How are you feeling about the year ahead – and can you give yourself permission to approach it one day at a time?
Perhaps you’re feeling a great sense of anticipation, seeing new possibilities unfolding before you. Perhaps you’re feeling unsettled by global unrest that is beyond your control. Perhaps you’re feeling overwhelmed by the amount of work already piling up. Or perhaps you’re simply content with your life as it is and are moving through your days with a sense of quiet appreciation.
Energetically, 2026 is a year of new beginnings. If you follow the Chinese calendar, 2025 was the year of the Snake: a time of transformation, shedding old layers, and closures. 2026, in contrast, is the year of the Horse: a time of momentum, forward motion, fresh starts, liberation, courage, creativity, adventure, and confidence. Personally, I’ve been having a sense of green shoots unfurling. As old paradigms fall away, there is this exciting space for something new to be born. As we all collectively shake off the last vestiges of 2025, I can’t wait to see what we create in 2026.
Whether you are feeling a great sense of potential for this coming year or a lingering sense of concern (or both, or something else), it can be easy, so early in the year, to feel a bit overwhelmed by how much there is to do. If this is you, perhaps you can find some comfort in Lemn Sissay’s short poem below. I found this poem in a collection he published called Let the Light Pour In: Morning Poems – a selection of poems drawn from a much broader collection that he wrote over the course of ten years, one poem every morning. Small actions, done consistently over time, can light up the world.
