What Are You Making It Mean? A New Year, A New Story for 2026✨
There is something quietly powerful happening in every moment of our lives, whether we are aware of it or not. We are constantly making meaning, interpreting what we see, feel, and experience, and then living inside the story that interpretation creates.
As we step into 2026, a universal 1 year, this feels especially significant. A one year is about beginnings, fresh cycles, and conscious creation. It carries the energy of choice, of planting new seeds, and of deciding how we want to move forward rather than unconsciously repeating what has gone before.
From the way we look at ourselves in the mirror, to how we interpret someone else’s words or behaviour, to what we decide a situation says about us, our worth, or our future, meaning is always being assigned. None of these moments arrive with built in definitions, yet we instinctively reach for a story to explain them.
And those stories matter.
They can create deep suffering when they are rooted in fear, judgment, or old negative beliefs. And just as powerfully, they can create ease, compassion, and joy when they are shaped by curiosity, kindness, and love 🌟
Meaning Is Never Neutral
One of the most liberating things we can remember, especially at the start of a new cycle, is that events, people, and circumstances are inherently neutral until we decide what they mean. The moment meaning is applied, energy follows.
A comment becomes criticism or care. A quiet season becomes rest or failure. A change in plans becomes a natural redirection or proof that something has gone wrong.
The situation itself has not changed, but the vibration we bring to it has, and that vibration determines where we land on the FRED scale: Feeling Radiant Every Day.
When our stories are heavy or self critical, our energy drops and life feels harder to navigate. When our stories are kinder and more spacious, our energy lifts, and we move through the same experiences with greater ease and trust.
Same moment. Entirely different experience.
How We See Ourselves 🌿
A couple of weeks ago, just before the end of the year, I caught a cold that completely drained my energy and slowed me down far more than I would have liked. On the surface, it was simply my body doing what bodies do, asking for rest, recalibration, and care.
But almost immediately, I noticed my mind creating a story.
Instead of meeting myself with gentleness, I started attaching meaning, that I should be doing more, that I was falling behind, that not keeping up with everything I had scheduled somehow said something about me.
Nothing had actually gone wrong. And yet, the story I told myself shifted my energy quickly, and I could feel myself sliding down the FRED scale into pressure and self judgment.
It was such a clear reminder of how easily we turn neutral circumstances into personal criticism, often without even realising we are doing it, and how quickly that meaning can drain our light. When I shifted, I allowed myself to rest and enjoy it and my body healed much faster than I expected. I also realised when I looked at the things I wanted to do that they had miraculously changed from seemingly impossible to fun!
How We Interpret Others 💫
We do exactly the same thing with other people, often just as automatically.
Someone does not respond the way we expected. Someone behaves differently than we would have. Something about them does not resonate with us, and meaning appears almost instantly.
We assume intention, fill in the gaps with our own experiences, and react not to the person in front of us, but to the story we have created about them. It amuses me to think about how many versions of me there are out in the world, created by other people's thoughts.
So much of what triggers us has very little to do with what is actually happening, and everything to do with what we are making it mean. When we pause long enough to notice this, space opens, and with that space comes choice and freedom 🌟
Circumstances Are Just the Canvas
Life continually offers us moments, pauses, challenges, and unexpected turns. Circumstances themselves are simply the canvas, and the meaning we apply is the paint.
When we are lower on the FRED scale, our stories tend to feel heavier, more personal, and more loaded. When we are higher, those same circumstances feel easier to meet, more neutral, and sometimes even quietly supportive.
Nothing outside of us has shifted. Only our energy, our perspective, and the meaning we are choosing in that moment.
Choosing a New Story for 2026 ✨
This is why a universal one year like 2026 feels so powerful. It is an invitation to notice the stories we are carrying and to consciously choose which ones we want to take forward.
This work is not about forcing positivity or bypassing real emotions. It is about noticing when a story is creating unnecessary suffering and gently allowing a new interpretation to become available.
Sometimes the shift is subtle, remembering that rest is not failure, that a pause does not define us, or that not everything needs to mean something about our worth.
As our energy lifts, our stories soften. And as our stories soften, life begins to feel lighter, kinder, and more expansive, which is a beautiful way to begin a new cycle 🌿
A Gentle Invitation 💛
This way of working with energy, awareness, and meaning sits at the heart of my Awaken programs, and it feels especially aligned as we begin a universal one year like 2026.
Awaken is not about fixing yourself or forcing new thoughts. It is an energetic shift, created through listening to Light Language that is intentionally aligned with affirmations. Together, they gently work beyond the busy mind and into your energy field, helping old perspectives soften and new meanings emerge naturally.
Rather than trying to think differently, you begin to feel differently. As your energy shifts, the stories you tell yourself about who you are, what is possible, and what life is showing you begin to change without effort. Many people notice they naturally rise on the FRED scale, feeling lighter, clearer, and more open to choice and possibility.
If you feel drawn, Awaken (abundance, health and empowerment) is a supportive space to explore these shifts during this new year, allowing fresh perspectives to form as you step into a new cycle.
And whether or not that is for you, you can take this with you as 2026 begins.
Before reacting, before judging, before deciding what something means, pause.
And ask yourself, Is this the only story available to me right now?
Often, that question alone is enough to lift us higher on the FRED scale 🌟
A Gentle Reflection 🌙
As this new year begins, where in your life might you be open to choosing a new meaning, one that feels lighter, kinder, and more aligned with who you are becoming?
