Spiral Upward. (a guide for 2026)

The beginning of 2026 started with us still shaking off the debris from last year.

We ended 2025 seeing ourselves and the world differently than ever before. But we weren’t quite ready to step inside of our future selves.

We needed more time to get clear about what we’re not taking with us.

We required more space to build confidence and finally show up as this new person we’ve become.

And in the middle of that intimate undertaking, the world didn’t let up with its being on fire.

The flames demanded our attention. Captivated our socially responsible hearts. Held us in this moment in history in which the world is splitting open and bleeding out.

We chose to be present with the pain. To feel it, so we may become more equipped to heal it.

And that’s where this letter finds you now:

There is no step-by-step guide for 2026. This can’t be navigated as a practical how-to.

Spiraling upward this year is a psycho-spiritual journey. Not a worldly one.

I think these tips may help:

This year you’ll be faced with sudden and unexpected changes. There will be moments in which you have no answers. That’s when you need to pull up a memory of when you broke through a previous challenge … Something you completed. Something you overcame. Something you solved.

Connect back into that memory, and the belief of “I can” that rose inside of you after you broke through.

Allow this feeling to walk with you as you face the unknown.

“I can” is not just a feeling. It is a part of you.

Integrate those little victories into your identity, and you will have the confidence to face the unknown.

The world will continue to show you a loss of innocence this year. Inflammation and fury and collapse and shock. But that is not the world that you are here to create.

You are here to create something more pure. To do that, you’ll need to connect with feelings of purity.

So remember a time in your life when you felt most like yourself. Most innocent and free.

Where were you?

What were you doing?

What was your first innocent passion?

Your first creative interest?

The first time you exclaimed, “I love it!”

How can you bring that part of you online more in your day-to-day?

By reclaiming your own innocence, you allow a purity of heart to permeate your life and your interactions.

Then, purity of heart will be what you plant in the world.

The current paradigm designed a world in which machines rule. Through these machines, our minds are programmed to behave in ways that the old paradigm decides.

If you want to see a more pure hearted paradigm unfold on the planet, you’ll need cultivate feelings of “I can,” and “I love it!” from inside of your body.

That’s how you plant the seeds for a new world onto this earth.

That’s how we grow something we can love, together.

The old paradigm required that you please and appease it. That you submit. That you follow the leader and stay in line.

We followed those rules mostly because we wanted to feel like we had a place to belong, and we feared the outcome of saying no.

Remember this: nothing that you dislike about your life, or about the world we’re living in, can be changed through submission.

Authenticity is the untrodden path where you’ll pick up abandoned pieces of yourself, and step into the soul’s recollection of why you’re alive during this pivotal time in human history.

When choosing your own authenticity means that you may not be accepted, choose authenticity anyway. Your life depends on it. So does the future of this planet.

Your authenticity is the medicine for whatever is at odds in your life. Be it an intimate relationship, a community role, or a political mission. Your authenticity is the carrier of change that is required now. Remember this.

It’s been a few months since I shared a personal update from Guatemala. As many of you know, the first three years here were fraught with challenge: the death of my mother and mold poisoning to name a few.

But today I write you from my bedroom balcony, overlooking an ancient valley on Lake Atitlán, a place formed by an enormous volcanic eruption around 80,000 years ago. That fierce and forceful event laid the foundation for what is now a sunny morning filled with the birdsong of over a dozen colorful species that I’d never seen before arriving here … and there is a lesson in this.

Rising from the ashes of my own challenges here on the lake has resulted in some awesome relationships that I can’t wait to share with you.

I have accepted a new role on the Board of Directors of Chi Tz’unun Choy, a Mayan led NGO focused on community strength through education and cultural preservation.

Here, I collaborate with the Kaqchikel tribe of Tzununá on goals that they’ve defined as important for their community.

Some of the people born from these lands speak Spanish as their second language, and I am able to meet them there. Others speak only Kaqchikel. That’s an incredibly challenging language for me to speak, but I am stumbling through the awkwardness and embarrassment to at least greet my neighbors in their mother tongue (and garner a laugh when I try to do more).

But each of us knows the language of authenticity, and our relationships are built from this place. Yes, we work together to address needs and challenges. But what propels us forward is the joy of friendship and co-creation.

I’ll share more with you soon, but for now, here is a music video about the village, Tzununá, featuring some of our friends from inside the Kaqchikel community. Here you can see the traditional clothing of the Kaqchikel women, and some snippets of the Mayan culture on Lake Atitlán.

I hope you like it!

Last year, in my therapy practice, we helped people heal from decades long digestive challenges, debilitating chronic pain, complex trauma, and saw major improvements in a client’s heart condition as they processed buried emotions.

You can read testimonials here.

Or click here to learn more about the specific problems we solved.

Also, our new website is fully updated, so click here to check it out or book a free consult.