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Dr. Julia Bowlin: [00:00:00] You don't have to drag the emotional leftovers from 2025 into your 2026. You just don't.
Welcome to Mindset Medicine. I'm Dr. Julia Bowlin, and let this episode meet you where you are, because this is your checkpoint. And the truth is not everything, and not everyone gets to come with us into 2026. So let's go ahead and curate how we want 2026 to unfold. In my last episode, we stepped back and we looked at the year with clear eyes.
We started acknowledging the wisdom beneath the hard moments, reclaiming wins we tended to overlook, and we started remembering that we made it through more than our minds will sometimes admit. That reflection is so important, and it becomes the foundation of what today's work is going to be in this episode.
Now, when we move from looking back to lightning, the load, sorting through what's still [00:01:00] serving us, what's quietly draining us, and what we may finally be ready to set down before stepping into the new year with more intention, clarity, and spaciousness, let's move forward because I'm here to tell you, we are in the middle of the December theme of lightning This load.
You know, there's a reason that climbers never just charge up a mountain in one straight, heroic push. They stop, they reset, they breathe, and then they check their gear. They look around and say, okay, what's actually gonna get me to the next elevation? And what's going to get me stranded halfway up this cussing big mountain?
Is it gonna be the wind? Is it gonna be whatever it might be? But what might strand me. That pause spot before they go up a mountain is called Base Camp. And honestly, most of us try to move into a new year without ever doing our own version of that. We keep dragging emotional gear that we don't need. We take outdated stories that we never question, and we bring [00:02:00] un questioned expectations that maybe we never signed up for.
And then we wonder why the climb feels heavier than it should base camps. Exist because elevation demands recalibration at every level. Your lungs adjust, your mindset, adjust, your rhythm adjusts, and if you don't give yourself that pause, your system will get overwhelmed. That's not weakness, that's physiology, and that's humanity.
So today's episode isn't about hustling your way to the peak. It's not a pep talk and it's not a productivity sermon. This is your breath, your seat on the log, your moment to look at the supplies that you've been hauling around all year round and just say, alright, what's actually serving me and what's been riding in my pack?
Because I didn't want to disappoint someone. I say this with deep care and a little tough love. You don't have to drag the emotional leftovers from 2025 into your 2026. You just [00:03:00] don't. You're allowed to put things down. You're allowed to reevaluate, and you're allowed to rebuild your base before you rise, because the truth is you can't climb higher while gripping to the same old fears, old patterns, or old obligations that might have been keeping you circling the same terrain over and over again.
Resetting your Basecamp is not a luxury. It's alignment, it's strategy, and it's spiritual housekeeping. And I like that concept of spiritual housekeeping. So let's breathe into this. Let's get honest and let's get clear and let's get ready for a higher altitude year. So let me review with you the concept of success.
Amnesia. The success amnesia problem is already been discussed in multiple episodes. So before you roll your eyes and say, Julia, didn't we literally just talk about that? Yes, we did. And we took a deep dive into wins and growth and the things you probably [00:04:00] forgot you actually did last year. I'm not gonna drag you through a whole repeat of doing that same thing because I respect your time, your brain, and your attention span during this month when we are putting ourselves together already with maybe a little extra caffeine and gift bags.
So, but here's the thing. December has a way of wiping our mental hard dries clean. Success. Amnesia hits really, really hard when there's tinsel on the table and people are asking you to bring a dish to an event and you don't even remember that you agree to attend to that event. We forget our wins faster than we forget where we hit a good holiday chocolate.
And yes, I know you've done that. I've done that. I've hidden candy over and over again or cookies when my kids were here and totally forgot where they are, but we forget our wins so quickly. Meanwhile, your brain might be up here rehearsing all the things that may have gone wrong in 2025, because it's always dramatic.
It's [00:05:00] always looking for the drama. It's always in survive mode, but the truth, the real truth is often smaller, quieter, and sitting politely on the sidelines waiting for you to notice it again. One good decision. You did one brave moment, you did. One time you didn't completely lose your cool, even though the situation practically begged for it.
So I just want one thing from you right now. Just one grab, a single quiet win from last year. A moment where you surprised yourself, a moment where the old version of you would've reacted differently. And that's it. No montage, no essay, no emotional homework. We already did the deep excavation in episode one in December last week.
This is just a small retrieval, a grounding, a tiny piece of truth to bring into the next climb so that you don't start 2026 under the illusion that's your empty handed. [00:06:00] You've done this. You've already done
this. You should celebrate these things. Hold the moment, honor it. Bring that with you. Now let's look at what you're finally ready to set down.
This isn't about fixing, this isn't about choosing what's worth carrying in your next chapter, because there's a moment in every climb when we have to look at what's in the pack and ask a very honest question, is this helping me rise or is this weighing me down? That's it. This part of this episode isn't about looking at all the pathology or even all your perfections.
It's not about fixing ourselves or scrubbing out every flaw like we're prepping for some spiritual performance. This is about choice and alignment and discernment. It's about looking about what life has handed us or what we're quietly picking up along the way [00:07:00] and deciding what stakes and what am I willing to finally put down.
Many of us carry things simply because we always have just who we are. Maybe you have old obligations that once felt noble, but now feel like you're dragging somebody else's suitcase around. Okay. Expectations we absorbed without ever stopping to ask, do they actually fit me? We might have patterns we didn't choose, but we inherited them through our culture or social experiences or from the way we just learned to keep the peace growing up.
And sometimes without even realizing it, we carry around emotions that belong to other people, their fears, their frustrations, their unmet needs, and it sneaks in, especially for those of us who are wired for caregiving, leadership or responsibility. We tend to hold everything in like it's our sacred duty, even when it's slowly eroding our own capacity.[00:08:00]
This is the part where I'm asking us to get honest with ourselves. Not harsh, not judgmental, just honest. So what has been riding in your
emotional backpack this year? Because you didn't wanna disappoint somebody. What have you been saying Yes to out of instinct or guilt instead of being aligned.
What roles or personas have you been wearing and acting through? Because
it felt easier than taking that persona off and just being authentic. That's kind of a big one. And what emotional stories have you been rehearsing over and over so many times that maybe you forgot that you're the ones who get to rewrite the story and you don't have to carry that with you anymore?
We have a lot of stories in our past, many of which we just need [00:09:00] to let go. Some things were helpful once some things protected us earlier in our seasons of life. But elevation change, moving up and moving forward into 2026 is going to require some recalibration and evaluation. What served us at C level doesn't need to serve us at a higher level, and it probably doesn't.
Sometimes the things that weigh us the most aren't really heavy. They're just outdated. We just have outdated beliefs or assumptions or expectations. A belief that we've quietly outgrown, but we're still caring a responsibility that no longer belongs to us, but we're still bringing it with us, or taking ownership.
It might be a version of herself that just doesn't fit the life that we're rebuilding next. So just take a moment and think about these things. Might be spiritual, might be relationship, might be career, might [00:10:00] be family things, might be just traditions. This is the heart of resetting our base camp. It's not the what's wrong with me question, but what no longer belongs on this climb?
Not how do I fix myself, but what aligns with where I'm going. Not who do I need to be for everyone else, but who am I becoming and what supports that version of me? We don't have to purge everything. We don't have to strip ourselves bare, but we also don't have to keep hauling emotional leftovers into the new year just because they've been sitting in the pack long enough to feel comfortable and familiar.
This next section is an invitation. Gentle, grounded and real. Just to put a few things down, to make some space, to make room to breathe before your next climb ahead in 2026, [00:11:00] and to trust that releasing, no matter what it is, just releasing whatever no longer is serving us, doesn't create emptiness. It's not a negative.
It's gonna create capacity. Alright, so let's take a breath together as we move into the next part.
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Dr. Julia Bowlin: What do we keep? The values, the truths, the inner wisdom that actually belong in our pack for 2026? And when I talk about resetting a base camp, it isn't again about emptying everything. It's about choosing intentionally, curating what gets to stay. And this part is quieter, it's more intimate, and honestly, it should be a little sacred.
Beneath all the noise, the obligations, the expectations, and the emotional debris of the past [00:13:00] year. There is something steady that we're trying to protect, and that's our internal truth. Most of us know what needs to be released long before we actually release it, but we also know somewhere deep down what matters enough, what should be carried forward.
The challenge is giving ourselves permission to name it without apologizing for it. A reset doesn't mean stripping things away. It's a re-anchoring. It's a rerouting, and it helps us just remember ourselves again. So in this moment where we're gonna pause and ask ourselves just this, what qualities have actually held us together this year?
Not the loud ones, the polished ones, not the holiday Christmas card version of ourselves, but the real ones, the value that quietly guided our decision, even when life felt completely disorganized, the value or the inner truth that we kept returning to even when we felt [00:14:00] lost, the part of our identity that we sometimes forget to celebrate.
Because it just feels too ordinary and we're too close to ourselves to count it. What about the relationship that felt like home, like safety, like authenticity, no performing or pressure, just a relationship that felt cozy. What about the rituals and rhythms of our day and our life and our week that keeps us sane when everything else was wobbling?
This isn't about aspiration. It's just about recognition what's already in us that deserves a seat in the table. For 2026, and maybe for some of us this year revealed strengths we didn't know we had. Maybe it was a steadiness under pressure. We didn't expect a boundary. We finally held maybe a moment of courage that came out of nowhere, but came out exactly at the right [00:15:00] time.
Those are the things that belong in the pack. Those are the truths that climb with us because here's the deeper message. A higher year requires a clearer identity, not a harsher one, not a perfected one, just a truer one. Be gentle with yourself because resetting Basecamp means choosing to carry forward the values that make us grounded and whole and connected, not the roles or the personas that helped us survive our older versions of ourself.
It's looking at the next chapter and asking, who am I becoming and what inside of me already supports that, not. Who others need us to be, not who we've been trained to be, but the versions of ourselves that feel aligned, steady, authentic, and honest. The version that doesn't lose itself for approval, the version that doesn't shrink to keep the peace, the version that doesn't defer [00:16:00] dreams to accommodate someone else's comfort.
Resetting our Basecamp is remembering that we are already equipped, often more than we realize. When we stop dragging the outdated identities that belong to earlier seasons of our life. So as we move forward deeper into this episode, let this part settle in. We're gonna keep what fits our soul. We're gonna keep what supports our rise, and we're gonna keep what helps us breathe, not what makes us brace.
And that brings us to the next step in the climb. A moment to actually release the weight through a gentle grounding ritual that helps the body catch up to the heart. Let's call this the let go ritual, and wherever you are, whether you're sitting, walking, lying down, this part is simply an invitation. No pressure, no just doing it right.
Just allow whatever wants to settle in and let it settle. [00:17:00] And if it feels comfortable, let your attention soften towards the inside of your body. Feel the shape of yourself being supported by whatever is beneath you. Nothing to fix, nothing to tighten, just noticing. And let's take one slow breath in and let the exhale stretch a little longer than the inhale.
That's it. The longer the exhale tells the nervous system to relax. A longer exhale. We are safe enough in this moment to loosen our grip of control. And with each deep breath and each exhale, just let your awareness drift towards the image of a path. Not imagine, perfectly not forest, just a path. Whatever comes naturally.
Maybe it's a wooded trail or a quiet ridge line. [00:18:00] Maybe it's somewhere you've been. Or somewhere that your mind creates on the spot. You're not traveling far, you're just walking until you reach a small clearing. Your clearing. The air is steady, ground is firm.
You can feel the earth holding you without asking anything of you.
And as you stand there, you might notice you're carrying a small
pack. You don't have to open it. Just since there's a few things you've been holding in that pack this year. Some were helpful, some heavy, some simply outdated. We're not judging what's in there. We're not analyzing it. We're just acknowledging its existence in that the pack might feel a little cluttered over time, a little, a little heavier than it should, and if it feels right.
Go ahead [00:19:00] and set the pack down on the ground beside you. We're not imagining it to be going away, and we're not abandoning it. We're just giving permission
to take the weight off our shoulders for just a moment.
Notice how the body responds.
Maybe the breath shifts, maybe the chest softens, maybe the neck loosens just a little bit. Or maybe nothing changes at all, and that's completely okay. Nothing needs to happen. This is just about allowing, not forcing. As that pack rests on the earth, picture the ground, receiving it, not absorbing your pain or taking your burdens, but just simply holding the things that you're ready to stop carrying around at full intensity.
In this clearing, you're not required to let go of everything. You're just simply allowed to [00:20:00] release the pieces
that no longer support the climb ahead.
Maybe it's an old expectation. Maybe it's a role that
felt tight. Maybe it's an emotional noise. You've outgrown whatever rises, rises. No pushing. Just notice the sensation of standing there without effort. Standing without extra
weight standing with the possibility of breathing differently
now, feel a gentle steadiness behind you, the sense that you don't walk into the next chapter alone.
Call it intuition Wisdom. Higher guidance or maybe spirit or source, whatever feels true for you. Let it feel like support, [00:21:00] like alignment, like clarity. You don't have to earn. And take one more slow inhalation and let the exhale melt any tension. Gripping your rib cage.
Just let the tension release the ribcage softening. And when you're ready, imagine picking up the pack again. But this time only, the essentials are inside what belongs,
what's aligned, what's nourishing, and what climbs with you Feel the difference.
It's not lighter because you fixed anything. But it's lighter because you've chosen with intention.
And now let your awareness travel back to the room around you, noticing the air, the temperature, the [00:22:00] sounds, wiggling your fingers and toes, reminding your body, you're here, you're grounded, you're safe
and present.
There's no rush. Just take your
time and let the transition be gentle. And as we come back to this episode, carrying this sense of clarity forward, there's no pressure, no perfection, just a quiet knowing
that I'm allowed to decide what climbs with me.
Coming out of that clearing, there's usually
this tiny moment, almost like when you walk out of a warm house into the crisp December air, and the body says, okay, I can breathe differently now. It's subtle, but it's real, and that's where the base camp checklist comes in. It's not a high pressure resolutions list, not a perfect Olympics.
It's just a grounded way to carry what matters into 2026. What [00:23:00] truly matters, not what is expected. There's a big difference between priorities that come from inside us and the ones that sneak in from old family dynamics, cultural noise, or that one relative who still believes that busyness is a personality trait.
IE me this time of year makes it hilariously clear. Many of us had done the whole holiday seasons on expectations alone. We bought gifts out of obligation and we attended events that we didn't even remember agreeing to go to. We said yes to things because, well, it just felt easier than having a conversation about why we didn't wanna do it.
But what truly matters, it rarely shouts at us. It just nudges and it often shows up in small, quiet proof. Like the way our shoulders drop when we're around certain people or the way our breath steadies when we're doing something that aligns with ourselves instead of being out of performance. Years ago I attended a holiday gathering where everyone [00:24:00] was crazy buzzing around, everywhere, stressed out, and there was this kid probably eight years old, sitting quietly in the corner petting the family dog with this peaceful, I'm good right here, energy.
And I remember thinking to myself. That kid is the only one in the house who knows what matters. We all need a little more of that kid in December and next. We also need honest capacity, not overextending our identity. We've all had seasons where we kept saying, yes, I can do that. Sure, I can do that. Even though our calendar and our nervous system were standing behind us waving red flags saying, don't do it during this holiday, this becomes a personality test.
Some of us become crockpots, ready to explode. We're trying to cook, wrap, decorate, work, rescue everyone emotionally. And yet, let's forget we're still keeping up with our regular life, right? Taking care of the house, the kids working. But honest capacity isn't [00:25:00] about being less. It's about being real. It's about acknowledging that climbing higher requires oxygen, rhythm, recovery, and yes, some breathing room.
One December I tried doing all the crazy things, work, family events, gift wrapping way past midnight, and by the end of the week I was two mugs deep into peppermint tea at midnight, asking myself some serious existential questions while working on strings of lights and trying to decorate more packages.
That moment taught me something important. Capacity isn't about how much we can cram into everything. It's how sustainably we can live within the capacity that we create, and then we have to work on truth telling that inner kind of truth telling. It's not about dramatic proclamations or confrontations, it's about really being honest with ourselves, the quiet truth that whispers this doesn't feel right anymore or this isn't, this is actually really good for me.
Even when [00:26:00] the world is noisy and the pressure is high to do something else. Holiday seasons always bring this stuff into focus because it's often the time when our inner truths bump up into our old dynamics, old traditions or old expectations that maybe just don't quite fit anymore. Truth telling is gentler than people think.
It's steady, it's grounding, it's easy, it's released, and it's often the thing that keeps our internal compass aligned. Another Christmas holiday season, my friend declined her. Usually family marathon of 12 houses in 24 hours. We're talking mixed family, old family, new family, friends, holidays, everything.
This 12 houses in 24 hours was a tradition in her family. And she finally decided, she said with one simple sentence, she said, I'm choosing peace this year. She had no apology, no explanation, and I watched her choose that peace. And [00:27:00] it was like watching a small revolution, like she was really doing this.
We all deserve a little small revolution or two 'cause we deserve energy that supports us, not drains us. And energy is the currency of elevation it. Many of us spend the holidays overdrafting ourselves, like we're trying to impress this universe about everything we can do. But real sustainable energy doesn't come from adrenaline, caffeine, or obligation.
It comes from alignment. It comes from a connection that feels mutual. It comes from choosing spaces and relationships where we don't have to brace ourselves to attend. The body always tells the truth first. Inhaling around someone and your chest feels tight. No, not your people, but if you exhale around people and you feel more relaxed and your shoulders come down and you're able to breathe better, that's your place.
Another season, I watched two women at a holiday gathering. One was [00:28:00] buzzing around, stressed out, freaked out, and the other was curled up on the couch, talking to somebody she loved, with her back being massaged, slowly drifting into a blissful, almost nap state. It was the same room, completely different energy profiles.
One was in the emotional cardio, the other was in a soul level, weighted blanket of relationship. It was such a clear picture of what it means to choose where your energy actually thrives. And next, let's create a vision rooted in identity, not old habits. A lot of us step into the new year trying to build a vision on top outdated roles.
Roles that we've outgrown, but still carry because they're familiar. But higher altitude living requires identity clearing and habit loyalty. The 2026 vision needs to be built from who are we becoming now? Not from the version of us who took shape years ago, when life looked really differently. It doesn't come from [00:29:00] reinvention, just recognition.
It's just a simple acknowledgement that the person we're becoming deserves the map, not from the person that we were. Another holiday season. I pulled out an old planner from years ago, and every page was filled with check boxes, obligations, and goals that weren't even mine. They were expectations disguised as productivity, and it was the moment that I realized, whoa, my old identity had been steering the ship long after I'd even changed captains.
I was doing the same thing over and over again. That realization shifted my entire next year. And as we wrap up today's reset, there's something comforting about knowing that we don't have to do an overhaul of our entire lives just to create change. Sometimes the most powerful transformations start with simply lightning the pack and breathing deeply.
There's a hopeful realism in that, especially in December when everything just seems to [00:30:00] demand more and more of us that we can choose what climbs with us. That's where possibilities open up. That's where we make space for joy and spaciousness and just a little more sanity than last year's version of the holidays offered us.
And here's what I want us to carry forward. When we choose intentionally, when we rise intentionally, when we clear space, clarity can finally find us. And when we stop dragging yesterday's weight around with us, the next chapter stops feeling so impossible. Now speaking of clarity, this reset is just the midpoint of our December journey, and next week we take the next essential step because letting go creates space.
But then comes the questions we often skip what goes into that space. So next episode is all about the unshakeable vision. We're gonna build just that, a vision, a blueprint, a grounded, [00:31:00] deeply aligned picture of your 2026 that isn't built from pressure or perfectionism, but from truth. The unshakeable vision for 2026 should be built instead of pressure filled resolutions designed something that is real and rooted and energized.
It's not about the biggest goals, it's about the truest one. In the next episode, a Grounded Approach, division, and action, because I want you to create a vision that moves with you and not against you. This is where we start shifting from clearing into becoming, from releasing into designing, and from surviving the year into shaping the next one with intention.
So you don't wanna miss episode three in December. It's going to feel like opening up a window in a stuffy room. Before we go, I also wanna share something special happening this month. On December 14th, I'm hosting a powerful high impact session. You probably heard that on my commercial in mid [00:32:00] episode.
It's a two and a half hour episode to help you go from emotional autopilot and reaction to building a calm, clarified, grounded purpose throughout the holiday season. So check it out. You can see the link in the show notes down below. I'd love to see you there. Let's create a holiday season built with clarity and calm and intention.
I'd love to see you there. So take one more deep breath. Let the exhale soften your rib cage and carry this knowing with you. You're allowed to enter the new year lighter, clearer, steadier, and more aligned with who you truly are. And until next episode, may you be happy. Be healthy and be fulfilled.
Outro: Thank you for listening to Mindset Medicine with your host, Dr. Julia Bowlin. To learn more about mindset medicine, go to [00:33:00] www.juliaBowlinmd.com and connect with Dr. Julia to find out how our team can help you today. Join us again next week for more expert tips, tools, and strategies to become healthier, wealthier, and wiser in your personal and professional life.
