Unravelling...from 2024

From learning to relax to getting ready to show up and be seen

Photo by Matt Hoffman on Unsplash

Let me begin by wishing everyone a Happy New Year! I hope you’ve all had a peaceful start to 2025. As a toddler mum, the poppers had been popped, last year’s fireworks had been watched, and one glass of fizz was consumed by 8pm, with me asleep by 10pm! Not quite the wild celebration of yesteryear, but it’s what works for me now.

Now, I’m not one for New Year’s resolutions — I ditched those a long time ago. Instead, I opt for a single guiding word, which I find far more powerful to anchor me throughout the year. It’s a New Year’s ritual I’ve been practicing for a while now, and one that I’ve come to really enjoy. There are many ways to find your “word,” but I personally like following along with Rachel Brathen’s podcast episode. It involves journaling about the year you've had — what you’ve celebrated and what you’re leaving behind.

For me, 2024 was about building the foundations for the next chapter — of my career, my next decade, my confidence, my relationships. I’m leaving my thirties behind, which feels both daunting as I step into midlife and incredibly exciting. I celebrated many things: career milestones, turning 40, and becoming an aunt for the first time.

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Sometimes, your chosen word is practically screaming at you, bursting into the new year with enthusiasm, and other times it needs a little coaxing. My word for 2024 was “relax” — not in the “kick back and do nothing” sense, but in a deeper, more innate way. A relaxed nervous system, a relaxed mind, a relaxed woman — can you even imagine such a thing?

I was always buzzing with ideas, anxiety, and busyness, so I wanted to lean into feeling steady and sure. I attended a Roxie Nafousi workshop early last year, where I got to make a crystal bracelet with my word on it, so I always had it to look at when I felt unsure. On the way to big work opportunities, I’d remind myself to relax. When traveling on my own, worrying about fertility or when sprinting toward the icy waters of a Christmas Day swim! Simply being stuck in traffic or swamped with deadlines — I’d whisper "relax" to myself to stay grounded.

But my word for 2025 came charging at me mid-2024 — out of nowhere. And once it hit, there was no denying it. I knew immediately that this would be my word for the year, but I still wanted to go through the journaling ritual to be sure I was making the right choice.

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By the end of my journaling session, my word was still there, but another unexpected one had come to life. The word that had crashed into me six months ago was “believe.” At 40, it’s probably about time I started truly believing in myself, don’t you think? It’s something my mum has always encouraged me to do, but it’s a lesson I’ve never fully mastered. “Believe in yourself,” she would often say. And yet, time and time again, I talk myself out of my abilities. Even when I’ve earned the opportunity, I wander around like an imposter, feeling lucky to be there, rather than deserving of a seat at the table.

But my intention for 2025 is clear: reconnect with my inner power and believe in myself.

POWER. That’s the unexpected word. Even as I write it, I feel a little scared by its weight. To learn to believe in myself is one thing, but to live a powerful life— is that even possible for me? Maybe that’s why I was drawn to it — perhaps “believe” was guiding me toward “power.”

A friend asked recently if I had any regrets, and I said, yes — many! If you’re not living life with a few regrets, are you even doing it right? But mostly, my regrets centre around not living big enough — not stepping into my full power. After 40 trips around the sun, surely now is the time to reclaim that power, realise I’m made of magic, and believe in myself. If anyone is going to believe in me, it should be me, right?

Perhaps both words will sit alongside one another this year — perhaps it doesn’t have to be one or the other. To believe in myself will undoubtedly be powerful in itself, so maybe they are intrinsically linked after all.

If anyone else is practicing this ritual, I’d love to hear what words you’ve landed on. Perhaps we can all believe in our power together this year!