Reflect, Release, Renew: A Year-End Review For Success in 2026

In today's episode, on Christmas Eve, we pause for a year-end ritual that helps us reflect honestly, release what no longer serves, and welcome a healthy, aligned start to 2026.

Here's some of what we're covering in today's episode:

• why reflection precedes effective goal-setting
• ten guided questions for your year-end review

1. What did I learn? (skills, knowledge, awareness, etc)
2. What did I accomplish?
3. What would I have done differently? Why?
4. What were the most significant events of the past year? (list the top 3)
5. What do I feel especially good about? What was my greatest contribution? What am I most proud of?
6. What were the fun things I did this year? (going back through your photos can be helpful for this one)
7. What was the most surprising thing that happened this year?
8. What were my biggest challenges, roadblocks, or difficulties?
9. How am I different this year than last?
10. What am I particularly grateful for?

• separating reflection from judgment
• the science of gratitude and brain rewiring
• the nightly three gratitudes routine I recommend to all of my clients
• shifting from release to aligned intentions for 2026

Taking time to reflect in the waning days of the year, will make 2026 feel lighter, clearer, and more aligned with who you want to become.

✨ If after moving through today's episode, you know you're ready to step into a new, healthier, more vibrant version of you in 2026, there is no better place to do that than inside of our coaching program, The Healing Accelerator. Learn more here. You'll get a full year with us to help you realize your goals AND you can take advantage of our current pricing before the investment goes up in January. ✨

And if today's show resonates with you, please share the episode with someone who needs a reset, subscribe for next week’s intention-setting guide, and leave a review to help others find the show. 🥰

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Transcript

Welcome And Year-End Focus

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello and welcome back to the Ground and Root podcast, where we are exploring the world of holistic and functional strategies to enhance your healing and help you stay cancer free. I'm your host and holistic cancer dietitian, Dion Detraz. And if you celebrate, let me first just say happy, Merry Christmas Eve. This is our Christmas Eve episode. We are in the waning days of the year. And today we are going to focus on how to use this energy, this kind of closure energy at the end of the year to reflect back on this previous year and really prepare us to step into the new. The truth is that in order to embrace the new, we have to first release the old. If we just jump right in, we often set ourselves up for failure because we're just not reflecting on where we've been, who we are, how we've changed, what is most important to us now. So today we're going to talk about how to do this, how to create an activity, a little ritual to help you do this. And now is the perfect time. So an important step in preparing for the new year is to review the past year. What did you learn, right? What was good? What was not good? How have you changed? Then we release what is no longer that we no longer want to take with us, we no longer want to be or kind of focus on. And it creates space for us to actually step into something new. And truthfully, there is no better time to do this than right now, in the days between technically the winter solstice, which is already past us, it was just a few days ago, and the start of the new year. So this final week of the year is the perfect time to take some time aside, maybe an hour, two hours tops, and do some self-reflection. It's really, if you're not used to doing this, I know some of you may already be doing this. I hope you are, but if you're not, I want to just speak to the fact that taking the time to self-reflect is a really powerful process. And unfortunately, it's often a missing piece in our life. You know, we're busy, we're tired, we're looking for distraction because maybe we're just really not very happy with our lives right now, or we're not happy with the state of our health right now. We're not happy with the state of the world right now. And it's we don't want to focus on the real. We'd much rather distract, you know, through books, through TV, through movies, through social media, whatever it might be. And the idea of spending an hour or two sitting quietly and just really tapping into what's true for us might feel kind of scary and uncomfortable. And I 100% want to say that distraction is not bad. There are times when it could actually be incredibly healing to distract, you know, and we all need that. But there is also time when we really tap into what's true for us. We take time to reflect. And that in and of itself can have an incredibly powerful impact on our health and our healing and ultimately what the next year, like how we're setting up our next year. So I want to teach you today how to do this. Or if you've already been doing this, maybe I'll give you some new ideas of what of how you could spice your self-reflection routine up today. Or, you know, again, if you're celebrating Christmas, this might not be, you know, today might be really busy, tomorrow might be really busy, but perhaps this weekend or sometime between now and New Year's Eve would be a great time to do this. So, how do we do this? Essentially, we're not just like tapping into the bad stuff. You know, I mean, it is important to reflect on what was not great, what do we want to leave behind? What are we, what do we really not want to take with us? But it's also a chance for us to just look at what were the great things, what were the joyful moments, what were the memories that were made with, you know, by ourselves, with our friends, with our families, et cetera? How have we grown individually? What's differently, what's different for us now than was true for us a year ago? How do you feel now? You've changed. It's been a whole year. How are you different? What patterns or beliefs or habits are just simply no longer serving you anymore? And what dreams and goals and aspirations do you have for this next year? I think it's also important to stay before I give you like some actual questions, okay, to journal about. I think it's also important to just normalize the fact that 2025 may have been a really hard year for you. It was a hard year for a lot of people. And if you happen to follow astrology or numerology, like if you tap into any of that stuff, then you may already understand some of the reasons behind this. Certainly getting a cancer diagnosis, if that was true for you this past year, or if somebody you love got a cancer diagnosis, then that was a big challenge, right? A big struggle that was put on you this year. But just again, from that astrological numerological perspective, which I am not an expert, okay. I just want to be completely transparent. It's just something I really enjoy and study and am passionate about. But 2025 was like a closure year. It was the year of the snake, it was a nine-year, it represented completion, right? Ends, like the end of things, transformation, shedding. That can feel really intense. It can feel really hard. It was a hard year for me. And I know it was hard for a lot of people around me. Now, it's important to just know that, to normalize that and be like, okay, there were some really hard things. That doesn't mean 2026 has to be hard too. Okay. Of course, life is not always going to be easy breezy. There's going to be challenges. But again, from that astrology numerology perspective, 2026 is bringing a completely different energy. It is a one year. We are starting a fresh new cycle. It's the year of the horse. There's a lot of movement and action and momentum and new beginnings and new opportunities, new shifts, new changes that could be coming your way, right? So before we really welcome in this like new energy, this energy of new beginnings, we do need to finish the process of closure of what are we really ready to let go of? What is just we're done, you know, we're finished with that. We don't want to bring it into this next cycle with us. And again, that could be a habit, but it could also be a belief, right? It could be a story that you're telling yourself. It could be certain relationships in your life or even certain responsibilities, right? This could look different for everybody. So here's a practice that you can use in this last week of the year to really help you reflect to get the most out of this like end of the year closure energy. How do we really reflect on what was good and what was not? Here are a list of 10 questions that can help guide you through this process. And I will make sure to list these 10 questions in the show notes as well. So you don't necessarily have to scribble them down right now, especially if you're driving or doing something else. Okay. If you set any goals or intentions for this past year, so if you did some type of exercise like this a year ago, you may want to pull out that list. You may want to reread that if you haven't looked at it in a while, right? What were your goals a year ago? How many of those did you accomplish or achieve? But how many of them actually are just like no longer your goal? You're like, you know what? I thought I wanted that and I actually don't. Or how many were just not realistic? You know, again, we're not judging. We're not saying it was good or bad. We're just reflecting. Reflection is not judgment. I hope you understand that. It's really important that you try to separate those two. I think we can beat ourselves up plenty. We don't, we're not judging. I think if things didn't happen, there was a reason it didn't happen. It wasn't just because, you know, you didn't have enough willpower. Maybe it just wasn't a good goal for you. Maybe it wasn't part of your destiny for that to happen. Or maybe not yet, maybe this year. So there's a lot of, again, there's a lot of possibility here. Here's so let me dive into those questions. So here are the top 10 questions. And you can add more, you can do less. This is what I like to do. So first I asked myself, what did I learn this last year? What did I learn? And it could be like a difficult thing I had to learn, you know, I had to go through something really challenging, but I actually learned something about myself or about the world or about whatever, you know, about my community. I learned something. Or maybe you actually did learn a new skill, or you have new awareness about something or a new knowledge base about something. So, first that's kind of a helpful thing. It's just what did I learn? And then maybe yes, what did I accomplish? And perhaps it was a goal I had set myself for last year, or maybe not. Maybe it was like something I didn't even know I was gonna do, but I did. And wow, I'm really proud of myself that happened. So, were there any sort of accomplishments or achievements, whether they were planned or not? Another really important question here is what would I have done differently if I could go back and redo 2025? Is there anything that I actually would have just done differently? And this is an interesting question because sometimes we have to go through the stuff that we don't want to in order to get where we need to go. So I happen to be a person where I don't, I really try not to live with regrets. You know, I feel like every action, every decision, every choice I make was there was a point to it. There was something that I needed to experience and learn from it. But we can still go back and just say, is there anything I would have done differently? And if so, if so, why? Why? What's the deeper reason why I would have done that differently? Question number four, what were the most significant events of this past year? And something that I like to do too. And you could also include another question here is what were the fun things I did this year? So, what were some like really important events that happened this year, good or bad? Again, we're trying not to make judgment, we're just like reflecting. But it could also be like, what were some really fun things I got to do this year? And going back through your photos from the year can be a really helpful one for this. I also try to do that at the end of the year, and it helps because I make a family calendar every year, which is like using the photos from the year before. So I go through everything and it's oh yeah, last January this happened, or you know, we're not necessarily taking photos of everything that happens in our life, but it can be a nice way to reflect on the year and just remember, especially some of those special moments that you ended up taking photos or videos of. Another question: what do I feel especially good about? What was my greatest contribution from the year? Yeah. Or what am I most proud of? Even if it's just one thing, it could be big or small, but what do I feel really good that happened this last year? What were another question? What were the most surprising things that happened this year? You know, something that I just wasn't expecting. Again, good or bad. We're not judging. We're just like, what was I surprised about this last year? Another one, another question, what were my biggest challenges or my biggest roadblocks or my biggest difficulties? So again, getting, you know, a health diagnosis could certainly be one of those, but maybe it's not that. Maybe it has something to do with work or relationships or just your own, you know, health in other ways. I mean, it could be anything, but what were my biggest challenges? What were my biggest roadblocks or difficulties? And I think the last two are important really important here is how am I different this year than last year? How have I changed? Right? This is a really good one to spend some time thinking about before, again, before we set intentions for the next year. Because who you are now is important in who we want to be in this next year. And then finally, what am I particularly grateful for? What am I really thankful for this past year? Even if there were like a hundred crappy things that happened, you know, what is at least one thing that I am just so grateful that I either got to do that or that happened, or I met that person, or whatever it is. You know, I joined that group, I made this decision for myself, whatever it is. What am I particularly grateful for? And the reason I'm ending with this question is because gratitude is a very important emotion. And I want to take a second just to speak about that before we wrap up this ritual for the end of the year. Research shows us that your thoughts have an incredible power to shape your brain, right? And you may have already known this. The more conscious you are about perceiving something as positive, the more this is gonna generalize to other parts of your brain. And ultimately, it's gonna improve your overall sense of well-being and happiness. So it doesn't mean that we're always gonna be happy and see like the bright side of everything, but it's a practice. The more we practice gratitude, we start noticing other positive things in our life. And this is important because when we are feeling grateful, when we are noticing what is good and positive around us, this increases our level of happiness. And happiness has been shown to boost health and to help you heal and to increase longevity, right? It raises your energetic vibration, it regulates your nervous system and reduces stress hormones. It increases your mental and your emotional resilience, it improves your sleep, it improves your immune function, right? It basically helps you live a longer, healthier, happier life. So we can't discount something, you know, an emotion like happiness and gratitude for being actually a really important piece to the puzzle when we're trying to help ourselves heal and thrive and be healthy. The more we focus on positive things, the more we find positive moments in our day. Again, like I said, even if they've already, they've always been there. But maybe you weren't noticing them because your brain was focused on the things that were uncomfortable or hard or challenging or negative. But as we start teaching our brain to focus on the positive, we essentially rewire our brains to look for positive things throughout the day. Like, how great is that, right? To help you do this, if this is a new concept for you and you don't already have some kind of a gratitude practice in place, this could be a really great intention for this next year, is to start a gratitude practice. And one of the things I like to do and I encourage our clients to do, especially when you're going through something really hard, you know, like when you're moving through a cancer journey or maybe you're going through a breakup, or it could be anything, you lost your job, like something really difficult. So there's a lot of negative right now, you know, there's a lot of challenge. But if you can have a practice where at the end of your day, before you go to bed, whether you're writing it in a journal or not, you can, you know, that's up to you. But you come up with three things that actually went really well that day. Three things that were positive that you're grateful for. It could be something as little as I had an incredible cup of coffee, or I got to chat with my friend who made me laugh and feel good. Or it could be like, I had a clear scan. I mean, it could be a big thing, but it and anything in between, but three things that happened that day that you were grateful for. Not only does this now raise your happiness quota, right? Create more peace and calm and less stress in your body, which is gonna help you have a better sleep, especially if you're doing this right before bedtime. But again, we're beginning to rewire the brain, which means the next day we're gonna be more on the lookout for positive things so that we can come up with our list of three things that we're grateful for. Do you see how that works? And before long, your whole disposition begins to shift. Because again, you're seeking out, you're searching for positive moments, big and small. The last thing I want to mention here is in that list of 10 questions that I just went over, a lot of those we're looking at things about like how I've changed, right? What is no longer serving me? What do I not want to bring into the next year with me? And again, this could be a habit, it could be a behavior, but it could also be an idea, it could be a belief, it could be a pattern, it could be an attitude, right? It could be a person, it could be a job, it could be all kinds of things. But I want you now to take a moment to pull out the things that you've identified that are just no longer good for you. You know, they're just not taking you to where you want to be. Even if it's something that you've been doing or you've had in your life for like a decade, doesn't matter. Now you're different and you have awareness around what is not helping you become the healthiest, most vibrant, radiant person life that you want to have. Right. You're gonna write each of these things down. You can put them on separate pieces of paper, you can put it in a list, however, you want to do it, but on its own, like piece of paper. Like these are all the things that I'm just done. I'm done with this, I'm done with this list. And then we are gonna do a little ritual because actually there's some power in this practice. You're gonna make a fire. If you have a fireplace or a stove, you can do that. Okay. If you, or maybe outside, even if you have a fire pit or you have a barbecue, I mean anything that creates fire. Otherwise, you're gonna use a candle and you're gonna have a bowl, because we obviously want to keep this safe. Okay. But you're gonna have a fire and one at a time or altogether, depending on how you're doing it with the paper, you're going to release this list or each of these pieces of paper into the fire. And you're gonna say out loud, you can do this by yourself or maybe with your family or some friends. Like maybe you do it as a group thing. We're gonna do this together. We're gonna let all of this go. And we're gonna say aloud, what am I letting go of? What do I no longer want in my life? And I'm letting it go into the fire. I'm gonna watch the fire. This is very intentional, okay? Very present and mindful. I'm gonna watch the fire transform that paper into light, into smoke, right? It's transforming it into something new. I'm gonna imagine the energy of what I've released also transforming into light, into new possibility.

unknown 18:43

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 18:44

Don't underestimate how powerful this can be, truly. Once you've released all that you need to, you know, you can sit with a fire, you can stay with the fire until it turns to embers. You can use this time to meditate or pray or journal. Or now would be a good time to transition into setting intentions. Who do I want to be in 2026? What do I want to call into my life? How do I want to be different? Start brainstorming those ideas. Okay. It is, I know it is super easy. I've done this many times. It's super easy to jump quickly into what we want, into the hopes for the next year, right? But what I have found for myself personally and now guiding other people through it over the years, that without taking the time to properly reflect, we're often left with like empty goals, empty resolutions, empty intentions that just don't end up manifesting because maybe they weren't even just like really right for us. You know what I mean? So as you prepare for this next year for 2026, for this new energy, this new momentum, okay. Time for shifts and new beginnings. I strongly invite you to set your intention by first reviewing the past year, okay? And then connecting with what is no longer serving you, what You ready to let go of? And what are you most grateful for? And how could we bring more of that gratitude and joy and happiness into the next year? Right. From this place, from this state of being, you're going to create goals and changes in your life that are way more meaningful, way more purposeful, and way more aligned with who you are, what you most value, who you want to become. It's going to be much harder for those intentions to not manifest. We're going to be covering this in next week's New Year's Eve episode of the intention setting part. How to set intentions that are, that will take hold, right? That will come true for you. And as I said, and I will mention it again next week because this is the last week that we have our current pricing on our coaching program. But if you know that you're ready to step into a new, healthier, more vibrant version of you, body, mind, and spirit, there is no better place to do that than inside of our coaching program, the Healing Accelerator. You'll get a full year with us. What if 2026 you just had us in your back pocket coaching and guiding and supporting and inspiring you towards this new, healthier, more radiant version of yourself? And at a fraction of the cost of what it's going to be January 1st. So again, I will link to that below if you're interested. We can also set up a time to chat. If you want to talk about it first before committing, that's okay too. Okay. You have both options always. I hope you enjoyed today's episode. And I really hope you take some time to do this self-reflection. I you will not regret it. I promise you. It'll be well worth the time and energy spent doing it. And then as always, if you're enjoying the content that we're covering here at the Ground and Root Podcast, please help us spread the word. Share, subscribe, leave a review. We really appreciate your support and helping this information get into the care to the ears of as many people as possible. I wish you such a beautiful day, a beautiful Christmas if you're celebrating. And I look forward to connecting with you again on next week's episode. Bye for now.