Buying Back Time: A Thanksgiving Reflection Through The Adult Chair®
Where Emotional Intelligence Becomes Time Intelligence
Please keep reading below…
November has a way of stirring something tender in us.
As the world leans toward gratitude, many people quietly brace for the weight that holidays can bring, especially caregivers, high performers, and anyone carrying emotional strain beneath their strength.
This season isn’t just about gathering. It’s about navigating the emotional landscape that rises in the presence of family, memories, and unspoken expectations. And this is where The Adult Chair® becomes a lifeline.
When the Holidays Stir Old Patterns
For many, Thanksgiving isn’t only a meal.
It can be a reunion with grief, with childhood roles, or with the parts of us that still try to please, fix, or hold everything together.
We often shift unconsciously into the Child Chair. Overwhelmed, flooded with emotions. Or the Adolescent Chair. Managing everyone, anticipating conflict, people-pleasing, or shutting down.
Neither is wrong; they’re simply survival roles we learned long ago.
But the holiday season asks something deeper of us:
a return to our steady, clear, compassionate Adult.
Where Emotional Intelligence Becomes Time Intelligence
One of the biggest stressors this month is feeling like there’s not enough time, not enough space to cook, prepare, organize, or emotionally hold the people around us.
But here’s the truth:
Lack of time is rarely the real issue.
It’s the emotional load beneath the time that drains us.
Emotional Intelligence — the ability to understand your inner world and regulate your nervous system — becomes the tool that gives you your time back.
When you embody your Adult Chair:
You respond instead of react
You set gentle boundaries with clarity
You pause before saying “yes”
You let go of the pressure to manage everyone else’s experience
You move from presence, not panic
Suddenly, the same 24 hours feel different.
Spacious. Grounded. Intentional.
This is what I call time sovereignty — the ability to reclaim how your energy moves through your days.
Caregivers: You Carry So Much
If you are caring for a parent, a partner, a child, a friend… this season can bring another layer of weight.
Caregiving is sacred. It’s an act of love that often costs more than others can see.
But even caregivers deserve to breathe.
The Adult Chair doesn’t ask you to be superhuman.
It simply reconnects you with the part of you that can make decisions from steadiness:
“What do I truly have capacity for today?”
“What support would feel nourishing?”
“Where am I abandoning myself to keep the peace?”
These questions buy back time.
They return you to yourself.
A Gentle Thanksgiving Invitation
As you move toward the holidays, I invite you to practice this small but powerful shift:
Before you say yes — pause, hand on heart, and ask:
“Which part of me is speaking right now?”
Your Child may be overwhelmed.
Your Adolescent may be trying to protect or predict.
But your Adult — the wise, grounded, compassionate leader within — will always bring you back to truth.
That is how we move through November with more ease.
That is how we honor both gratitude and our nervous system.
That is how we buy back the most precious gifts we have: our time and energy.
👇 Here are a few gentle, COMPLIMENTARY starting points:
📅 Reserve your Complimentary 30 minute Premium High-Level 1:1 Support Call:
Come as you are. We’ll meet in a heart-centered space of safety and compassion. You will leave feeling so much better physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
CLICK Here → to Schedule your Premium High-Level 1:1 Support Call
📂 Explore the Grief Toolbox:
Download the same tools my client used to begin her reconnection and renewal.
CLICK Here → to Unlock my High Level Resource Toolbox
With warmth and steadiness,
Cindi DuMond, RN
Grief & Emotional Regulation Consultant Certified Adult Chair® Master Coach
Press-Recognized Expert | Don’t Despair Coaching
