An Alternative to New Year Resolutions

Sharon Burkey
Jan 2
3 min read

As the wheel of the year turns – what would it feel like to meet this year without the need of trying to ‘fix’, control or dominate ourselves?

If, like me, you’re exhausted by the endless pressure of “New Year, New You”… consider this a gentle invitation: let’s move through 2026 differently.

As the year turns, this time of year can be full of mixed emotions and energies, yet every January seems to arrive carrying the same message: the unspoken sense that we should already be moving, fixing, improving ourselves, bolting out of the gates, because if we aren’t sprinting, planning, and striving, we’re failing. That if we could just do more, be better, try harder, then we’d finally arrive somewhere safe or settled.

This year, I find myself moving away from the usual momentum of new year resolutions, because honestly…I find resolutions can be another set of exhausting expectations, often further destabilising and dysregulating us, and the traditional adrenaline-driven, hard-push resolutions often don’t work.

So let’s not waste our time this year — let’s do it different. Embrace a more nervous-system-friendly way to make sustainable change.

So now, we find ourselves in 2026, which offers us something different.

In numerology, this is known as a Universal 1 Year — the very first year of a new nine-year cycle. It’s the first steps after a long period of endings.

Think of the last nine years as a chapter where old patterns, relationships, and habits have been challenged, exposed, and often discarded. Some things we held tightly had to go. Some things we thought we wanted weren’t what we needed.

For many, these years haven’t been gentle. They’ve been intense and challenging.

A period of endings, of learning hard lessons, of facing situations that stretched us far beyond what we thought we could handle. For many, it’s been a mix of growth and challenge — sometimes beautiful, often painful, and almost always testing our patience, our strength, and our resilience.

So today, I’m inviting you into a different kind of movement for the new year. Not about self-improvement; it’s about self-remembrance.

I’ve grown tired of the patriarchal model of discipline, the one that asks us to constantly control and correct ourselves. It doesn’t feel right anymore. What feels alive now is devotion — to our health, our growth, our healing, and a mindful approach to the life unfolding before us.

So now, what if we approach things in the opposite way?

Reclaiming our energy.

Remembering who we are beneath the noise, the roles, the expectations.

Not creating a new version of yourself, but healing and reconnecting with the one who’s already here.

I know so many of you are already tired and exhausted. So, from my heart to yours, I wanted to send the message that you don’t need to bolt out of the gates and start fixing yourself.

You can softly be here.

Move at a slower pace.

With that alone, significant openings and changes will naturally start to flow.

The invitation is to allow a devotion to getting to know and remembering yourself, gently — not driven by having to create something new.

To help, I invite some gentle, heartfelt reflections you can explore:

Where could you pause long enough to truly notice what’s happening beneath the surface?
Where in your life are you still pushing, when what’s actually needed is listening?
If the soul of your body (not your thoughts) had a vote in how this year unfolds, what would it ask for first?
Are you noticing areas of your life that need further healing and self-care?
What would it mean to live a little more from within yourself this year, rather than orienting around expectations, pressure, fixing, or the need for approval?

I’m quietly excited for what’s ahead — some things I can’t wait to share with you, including the first-ever, first-of-its-kind Immersive Retreat for Women in the Scottish Highlands in March 2027.

Details of this will be dropping into your emails shortly.

I so look forward to witnessing how 2026 unravels for you, and know that I am here cheering you on every single step of the way.

Let me know how this landed for you 🧡

With much love,

Sharon x