(#110) Welcoming 2026: Fire Horse Energy, Intention Setting, Personal Goals & Core Values

Happy New Year, and welcome to 2026!! In this episode of Somatic Healing for Wellness‑Focused Women, Rae explores the energy of 2026 through the lens of the Chinese Zodiac, focusing on the Year of the Fire Horse and what it means for intention, leadership, creativity, and pacing yourself in the year ahead.

If 2025 felt quieter, more inward, or reflective, 2026 brings a very different tone of more movement, expression, visibility, and bold action. This episode offers both insight and grounding so you can work with this energy rather than burning out.

🎧 In this episode, you’ll explore:

• What the Year of the Fire Horse (2026) symbolizes in the Chinese Zodiac
• How 2026 differs energetically from 2025’s Year of the Snake
• Why pacing, nervous system awareness, and rest will be essential this year
• 4 powerful journaling prompts to help you reflect, envision, and set intentions for 2026

The guided journaling prompts support you in:

• Trusting yourself more deeply
• Clarifying your top goals (without overwhelm)
• Understanding how you want to respond to fear or uncertainty
• Defining a clear, embodied intention for 2026

This episode is perfect if you’re:

• Feeling inspired but want to avoid burnout in the new year
• Transitioning out of reflection and into intentional action
• Looking for a gentle yet empowering way to set your 2026 vision

💌 Want to stay connected? ➡️ Sign up for Rae’s monthly newsletter and get free access to her Breathwork Resource Library, including 20+ guided meditations for nervous system support, emotional regulation, and seasonal healing.

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Disclaimer: Please remember that the information shared on this podcast is intended to inspire, educate, and support you on your personal journey. It does not substitute for professional mental health advice. I am not a psychologist or medical professional. If you are experiencing distress, mental health challenges, or medical conditions, please seek help from a qualified professional.

Transcript

Welcome And New Year Energy

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome back to the podcast. If you are new here, I'm Ray. I'm a somatic coach and breath work facilitator. And if you aren't new here, welcome back. I'm so glad that you are tuning in for today's episode. So today's episode I chose because it is 206 20, I suppose 2016. 2026. So happy new year. And yeah, I just I love this time of year and I love that feeling of like fresh slate. And I've talked a bit about the energy of 2025, the year of the snake in episode 106. So you can always uh go back and listen to that. And this episode is gonna be all about 2026 and the year of the horse. And I'll have a few other episodes this month as well that are gonna focus on like how do you create a year with intention and your vision and all that good stuff. Um, but today's episode is gonna be a little bit about the energy of 2026, the year of the horse, and some journaling prompts for you to use to kind of yeah, get curious about what you really want to create this year. And I personally just I love New Year's, I love this time of year. It's always been my favorite holiday. I don't know why. I just really like having a fresh slate and also like a solid chunk of time that you can reflect on, right? Like you can like go back on a whole year, and that's really fun to be. So if you are still in reflection mode, amazing. Stay there for as long as you'd like and ease into 2026. There's no rush. And even for myself, I was in what I was calling the liminal space, like that in between for a good time there for a second. And part of me still feels like it is in that in between. It's like 2025 is still ending and 2026 is just starting. And if you had off for the holidays or new year's, maybe you had like a nice chunk of time to rest. And if you didn't, maybe that's what you're craving. Like maybe this weekend you just want to kind of like chill and have some time with yourself. Um, and this time of year in general, it's it's so nice, it's like a little like warm cocoon where you can kind of like retreat and be inwards. And I think it's also something that I've yeah, I've done a podcast episode on this in the past, I think this time last year, and it's called The Art of Wintering and episode 59. So you can also check that out. But generally, this time of year, this winter, it's a time to slow, to slow down, right? So I did do some research for today's topic and just really dove into like what 2026 is all about. So, according to Chinese Zodiac, 2026 is the year of the element of fire, and it's also the year of the horse. So the symbolism of the horse looks like freedom, adventure, passion, leadership, being bold, expressed. It's fast, also, just like horse. And the fire element represents confidence, creativity, intensity. And so the combination of these two things can bring about new adventures, new businesses, travel, making bold career moves or just career changes in general. It's definitely a more outward energy. So rather than the snake, which was the energy of 2025, and it's more like inward and more around letting go and release, fire energy is more outwards, it's more action-oriented. And this will also create more opportunities for leadership, more opportunities for creativity and personal growth. And it can also be hard to like pump the brakes. So this might be a year that you need to be mindful of burnout, mean need to be mindful of your capacity. Uh, a lot of the things that I've talked about on the podcast here is around like, yeah, really knowing your body, working with like the pace that feels good for you. So it can be really easy to like come out of the gate running, like really energized and really excited. But can we also make time for that pause and that reflection and that restortiveness so that way we prevent burnout and so that also, you know, it's coming from a good place where it feels aligned and it feels good to you. And so, with all of that in mind, that fire energy, that horse energy, being mindful of burnout, I put together these four questions to really help you create and envision your 2026. So you can answer these questions to yourself while you're driving, you can journal on them, and or you can, you know, pause and come back to this episode another time. But wherever you are in the transition of the new year, yeah, allow yourself to like intuitively move through it, closing 2025, get your reflections in, and opening 2026 and you know, getting ready for all the new adventures that lie ahead. So the first question I have for you is if you trusted yourself completely in 2026, what life would you create and how would you want to feel every day? So this could look like anything. Um, I can share for myself. I would love to feel uh creative, empowered, safe, confident, playful, energized, healthy, adventurous. Um I'd really like to feel connected in my relationships, and I'd really like to feel empowered in my work. My work here that I do, yes, like on the podcast and in my business, but also the work that I do outside of my business too. So I'd really like to feel um like I'm really contributing and making a difference and making an impact. Question number two. So this is more of a prompt, but I'm going to invite you to think of all of your goals and dreams, kind of like brain dump them, just write them all out. They don't have to make sense. You can even do this, like, you know, really fast, but just like everything that's on your mind, just kind of put it all out on a piece of paper, write it all out on a list, and then pause, you know, reflect on your list. And maybe you have like, let's just say, like 15 to 20 things on there, maybe. So out of this list, which would be your top three goals? And some of them might overlap, so you might be able to like condense some of them or whatever the case might be. But once you get your top three, how do these goals relate to your core values? So this is gonna look different for everyone. Um I'm not gonna like read my my list, but I will say that even answering like the first question, you heard some of my core values in how I wanted to feel every day. So creativity, uh, community, health, adventure, those are some of my core values. So get curious about your list, write it all out, get clear in your top three, and then connect those top three to your core values. All right, question number three When fear shows up this year, how do you want to respond? And I chose this question because I feel like the year of the fire horse is going to be a year of expression, leadership, vulnerability, visibility. And if that's the case, then that might bring up some fear. Like if we're moving fast and we're moving at a much different pace than last year, um, that could be exciting for sure. Um, and it can also be a little scary. So when things are get get sticky, when things get uh more clunky, and maybe an emotion shows up. In this example, I used fear. Um, how do you want to respond? And this is uh yeah, like a great opportunity to use some of those skills, some of those tools, uh, reflect, be curious, be compassionate towards ourselves. Um, and when those fears show up, how do you want to respond? All right, and question number four that I have for you, uh, I want to invite you to review the answers that you just wrote for the past three questions, and then ask yourself, what is your intention for this year for 2026? So at this point, you have an idea of how you want to feel, you have an idea of a few of your goals and how they connect to your values, and you have an idea of when things might go awry, how you want to show up, how you want to be in relationship with yourself, how you want to be in relationship with other people. So asking yourself, reflecting on all of that, what is your intention for this year? And you can start with if you need like a prompt or like a jump offline, you can do 2026 is dot dot dot. You can use that as kind of like your jump offline. And we're just gonna review the four questions really quick. So the first is if you trusted yourself completely in 2026, what life would you create and how would you want to feel every day? Question number two, take a moment to braindump all of your goals and your dreams, write them out. It doesn't have to make sense, just write out the list, and then look back at that list. Maybe you have a mix of like 15 to 20 prompts, and which of those are your top three goals? If you could only choose three, and how do these goals relate to your core values? Question number three: when fear shows up this year, how do you want to respond? And then question number four, review the answers to these past three questions and ask yourself, what is your intention for this year? What is your intention for 2026? Amazing. And that is what we have for today's episode. Again, take your time with it, have as much fun as possible. You can put on some music, you can write these out, you can revisit them, journal. I think it's super fun to do this practice, also because at the end of this year, then you can look back and see kind of like where you were at the beginning of the year and what you were, what were you uh like inspired by and excited about. All right, so if you would like to stay connected, you can sign up to receive the monthly newsletter in the show notes. And that will also give you access to Breathe Easy, which is a resource library of about 15 or 20 breathwork meditations that I add to throughout the year, and it's completely free. Um, yeah, and I hope you enjoyed today's episode. I hope you have an incredible rest of your week, an incredible rest of your day, and I will talk to you soon. Thank you for being here and tuning in to Somatic Healing for Wellness Focused Women Podcast. If you were moved or inspired by today's episode, please take a moment to leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. It truly helps the podcast grow and helps more people find me on their healing journey. Make sure to check out the show notes to sign up for the monthly newsletter, links to more resources, opportunities to work with me, and ways that we can stay connected. If we aren't already connected on social media, head over to Instagram to follow me at Ray theSematic Coach. Send me a DM. I'd love to connect with you, and I answer each note that comes in. I am so happy you're here, and I cannot wait to talk with you on our next episode of the podcast.