Thin Slice Your Joy

like prosciutto

Hi! My name is Bree, and I write about how to have better days at work. Subscribe for weekly essays on everything from cozy teams to living a Portfolio Life. You’ll also be the first to know about book launch events and giveaways—Today Was Fun will hit bookstores May 2025!

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Today’s Musings

I feel like shit.

Happenings

Last night I did a fireside chat about my upcoming book with Greg Larkin and the Punks & Pinstripes community. WOW did that feel good after a post-election day of completely spinning.

Greg, you gather such a thoughtful, interesting, easy-to-talk-to crowd. For anyone interested:

Punks & Pinstripes is the place to connect, share insights, and tackle tough sh*t together. Here's to creating a new and better normal for people who are a little bit punkrock. 

Not sure if I was too short or the bench was too tall, but I was definitely swinging my leg like a kid at the grown up table.

An excerpt from Today Was Fun

I thought this might help someone.

Thin Slice Your Joy 

Maybe you’re like, “Nope, Bree, I tried and I’m still not having fun. What do you have for me?”  

Well wouldn’t you know it, I have some robust experience with “this is complete shit” situations, so I have a trick up my sleeve. Let’s start with what is categorically not fun: worrying constantly about your mother with stage 4 cancer. Don’t get me wrong, we had some great fun together during her last months, but there were many, many moments when I felt completely obliterated.  

This was my best trick to overcoming that obliteration: when the big, difficult things felt too big and difficult, I “thin sliced” my joy.  

I remember sitting in a taxi as it wound its way through Central Park. I was on my way to the hospital to visit my mom. It was February and (it shocks me every year) the daffodils were already emerging from their slumber. They were so beautiful, and it gave me this “ooh it’s coming!” feeling I’ve always enjoyed about each season’s approach.  

Trying to comprehend an unimaginable diagnosis will always feel debilitating. But you know what’s kind of okay? This minute.  

Even when life wasn’t okay, that small minute was just fine. My mom was okay at that minute, probably having her breakfast. I was okay. Nothing hurt.  

Thin slicing your joy can show up in different ways. 

Does this month at work feel worrisome and stressful? Well maybe this day is okay as you make progress.  

This day feels too much? Maybe this one hour in this one meeting feels manageable.  

The hour feels like days? Try living just in this minute, next to the daffodils.  

When I need to pull out all the stops, I follow author Cheryl Strayed’s guidance: “You can mark your progress breath by breath.” 

Thin slicing may look like getting yourself a cappuccino with cinnamon on top to take with you into a hard conversation. Amidst the stress, you can take a breath, smell the cinnamon, and take a sip. Or maybe your entire project is going south so you schedule a one-on-one with a colleague you trust so you can thoroughly complain about it. In doing so you build trust and friendship. Remember, even soldiers on the front lines play poker sometimes.  

When the picture of your work or life looks like chaos, trust that you can always find a pixel of peace.