“Your body is precious. It is our vehicle for awakening. Treat it with care.” - Buddha

Here we are … 2026. Wowsa! It is just me, or as we get older the years seem to go by quicker?! Or maybe it’s because I’m very close to the big 5-0 that life seems to be rushing by. Either way, I don’t subscribe to the hype of New Years.

I don’t feel the urge to stay up late, drink champagne, or declare a list of things I’m going to “fix” about myself just because the calendar flipped. I used to think that made me boring. Now I know it simply means I listen to my body.

This New Year’s Eve, I spent time with my mum by the marina. Starting with ice cream, then fish and chips, with a DJ playing in the background. When the storm rolled in, we took it as our cue to go home and watch a movie. It was quiet. It was nourishing. It was enough.

For a long time, I forced myself to participate in New Year’s rituals that didn’t feel right - staying out late, pushing through, trying to match an energy that wasn’t mine. I don’t do that anymore. And this year I signed up for a Vedic Meditation course that ran from 1st through to the 4th of January.

This isn’t about New Year’s Eve though. It’s about the pressure we place on ourselves at the start of a new year, particularly around New Year’s resolutions, and the quiet anxiety that often comes with them. People ask you around this time – “So what is you NY resolution?”, to which you are supposed to have this ready-made list of exceptionally high-achieving, life-altering statements. Urrrhhh. That is enough to create anxiety in anyone. I’ve certainly done this in the past, gone into the new year gung-ho with a new diary, list of things I will achieve for the year, with high expectations that I will become a new me by achieving them. I generally get to around the end of January writing in my diary, and then I can’t remember where I put it. I push myself to stick with these ridiculous goals that I set to please or impress someone else, and then beat myself up when I can no longer commit.

Now, don’t get me wrong here, I love a great goal-setting process, we need goals to aspire towards, and work towards, but are NY resolutions really the right way to do it? Maybe for some it is, and if this works for you – Yay you! Double fist pump, keep doing you. For me, I feel deflated come February / March and I have abandoned all resolutions I set for myself.

Enter … intentions. Intentions have a different frequency. The came from the heart, the body, your inner truth. Whereas resolutions come from the mind, from the place that is comparing, judging, and striving for the end game.

This is my interpretation of the difference between resolutions and intentions.

Resolutions

Are from a goal-oriented mindset and are generally linked to specific goals and achievements. They can often carry a more rigid framework, focusing on tangible results, which sometimes leads to pressure and disappointment if unmet. There is the risk of overcommitment as they can be prescriptive or come from a place of obligation, which for me I can see doesn’t resonate with our authentic self. This then leads to feelings of failure rather than empowerment. This can become a cycle of striving rather than celebrating the progress. Resolutions look into the future, and the most important aspect from my POV, is they came from the mind.

As I said before, setting goals is great – I do it, I write them down … and I’m a Generator in Human Design so ticking things off a list satisfies me. All I’m saying is that setting goals need to be done in a way that is genuine, realistic, and is for our evolution. Not from a place of pressure because we are entering into a new calendar year.

Intentions

These are body-led, they are present-based and relational. I see intentions being heart-centred focused and are anchored in and come from our inner truth for desire and personal growth. They reflect the essence of what we want to cultivate in our life, how we want to feel, what we want to experience, and the type of person we aspire to step into. Intentions are fluid and open, and unlike resolutions they are more about the journey than specific outcomes. They allow for flexibility, adapting as we evolve and navigate through life’s challenges. This gentle alignment encourages a deeper sense of self-awareness and compassion.

A resolution lives in the mind.

An intention lives in the body.

I love this reframe when you are contemplating setting your intention for this year “What wants your attention this year – not your effort?”

As we move into 2026 we are aware this is a 1 year in Numerology. This is the start of the cycle, the beginning. Also take into consideration your Personal Year Number for 2026, as this is something for you to embody. The 1 year for 2026 is for the collective, so yes we are influenced by this, and we need to also know our personal year, as this is super important. This will give you more context around your year ahead and offer you discernment around what energy you can ignore for those really influenced by the collective 1 year.

I’ll use me as an example. My personal year number for 2026 is 5. For me I am not at the start of the cycle, I am mid-cycle, I have already gone through the energy that the 1 year calls for. My year 5 is so much more aligned to where I am at than the year 1. So, I can embody my year 5 and be aware that the year 1 energy will still influence some of what I experience.

Ok, I digress, back to intentions. What does numerology have to do with it? With an intention setting ritual I feel it is important to reflect on what has been going on energetically to inform what energy you are wanting to embrace moving forward. When I reflect on my 2025 the energy of my year being a year 4 resonates more so than the collective year 9. I think of it like I was eating a tub of year 4 ice-cream with year 9 sprinkles on top. I feel that energy deeply, so when I reflect on 2025 I can tune into my body and using interoception to really sense what was happening inside my body through my experiences in 2025. This is the reflection piece of the ritual. How did I feel during certain times? What actions or choices were associated with those feelings? Did I feel expansion or contraction during an experience? Do I want to move toward or away from that energy? This is where tuning into the body and remembering these feelings is super important. This is where we get out of the thinking mind and into the mind-body.

There may not be usual words that describe this, and I encourage you to use felt-sense language to place some semblance around these feelings. For example, contraction, expansion, hot, cold, tingling, tight, tension, murky, bright, sharp … the list goes on, you get the gist.

Then as you feel into setting an intention for 2026 – I recommend only one intention, however two at the most – you can ask yourself, “What do I want more of in my life and how do I honour myself in those moments to witness that, to feel that, to experience that?” What are you ready to let go of? What do you notice no longer serves you? What energy do you want to embody? This is where interoception is so powerful. This is your ability to sense what’s happening inside your body. Notice the feelings when you contemplate what you want in 2026. Your body holds the wisdom, it knows your truth. Whatever you notice – or don’t – is enough. Don’t place any pressure on yourself to have all the answers, and if judgement comes rolling in you don’t need to ask it to leave, simply notice it. You don’t need to have everything figured out. This ritual is not about fixing anything or getting things right. It is an exercise of tuning into the body and noticing what feels real and true for you.

And if you want to make the ritual more like a ceremony go for it. I love that, I had the candle and the oracle cards and spent a long time contemplating and journaling. However, you don’t have to make it a ‘big’ thing. The most important part of this process is allowing yourself time and space. A space where you will not be interrupted or distracted.

An intention is not about the outcome. It’s about orientation.

It’s about how you choose to meet your life - in your body, not your head. Intentions aren’t meant to be set once and rigidly held. They’re meant to be revisited, realigned, and softened as your inner landscape changes.

You don’t need to wait for a new year to do this work. But if the turning of the calendar invites you to pause, reflect, and listen - let it.

Let this be a time where you ask less of yourself in terms of effort, and more in terms of attention.

You don’t need to fix anything.
You don’t need to have it all figured out.

You only need to notice what feels true, and allow that to guide you forward.

Happy intention setting.

If this message landed for you, I spoke about this on Episode 22 of - Breathe, Empower & Evolve with Tina Podcast:
🎧 “Welcoming 2026 with Intention (not Resolution).”