Don’t step into 2026 carrying energy that no longer belongs to your next chapter.
This episode dives into what you must release to align with the start of a brand-new 9-year cycle — and how to do it with clarity, intuition, and personal power.

Through the symbolic shift from The Fool (0) to The Magician (1), you’ll explore how to move from possibility into intentional creation. You’ll learn how to:

• Identify emotional patterns and identities that have outlived their purpose
• Recognize resistance as intuitive information (not a setback)
• Shift outdated inner agreements that quietly shape your choices
• Take the smallest next aligned step to spark momentum in 2026

You’ll also receive simple journaling prompts to help you clarify what to release, what wisdom to carry forward, and who you’re becoming as this new cycle begins.

If you’ve been feeling the nudge to lighten your load, trust it. This is your moment to reset, realign, and step into the year with intention, courage, and grounded intuitive awareness.

For deeper insight into the year ahead, listen to the companion episode: The 11 Themes of 2026.

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Full Episode Transcript:

Hey, beautiful soul, welcome to spirit. Speak Easy. I'm Joy Giovanni, joyful medium. I'm a working psychic medium, energy healer and spiritual gifts mentor. This podcast is like a seat at the table in a secret club, but with mediums, mystics and the spiritual luminaries of our time. So come behind the velvet ropes with me and see inside my world as I chat insider style with profoundly gifted souls, we go deep, share juicy stories, laugh a lot, and it wouldn't be a speakeasy without great insider secrets and tips. You might even learn that you have some gifts of your own so step inside the spirit speakeasy. Hey, beautiful soul. Welcome back for another episode of spirit speakeasy this week, as 2026 begins, we are going to talk about what you must release to start this new nine year cycle. We're going to talk about what's not serving you that you can release right now, and a little bit of a free reframe on the energy of this year, on who you are stepping into becoming this year, and so much more. So I wanted to talk about release, wisdom, gratitude, but I am doing a little interesting twisting and a share some through the lens of the Tarot. So we are really in a threshold moment right now, as we exit 2025 and enter 2026 that energy begins before 2025 and continues into the first segment of the year, and as we're standing at this rare and powerful threshold, the end of a nine year cycle, the beginning of a brand new one. Energetically, this moment mirrors one of the most important transitions in the tarot deck, from the fool, which is the zero card, to the magician, which is the number one card. So in tarot, the fool represents stepping onto a new path with openness, trust, curiosity, possibility, and the magician represents reclaiming your power, using all that you've learned, using all your tools, and intentionally creating your world. So this episode invites you to fully step into this sacred transition, not by completely letting go, but by honoring, integrating and releasing with gratitude so you can step into 2026, lighter, wiser, clearer and more empowered. Plus, we are going to talk about how to use what you've learned previously to help you see where your own intuition is trying to get your attention. Because our intuition is always communicating with us, guiding us and even giving us little pushes where needed. So we're going to talk about how to recognize that showing up. And as we kind of dive into this episode, I just want to acknowledge, for those of you that are not super versed in tarot, or Tarot as it's technically pronounced, this is a very old system of divination or reading. Essentially, the cards are not magical themselves. It is the psychic, the medium, the spirit worker, who's using the cards as a tool to read the energy, or as a physical representation of energetically what is happening now the first 21 cards, zero to 20 of the Tarot deck are called the Major Arcana, and that is what we're talking about with this zero the fool card into the one card the magician. It's the beginning of a new chapter, a next part of our journey. And really, these cards, zero through 20 represent our journey in this lifetime and in different segments of our life, the things we might need to collect, the stumbling blocks that might greet us, the guidance along the way. And if you are a literary person at all, you will recognize this as a very famous theme in literature for many, many years. And it is really the hero's journey, or the fool's journey is what this is called, and it's represented through Tarot. So I'm going to reframe it for you a little bit as part of this reframing release, so that we're not thinking about it as discarding like everything that we've learned, everything that we've been through, but more shifting into this idea of alchemizing release isn't really necessarily only about abandoning the past. It's not about judging it as wrong. It's about embracing the wisdom, the strength, the insights, of course, the skills that you may have picked up along the way, the clarity you have now in a different way than you did nine or 10 years ago, and that intuitive side of you and the reference points that it's trying to highlight for you to assist you and guide you as you continue along your hero's journey or fool's journey, whatever you like. For this next segment in time, each of us experiences various things in our path. Of course. That give us
this idea that we can kind of put down or settle down what is no longer needed, what's heavy, what's weighing us down, and alchemize with our gifts and abilities and skills into focusing on a direction that is going to work for us in this next chapter. So this year, I'm inviting you to release What's no longer serving you through a lens of gratitude. Think about this like, What did this experience teach me? What pearl of wisdom did I gain? What do I know now about myself and what I need going forward? Because the truth is, we really are always learning so much about ourselves in every instance, whether we judge the experience itself as positive or negative, is another story. But with the things you're looking over and going over through maybe this past year, but also through this past nine years, really looking through the lens of being gratitude, having gratitude or being grateful for what did it teach you? What wisdom did you gain? What do you know now about yourself and your needs? Also inviting you to look through a lens of intuition. What is my inner knowing, telling me about this pattern, this emotion, this thing that I'm seeing or experiencing? So we also can carry that with us. A lens of personal power is one of the other things I want to invite you to looking through as we step into this new year. What I mean by personal power is asking yourself questions like, what version of me is emerging and what no longer fits that version of me, right? So instead of judging the past being empowered to just shift our choices to what is in alignment and going right along with the 11 themes of the one year a lens of innovation. Does this pattern support my next chapter, or does it restrict it? How can I reframe this challenge for learning once I've processed all of the emotions and the choice that I'm looking at making, is there a more creative way I can move forward with this? How do I invite the cooperative components to innovate, right and get creative and move forward this inspiration that I have in a way that I can use it in my real life? So this is how release becomes alchemy, and how it can inspire you forward, and your intuition is riding shotgun, chiming in ever so softly all along the way. So some of these things I just want to highlight for you, some of them you might already know, but hoping that everything will just kind of click together, together and give you a little bit of a new perspective about entering this next year phase. So let's talk about this transition from the fool to the magician as a map for 2026 we already did a deep dive episode on the full 11 themes for 2026 I highly encourage you to check it out. It was just recently released just before this podcast. But if you're not watching it at the New Year, you can still just look back through the podcasts, spirit speakeasy and search for that full 11 themes of 2026 because you don't want to miss those. You want to be able to harness those as they rise up. But in this episode, I want to share my framing of the energy of 2026 through the lens of these archetypes, the fool and the magician, because they represent each of us in our own journey. So the fool's wisdom, this is the zero card, and zero is like Omega right the beginning, starting fresh, coming in, whether it's as a brand new soul or a brand new part of our journey this fool card is open hearted when you see the image on the traditional the most traditional deck is called rider. Wait, you've probably seen it kind of sprinkled throughout your life. There are many updates to this style of deck using different, I don't know, creative ways of interpreting the four themes, or the four areas of our life that we talk about in Tarot. But the deck that I use is a modern witch tarot, which has the closest representations to that original deck, with updated genders, updated colors of people, making it more inclusive, instead of just scary. So in the traditional card, or a more traditional version of this card, this is why I'm telling you, because there are variations of decks. Their traditional imagery is a person who is barefoot, usually on the edge of a cliff with the sun shining overhead, a small little dog usually is with them, and they usually have a small little bag carrying only what is essential for the next part of this path. And they're usually feeling very excited and jovial as they really just start this journey. But in the image, they're on the edge of a cliff. So what. What this card is telling us is one travel, lightly, choose carefully, what we are bringing forward what we need to collect along our journey, right? And that's not just physically, as in, like decluttering. It's also emotionally. It's also that emotional baggage that we often talk about. It can be things like resentment. Are you going to carry resentment with you into this next year? Are you going to give yourself some version of a clean slate or looking at things a little differently? Right? So, travel lightly, choose carefully, what you're bringing forward. Another thing represented by the fool is this idea of intuition and our soul's knowledge, trusting your inner knowing. And can you give yourself permission this year to just start trusting your inner knowing? One of the things we talked about with the themes of the year was stepping out into action before we feel like we are completely ready. It doesn't mean that we're not making a choice and getting our creative components ready and doing whatever we can to prepare, but we're not going to feel all the way ready to step into something new and just having this courage. So part of this inner knowing is just this excitement, this knowledge that there's something else for me. I can believe in myself. I can trust myself, and as part of the energy of this fool card stepping forward even without perfect clarity, because the fool doesn't know what the path holds ahead. It only in this card, we only know that we're starting a new chapter. Here we are with our little bag and our little dog out there, right? We don't have the whole map laid out ahead for us, so that is part of why this card is so representative of this year cycle. Another thing that the wisdom of the fools card tells us is Stay curious and follow that spark within us, that curiosity, that interest, and that is a perfect way. I often give this advice to clients when they tell me why. I don't know what my truest expression is, I don't know what I'm meant to do. I don't know what my purpose is, right? And we have to follow that curiosity, and that spark that curiosity leads us to the breadcrumbs, usually, of our journey. So be paying attention to what are you just a little bit curious about? What do you want to research or listen about and that will start to let you know, as you grow in your journey, kind of where your soul is wanting to take you. Sorry about that little phone ring. I thought my hand my ringer off, but clearly I do not. I just turned it off, so I apologize and following that spark right? Sometimes we don't have the whole path laid out, but we just know, oh, I want to move I want to look at what classes I can take. I don't want to live in this area anymore. I don't feel fulfilled in this job anymore. So we might not have all the answers, but really paying attention to that intuition, that spark, that curiosity in us now, the magician being it's technically the second card, but because the fool is zero, right, ground zero starting agreeing, stepping outside into this path, the magician card is labeled as the number one card. And the traditional imagery and symbolism of this card, this card has so much symbolism, there's a person on the card, and typically it's a male person, but in the stack that I have, it's a female person. And the four suits of the Tarot are represented around them in the imagery. So they're holding the wand in their hand, and they usually have this hand kind of pointed to the heavens or to the sky.
They usually have one hand pointed down to the earth, meaning that they are trying to be in balance and alchemize all of what is available to us, right, the wisdom in the ethers and things grounded in reality. And those four symbols. So the wand is usually in one hand, and the symbols are placed in the card. So the cup has to do with our heart, our emotions, our relationships, things close to our heart, the pentacles, or the coin in the picture often has to do with the earthly means, right, things of the earth. So, money, abundance, time, things that are tangible in that way our work, where we focus our energy to create more abundance in the world, to create actual tangible things in the world. So cups, wands, which we already talked is in the hand. One has to do with our passion, our Spark, our magic, that thing inside of us, and it could be so your spiritual gifts, of course, under this wand included, but can also be other things that you are just passionate about. These are gifts, hobbies, focuses, right? This can also be like your humanitarianism, if you really love to support a certain cause or something is near and dear to your heart. It also. Also tips into your passion. And of course, a little bit about alchemy here. And so what did we do? Oh, Swords is the last. So we did cups, pentacles, wands, and swords is the last. And there's always a sword in the magician card, the sword represents things of our mind, our intellect, that more divine wisdom, right? It's what are we thinking about? Our mentality, our It can even tip into like our education to a bit, even though education is usually going to be seen in the pentacles, things we can do in this world Swords is would be more the learning, right? It's about having that grounded, wise ability to not get too caught up in the emotions, but to see the overarching perspective. So Swords is always going to be about it's the suit of air. It's always going to be the things in our mentality, right? So why are all of these things shown in the magician card? Because one of the messages of the magician card also the four elements are represented, and there's a lot more symbolism, but one of the most powerful messages of the magician card is that you already have all the tools you need. You've already before you stepped out onto this journey, been learning, collecting, growing, expanding, and you have everything you need. The magic is already within you. You've lived and experienced is within you to use for what you will on this next segment of your journey. Because sometimes it's so beautiful that this car is right at the beginning of the journey. Because sometimes we feel when we're starting out new in our journey, like, oh my gosh, I don't know what I'm doing, I don't know where I'm going. I don't know how to make all these things happen. Think if you've ever moved to like a new city and you have to recreate your life, or you've left a relationship, or you've joined a relationship, it's this next segment of what do we do now? Right? Well, the magician card says, Hey, I know you just stepped out on this journey, but don't forget, you've got a lot of wisdom inside you. You've got a lot of intuition and a lot of skill that you've already developed your lived experience is part of your magic as the magician. And the magician can create anything through alchemy. So you can create through alignment, not force. As the magician, your intuition is one of your strongest resources, which we're going to talk about more as we go. And this has not been formally announced yet, but I am going to have a free workshop in January, probably the later part of January. So if you were not already on my email, VIP community, I would get in there. You can either message admin at joyful medium.com or you can just go to the website and write on the homepage, there'll be something for you to sign up for, like a free mini course, and that'll put you on the list, because your intuition is a superpower this year, and I don't want anyone to miss learning how to work with it. It is our strongest resource. It is our most reliable tool. And personal power grows through intentional action, through perceiving our intuition, even making a note of it, and using what we know and who we are to make intentional choices, take intentional action, and as we go step by step, that is how we build our personal power, our trust in ourselves. But with the magician card, it's saying, Hey, you already have all of these things as a part of you. You're still learning what's going to come next on your path. You're still processing and greeting life experiences here on the earth plane in the world, but you have everything, just as natural ingredients of your soul in this lifetime. So how do these two cards and their symbolism relate to 2026 in a universal one year, which is what 2026 is? It rewards. One of the themes is this year rewards aligned movement, innovation, intuitive leadership
and reclaiming your power as the creator of your next chapter, that is what is required of us this year. Just floating along the lazy river of life is not going to be pleasurable this year, and it's not going to help move the energy or align us. So part of what we need to do in this transition phase, when we're leaving 2025 and into 2026 is releasing what no longer serves you, but still taking that gem, those pearls of wisdom that you learned and that becomes the clearing that allows everything to unfold. So I want to talk a little bit about emotional patterns with gifts hidden inside our emotional patterns that we experience as human beings are not flaws per se. They're teachers and they're created by all the younger versions of you that you have ever been, all of the fool's journeys that you have already taken, all of the chapters of your life that you have already lived you have collected wisdom and information. Education and Learning. This is highlighted to me so much because of the young people that I have in my life. My own kids certainly. I have friends with kids, and then I have clients that are on the younger side of their life, and it's so beautiful and wonderful to see them gaining wisdom and even in the little simple things learning, like, Oh yeah, you have to make an appointment for that. So don't take for granted all of the wisdom about how this world works, how your community works, how it works in your country, who you are as a person, and what you want and need, that's so much information that you have learned from your younger selves and probably through your own emotions and patterns. Some examples of patterns that we can be releasing and taking the wisdom from as we transition into this next year are things like people pleasing. I don't know about you, but I consider myself a recovering people pleaser. I have to check on in on this one quite a bit, but I've gotten a lot better at it. So people pleasing, just watching for that pattern within you, overthinking is a really big one. Now that doesn't mean don't process and do your own deep dives and research and think about things in a constructive way. We're talking more about those racing thoughts, sleepless nights, Doom, scrolling in a way that is not conducive to really receiving an answer or processing. It's just getting you even more stressed out. I keep thinking of like 10 of swords with this one, self doubt is something that we want to be looking at as an emotional pattern. And again, self doubt can be helpful in one way, because it can keep us in check. Saying, like, you know, let's just say you're going to take a trip. Your self doubt might nudge you and say, like, Hey, did you pack all of your prescription medications and do you have your passport waiting by the door? Let me just check. I don't know if I did that right, but it doesn't mean that you have to let self doubt rise up in a way that's abusive, where it's like, oh my gosh, there's no way you can travel. You can't travel by yourself. There's no way you're going to be able to do this. You're not capable, you're not competent, right? We don't want it to tip over that part of it. We want to release the positive part of self doubt where it helps us keep ourself in check. That's a little bit of a teacher for us. Another thing we can be checking in on as we transition this year is perfectionism, because oof, for those of us that are really still holding tightly to perfectionism, this year might be a little bit bumpy, so I just highly encourage you to try to do things to the best of your ability, but not hold yourself to a standard of perfection that's not real anyway, and we do have to keep perfecting as we go. So if you're waiting for something to be perfect, I know someone who's been working on writing a book this last couple of years. They are trying to make this book perfect before they will even pass it over to an editor. Now, anyone who's written before knows that there are several rounds of editing that typically happen, especially if you are doing it the proper way and working with an editor, but they've made this book kind of take so much longer because of this perfectionism that they want to have it exactly right before they even send it through the first phase of editing, and what that's doing is creating blocks and pushing their timeline back to where they are working on this book that perhaps could have already been published. So perfectionism is not going to be rewarded in 2026 but intentional action and doing it with like your heart in it. Right again, we're trying our best and getting the cooperative components. We're not sloppy willy nilly, but we're also not going to be requiring perfectionism this year. And this year really wants action and momentum and making choices and putting effort just trying right without being perfect, emotional caretaking. This is like codependence when we think about something else that we can look at and release the challenging parts of it, but hang on to the positive parts of it. So emotional caretaking is how I worded it, but I mean it more as codependence, because yes, we should be concerned about the emotions that we are creating in other people, right? But there's a bit of a hang up here. So it's okay for you to be yourself. It's just, are we being kind to people? For example, are we checking in on people? Are we stating our needs with kindness that's positive, emotional caretaking, but sacrificing our needs for someone else's over and over and over, becoming codependent with someone so that we think that is going to be supporting their emotions and their growth and enabling is also part of this emotional caretaking that we could consider releasing or taking the wisdom. I'm from and moving in a different direction with right so emotional caretaking is something we could be evaluating in our own lives and deciding what parts of it are working for us and what parts of it are not. Another thing that I'd like to invite you to check in on these emotional patterns with hidden gifts is staying small. There are lots of reasons that we can be unconsciously, or even consciously, keeping ourselves small. One can be that you don't feel ready. Two could be that you don't feel worthy. Three could be that you just have fear that you're allowing to hold you back. It could be, what will people think of me? It could be, I'm not ready. So just be evaluating this, keeping yourself small, and ask yourself, is it because there's more education I need to do in this field? I need more experience with clients or with the actual processes of this or is it because I'm just feeling insecure? So looking at where we're keeping ourselves small, and the reason underneath, the emotions underneath that is going to be huge this year for you in your release, as you step into 2026 ask yourself things like about these areas that we just talked about. What did this pattern once protect me from? Because often when something's showing up in the challenge aspect, right, even something like perfectionism, we often are using it in those younger versions of ourselves to some degree to protect ourselves, to keep ourselves safe, right? Even staying small often, that is a mechanism of thinking, Oh, I mean, I'm going to be safe this way, right? It doesn't make it true. It just means, what did these patterns once protect you from that you now can release. What strength did this pattern or this emotion help build within you? Perfectionism sometimes helps us build strength, even overthinking sometimes helps us build strength and resilience, but maybe you don't need to do it that way anymore. What wisdom did this behavior or emotion or pattern, leave me with and I want you to extract the pearl and leave the shell. We don't need to be carrying around this extra negative energy with us, but we can take what we've learned and alchemize it and shift our choices with intention so that we are living into more of what we want to experience, and leaving behind those things that are no longer serving us. Hopefully you can see what I mean where this is not fully a release episode, but it's an evaluation so that we can take these pearls and leave these shells behind. I also want to talk about outgrown identities that once served a purpose. So sometimes we step into different roles in our life, and the roles are useful for a time, a reason or season, but they may no longer suit who you are becoming. So I just like you to think about in your life, in this last nine years. If that sounds too big, you can even think of the last year or the last six months, where have you maybe stepped into these roles and perhaps some of these you even have already started weeding out of the garden of your life. Maybe you've already been working on some of these. But I just encourage you to think about it, let it stew and brew within you, and just see where are you stepping into these roles that maybe were once very useful, but then over time, you realize they're not serving you? These are things like the fixer. Those of you that have been here for a while know that I work this one quite a bit. So are we supporting people in our lives, helping them, encouraging them? Are we stepping in as the fixer and turning into like, either overbearing or where it's putting too much on our plate. So take a look at that fixer energy in your patterns, the over achiever.
Maybe all of these are my list that I've been working on these last 10 years.
It's great to want to achieve. It's great to have goals. It's great to set our sights and work towards things and expand and grow, but that overachiever is almost coming at it in a negative way, where we're not celebrating our achievements. We are only focused on this overachieving, and it's a shade of perfectionism, I want to say. So where is that showing up in your life that maybe was once useful, but it's now not serving you. The skeptic. I think most of you know by now that I do believe in being an open minded skeptic. Don't just buy every snake oil that comes across, especially the beauty counter, right? Do your due diligence, do your research, but stay open minded. There are amazing, wonderful things in this world, whether it's in your own spiritual gifts, in the subtle energies, but don't believe everything work the energy, right? Sometimes, when we're showing up overly skeptical, that is a fear underneath. So are you showing up overly. Skeptical of everyone, everything, every opportunity. Just take a look at that in your energy. Another thing that can sometimes feel helpful, but often in the long term, doesn't end up being useful and can even be hurtful, is this idea of being the strong one. Now some of us are just in that position in our life, where we have often, historically, had to do things for ourselves, take care of ourselves, take care of those around us, and that's fine. It's fine to be the strong one, but are we doing it in a way that's not allowing any space for ourselves, that's not claiming what we need, that's not standing in our power, that's so strong on behalf of others that we are not asking for help, where we need it, asking for community, where we need it. So just evaluate where, where have you been showing up as or maybe you did in the past, and you've worked on it the strong one in your life, and is that still working for you? What about the caretaker? Are you caretaking everyone else's needs and realizing that this is not reciprocal, and no one is caretaking for you? Do you care take everyone in any and everyone and anything around you without being asked? Right? So where did this role once serve you? Sometimes, if we've grown up in a family that felt unstable, or there was a specific person in our younger life that felt unstable for a time. It might be useful or serve us to show up as the caretaker, but then perhaps in this next cycle that doesn't suit who you are becoming, so just take a look at caretaker energy in your life. This also is hand in hand with the peacekeeper. So I so often as sensitives, see people that are incredibly wearing that hat of the Peacekeeper to their own detriment. So it's okay to be the Peacekeeper when it serves you, when it's useful, but just watch where you're keeping peace that sacrificing yourself, right? Because it is wonderful to be able to come to the same table or the same meeting all together with different opinions. But are you peacekeeping so much that you have forgotten or totally sold out your own needs? So take a look at that peacekeeping energy in your life. And the last one I want to offer you to take a look at is the invisible one. Okay, this is energy that I tip in and out of. Sometimes it just feels easier to be behind the scenes, a little bit invisible, not so out front. But this can also really intertwine with this idea of keeping ourselves small. So are you sometimes feeling safer as the invisible one, and all of these that I just mentioned are so frequently there with those of us that are highly sensitive souls, whether you identify as an empath, just emotionally sensitive, whether you know about some spiritual gifts that you have, we often can slip into that role of the invisible one in our lives. I don't need anything. I'm fine. I'm only here for everyone else. I'm going to be in the background. And sometimes, again, that was useful for you, for me, I know I slipped into that role quite a bit. That was what was expected of me when I was much younger, and it sometimes was the safest place to be, just kind of in the background, quiet. It's very much that old adage of children should be seen and not heard. Or I had a grandma who is now on the other side, who believed children should be neither seen nor heard, and would much prefer children to be the invisible ones. So maybe it was useful for a time. Maybe it doesn't support who you're growing into, who you are living into in this next chapter. So take a look at these roles, these identities that once served a purpose in your life, and just see if they still resonate with you. If there's any shifts, adjustments you want to do in your own life, or even as you make choices going forward? Am I making this choice because I'm the strong 1am? I making this choice because it's easier to be invisible? So just evaluating this within your own life, the fixer, the overachiever, the skeptic, the strong one, the caretaker, the Peacekeeper and the invisible one. Each identity cultivated something really valuable, pearls of wisdom, right? Resilience, compassion, discernment, courage, safety. But I just want you to ask, Who am I becoming now and what identity no longer fits that version? Right? This magician is stepping forward with intentional self concepts and releasing the behaviors that no longer serve. I'm going to give an example here. As a mom for many, many years, one of my biggest roles, or like subtitles, mom the fixer, as my kiddos started to get on their own feet a bit, I. Found that I still often wanted to step into this energy of the fixer, the problem solver. Over time, it wasn't working well anymore for any of us, and as the fixer, I would have questions or expectations for my kids. They would often have resistance or even resentment towards me over some of the elements of how I wanted to handle a situation, and even though most of the things did get, quote, unquote fixed in some way, somehow, it was actually doing the opposite of what I intended in the relationship. I was intending to, like, show up, be the fixer, make them feel supported, dependable Mom, Mom Mom of the year, right? And I was thinking, okay, certainly if they reach out with a need, a question, I will spring into action immediately. I am the fixer, and I have been the fixer a lot of my life, quite frankly. And my intention was to draw closer with them as a result. But really, because of these expectations I had, if I'm going to hypothetically, let's just say something goes wrong with a car, and me, as the fixer is like, Okay, I will help you fix that. I will pay that bill, whether it's a loan or just a full paying the car repair bill. But I want you to use this mechanic. I want you to ask these questions, right? So I had expectations, and if they didn't want to do it the way that I saw as best as the fixer in the situation, I would get frustrated, and when I would ask questions of them, they would feel resentful or feel resistance to sharing. So this really wasn't working for any of us, and of course, I wanted to be there to like, give guidance or suggestions or support, but it felt like it was a time to shift away from the angst, anxious position of the fixer, because often what's underlying in the emotion of the fixer is anxiousness, right, wanting to not just like, Oh, great. I hope that works out well for you. Let me know if you need any advice, but jumping in and immediately anxiously tuning every dial that we can right. I didn't say anything as things bubbled up. Instead, I just immediately jumped into fix. So what I shifted over these last couple years, as I knew that we were shifting out of this nine year into a one, I started shifting to instead of just jumping to peppering them with, okay, we could do this. We could do this. Here's my solution. Call this person. I'm going to do this research. I paused and got curious and asked questions First, when they would bring a problem or a challenge or shared something that I felt like normally I would need to jump in and fix. I started asking questions like, Do you know the next steps you want or need to do, and do you know how to do those steps? Sometimes they would know, and I would just be jumping over them as their mom trying to take control. I also often work on a little bit of control energy. But who doesn't I would ask things like, can I support you with any of those steps. So let's just use the car example. If something went wrong with the car, I might say, Okay, do you know the next steps that you need to do? And they would say, Oh, I guess I got to get a mechanic. And I would say, Okay, well, do you know how to do these next steps, particularly if it involves insurance. These things are big. Maybe they know. Maybe they don't know. And then whatever, however they answered, I would say, can I support you with any of these steps, which maybe it was like, Yes, could you get this phone number for me? Could you Could I call you later and ask you more questions, they might say, and then I might also offer some words of support or love encouragement, right? So it's still a work in progress, as I think it will probably be for the rest of our lives, but I'm getting to support them more now in ways that I can almost be more helpful, from the perspective of mom and in turn, I'm building more closeness with them in different ways, because I am able to maybe teach them more just by asking questions, and then when they give the free will consent of like, oh, I don't know, will you tell me what the steps are? Or, actually, I'm not sure, or I'm feeling a little nervous, then I can say, Would you like me to tell you what I know? Or would you like me to help you research? And actually, by just that little, tiny shift of asking more questions in an open hearted way, not in a pushy way, or in a way jumping ahead and trying to fix for them, it really has built more closeness in different ways. And the reality is, no, I still do not always agree with the way that they want to handle the thing, whatever pops up. But at the end of the day, we cannot control anyone else, even our own family members. And if no one asks my opinion, I really do try to keep my opinions to myself, even if they say, Oh, I'm going to go with this mechanic, I might say, Have you vetted the. Am, or did you get a good recommendation? But if that's the person they want to choose at the end of the day, they're probably going to do it anyway and maybe just not tell me. So it's not perfect. It is a work in progress, and I still don't always agree with the way that they want to do it themselves as young adults, but I try to help the best I can with, no longer jumping across from supporter to fixer and again, work in progress. So I really also want to talk about how energetic agreements are ready to evolve right now. As part of this, I like to say, like, bless your old agreements. Like, I that agreement serve me for a time. Not like we want to, like, curse this old agreement, but like, bless it, right? Don't curse it. And evolve these agreements with yourself. All these agreements that we're going to talk about here are agreements with yourself first, because you have agreed to continue to participate to this point. And these internal agreements can be things like, I will carry everyone's emotions. Oh, that's a tough one, right? Sometimes we're doing it just as a role we stepped into in our family dynamic, but these energetic agreements are up for renewal. And do you want to continue the way that you have been? I'll carry everyone else's emotions. I won't take up too much space. Okay, this is one that I really struggle back and forth with, but it's an agreement within ourselves. How much space are you willing to take up that could be publicly, like on social media, that could be privately in your own personal time schedule, but it's more about the agreement itself. Do you have an agreement somewhere within you that says I won't take up too much space?
If you're the quiet one, you probably do another question to ask yourself, or another agreement to reevaluate. Here is, I'll keep myself small to keep the peace. I won't need anything at all, and I'll be small and I'll be quiet so that we can have peace. Is that an agreement that you have right now, consciously or unconsciously? What about I only trust logic, not intuition? Is that an agreement that you have with yourself, that skeptics mindset even about yourself within yourself, just check in on it, see how you feel sorry to ask yourself these questions internally, I'll only trust logic, not intuition. What about I'll wait for permission before moving so many of us, sensitives, empaths, people with spiritual gifts, we have this interesting little permission hang up within us, and you might not even realize, because many years ago, I worked this energy quite a bit, and I didn't even realize that sometimes I was holding myself back because I was waiting for permission, waiting for other people to think it was okay, waiting to present things in a way that might not get a barrage of negative comments in my Comment section, waiting for my kids to be ready for me to announce myself as a medium before I would do it publicly. Right? Are there things that you inside are waiting for permission, waiting for I know someone that is waiting for permission to share their personal story, they just feel like it's going to upset too many people. And there is, of course, something to considering other people's feelings, how much you might share about another person or their story, but just checking in with Where are you waiting for permission before moving? I just coached someone last week who we discovered through our work together that they are waiting for permission from their supervisor energetically before they ask for a promotion. They're due for a promotion. Their yearly evaluation has come up. They have had wonderful evaluations for the last several years at this company, but they just something in them feels like they need to wait for some version of permission or green light. You might feel it as before moving. So where are you waiting for permission before moving or making a choice or setting an intention? And if you realize any of these contracts, energetic contracts within yourself and you are ready to release them or shift them, or shift how you relate to this aspect. It could be as easy as inviting a new contract by saying thank you for what you taught me. Belief that I need to keep myself small to keep the peace, I'm choosing a new way now I appreciate all the learning and safety I got from this, and now I no longer agree to this. Could be super easy. A little pro tip here, you can recognize your energetic agreements through repeated patterns in your life, especially in your relationships and in your work. And once you identify the patterns, look at the truest emotions underneath, and that will often show you these energetic contracts. So hopefully, that is how. Helpful, because these energetic contracts we play out over and over and over again, typically in the relationships closest to us and in our work life. So you might see the staying small, the waiting for permission. There's lots of them, and you'll see your own patterns. Then you'll be able to see which ones are there, because they are often subconscious or unconscious patterns. Okay, number, well, I did number these, but just for myself, this is our next category, category four, working through resistance to create momentum. Because remember, the heart of this next cycle right? This one year that we're stepping into, there is an action portion of what is in the themes of this year that ties directly to this idea that we're talking about this week, with releasing what's not serving but keeping the gems right. So resistance is not the enemy. I want to highlight that so strongly because often people feel like, Oh, I feel nervous. I can't do what I feel resistance. I don't want to or why? Every time I feel like I want to do something, resistance is rising up, and we position it like it's an enemy. Resistance is not an enemy. It is only information, just information. It's your intuition speaking. And remember at the top I said I was going to start to show you in this episode how your intuition is speaking to you in your life. A big way that it is speaking is through resistance. And resistance can rise up in lots of ways. It can show up as fear, it can show up as insecurity, it can show up as misalignment. It can show up as unmet needs, missing information, outdated beliefs, old emotional wounds that we are hanging on to and using to hold ourselves back. So really, the remedy here is just to get curious. What is my resistance? Trying to tell me, maybe it's trying to tell you you're not ready and you need to take an extra class about whatever this certification is that you're trying to step out in, but maybe it's encouraging you this resistance to look at your old patterns, your old beliefs, who you used to be and who you are intending to be now. Resistance is there to help us. To help us. It's almost like a yellow flag on the play right, drawing our attention to something, something that there's emotions underneath that needs to be worked and some questions to explore around your resistance might look like a little more specifically than just what's my resistance trying to tell me, which is a really helpful question. But if you want to get even more specific, you can try questions like, am I overwhelmed? Because I don't know the next steps. Sometimes we feel resistance as overwhelm, and when we look at it, it's like, am I overwhelmed because I'm just trying to eat the whole elephant rather than taking one bite at a time? Am I overwhelmed because I don't know the next steps? Do I feel scared or not ready? And this could be like education, research, practice hours, whatever it might be for your thing that you're feeling resistance in sometimes resistance is letting us know we're not ready, or we're just a little scared we're going to move outside of our comfort zone. And that resistance is like, do you sure you want to move out of this comfort zone? It's really comfortable in this comfort zone. We said we were going to stay small, right? So sometimes that's what's resistance trying to say. You can also ask yourself, do I actually want this, or is it that I feel like I should do this, or should want this? The dreaded shoulds right? Because sometimes our resistance is because we don't actually want to do the thing. I knew someone who went to college, they got a degree in finance and accounting, and they didn't want to do that at all. They were really struggling to find positions in that work. And when we looked at what's the resistance in here, it was that they didn't actually want to do finance and accounting. They did that career or that education path because their family told them they had to, they should, and actually they wanted to do something different. They wanted to work for nonprofits. And so there was a marriage of using their accounting and finance for work in nonprofit. But the resistance itself was trying to tell this person, Hey, you don't actually want to do this. You did this because you should, or someone else told you you should. But sometimes for you, and case by case scenario, right, when you look at the thing and say, like, do I actually maybe your resistance is about a job you do want? Maybe you did a study in accounting, and you you're just having some resistance to taking on new accounting clients, and you ask yourself, Is this what I actually want? Do I actually want to be an accountant? And if something inside you, instead of like my friend, says, No, I don't, something inside you says, Yes, I do, well, then the resistance might just be fear of stepping out of your comfort zone. Okay, did I prepare? Do I have all the information I need? Do I know the next steps? Yeah, I did. My license. Everything is good. Okay, what is this resistance about? Actually, I'm just a little scared, because this feels like the next big thing, right? And another question that's super helpful when you're exploring your resistance is, what is the emotion underneath? It could be sad, it could be happy, it could be fear, it could be so many emotions, right? So always evaluating for what's the emotion underneath? Like taking the lid off of that resistance and just peeking underneath. And another really powerful question, when you're evaluating your resistance, is, what belief is this bumping up against? Because resistance shows up as an oppositional energy to momentum, so we're trying to move forward, resistance rises up as like a little speed bump in our momentum. Sometimes it's helpful, like, Hey, you didn't get that certification yet, so you are not supposed to be practicing law. That's a helpful resistance. But most of the time, resistance is like a little speed bump trying to give us information. And sometimes it's that we're bumping up against an old belief that we're ready to let go of. Maybe it is about keeping yourself small, and maybe you do have a podcast that you want to launch, or book that you want to write, and you're feeling resistance every time you think about creating your podcast, you ask yourself, Do I really want to do this? And the answer is, yes, I do. What is this bumping up against in you? Then maybe it is a belief about keeping yourself small. Maybe it's a belief about not being seen. Maybe it's a belief about confident, like being confident. I know that a lot of people in female bodies, we were told a lot about what confidence meant when we were growing up, and while confidence was encouraged in some girls, ultimately, at some point, most females that I know bumped up against some sort of ceiling where it was like, Okay, we don't want that much confidence from you. So is it bumping up against an old belief of, oh, who do you think you are? What gives you the right to be this confident, right? And you might realize, Oh my gosh, I do want to start this podcast. But when I was a kid, people would always say, like, stop talking. Who do you think you are? And so I developed a belief that I shouldn't be able to talk whenever I want. And you that's how you can clear out unconscious beliefs, right? So what belief is this resistance? Like, what belief are you bumping up against that this resistance is trying to highlight, and your options are, work with the resistance. If there's if the desire is true, but the fear is loud, you can still honor the desire, right? Ask what you need? Is it clarity, support, reassurance, a smaller step, you can release outdated beliefs, right? If resistance is rooted in something that's no longer true, you can let it go. I don't know what I'm doing, even though you completed the training. That's an old identity that's not your current reality. Now you can find the smallest next aligned action step. This is where momentum is born. You can ask, what's the smallest next step that feels aligned and not overwhelming? Examples could be like, maybe you need a website, right? The smallest step is research, web designers or research DIY platforms. I want to start offering sessions. What's the smallest Step? Choose at least one possible service you'll offer and write a short description, create a simple intake form, if that's applicable, choose one booking platform to just do some research and explore every micro micro step. Every micro step builds trust in your intuition. Helps you receive inspiration for more next steps, and it builds your confidence, plus you'll learn about small items you need. So as you research platforms, let's just say, for for starting your website, you'll realize, oh, I need a domain name, maybe I need a business license. Okay, let me put that on my little actionable steps. This is how the fool becomes the magician through one small aligned step at a time. And I also, as part of this, would love you to think about doing intuitive self kind of inventory in here to know what wants to be released. So you can ask yourself questions like, when I imagine carrying this energy, this belief into 2026 what does my body feel? What emotion arises when I imagine releasing this people pleasing, for example, that I've been holding on to, what wisdom that I learned from this behavior or this belief would I still want to carry forward, even if I'm not going to be a people pleaser anymore? What did I learn from that that I want to carry forward? What identity Am I ready to step into now? What aligned action step wants to be taken next? And remember, it's in the small steps. Even if you cannot do anything about whatever your situation is, you have more. About how you truly feel, and you can process it and make your next choices accordingly. I have an example here my longtime coaching client, who secretly really wanted to retire from their job by asking some of these questions, they got clarity, and in their heart of hearts, they were over it, over this job, even though it was a career they once loved and once were really good at. And the truth was, this person was a civil servant, and they had to, like obligatory, have to complete a certain number of years to receive the pension that they had worked over 25 years for. So this person couldn't change the union rules, obviously, and needed this pension to retire for their retirement plan to work. So as we looked at the energy, I encouraged them to start to see the timeline of five years until retirement, because that's how much longer they would have to stay to hit the time that they needed. So once we reoriented the timeline to instead of feeling helpless that I can't I want to leave now and I can't change it, start reorienting to a timeline of five years until retirement, just a different perspective. And I started to ask them, you know, some to remember a time when they really loved their work, time when they felt they made a real difference. And then I asked them to think about all the wisdom they've gained through these years in this work, in their civil service. And then I asked them if they knew they only had five years left to share all of this wisdom to really make a difference for whoever they could. What would they want to make sure that they did, completed, experienced, shared in this position, and then they got really excited and inspired and started sharing several ideas of how they loved connecting with the community through this work, and how they would want to prioritize certain needs within the community they serve to really make the most lasting impact. So we couldn't change how long they had until retirement, but we could reorient their perspective to all of it. So hopefully that helps you see how we can get more clarity, even if we can't change the circumstances. At the moment, in this last little segment, I want to give you a next level activation. This is a little bit of tough love for some of you, and I'm going to get really real with all of you right now. Some of you, again, might hear this as tough love, but you need to hear it. You ready? Stop pretending you don't know what you do know, even if you're not ready to take action yet, admit to yourself that you know what you know, your intuition is always speaking to you, and the truth is, you know which habits are affecting your health. For example, you know if pork always hurts your stomach, you could choose it anyway. But you do know, you know which friends are dependable, versus which friend might be beautifully spontaneous, but can't keep plans or show up on time. You know if there is something in an important relationship that you just can't communicate right now, or something you really need to share that you feel is not possible. You also know if you have a relationship in your life that's really draining you. You know which left behind parts of you that your soul would love to explore, even as a hobby or a passion if you had no other obligations in life. For me, it was this spiritual work, but for you, it could be baking or learning about true crime or anything at all, really, but you do know you know more than you think you know, and we always know more than we are admitting to ourself. So this year, choose to trust that knowing, even if you're not ready to take any action at all, yet admit to yourself that you know what you know,
release really is not a rejection. It's a graduation. You're not letting go of who you were in this last nine year phase. You're honoring who you've become and intentionally choosing next steps from here, every experience gifted you with a pearl of wisdom. Carry the pearl, not the weight 2026. Does not ask for perfection. It asks for participation. I'm going to give you a little bit of a journaling prompt. If you want to take this this talk to the next level in your own life. You don't have to do it, obviously, but for those of you that like some next level action, here it is. This is simple and powerful, but easy for any of you to pause and use for yourself. So these journaling prompts are things like, what did this past cycle teach me about myself and what wisdom Am I taking with me? And that's even a journaling prompt you could do every week, every month. You don't have to wait for a new year or a full new cycle, and depending on how good of a memory you have. Of you can sit with the past year, the past three years, five years, 10 years. And a little pro tip here, I find the photo section of my phone or device really helpful, because a lot of the photos that we take, the photo section in my phone, I think I said the phone section my phone. Sorry, the photos that we take are usually date stamped, and so I can often maybe not remember the whole year, if I was just to sit here and try to recount it, but if I look through the photos in my device, I can see, oh, yeah, I did. I went on this trip that was in the spring. I did this. I was with this person. So if you need a little help triggering your memory, the photo section of your phone or your devices is wonderful for this. Another question you can ask for journaling prompt is, what am I still carrying that feels heavy, outdated or misaligned? Another question, if I trusted my intuition fully, what would I release? Next question, what identity Am I ready to let go of or retire? And who am I becoming next? And the last journaling prompt? What is my smallest next aligned step one that I can take today, and that might even be cleaning your desk so you have a working space or something very simple. You don't have to eat the whole elephant at once, just little bite by little bite. And as we step into a brand new cycle, remember that you're invited to travel lightly and intentionally. Let go of what is complete, and imagine returning that energy to the earth for fertilizer. Gather your pearls of wisdom. It's as simple as that simple, but maybe not easy, right? Trust your intuition. Take one aligned step at a time. You're both the fool and the magician. This year, open to all possibilities and fully capable of creating your next chapter is already calling, and you have everything you need to alchemize the life that you want to experience. And if you haven't already checked out the 11 themes for this year, 2026, I definitely highly encourage you to do that, because as these themes rise up, you can use everything we talked about today to evaluate and make sure that you are taking aligned action, being honest with yourself, and really setting this next nine year cycle in the best possible direction for you. You could just look through the other episodes, or wherever you get your podcasts, search spirit speakeasy, and look for the 11 themes of 2026 that will really help guide you, and just know I am always here. We are together. I appreciate you creating this community in this space with me more than you know we are in this together, and let's get our light pack and choose intentionally what we want as we trust our intuition into 2026,
and the next nine years. Big hugs.
Lots of love. Bye for now from inside spirit speakeasy,