For the last 12 years, instead of making New Year’s resolutions or making a list of specific goals, like eating healthier or traveling more, I’ve preferred like to focus on how I want to feel energetically in the upcoming year, and I refer to this annual ritual as “Setting as my Intention Word of the Year”.

Over the past decade, my words have been:

• BREATHE (2013-2014) • FEEL (2015) • HEAL (2016) • REBUILD (2017) • CREATE (2018) • HOME (2019) • CLARITY (2020) • PURPOSE (2021) • EXPAND (2022) • COLLABORATE (2023) • RECEIVE (2024) • THRIVE (2025)

If you feel like reading any of those posts, feel free to do so.

This year, I’m grateful to be feeling fully present, connected, and at home in my physical body, having alchemized my mind, emotions, & sensations into a unified experience rather than being “stuck in my head” or disconnected. I completely trust my body’s wisdom, and I am attuned to the way my intuition expresses itself authentically through physical awareness. I respond to life from a grounded, whole-self perspective, and utilize mindfulness practices like listening to somatic sensations, breath, and movement. 

If you’ve read this far, you will probably not be surprised to learn:

My Intention Words for 2026 are ALIGNED & EMBODIED

• PHYSICAL WELLNESS: I’m starting off the year in a much better place than I was a year ago. Yes, I still eat clean. I don’t drink or smoke. I drink clean water. I’m mindful of what I’m putting into my body at all times. I speak kindly to myself. And I’m getting back to moving my body after last year’s laminectomy. It took much longer than I expected to heal from that surgery and I have accepted this new normal and am engaging in physical activities that make my body feel good.

• EMOTIONAL WELLNESS: I’m grateful for the beautiful friendships that have come into my life this year. I have people I can call when I’m having a difficult moment — and I’ve been willing to let go of people who can’t or won’t communicate clearly, aren’t feeding my soul or just plain don’t show up for me. Ending relationships is not something I take lightly, so I’m being gentle with myself for the progress I’ve made in this area. There is still one relationship in which my energy feels stuck and needs to shift.

• PROFESSIONAL GOALS: I’m excited about an upcoming collaboration with my friend, fellow psychiatric survivor & holistic health coach, Emilie Jordao. My connection with Emilie is extremely special and so much our interaction tales place in the Quantum Realm within the Zone of Synchronicity, it’s hard to articulate the level of connectedness I feel with her.
  • We are co-facilitating an online workshop —  MANIFEST YOUR FUTURE VISION BOARD CREATION & SOMATIC RITUAL on 1/11 at 1pm ET.  (And you have just 2 more days to enroll!) We will once again co-facilitate CONARE: Expressive Art & Wellness, our online course which blends creativity with somatic healing modalities, and we are hosting a 5-Day Women’s Retreat in July 2026. This summer will be our first time meeting in person, and we are over the moon about being able to share our gifts in such an embodied way. (Details coming soon!)
  • I’m co-facilitating a second year of ABODE, in-person, monthly art workshops for women with my bestie, Stephanie Sheedy. Stephanie has a way of making everything beautiful and warm and welcoming. If you know her, you know what I’m talking about. The cool thing about working with Stephanie is that it is a way for us to maintain our relationship while simultaneously extending our love to others — and the world! If you’d like to check out our schedule of upcoming classes, click HERE.
• JOY: Can’t wait to see my Wisconsin friends and my Florida friends later this month, and plan a future trip to somewhere with my college roommate!
• PERSONAL GROWTH: This past year I read/listened to 19 different books — further evidence that the healing continues to happen! There was a time in my life where I was so cognitively scrambled that I could not read books or listen to the radio of watch television. It was just too stimulating for my poor injured brain. Can’t wait to share my list of books with you in an upcoming post.

This year, I’m finishing this post by sending out a prayer for humanity:

May our hearts expand beyond borders, names & stories,
until we recognize what has always been true:
there is room for all of us.
Room for every voice, every body, every becoming.
May we choose compassion over separation,
listening over shouting,
care over control.
And when we forget
may we be gently reminded
that love is still here,
waiting patiently,
wide enough to hold the world.

What’s your ‘Intention Word of the Year’? What do you want to feel energetically in 2026?