This Is the Year We Stop Abandoning Ourselves | A Nervous System Reset for 2026

As we close 2025 and step into 2026, this episode is an invitation to slow down, reconnect, and stop abandoning yourself in the name of growth. If you’re exhausted from “doing the work” but still feel disconnected from your body, your voice, or your truth — this episode is for you.

In this season-threshold episode of The Arise with Anita podcast, somatic mindset coach and embodiment guide Anita invites you into a slower, more honest conversation about self-abandonment, nervous system regulation, and what it really means to grow without leaving yourself behind.

This episode isn’t about fixing, forcing, or reinventing yourself for the new year. It’s about recognizing the subtle ways high-achieving women override their bodies, silence their truth, and confuse survival with strength — and how that pattern quietly shapes burnout, disconnection, and dissatisfaction.

Through gentle reflection, embodied insight, and nervous-system-led awareness, Anita explores:

• How self-abandonment shows up in everyday life
• Why “pushing through” often disconnects us from ourselves
• The difference between survival-based growth and embodied presence
• What it means to stay with yourself as you enter 2026

This episode also bridges into the first guest conversation of the year with Craig Siegel, setting the tone for a deeper exploration of manifestation, embodiment, and alignment that doesn’t bypass the human experience.

Take a breath.
Slow down.
And begin the year by coming back to yourself.

If you felt something shift inside you today… hold that. Honor it.

This is how we rise — one choice, one voice, one brave breath at a time.

If you’re ready to go deeper, download your free ARISE Activation Workbook at www.arisewithanita.com

Email: Anita@arisewithanita.com 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/arisewithanita/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/anita.karadalian.7 

Linkldn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anita-karadalian-girgis-23362b335/f

And if this message landed in your soul, subscribe, leave a review, and share it with a woman who’s done playing small.

Because we don’t just rise alone — we rise together.

I’ll see you in the next episode. 

Transcript

Arrival And Grounding Breath

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to the Rise of the Need Podcast. The space for Solomon's baggy and dreams are no longer optional. I need a house and lines. We embody it. We have to make one explorable. You'll hear mixed full episodes for me and interviews with school-driven leaders, the best in their field, who live what they teach and rise by example. Each conversation is a callus for your next breakthrough. You're not broken, you're breaking through. Let's go ahead and rise together.

Naming The Transition Into 2026

Subtle Forms Of Self‑Abandonment

SPEAKER_01 0:49

Welcome back to the Rise of the Need Up podcast. If you've been here for a while, I want to go ahead and thank you for walking this journey and the path with me. But if you're new here and this is your first time listening, I just want you to know you didn't land here by accident. Before we speak about time and years or intention, I want to take a moment for us to arrive. So wherever you are right now, take a deep breath in through the nose, and a long slow exhale through the mouth. And let the breath drop into your belly. Let your shoulders soften, let your jaw clench. Yes, I'm calling that out. You don't need to do anything here. You don't need to improve yourself in this moment. We are closing the final days of 2025 and stepping into the very first breaths of 2026. And transitions like this, whether we name them or not, are actually felt in the body, sometimes as excitement, sometimes as fatigue, sometimes as quiet ache we can't name. So instead of asking you what you want to accomplish in this next year, I want to ask you something a little slower.

SPEAKER_02 2:19

Where have you been leaving yourself behind?

Personal Story Of Overriding Signals

SPEAKER_01 2:26

Self-abandonment always isn't dramatic. It doesn't always look like burnout or breakdown. Often it's subtle. It's staying in conversations that drain you. Because you don't want to disappoint them. It's pushing your body past its limits and calling it discipline. It's silencing your truth because it feels easier than being misunderstood, or from my personal experience, you think it's a way of keeping your peace. Especially if you're conflict-avoidant, that might be a big one for you. But many of us have learned early that our needs were inconvenient, our emotions were too much, or our sensitivity made life a little harder. So we've adapted. But resilience without self-connection eventually becomes disconnection. And disconnection always shows up in your body, in your relationships, and the way life starts to feel heavy. Nothing is wrong with you. You've learned how to survive. And now your body is asking for something a little different. So I want to share this gently. There was honestly a moment, many moments in my own life, where I realized I was listening to everyone else before I listened to myself. And I don't know if you've ever been in that place where I could feel something wasn't aligned, but I would override it with logic. I could sense it when my body needed rest, but I would keep going. And I told myself it was growth. I told myself it was strength. But underneath it, there was this quiet exhaustion building up that no matter how much sleep you get will not fix. Because I was so disconnected from my own truth and from living what I wanted to live. And if we're being honest, a lot of people pleasing patterns that I was living other people's stories.

SPEAKER_02 4:59

So it became this game of betraying my own signals.

The Sedona Fall And Forced Pause

Living The Questions That Change Behavior

From Reinvention To Return

Notice Sooner: Body As Compass

Teaser: Manifestation And Kabbalah Conversation

Closing Reflection And Breath

Community Share And Calls To Action

SPEAKER_01 5:11

And the turning point for me wasn't exactly dramatic. It became a simple question that kept coming over and over. What happens if I stop leaving myself here? What happens if I pause when my body asks? Earlier in this year, many of you know I took a fallen Sedona. And it was this beautiful spiritual trip that I hadn't planned. And I had operated it much like how I was operating a lot of life, which was a checklist. I had so many things I wanted to do, and I thought I would manifest this beautiful trip. That was gonna be the next quantum leap in my little journey of my spirituality. But I was not taking a moment to pause, and I took a fall, and that fall created a false forced pause. So here I am months later, barely recovered and going to the gym again, because I was not taking the time to slow down. So the question became, what happens if I stop leaving myself here? What happens if I actually take the time to pause when my body asks? Because I realized also in that moment, had I listened to the amount of times I wanted to pause, I probably wouldn't have ended up injured. What happens if I speak when my voice trembles? And I say what I need to say even when I'm scared. What happens if I choose honesty over keeping peace? These questions started to change the way I live. Not overnight, but consistently. And the more I stayed present, the less I needed to force anything. So as we step into 2026, I don't really feel the energy of reinvention. I feel more of the energy of what I call a return. It's a continuous return to the body, a return to truth, a return to self-trust, a return to my own essence. So the zero doesn't have to ask you to try harder. It's actually asking you to notice sooner. To pay attention when something feels off. To notice when your body tightens, whether that's your throat, a feeling in your gut, to notice when you're saying yes out of habit and not desire. Because the life you're building cannot be sustained if it requires you to disappear from it. Which brings me to why the next conversation after this matters. On January 1st, I'm releasing a special edition episode where I sat down with my dear friend Craig Seole for a conversation around manifestation and Kabbalah, and we talk all about embodiment. And what I appreciate about that conversation is that it doesn't skip the human experience. We talk about ego and just the way around the human journey, the soul's experience as a human, to manifesting and embodying that next level as a way of something to live from. Because if you've ever felt like growth required you to override your self, this episode is going to offer you a new lens. Before we close out, I want you to take one more breath with me. Inhale through the nose and exhale slowly through the mouth. And just ask yourself without judgment, where do I need leave? Where do I leave myself most often? And what would it look like to stay just a little longer? Because you don't need a new version of you. You need your own presence, you need to remind yourself of your own essence, and you need to come home to yourself. 2026 does not require your self-sacrifice. So welcome to the year, you, me, and all the fellow ladies listening to the stop abandoning ourselves. I'm so grateful you're here with me. And if you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a sister, a friend, a woman you feel like needs a pause in her day-to-day. And until the next one, please like, review, comment, share this episode on social if you would like. Let me know your thoughts. Feel free to DM me and let's have a conversation about what it is we're leaving behind in 2025. And until the next one, I just wanna say, you're not broken, you're not needing to be fixed.

SPEAKER_02 11:44

You're already stepping into alignment. Thank you for rising with me today.

SPEAKER_00 11:56

If this episode moved you, share it, tag me at Arise with Anita, and make sure to subscribe so you never miss a future activation. And if you feel cold, leave a quick review. It helps more women find the space and rise into their power. Your next level is already waiting. Now go claim it. I'll see you in the next episode.