Here we are again, days away from Thanksgiving. It’s a time for gratitude. For family. For talking about… whatever comes up at the Thanksgiving table. Because, let’s face it — you never really know what’s going to come up at the Thanksgiving table.
And so, for many of us, this is also a time for a little bit of panic.
We talk a lot about how we talk to other people around the holidays; media articles trying to prep us for home-brewed political disasters are as prevalent as Christmas music in department stores on Nov. 1. So this year, I want to mix it up a little bit. I want to talk about how we listen… to ourselves.
Play it out with me: Someone says something political over the holidays that you really don’t like. Now hit pause right there. Before you even consider opening your mouth to respond, you cringe, you tense up, your pulse quickens. More physically than mentally, you react. And that reaction might make you want to fight, or flee, or freeze, or worse — all in a millisecond, all before you can even really think.
What if we got better at noticing these reactions as they happen? Could that help us go into holiday disagreements more equipped to make a different choice?
Spoiler alert: Yes! And one of the people who convinced me is a therapist named Luis Mojica. Reds and Blues alike packed Luis’s session at the Braver Angels Convention this past July in Gettysburg, where he shared a fresh set of tools to navigate tense Thanksgivings and beyond.
And I’m excited to have him as my guest on our podcast, A Braver Way, in an episode we’ve oh-so-provocatively titled, “How can you handle being ‘triggered’?”
Need a dose of holiday help right now? Check out “How can we disagree in the family?”, a rather personal episode in which I, a liberal, invite the two people I’ve disagreed with most passionately my whole life, my conservative parents, to talk about some tricky stuff. Namely, the struggles and strategies that shape not just how we talk about politics (I *just* argued with Mom about Israel/Gaza last week), but how we manage — sometimes — to learn from each other in the process.
And don’t miss our e-courses and upcoming Braver Angels workshops on depolarizing within, building skills to bridge the divide, and yes — talking politics with your family.
Take heart, everyone. I’m grateful you’re here with us.
