I need to advocate for sharing of stories for a moment here.  It’s in sharing stories of truth and experience that we learn and find connection but there is so much we discover about ourselves in the process as well.  Truth finds us in stories.  So I want to share a truth of my own.  There are some details that I need to curb because they are not mine to tell but I will share this for the sake of encouraging everyone to continue sharing.

I’ve had the same best friend going on 36 years now and we have been through EVERYTHING together.  When she moved out of state to pursue her career I was admittedly devastated.  I’ve never been good at keeping up with anyone—it’s nothing personal, it truly is an attention thing.  I get wrapped up and distracted SO easily that I way too often forget to reach out to people, even those I love with all my heart.  The other part of me is way too independent for my own good and I often don’t share what’s happening.  Over the last several months, we’ve decided to make a concentrated effort on talking with each other and it has changed so much.  We knew it was beneficial for both of us but we are both in that same boat of either hyper-independence or total squirrel…and there are times we’re both flat out tired.  However, we know we aren’t getting any younger and making this a priority has softened us both and brought us back to when we were younger, it helps us feel not so alone. That’s where this conversation comes into play. 

Specific events happened this past summer that I alluded to but didn’t want to discuss for so many reasons.  I was protecting someone close to me as well as myself and it was such a multi-layered situation that explaining sounded awful no matter how we looked at it—and at the end of the day, we got through it.  However, I’m not going to pretend that there weren’t mental ramifications for it.  But I STILL kept that story to myself—I didn’t even share it with my best friend of 36 years who already knows everything about me anyway.  I’m not sure if it was the emotion of the season and the things happening with my family, but those events from this summer started to play back in my mind recently, and it got heavy.  During one of our conversations, there was something in her voice that made me tell her what happened.  I shook while telling her what happened because I didn’t fully know how she was going to take it but getting it out felt good.  She empathized with what I said and then slowly alluded to having the exact same thing happen—and I could tell she had the same fears I did about being judged or judging the other party involved.  I had NO idea she went through it.  I want to be clear that not sharing earlier had nothing to do with trust, it mainly had to do with the other person involved and we both felt that way.  But in sharing those stories, the weight immediately dropped from both of us.

This is a testament to several things: 1. The mind is so powerful it can convince us that even those closest to us can’t handle what/who we are or what happened 2. Connection and communication is key to maintaining our own sanity 3. People understand far more than we give them credit for and it may surprise us how well they understand 4. I don’t advocate for sharing openly with everyone because trauma bonding isn’t a real bond, however, I fully advocate for taking the leap and sharing whatever is needed with those we trust the most.  Had we shared these things earlier, we would have been saved of carrying this weight and loneliness (from dealing with it alone) for YEARS.  This is coming from someone who has advocated for sharing all along—and I still couldn’t bring myself to do it so I needed this reminder.  I needed to remember that sense of security from trusting.  Those we love and who truly love us don’t run from the things we choose to hide.  They bring the flashlight for us as we face the dark and show us that it isn’t as bad as we think or that they share a piece of those fears as well.  Together we can take down whatever we need to and we can build each other up.  And how much easier those battles may be when we see what unites us—and what unites us can be surprising.                

“Sometimes the healed version of you is meaner,” via She’s Magic and Midnight Lace.  I would amend the statement to, “Sometimes the healed version of you seems meaner.”  Perhaps it’s a bit of both.  The people who never hesitated to take advantage of kindness would say we’re meaner for setting boundaries.  It can be a shock to the system when we’re no longer available for what benefitted others.  Perhaps a shock for both their system and ours—they aren’t used to hearing “no” and we aren’t used to having that energy; transitioning into that healed version can feel a little unsettling at first.  We might even feel mean and question if we are doing the right thing.  That’s one of the biggest boundaries we have to set: the ability to say no to ourselves when we try to talk ourselves into old habits.  Identifying those dangerous thought patterns sooner gets easier with practice.  The reality is, I can’t say I’ve ever seen a genuinely caring person claim someone taking care of themselves by dealing with their crap was mean.  Those who really care will be thrilled to see us healing and maybe even excited at the prospect of that new version showing up. 

Healing runs an entire spectrum of emotions because we have to process everything that happened in order to actually heal.  That includes acknowledging what we actually feel.  Everything from sadness to betrayal to denial to bargaining to anger and acceptance.  Sometimes we go back and feel these things multiple times.  But one thing I’ve noticed in the healing process is, while people often say we change and sometimes even say that we are meaner, the reality of the emotion is entirely different.  When healing is complete, we hold a firmer boundary but feel softer inside.  We aren’t as hardened in protecting ourselves or as resentful because we’ve learned to maintain our space and express clearly what we will and will not tolerate.  We are softer because we’ve created a sense of safety  from within rather than relying on others to create it for us—we are softer because we have accepted all those parts of ourselves and we understand it’s that softness that gives us strength.  Authentic expression of self is key and, more often than not, that authentic version of ourselves isn’t on the same frequency they used to be so they don’t have space for the things and behaviors they used to accept.  That isn’t mean, that’s honest.  If my healing means sacrificing my space, sanity, or self-respect for your comfort, then we are not on the same wavelength   

Here’s the thing: people will always have an opinion about what we do and learning the lesson that what people think of us is none of our business is invaluable in this day and age.  It doesn’t matter what it’s about, people will always have something to say, and the fact that so many people have social media, everyone feels they’re entitled to share that opinion with no regard for others.  I mean, truth be told, it is their right to share as such, but that doesn’t make it true.  I’d also add that I spoke at length about people being entitled to an informed opinion rather than spewing garbage.  In either case, our healing is more important than their opinion of our healing.  That healing may create a new reality for other people and how they respond to that isn’t our responsibility. And whether we are meaner, perhaps firmer, it isn’t our responsibility to make them feel better about what’s good for us.  No one walks in our shoes to understand the extent of what pushed us to behave how we do and to understand what and how we need to heal—no one has the right to tell us what we need.  I would never encourage being mean for the sake of it but I will fully embrace doing whatever it takes to heal regardless of what people THINK about it—we get one life, do not feel guilty or ashamed for doing what we need to.

One time someone told me I was intimidating.

My friend looked at them and said, “Is she intimidating or are you intimidated?”

And from that moment on I refuse to take responsibility for how others react to my presence. (via Word P***)

I spent nearly my entire life trying to manage how people received me and how they perceived me.  I carefully curated what I looked like and how I behaved with those around me.  I thought I could show my power in those situations because I was demonstrating I could be whatever they wanted me to be—that I could do whatever needed to be done no matter what it was.  It took me a long time to realize that, not only was it exhausting, it was the furthest thing from claiming my power.  Being a chameleon is a cool trait and it’s cool to be comfortable with adaptation—even if it means tweaking our behavior every now and then.  But to think I’m in control by becoming what others expected me to be was ludicrous.  Reading that back right now makes me cringe.  Becoming what others “needed” me to be was giving those people my power entirely.  There wasn’t a trace of me in there while I did what they needed me to do.  And the moments when those little bits did eek out, I was cut off from those people, the same people who I helped.  So all that energy was used to become something I wasn’t thinking I would be “allowed” to claim my real power sometime. 

I’m not alone in this and I know this is in the same vein as people pleasing and yes, I can even see where some might think what I described above is manipulative.  I don’t deny that in some ways it was manipulative—I wanted a specific result/reaction from people so I behaved a certain way to get it.  That wasn’t for nefarious purposes by any means, it was out of self-preservation and a need for acceptance. Instead of discovering real power, I settled for drops of what could have been available.  I’ve noticed that it’s often people who have adaptive powers who have the power to shift a lot of things around them and people don’t always know how to react to that.  They try to stifle that because they are scared of that power and like to make it our problem.  But reframing the perception of power and accountability changes that dynamic.  It isn’t anyone’s job to make themselves palatable for everyone.  It isn’t anyone’s job to be liked by everyone.  No one is entitled to expect us to manage their feelings about us. 

So the key is simple: be who we are.  Completely and entirely free because we don’t need to traumatize ourselves by being more concerned about how we are perceived than living our own lives.  How someone feels is their business and what they do with those feelings isn’t our responsibility.  Release the weight of being accountable for how people feel about us.   We already have enough crap to deal with.

“You aren’t lost, you’re just in an uncomfortable stage of your life where your old self is gone but your new self isn’t fully born yet.  You’re in the midst of transformation,” Marcos Alvarado via The Soul Leaf.  We are emerging from a sleep that kept our powers at bay for years and it feels entirely different from what we’ve been accustomed to.  It’s a disorienting feeling because even in the chaos and the old habits, we knew what to do and this leaves us questioning.  But this is transformation.  It may be cliché but it’s true to say that if we opened a butterfly’s cocoon mid transformation we wouldn’t recognize it because it looks nothing like its old self and it isn’t in its new form yet.  It’s tempting at the beginning of a new year to feel like everything has to be shiny and new but it doesn’t work like that.  Transformation isn’t as easy as flipping a switch where we wake up the next day and are entirely new.  It’s a gradual process and it requires nurturing and adjustment and, yes, it can be quite uncomfortable as things break down and lose their familiar shape.  We may even lose our footing.  Our job in those moments is to keep true to course and keep aiming toward our goal.    

Transformation looks different for everyone and it often doesn’t go as we expect because there’s a whole new set of rules to operate under.  And that’s the thing: we can’t have expectations of transformation.  We have to go with it, answer the call of what we feel, trusting that what comes on the other side is for us.  Transformation is also uncomfortable because it’s a stage where nothing fits.  We feel like we no longer have those resources around us to offer support.  We learn to rely on ourselves in new ways.  In spite of all that, transformation is beautiful and necessary.  We can’t welcome the new if we’re stuck in the old.  New doesn’t arise from repeating actions so we have to learn again.  The good news is once we establish firmer footing, we step closer to feeling secure in our own skin.  We learn what that new skin looks like.  There is no feeling like that click and sense of peace that comes from total acceptance of self.  The goal is to transform into the most authentic version of ourselves and to share our light as far as we can.  We can never get lost when we are guided by that light.  So trust the process and keep going. 

“I told my therapist I feel safest when I do everything alone.  She didn’t even ask why.  She just said that’s not independence, that’s grief.  And I swear I felt something in me break open.  Because it is grief, isn’t it?  Grief for every time you asked for help and no one showed up.  Grief for being the child who had to hold it all together while everyone else fell apart.  Greif for realizing way too young that no one was ever really coming to save you.  You didn’t choose to be strong.  You had to be.  Because breaking wasn’t safe.  Crying didn’t change anything.  And needing people only led to disappointment, guilt, or punishment.  So you are up over-prepared.  You move through life with backup plans for your backup plans.  You double-check doors, messages, emotions, everything.  You carry the weight of, “I’ll handle it,” even when you’re breaking inside.  People call you independent but they don’t’ see the version of you who secretly wants to collapse in someone’s arms and actually be caught this time.” Quote via Soul Ink.

We all have wounds we need to heal and if the goal is to heal forward this year, then we must address all of the wounds.  Including those who have given us seemingly effective/healthy coping skills like the ability to get it all done no matter what’s happening around us.  We may not find that person who we can collapse into but we can view that independence differently.  It’s something that made us reliable and able to figure things out and those are real strengths.  We can also learn that there are people we can rely on and we can learn to give little pieces of our responsibility to them to figure out and we can simply ask for help.  Coping with grief and addressing where it comes from, what caused the grief in the first place takes more work but that, too, is something that can be healed.  There comes a point where we have to accept that no matter what we do there is no going back. We can only go forward.

Knowing both sides of the coin (the fact that we aren’t just hyper independent and what caused us to become that way) is a key step in owning our story and learning to write a new one that encompasses all we truly are. In the coming year, I hope people are able to simultaneously find their strength and their softness.  I hope we are all able to find a way to relinquish some control and open ourselves up to trust and I hope that we maintain the boundaries with those who need it.  In some regards it’s a matter of getting really comfortable with our emotions while not letting them dictate what happens, especially based off past events—like we know x made us really sad so when we encounter x, we still feel sad so moving forward when we encounter x, we realize we don’t have to be sad, we don’t have to engage at all.  That’s a new way of handling things and it will make us abundantly clear as to who is responsible for what because when the thing/person can no longer elicit a reaction from us, we have taken back our power.  I hope we cope with the grief and are able to let it lie and move forward into all the magical, wonderful things in store for us.   

“Your nonsense makes sense.  You’re speaking my language when life gets hectic, you’re all that I need  on late nights, in hard times I love that your weirdness matches mine,” The 502’s.  Our frequencies are unique and, as is the nature of frequency, we don’t always resonate with other frequencies.  Our job isn’t to alter our tone to be understood, our job is to let our vibration sound until we find our harmony, the complementary pieces that allow for the complete expression of self.  There is no need for explanation of what we do and what our purpose is because those who resonate with us know.  Because we know the same of them.  Things click and become easy when we find that group.  This isn’t only in the romantic sense, either.  This is entirely in the shared experience, found community, affirmed identity type of way.  There’s no need for words.  Being understood is an amazing feeling as is having the connection that comes when we view something the same way.  It’s a feeling of support, and when we come together with those who harmonize with us, we expand that frequency.     

More than just external validation and camaraderie, I seek to have this type of relationship with myself.  The kind of relationship where I’m fully at ease with my nonsense.  Where what may seem weird to others, even those I love, is perfectly normal and acceptable to me.  One thing I’m learning is we wear such a copious amount of masks in our lives and none of them are really worth the burden that comes with them.  I’ve learned that I’m exhausted trying to figure out who I need to be depending on where we go, on how I want to be perceived in that moment.  I WANT to let my hair down and simply exist and have fun and not wonder what people think.  When we feel that comfort in our own skin, that’s exactly what happens.  The charade fades.  The truth comes out and we no longer waste energy playing any game, any type of manipulation to make people understand.  We are simply understood.  When we understand ourselves, there is no misinterpreting that vibration we put out and those who best match with us will find us.  So love our nonsense and live in it!

Today I am grateful for persistence.  I have an opportunity for my business that has come about simply because I’ve stuck with it.  I have the job I’ve spent years looking for because I kept going for it.  There are pieces I’m still putting together but I know that those will come to fruition as well.  This isn’t about false optimism or even about grounded optimism.  This is about knowing that the only time our journey stops is when we stop.  The bottom line is that if we keep going we are going to get somewhere.  I am the first to attest that persistence didn’t necessarily get me where I wanted to be but it certainly got me further than had I decided to give up and stay stuck.  I’d been trying and pushing for very specific results for a long time and I wasn’t getting anywhere because if things weren’t looking how I thought they should, I’d keep pushing until I got that specific result and more often than not I’d end up stuck and beating my head against the wall.  It was learning how to let go of the specifics and work toward the destination.  That’s a lesson I’m still working on, I still get to that point where I’m not sure what to do to move forward or I get down hearted if it’s not on my timeline.  But I know that if I can keep going, I will get somewhere.  So here we are.  Persisting.  Moving.  Building.

Today I am grateful for a new outlook on passion.  Everyone gets to the point where they need to re-evaluate their behaviors and priorities and I spent a lifetime putting passion on the back burner.  That was how I was raised.  I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful for that upbringing because it taught me that there is a time when we just have to buckle down and get things done.  If there’s a deadline for a goal or if something unexpected comes up, that isn’t a back burner moment.  We deal with what we need to and we learn real priority.  The only thing is that I learned to make everyone else’s priority my priority so the things I needed to prioritize in my life would take the back burner.  It led to some distorted views on things I loved, things that would help form relationships, bonds, networking, friendships, things that would create a foundation of support and knowledge, all that stuff never seemed important because I had an endless checklist of things to do.  The things I wanted to do seemed selfish and unnecessary.  But lately I’ve looked at how true it is that we only live one life in this iteration.  Why would we put anything on hold if we only get to experience it once?  There is no guarantee of time or opportunity so we need to make the most of both.  I understood that and still failed to apply it to my life.  Now I see that passion is necessary for creation and momentum and joy—and we need joy to feel that passion.  I’ve said it before and I will apply it to myself now: that passion is what inspires and stirs creativity and that creativity is the key to life.  Just because I don’t understand what makes a particular person passionate doesn’t mean I don’t understand that they ARE passionate—I still understand that feeling of passion.  Passion opens the door to life, it is life.  Whether it’s reading, cars, travel, knitting, drawing, whatever it may be—open that door and walk right in because that’s the world we’re meant to be in.  Passion is vital to life so even if it may be confusing or trivial to someone else, if something stirs that life inside, that’s all we need to know.

Today I am grateful for perspective.  We had a birthday party for my son the other day and I learned how important it is to continue to put in effort to celebrate him and pay attention to what interests him.  He is so smart and so much more mature and it hit me just how quickly this time goes.  It’s a gift to be with him.  On top of that, he KNOWS himself so well, he knows what he wants, he knows what he enjoys, he knows what he will and will not accept from his friends as far as behavior.  He’s always been a sensitive kid and I often worried he’d be too much like me where he either couldn’t handle the weight of his emotions or he would isolate and get angry because he couldn’t deal with how others treated him.  But he has shown me over and over again just how emotionally mature he is.  He is confident and assured and I don’t want to do anything to make him doubt that.  It’s amazing to see him because he absolutely knows how to handle himself and he expresses himself well—especially if something bothers him or if someone crosses his boundaries.  We are born with those instincts and, while he may have waivered when he was younger, he most certainly has learned to stand up for himself and stand in who he is.  That stubbornness is something I used to feel a ton of frustration for, especially with him, because if we had things to do I didn’t have time for any crap.  I appreciate that now, though, because it’s a solid reminder that we always know who we are, we just have to be willing to stand firm in that identity. 

Today I am grateful for being an example.  I’ve spoken for months now about how strained certain relationships became over this past summer.  I didn’t allow that to impact other relationships around me because the relationships between others had nothing to do with my relationship with these people.  I allowed them into my home for the sake of a healthier relationship/better time but I maintained my boundaries.  In having a conversation with one of these people the other day, I made it clear that I would not accept 100% fault in a situation that required multiple people, multiple actions, multiple reactions, multiple comments/arguments/thoughts/requests.  And I stood by that.  No, some of them aren’t happy and they are demanding a specific action in order to “move forward” but I am maintaining my ground.  Others are able to have and maintain their relationships while I am able to re-establish mine.  I realized that I also needed to re-establish a relationship with myself and sometimes the people we thought would be with us on our journey don’t come with us.  That’s ok.  I don’t have time to try and be every version people expect and I am no longer allowing that expectation to exist. 

Today I am grateful for opportunities.  There are still more opportunities coming my way and this is the year for action.  What is meant for us always finds us so as we cross this threshold into the new year, this is super important to remember: what crosses our path does it for a reason.  When we leave the old behind we open the door for the new.  It’s time to stop mourning the past and celebrate what it was and it is time to move forward boldly into the new.  Instead of wanting and wishing things to be a different way or to go back to how it was, honor it and let the rest go.  Welcome those who come into our lives and honor and respect who we are.  Honor those who don’t and wish them well—may they still eat but not at our table.  Big things require big action and this is that momentum.  We feel it, we need it, we move with it.  Take the opportunities that come to us because we wouldn’t have them if they weren’t for us.  Welcome the life that comes with those opportunities. 

Wishing everyone a wonderful week ahead.

“You know some people think that the truth can be hidden with a little decoration, a little coverup and avoidance.  But as time goes by, the truth is always revealed.  What is fake fades away.  And not for nothing, who wants to live with that amount of guilt hiding the truth?  That sounds horrible.  The truth really will set you free,” Erica Russo. Sometimes we don’t realize the extent all those little things, the stories we’ve told pile up.  Even those things we spin with the best of intentions can create problems in the long run.  And Russo is right, no matter what we do, it will come to light.  We even lie to ourselves, only sharing certain parts of our lives or certain versions of ourselves with specific people.  That chameleon act is dangerous as well.  In the grand scheme of things, I’m sure Russo was referencing the big lies that we use to hide behind, but it’s those little things we do that open the door to the things we need to hide behind.  No amount of cover up can erase it, we always carry it with us and it can fester if we don’t address it appropriately.

We can’t change what we do and I will be the first to admit how hard it is to come to terms with some of the things I’ve done—so I know it’s tempting to hide things for fear of how people will see us.  The reality is if we hide what we’ve done then it’s all the worse when people have to find it for themselves.  It’s a heavy weight to carry, the creation of a story, the manipulation of a narrative we spin to make things look not so bad or like we aren’t really at fault/involved.  The lie becomes a chain, an anchor we always have to remember so we can continue to play our part.  It’s much easier to relay the real story than it is to remember the parts we created.  Upkeep is a lot of work, especially on something with a rocky foundation.  Sometimes the truth is as simple as we’ve been telling ourselves the wrong story.  We’ve been believing the wrong things about ourselves.  We’ve created an image and a label based on our own interpretation and fear of something we’ve done and it doesn’t align with who we really are. 

Honesty must start with ourselves and being honest about who we are.  That can be tricky for the people-pleasing chameleons who just want to keep people happy, who seem like they’re placating because they resonate with part of what someone says so their agreement makes them look complicit on one hand and untruthful on the other.  Those people are at most risk of losing who they are because all they have are their masks.  But as Russo said, all that is fake fades away, so wearing that mask will eventually not offer the protection we think it has.  So as we continue our journey forward this year, this is another step in our process—revealing and facing what was hidden.  There are so many degrees of “hard” as we’ve spoken about before and we can choose our “hard” whether that’s hiding or telling the truth.  The difference is only one will allow us to be fully who we are and unlocks our fullest potential. Only one keeps us free to move in both thought and action.  Only one sets us up for success.  Spend time creating the life we want instead of the projection/imitation of what we want people to think we are.  With grace and honesty, we will see all we want to.    

In the spirit of the horse I want to revisit part of a piece I shared years ago.  Florence Welch sings in her song “Shake it Out” from 2011, “And I’ve been a fool and I’ve been blind; I can never leave the past behind.  I can see no way, I can see no way.  I’m always dragging that horse around.  All of his questions such a mournful sound.  Tonight I’m gonna bury that horse in the ground; I’m done with my graceless heart, so tonight I’m gonna cut it out and then restart; it’s hard to dance with a devil on your back.”  I sing and share this song as an anthem for the momentum of this year.  The things that hold us back are in our own minds.  We can decide to move forward and let the dead horse lie because what good does it do to continue to beat the issue to death?  All it serves is an anchor to a time when we were a different person.  Even the happy moments we’d like to replay in our minds no longer exist and that can lead to it own type of pain seeking that feeling again.  What have we told ourselves we need to keep with us and for what reason?  Do we display our faults as a sort of penance?  Do we hide them because we fear what others will think of us? Yes and Yes, whether we know it or not. 

The human psyche wants to be accepted and seeks protection knowing it’s part of a group and somehow validated.  We either hide what we are for fear of not being included or we display them for some sort of demonstration of self-awareness/self-deprecation.  In either case we lose sight of the potential of what we can be and who we are. We take these tings we’ve done and somehow make them our identity.  Even if we know all the millions of facets of who we are and all the millions of other things we’ve done that were right on par, we find a way to relive those fantastic lows.  This year is about movement and I encourage all of us to look at the horses we need to bury and the ones that will take us to freedom.  What devils have we created and decided to carry along for the ride?  To dance, we must be free of those burdens.  We must forgive ourselves and create a new story, one that we tell, not the devils inside our minds.

I still remember the first time I heard “Shake it Out” and how it stopped me in my tracks.  Hearing the lyrics I shared above triggered such an emotion it was as if I’d written them myself. Repeating the same stories doesn’t show us a new option and, personally, this is the year I want to move forward.  I know what the same story has gotten me all this time and I’m tired of it.  I know what this version looks like day in and day out and there’s a reason I’ve been trying to leave it behind—we all have something like that.  But we can restart, and as we spoke about yesterday, this year in particular demands it.  This is a chance to finally leave those pieces of us in the past with no regret.  Take charge and take the journey forward.  Take the lessons and figure out how to apply them on the next phase.  Make peace with whatever we need to and accept that’s enough, forgiving ourselves is enough.  Embracing who we are is enough.  We are enough to move forward.      

Note, This is an amalgamation of several pieces and thoughts and posts strung together—I’ve cited work where appropriate.

Welcome to 2026. I want to hit the ground running this year, with feeling and meaning and no more nonsense.  The nonsense of baggage weighing down the steps we need to take because we feel so much of it.  Feeling was great, now it’s time to feel through it.  The feeling is done, it’s time to advance in what the feeling showed us and the lessons that came with it.  Shop Catalog said it perfectly: 2025 taught us what to release, 2026 asks us to move and clarity becomes courage.  The shedding is done, what’s aligned stays and what’s next runs forward.  One year revealed the truth, the next lives it.  And maybe that type of energy is what I’m picking up on because I’m certainly feeling like I’m ready to move on.

This is the year of the horse.  This s a year of application and movement.  There is nothing left to prepare for.  Complete the shedding of all that no longer serves, of all that doesn’t work, of all that doesn’t feel right, and get to work.  It’s an exciting time.  It’s a busy time and it’s an incredibly important time in the way of transformation.  It’s the next step in our personal evolution and it will change everything.    

To expand a bit more, 2025 was the year of the snake which taught us how to shed what no longer fits.  It was a season of quiet clarity—one that asked us to slow down, listen honestly, and recognize where we were living out of habit instead of truth.  The lesson wasn’t about rushing change, but about understanding why it was necessary.  The snake reminded us that growth often happens invisibly, and that letting go is not an ending, but a preparation for what comes next.  The year of the horse brings movement, courage, and forward momentum. Where the snake revealed the truth, the horse asks us to act on it.  To trust our instincts, choose freedom over familiarity and move boldly toward what feels aligned.  This is a year of embodiment and expansion, where clarity turns into action and confidence grows through passion.  The shedding is done, now we run (all via Shop Catalog). 

Golden Alchemist explains further: 2026 is not continuation energy, this is restart energy. 2026 is a numerology 1 year and it’s a horse year and this is exactly what happens when destiny wants motion again.  Horse energy is momentum, one energy is rebirth.  This is why 2025 felt like a hallway.  You weren’t stuck, you were being positioned.  Horse years do not move slowly.  They break stagnation, they return passion to the body.  The one year does not ask who you were it asks who you’re willing to become and who you’re becoming.  This is the timeline where your confidence returns, your voice returns.  You become more charismatic, everything starts to line up perfectly for you. The horse doesn’t sprint to escape, it sprints to find freedom. So the 2026 energy is not subtle, it’s like taking your first breath after you’ve been holding your breath for so long.  The fact is you’re not preparing anymore, you’re becoming.  And the horse year aligning with numerology number one year is a perfect synchronicity to start something year.  Because this is the year you’re cultivating a brand new identity you get to decide who you want to be starting this brand new nine year cycle.

That being said: Let’s get it.