Shedding The 2025 Skin
An East-Meets-West Guide to Digest Challenging Lessons, Assimilate Lessons as Gifts, and Shed Old Skin. Here's to embracing 2026 with Confidence and Clarity.
As the calendar year 2025 comes to a close, curiosity draws near expanding possibility for reflection of challenges served during this potent year of the snake. With long-range sight, light shines through clear eyes and the heart opens like a rising sun. Willing to release victimhood, the door of reception opens wide offering each lesson as a gift presenting it beneath the tree that is human, that is being, that is life.Perhaps you notice it, too. How this time of the year reliably carries a palpable polarity — on one hand, there is a sense of acceleration creating an overwhelming fog of shoulda, woulda, couldas.; on the other hand, celebration, love, and spirit is in the air. In TCM, one learns that balance is born by living in harmony with the seasons of nature and that disease results when we fall out of alignment with natural, organic patterns.
Before beginning this guide, I gently nudge each of you to witness this polarity like an osprey in the sky. With this bird’s eye view, where do you find yourself? Are you submerged in a fog of regrets, focused on gratitude and celebration for life, or somewhere in-between? If the answer is not easy or clear, that is okay too.
Carve out the time and space to release rushing and connect with where you are at here, now. In the palpable polarity, where do you stand?
The idea here, is to drop the judgement and move from our center of authenticity. See, if we approach reflection through a lens of doubt, fear, and lack it is highly probable that the intentions we set for 2026 (The Year of the Horse) will be of those similar contractive and destructive vibrations. Simply, do your best to allow acceptance to where / how it is you are without judgement. Practice keeping the lens of curiosity clear, clear, clear and you absolutely will get the most out of this End-Of-The-Year Reflection for Integration Guide.
How to Resource This Worksheet
In Traditional Chinese Medicine, the Spleen governs digestion—of food, stressful experiences, and creating value or meaning. Reflection allows the autonomic nervous system to metabolize lessons, release charge, and restore coherence. Look back at this calendar year, with open eyes, heart, mind. Releasing judgement, observe through the lens of curiosity; this cognitive shift, in and of itself, is one of expansion and creates possibility. With this mindset, mindfully choose at least one meaningful challenge per month and reflect without judgment.
Shedding the Skin — Resolved States
I am resolved to ____________________________________________
I am resolved to ____________________________________________
I am resolved to ____________________________________________
Example 1: I am resolved to understand that I do not need to take any action to be worthy. I am worthy simply because I am alive. Any part of me that resists this truth, I release now.
Example 2: I am resolved to believe there is a simple, easeful way of living and having a thriving business.
Somatic Integration — The A.T.F.R. Method
Find a comfortable seat with an aligned spine and posture. Consciously connect to the breath. Inhale, slowly and fully into the lungs, belly, and back. Exhale, completely, compressing everything inward, releasing tension.
Notice sensations arising in the brain–body (autonomic nervous system). If resistance appears, pause. Identify the sensation and where it lives in your body. Place your hand there—this is a way to resource safe, somatic touch. Pause again and take five slow breaths: inhale through the nose, audibly exhale through the lips. Read the statements below aloud, repeating the four affirmations three times in total. ale through the lips.
Accept: I accept that you’re here.
Think: I recognize the lesson you served me.
Forgive: I thank you for protecting me.
Release: I no longer need you. I release you. I release you. I release you.
Closing
I trust this guide served you to connect with greater clarity, consciousness, and kindness. May the serve as a reminder that integration is not about fixing the past,
it is about digesting what was, so the future is not shaped by what remains unprocessed.
When we accept the essence of 2025 as it is, we allow the skin to fall away, and together we rise resourced.