01/02/2026
As this year comes to a close, I’ve been paying attention to what the body remembers.
Not the deadlines.
Not the noise.
But the moments we abandoned ourselves.
The words we swallowed.
The joy we delayed.
The versions of ourselves we kept on hold.
Regret rarely lives in what we did.
It settles into what we didn’t allow.
The truth we quieted to stay comfortable.
The instincts we ignored to stay accepted.
The boundaries we didn’t set — and felt in our body every time.
Many of us learned to override our signals.
We tighten. We adapt. We perform.
We say yes when our nervous system says no.
And the body keeps track.
We work past our limits.
We carry unspoken feelings in our chest, our jaw, our gut.
We tell ourselves we’ll rest, speak up, or choose joy later.
But later isn’t a guarantee.
And happiness isn’t something we earn after everything else is done.
It’s something we allow when we stop crossing our own boundaries.
So as the calendar turns, I’ll ask gently:
What feels heavy in your body that no longer belongs to you?
Where are you holding back because you haven’t said no?
Who might you become if you honored your limits as sacred?
Let this be your permission:
You are allowed to choose differently.
You are allowed to set boundaries without guilt.
You are allowed to want more honesty, more space, more joy.
You are allowed to release what your body is tired of carrying.
Step into this new year choosing a life that feels true —
not perfect, not performative, but grounded, regulated, and alive.
