Embracing Chaos: The Potential of 2026

In this conversation, Nate and Ashley reflect on the transformative year of 2025, discussing the chaos and changes that have shaped their perspectives as they look forward to 2026. They emphasize the importance of self-love, creativity, and finding peace amidst uncertainty. The dialogue explores the concept of life as a masterpiece, encouraging listeners to embrace their unique journeys and cultivate joy in their lives. The conversation concludes with an invitation to flow with life and appreciate the beauty in every moment.

Transcript

Nate (00:02.328)
So that's what's going on with me, Ashley, and it's a lot, but I'm curious, what is going on in your life as we roll into 2026? What's new and exciting and what realizations have been showing up for you?

Ashley Henderson (00:20.654)
I love this. I love this kind of pause and time to reflect in our little world here. Yeah, it feels to me like 2025 was a big year. It was a big year of change. It was a big year of transformation. There was a lot of chaos. There was a lot of unknown in the world. And it almost

feels like that energy of chaos or change sort of became a new normal in a way. And I don't know if this is true for anybody else, but for me, I've sort of developed new, because this sort of chaos of the outside world and this energy of change was.

was happening at such a sustained rate, I sort of have developed new ways of being with chaos and being with change. And as I've looked into, like just sort of psychically or energetically when I'm tuning into 2026, coming out of this year of chaos, I'm sort of, it feels to me like the great unknown. Like it sort of feels like the year of potential.

where anything could happen. And so in that energy, it sort of makes me pull into my practice even deeper. So it feels to me like this year is a year of sort of protecting your peace, protecting your knowing, your wisdom, your practice, your heart, you know, like really pulling into

community and practice and using what we've built in this year of change to really lock in because it seems like the chaos is going to ramp up even more and we can handle it. We've just been in like a boot camp. And so it's sort of like when I say it feels like

Ashley Henderson (02:40.3)
we're heading into this realm of possibility. feel that in any, in any direction, right? It could, it's sort of, it's just, really being prepared inside of yourself to be ready for anything. And that's kind of cool. I kind of feel like excited about that. I feel like the, for me, the, the practices, are really available. I feel,

There's almost a way where the practices really allow me to go into a state of curiosity, almost play, and creativity. feels like there's a lot of creative energy that could come in. But creative energy that's not so serious, actually.

creative energy around community, around, you know, maybe just joy or family or play where it doesn't have to be like, we have to change the world. It's actually like, how do I cultivate more joy in my being and share that with the people around me and really sort of create a atmosphere almost.

Nate (03:52.256)
Yeah.

Ashley Henderson (04:08.802)
I'm sort of visualizing this as a mother, as a healer, as a meditation teacher, sort of creating an atmosphere of...

building those internal resources are really what it's all about. It's probably what it's always been about. And that's what the chaos outside is actually serving in a way. And so it's time to stop, I think, being so upset. Of course it's upsetting. Chaos is upsetting. Things that are happening in the world is upsetting. But we're not going to control it at this point. And so what we can do is go inward and start creating more joy, more peace.

Peace is a big word that's been coming in for me. So protecting your peace. 26.

Nate (04:54.261)
Yeah.

I like that. I love what you were saying. And I totally agree. 2025 was this year where it's like we were finding our sea legs for really unstable energy, energy of disruption. And it's not just to me, what I noticed about 2025 was the good that came through with all of that kind of chaos and disruption was this

real stark awareness that we don't have control, that the systems of power, these kind of structures, these big, large macro global structures are inherently flawed and biased. And when we saw the kind of wildness that was happening on a global level, we got really confronted with this idea that it's like, you know, when it's comfortable,

And there's no tension we're not aware of the inequities that's happening that are happening within our system and that the system isn't really serving the people. And so this this big kind of shake up I I kind of have been calling it the Loki energy it's like the disruptor that this this energy that's happening had really. Create an opportunity for us to acknowledge that we.

don't have control and that some of the things that are falling apart need to fall apart. Maybe we don't like the way it looks right now, but it never looks pretty when things fall apart. It's the putting back together phase that I think, yes, is probably still a year or two off, but I can feel that energy growing. And I appreciate what you were saying that it was really a moment for us to put our spiritual practices to the test. It's like all of it's great in theory.

Nate (06:51.838)
the rubber meets the road when the world outside starts to feel unsafe and you have to really anchor into your own inner peace, your own practices and find out how much of that is actually real. Like how much of that is actually affecting me? What parts can I control my own response to a lot of this stuff? How I carry myself, how I carry my energy and cultivating

a unique and tailored practice for yourself that's gonna support you the best. And as we're moving into 2026, I agree, this is up leveling of that same concept in energy, which is, okay, now I found a way to cope or deal. Let's start creating. Let's start manifesting. And I don't mean like,

crazy law of attraction, let's manifest millions of dollars and bring it in. I mean, if you wanna do that, that's fine. Nothing wrong with that. But let's start thinking about what do we want our lives to look like? What do we want our community to look like? What do we want our world to look like? And it's all gonna start internally. then, so I agree, I think we are in this place of

anchoring into our peace and our presence and really being careful and protective of those things. But then also this invitation to move into creation and to acknowledge the power of our words, of our intentions, and how do we want to be? And being very mindful of that and that energy has a big ripple out in the world.

Ashley Henderson (08:33.166)
Yeah, I was, you know, I love that we're talking about creator energy creation because that is a big, that's been coming in for me, not just for me, but for the people around me. And I see it as like little C creator and big C creator, right? Like the little C creator, I've been knitting again, I've been doing some art stuff, I signed up for a ceramics course.

You know, there's some things that are just coming through for me. I've been writing more. I've been posting on Instagram. I don't even like really go on Instagram, but I've just been posting as an act of creation and taking photos and all this stuff. That's just like juices are flowing in that. But what it brings me actually in connection with is like big C creator, which is this is it. This is our life. This is our opportunity. This is what we, you know, we, we chose to come.

to focus our attention so much that we could actually be in this form, create this life. And there's something about really connecting to the intention of the big sea creator inside of us. That there's a reason we're here and it doesn't have to be a super serious reason. There's a reason we're here. And it's a very deeply personal.

thing to access because it changes all the time and and it sort of flows in through your own inspiration through your own inner guidance but just connecting to that connecting to the intention of being in that big sea creator energy where you're really owning your life you're really owning your experience you're owning everything that

Happens me one big thing that's been coming up lately is really seeing that everything that's happening is Happening for me. We've talked about this a lot on the podcast, but it's really happening for me And when I hold it that way, there's no more resistance. I can really let myself receive Gifts, even if it doesn't feel like a gift at the time Even if it doesn't feel good like it's still got this like immense

Ashley Henderson (10:58.372)
gift in it because it's part of my creation. It's part of my spiritual creation of this lifetime. So I'm, you know, the star of my own play. Everything in it is here because I intended it to be here. And so I can either resist or accept. And that that energy of stepping into your own creative energy, it just loosens.

suffering actually. It really loosens suffering. just sort of you start to it just falls away. You just don't have a need for it anymore. It doesn't serve a purpose in the same way it used to.

Nate (11:38.802)
Yeah, I love that. I love Little C and Big C. I'm gonna dig in a little bit here. Because I think there's some good practical stuff that you're offering. We can tease this out. And one of the things that I'm hearing in that is just the power of if you don't know where to start, start with Little C creation because what you're doing is you're stoking a little bit of that personal fire. And it can be anything.

It could be, I'm gonna wear a different outfit today that is a little more jazzy. It could be, I'm gonna doodle a little thing in a notebook or I'm gonna write a little bit. It could be anything and it could be so small. And like you said, or you can move into the crafts, the arts, woodworking, know, there's so many ways. Don't do it to have an outcome, do it to just stoke the fire of little C creator of that, I'm a creator.

I can do creative things, can take back that intention and energy, the dovetailing of those things into creative potential. And then the big C creator, and I love that too because that's basically what I hear you saying is that your life is a work of art. Your life is your own masterpiece. This is it, people. This is what we're doing.

We're here to create our own work of art and that is our life and it includes little C creation. It includes resistance. It includes acceptance. It's the whole thing. It's the mess and the beauty, all of it wrapped together. But when you embrace the whole thing as that big C creation, it does create in some way a little less tension. It can ease things up. You're like, well, what do I want it to be? What do I want it to look like? Do I want it to keep?

being like a tense action thriller or do I want to move into this other kind of living, this other way of being. And so I love that. And then I do also want to, we've gotten kind of big and meta and I also just want to bring all of this down to a granular level. And it's just making choices every day to

Nate (14:01.211)
Be intentional about what you're doing to really bring presence. And when you bring it down to each individual moment in action, the stuff that we're talking about, this bigger stuff, it all works its way out. And especially if when you're doing your each moments, when you're intentionally and you're being in the present moment, allow joy, allow inspiration, allow that to kind of come in and

and be a musical note that's playing in there because that bursts into spontaneous creativity. It bursts into serendipitous meetings, taking a different way home and seeing a billboard or driving by. It just opens up life to the wonder of letting things in. But it happens.

at that granular level of being in each moment, not being out in the future, not being back in the past, and then saying when I'm in that moment, just have a little bit of gratitude and let, if you can, let joy or ease or playfulness, as you were saying, in. I don't know, what do you think?

Ashley Henderson (15:23.362)
my gosh, I love this. love, I'm like getting really inspired right now. Like I love your life as your masterpiece. Your life is your masterpiece. And if you take that into unity consciousness and that we aren't even separate from anything else, then this whole thing is a masterpiece. And then you start to see that magic in everybody. You start to see that perfection in everything.

the wonder in it all. So I love your life as your masterpiece. If everybody woke up every day and thought my life is my masterpiece and allowed their own genius through, their own creative juices through, I mean, we'd all just be in awe of everybody. mean, everybody has something beautiful to offer and to give.

It's funny, last night I started a new meditation group and people didn't, not everybody knew each other. And so we were doing that sort of introduction, introduce yourself. And I thought, let's not do something boring. And, and the question that came to me to have people share is what brings you joy? And it ended up being this really cool sharing about what brings joy. And there was a lot of crossover. And so it was kind of cool to kind of

music and nature and Hawaii, swimming in the ocean and dancing and all sorts of things. And so it's like, we don't have to wait. We don't have to ever have to wait to connect our own joy. It reminds me of Bashar saying, just follow your passion. And it's so hard when spiritual teachings are that simple. I really think...

that as a culture, as a mindset, we've gotten really over complicated. We like complicated things. We like puzzles to solve. But when something is so simple, just follow your passion and just watch what happens. It's just so simple. But I think it's good way to enter into this next year of

Ashley Henderson (17:44.956)
more chaos. can't imagine this is heading anywhere different at this point. But yeah, just cultivating that in yourself. I love this conversation.

Nate (17:56.997)
Yeah, I think to your point about the simplicity, think the reason, I think we know the reason why we overcomplicate it. We overcomplicate it because the egoic mind, the kind of busy thinking mind likes complication. That is a comfort level for it because then it gets to kind of grind its gears. And then I think the other aspect to it is that there is a little bit of fear in the simplicity. And it's not true fear.

It's that egoic fear of anything could happen. It's the void. It's like, if you follow your passion, you could unlock anything. And that that in itself could feel a little bit triggering to the thinking mind. Cause they're like, well, anything, well, what am I supposed to do with anything? That's not something. I need something. And so the egoic mind gets a little bit triggered by that.

The other thing that I love about your story about your sangha starting is that what you did with that introduction question is you introduced something that we talk about a lot, which is intention. You know, the quality of that question and the intention of, let's do this a little different. Let's not prove yourself spiritually. That's why I'm sitting. And whatever kind of energy you brought in.

hey, I want this to be a different energy. I want it to be light. I want it to be playful. So my intention is that, and then I'm ask this question in this manner. And then you got this totally fun and unique response. And I think people probably opened up and their hearts opened up and then the energy in the room changes and immediately it's like doing a five minute grounding practice or something at the beginning of like a board meeting. It would change the dynamic so much. All you gotta do is open people's hearts a little and then.

and then everything changes. And then the last thing that I did want to go back to, because I was a little bit guilty of this, you talked about unity consciousness at the beginning of your response to me and about our lives are our masterpiece. And I do want to acknowledge that there is a component of this that can get a little bit wrapped in kind of Western society and kind of a value judgment around

Nate (20:23.487)
What is a good life? And I would just like to, within that framework, say a tragedy is, and a struggle is an important part of everyone's story. And so when you see someone who is in a difficult part of their life, and you can kind of get in the spiritual lifted place of like, well, you're not living your masterpiece. It's like, no, they are. They are because every story has a struggle.

And some stories are just all struggle and that's okay. Cause those are also pretty damn good stories. mean, there's a lot of media out there that we consume that's pretty dark and bleak. There's a dynamism in those stories. So I just wanna gently insert that for myself. Cause I was feeling it, I'm like, oh yeah. Sometimes we wanna be living our masterpiece. I wanna live my masterpiece, you wanna live your masterpiece.

But I don't wanna devalue the other stories in that those are important choices that people are making and their souls are making those choices. when you brought us to that unity consciousness level, I love that because then it brings in true acceptance and moving away from judgment. then like everyone's story is unique and special and there is no value judgment or

differentiation between the two. It's just, that's one unique story and this is another unique story.

Ashley Henderson (22:00.348)
Yeah, I guess we could even say it as like, your masterpiece is unfolding right now. You don't even have to do anything different. You are a masterpiece. Everybody is living their masterpiece, or you wouldn't be here. It's like a deep fundamental truth that this is a masterpiece unfolding.

And so, you my feeling about it actually is instead of making sort of a New Year's resolution list, I like, mean, there's nothing wrong with New Year's resolutions. They tend to not last. But I really like this kind of almost gratitude. Like it's almost like the other direction or maybe it's a different word than gratitude, but it's like deep appreciation for what's already here. Start there.

Go into where can I already see the masterpiece unfolding of me and go deeply, deeply into that. had a client this week share with me that she had this realization. It was so cool, this realization on a meditation retreat that she gets to spend the rest of her life with herself. And this was just a whole new kind of thought.

right, that I get to spend the rest of this incarnation with myself. And it sort of changes things. So instead of saying, in order to be happy, I need to have X, Y, and Z. In order to be a good person or be worthy, I need to change these things about myself. It's more like, wow, if I get to be with myself for the rest of my life, how do I want to do that? I'm the creator of this. How do I want to be with myself? And,

And then that deep like self love seems to be self love. mean, have we said this in every podcast? Self love is the freaking answer here. Like it's the goal. It's the process. It's the it's all of it, right? We're just always coming back, back to that. And you can be

Ashley Henderson (24:15.9)
Somebody that doesn't have a lot of material wealth, you can be somebody that doesn't particularly have what seems like a masterpiece of a life and be in such deep self-love and such joy and such passion. So it could look anyway, right? That masterpiece unfolds in all the ways, which is actually so amazing and so cool.

Nate (24:36.991)
Yeah, I will totally agree with that. think the reason it keeps coming up is that it is the balm for almost all of our life issues, right? Is coming back to self-love, not abandoning the self, not wanting the self to be different. All of that stuff just creates suffering. And if we move into self-love, then everything else we've ever talked about

doesn't unfold and it all just fixes itself. It doesn't even get fixed. Fixed is, think the reason I'm struggling here is that fix is not the right word, but if you move into self-love, you move into alignment. And the other thing that I was noticing when we were talking about resistance is I was just thinking about this analogy that it's like, we're all constantly,

driving around in these metaphorical life cars and we're constant, like the car is always moving. It's almost like a Disneyland ride. Like it's perpetually move, moving, cause it's full of energy. And we are just always in a state of pumping the brakes on one thing or another. And then sometimes the gas at the same time. And the way that we can kind of get out of that is through presence.

through awareness and also self-love. I think the reason self-love is such an important thing is...

I don't know, I mean, guess because most of us have this kind of internalized low self-worth and it's very interesting because a lot of us have been steeped in some form of religion or another. I would just, it's funny, cause that's the way I was raised. And we think that God, the creator, this universal energy, it created everything. It created rainbows, it created whales.

Nate (26:43.082)
created all this stuff and it created us. And somehow our brains and society says that we are less than when it's weirdly contradictory to this belief that this creator, which created everything and created everything in beauty and in majesty, and we're part of that. It's like, own the divinity people. And also that all of it,

including the good, including the bad, including the ugly, including this, the inanimate things, everything is all part of it. And that's where you can like lose that sense of evaluation because it's all coming from source. We are all a part of it and we are all beautiful creations. There's no value there. I don't know. I probably shouldn't even say beautiful. I should just say we're just all creations.

Ashley Henderson (27:37.052)
Yeah.

Ashley Henderson (27:41.154)
Yeah, love Own Your Divinity. We've had some little truth bombs in this podcast so far. Own Your Divinity, realize your masterpiece, unveil your masterpiece, what do we say? Protect your peace. We've got some good ones. I love Own Your Divinity. I had this cool experience this week where

Nate (27:55.136)
Yeah, protect your peace. Yeah, yeah.

Ashley Henderson (28:04.476)
I was noticing that my mind was really overactive and I wasn't really buying into it, but it was bothering me. I was just annoyed by it. So I wasn't having like total compassion for it. So I sat, I went into my meditation and I connect, I decided to connect to what I'm calling my higher self. Some other people, some people may call it God or the goddess or source or the universe or whatever, but I,

I was calling it my higher self. And in doing that, I was sort of saying, okay, my little mind is overactive right now. It's trying to resolve things that has no business even resolving at all. Like it's just doing an habitual.

where it thinks that it's gonna worry about something and control it or something. So when I connected to my higher self, I immediately had one perspective and two compassion for my overactive mind. And then it pulled me into this place of deep trust and deep surrender. And I thought, gosh, my higher self really has...

The whole thing, it's really holding the whole picture. It doesn't see a problem. It knows everything's gonna be okay. It's got a plan. I don't need to know what it is. You know, I can just, my life is okay. I can feel into this trust. It's a felt sense. I don't have to like, I'm not like kind of bypassing it. Like I'm just, I'm really gonna just let my whole system relax.

I'm going to really ground into the present moment. I can let my higher self, my higher mind do its thing. And my mind just, it was so funny that overactive mind. I was, it almost was like, thank you. It didn't have to worry anymore. It was kind of quieted down. I haven't been ruminating about whatever. can't even remember what I was ruminating about. And so

Ashley Henderson (30:06.328)
there's this like you brought in own your divinity you can really own that right because there's a way that sometimes we hand it over to some you know higher power that that

Maybe we don't always feel it loves us. Maybe we don't always feel like maybe we feel that it's going to judge us or something like that. But if you really own, there's like a part of me, there's an aspect of me that's got a bigger plan that really is holding this whole thing in love. It doesn't really matter what happens. doesn't really, you know, there is no judge. There is no actual meaning to any of it.

And you're free. Then there's like this freedom to just be present and be in this kind of what I've been thinking of as an avatar, like this kind of video game of your own life. know, how do you want to be in this moment in this body and with this personality, with these circumstances? Yeah, I love that on your.

Nate (31:10.259)
love that.

Nate (31:13.732)
Well, when you're saying all of that too about your higher self, it's making me think of, it's this idea that like the higher self isn't a deity, right? So there isn't like the separation that you feel. You can really think about the higher self as the best aspects of your best friend, of a healthy parent, of a loving child, but even better, all of that, like the best version in that that,

entity, that part of you, is your co-pilot and that when you let go of anxious thinking and you just allow life to unfold, that aspect of you, that complete loving, perfect aspect that's holding all the parts of you is right there with you and is like, we got this. There's nothing to do. You just live, baby. Like, don't like...

Don't overthink it, don't grip the steering wheel, don't bump the brakes, trust. That's like that. And what you were talking about too, it's important to acknowledge that it is not thinking. Once you're in thinking, you're not in it, and that's okay. And we have a lot of grace for the brain trying to grab on to this process because it knows, as you were saying, that there is relief in it, but it's a felt reality.

It's just a knowing, it's a being, it's not a thinking. So if you're in thinking, give yourself a little love, it's okay, we're all work in progress. The trust, the allowing, it's a being, it's a feeling, it's a flow, it's the actual, the absence of the overthinking. And yeah, and I love what you were saying. It's just that higher self.

is it's kind of like self-love. These are access points. These are kind of universal ports that will get you to just to peace and presence. And we're not gonna be there all the time because we're messy and this is life, but yeah.

Ashley Henderson (33:25.552)
Yeah, totally. Totally, but like coming back to protect your peace, I think what we can do is start to identify the ways our own individual portals to peace. So for me, that practice worked. That was great. I have a practice. I have time to sit and do that. But for somebody else, it might mean going for a jog or

you know, closing your eyes and breathing or putting on a song that like takes you out of your mind, you know, finding your little portals and you might have a hundred different ones that you can access. So it's really like the deep permission right now to let yourself come into peace. And I'm using peace, joy, passion, creativity, aliveness.

I don't know, wonder, magic. I don't know. You know, all these different things, but just giving yourself permission right now to access that, to really cultivate those practices. And sometimes when we say practice, it sounds very serious, like have to practice, you know, but it's really not, it could be anything. it's, you know, I'm, you know.

looking out the window right now into the trees and then, you know, everything is so green right now. We've had a ton of rain. There's flowers, there's colors popping, you know, everything is sort of like beautiful right now. It's like so easy for me to just look outside and access, you know, a moment of just joy or I don't know. It just makes me smile, right? So it's just, it can be so simple.

Nate (35:18.022)
Yeah.

Nate (35:21.308)
I love that. And I think the word that was coming up when you were talking about the different piece or all of these different words, the one that was landing for me is flow, to be in the flow of life, right? It doesn't always have to be something that we perceive as positive or as negative. It's just being in the flow of life and not resisting it, letting that energy take you. So I love this as we're kind of nearing the end here.

The invitation that you're putting out to people, and I'll second it, that's a great one, is to gently, playfully, with curiosity, find your practice. Don't do what you think you should be doing. Feel into what gives you peace, flow, ease, and let those things, those moments, those engagements

bring you into life and do them intentionally and love it. And then you're gonna be in that both little C and big C creator that you were talking about. And I don't know, I think that's a great energy to try to embody as we go on into 2026.

Ashley Henderson (36:41.468)
Well, this has been fun.

Nate (36:43.279)
Yeah, I'm so glad we got to catch up.

Ashley Henderson (36:45.222)
Totally, If you're listening and you have any thoughts or yeah, anything comes up for you that you want to share with us or the spiritual unraveling community, put them in the comments. I'd love to see and hear from whoever's listening.

Nate (37:05.506)
Absolutely. All right. Thank you, everyone.

Ashley Henderson (37:09.788)
See you next time.