyone is on the same page. Focus on. Creating a meaningful experience for yourself and your family and your friends and your guests and focus on that meaningful celebration. Over perfection. Let go of all of the things you think you should do. so often, you know, we should on ourselves. Oh, I should've done this. I should cook should have cooked that I should've started doing this earlier. I should have decorated this way. Let's let go of the sheds for the holidays. We don't, we don't need to, we don't need to focus on that. We don't need to spend a lot of time. Muddling. Our thoughts with all of the things that we should have done. Let's wrap this up. Thanksgiving. Is a. a beautiful time for reflection and connection. And gratitude and we can always find, I really believe we can always find something to be grateful for. If, if we look in the right places or we change our focus to. Look for things to be grateful for, because whatever it is that we are looking for, we will find. So if we are looking at our family members or if we are looking for ways that the day. Is disappointing us or isn't living up to some expectation that we thought we had. That's what we're going to find. But if we flip that switch and we focus on reflection and connection and gratitude, Let's face it. If you are listening to this podcast. There you have plenty of things to be grateful for sure. There may be moments that have happened over the year that. Weren't great. Maybe something happened that caused you grief or made you angry or stoked your anxiety, maybe even something happens around the Thanksgiving table that does that. But by and large, if you're listening to this podcast, if you have a roof over your head and you have the means to. Pay for an entire Thanksgiving dinner and travel to be with friends and family Or fly kids home from college, too. Be with you on Thanksgiving. If you know where your next meal is coming from. If you have a roof over your head, if you are not living in a war torn country. You have plenty to be thankful for this year. Figure out what you're grateful for. Figure out what brings you joy and fulfillment in your life? Things that you can be grateful for. Focus on those this holiday season. Me personally. I'm so grateful that you are here today and that you show up here each and every week. Two. Be a part of this school of midlife community we are doing incredible things together and i could not do it without you I hope you have the best Thanksgiving. Ever. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the school of mid-life podcast. It means so much to have you here. My mission is to give all women the tools, mindset, shifts, and permission to make midlife their very best life. And I absolutely could not do it without you. Would you help me spread the word about the podcast by going to ratethispodcast.com/schoolofmidlife and leave us a rating. If you can spare a minute, I'd be honored. If you'd leave us a review too. That's ratethispodcast.com/schoolofmidlife. Or you can click the link in the show notes. Thanks so much for being here. I'll see you back here next week when the school of midlife is back in session