Welcome to December. It’ll be the 2nd of the month when this episode airs. So the Thanksgiving leftovers are all gone by now, or they’re on their way out. The holiday sprint has officially started, and there is a collective pressure in the air now to finish strong.

And if you’re like the women that I work with (high-achieving, successful, the ones who hold it all together), this time of year isn’t usually all that peaceful, right? It’s a mental checklist. Did I do enough? Did I hit my goals? Who do I still need to buy gifts for?

Now, you might be physically sitting here listening to me, but your mind is likely already in January, or maybe you’re rehashing what you may have missed way back in October.

So what if instead of speeding up to the finish line, we decided to slow down? Easier said than done, I know. But what if, before you set a single goal for 2026, you first decided how you wanted to feel?

So today I’m going to guide you through a gentle process to find your word of the year. It’s not a resolution. It is not a metric to beat yourself up over, but an anchor. A compass to bring you home to yourself in the year ahead.

You’re welcome to watch on YouTube, listen on your favorite podcast platform, or keep reading below.

Welcome to Radiantly Rooted

Welcome back to Radiantly Rooted with Rachel. I am your host, Rachel Hupp, and if you are new here, my work is all about guiding you, especially if you’ve spent a lifetime achieving and doing for others, back to your own innate wisdom. My mission is to help you to live a life that is wildly aligned in body, mind, heart, and soul.

So we’re going to do something a little bit different today. I’m going to walk you through a four-part inquiry to help you close out 2025 and welcome 2026. We’re going to be looking at reflection, clarity, intention, and finally, choosing your word of the year.

And stick around until the end because I’m going to share how you can take that word and actually live it, rather than letting it fade by February (been there, done that), with a very special invitation to join me inside my signature program, Radiantly Rooted.

Part 1: Reflection on the Past Year

All right, so let’s start with some reflection, because before we look forward, we need to honor where we’ve been and where we are. Without judgment, just witnessing.

And so I invite you to take a deep breath, maybe grab a journal and settle in, and get cozy.

Reflection Questions

I’ve got a few reflection questions for you, and so you’re welcome to jot them down and save them for meditation. Maybe you want to journal about them. Maybe you want to come back to this episode at a different time and pause it so that you can take the time that you need to go through these questions. So let this episode serve you in whatever way you need.

All right. The first reflection question that I have for you today is:

What felt good for you this year?
Even if it was just in the small, quiet moments, what felt good for you this year?

And again, feel free to pause if you need more time at any point.

When did you feel the most like yourself?
So maybe it was on a morning walk. Maybe it was a quiet cup of tea. Maybe it was lunch with dear friends. When did you feel the most like yourself?

When did you feel the most disconnected or stretched thin?
And on the other side of that coin, when did you feel the most disconnected or stretched thin? What kinds of situations were they?

What questions did 2025 ask of you?
And then this one, just see what comes up for you. What questions did 2025 ask of you?

What did this year teach you that you don’t want to forget?
You know, I’ve heard that some years ask questions and some years answer them. I invite you to consider which was this year for you, because both of those are a part of our path.

Part 2: Clarity for the Year Ahead

All right, and then when you are ready, we’ll move into the second step, which is gaining clarity for the year ahead. So we want to shift the energy a little bit.

And what I have found is that often we plan our year based on what we want to do. Instead, I’m going to invite you to focus on what you want to feel and who or how you want to be.

Clarity Questions

What do you want to feel more of in 2026?
Is it joy or ease or connection?

What do you want to feel less of?
Is it overwhelm, resentment, that feeling of always rushing and doing?

What direction feels honest for you right now?
What do you know you need, even if it feels simple?

Now, you don’t need to figure anything out right now. This is just becoming aware, just noticing, gaining clarity for the year ahead.

Part 3: Setting Your Intention

And then when you’re ready, we can move on to step three. And again, take your time for this. You don’t have to do this all in the span of the few minutes that I’m here with you. You can come back to it and revisit it as many times as you need to.

The Marathon Approach

All right, so setting our intention now. When we think of our year ahead, it is 12 months, right? It feels like such a long time, but it tends to fly by by the time we get to the end. Like I’m sitting here early December thinking, oh my gosh, like where did the year go? Whereas early January, it felt like I had all the time in the world.

And so I’m a runner, so I like to think about it in terms of a marathon. It’s all about pacing, my friend. If you are like so many of us, you have spent enough time sprinting and rushing through life. So let’s talk about walking your own path at a rhythm and pace that feels aligned for you. Again, one of those things that’s easier said than done.

Intention Questions

If nothing had to be perfect, if you weren’t worrying what anybody else thought or wanted, what would you choose to move towards?

What quality or qualities do you want to grow in yourself?
In other words, who or how do you want to be?

What matters the most to you as you step into this next season of your life?

And so I invite you to allow your intention to come from a quiet place within you, not a pressured place of expectations or judgment. And instead of choosing a dozen different goals, choose the direction that you want to move forward in. Instead, the energy that you want to align with. And just pick one direction, one guiding light.

Part 4: Your Word of the Year

And moving on to your word of the year. Now we arrive at the anchor, the word of the year. And this is not about picking a fancy buzzword. It is about finding that thread that weaves your life together.

My Word for 2025: Collaboration

And so to give you an example, I want to share my word for you from the past year, 2025, the year that we’re in now. And my word is Collaboration.

And it was actually inspired by my Oracle deck, by the Moon Deck. And so you can see my Moon Deck guide here, and the affirmation on the card read: “Collaboration brings more sweetness into my life and into my world.”

And so this is my word of the year, Collaboration 2025. Collaboration brings more sweetness into my life and into my world.

How My Word Showed Up

And so, you know, looking back now, standing here in early December, it is wild to see how that one word manifested that sweetness in ways that I never could have planned in a spreadsheet or calendar.

Because I chose Collaboration as my anchor, I made space for things that I might have otherwise been too busy for. And what does that look like? Well, it looked like:

• Monthly girls’ nights out to simply reconnect and support each other
• Joining a new women’s networking group
• Presenting at a local university
• Co-hosting a vision board workshop with a local small business owner

It showed up in my work:

• Co-hosting a Winter’s Nest workshop with a local sound healer and medicine woman
• Helping guide a partner yoga class

And then big life moments too:

• We planned our own DIY wedding
• I had a fun bachelorette weekend in Asheville
• We celebrated our friends’ wedding too

Even right here in the Shenandoah Valley, Collaboration looked like hosting yoga on my patio and staying deeply connected with good friends from work.

And professionally, that energy of collaboration is actually what birthed the program that I am so excited to share with you today. I ran my Wildly Aligned Women program live for the very last time this year, and that program was the beautiful precursor to Radiantly Rooted.

The Lesson

And so what I invite you to take away from this is that I did not set a goal to attend 12 different events. Instead, I set an intention to collaborate, to let people in, to share the load, to find that sweetness and connection. And life arranged itself around that anchor.

Your Turn

And so my question to you, my friend, is:

If this next year had a theme, what would it be?

What is the word or short phrase that feels like the medicine that you need right now?
What soothes your soul? What feels aligned? What feels good?

And take your time with us. There’s no need to rush. Maybe you ruminate on it for a few days or a few weeks.

But once you choose your word, I invite you to come up with an affirmation to support your word of the year. So for example, like I shared, my word is Collaboration, and I took the inspiration from the Moon Deck. “Collaboration brings more sweetness into my life and into my world.” And so you can use that affirmation to help anchor and ground you in your word of the year.

From Intention to Reality

All right, my friend. Now you might have a word bubbling up. If you do, I invite you to hold onto it gently. Keep it in your heart, because here is the truth that we have to talk about.

I’m going to be real with you. It’s pretty easy to pick a word on December 2nd when we are feeling reflective. It’s going to be much harder to live that word on a Tuesday in March when you’re overwhelmed, when the to-do list is a mile long, and you have slipped back into autopilot, right?

Been there, done that, my friend. We’ve all done it. We set the intention, we set the goal, we set the resolution, but then life takes over.

When Disconnection Creeps Back In

The disconnection creeps back in, like we talked about in the last episode:

• Disconnection from ourself, from that inner voice that whispered the word to you in the first place
• Disconnection from our body when our mind is way off into the next months or a couple months back, rehashing what we might have missed
• Disconnection from the people we love because we’re just too tired to be here with them right now

A word is a seed. But a seed can’t grow without soil. It can’t grow without roots.

Come Home to Yourself

And that, my friend, is exactly why I created Radiantly Rooted.

Think of this program as the soil for your word to grow. It is the container that keeps you anchored when the world tries to sweep you away.

In Radiantly Rooted, we don’t just talk about mindset. We do the deep embodied work. We blend the ancient wisdom of the eight limbs of yoga and the chakra system with modern neuroscience to help you balance your feminine and your masculine energies.

We take you from feeling scattered, unsure, and just off to feeling grounded, clear, and deeply at home in yourself. Rooted.

And so if Collaboration was my year for 2025, my wish for you in 2026 is alignment, harmony, balance. And I want to help you find it and become radiantly rooted in that sense.

So if you are feeling the call to go deeper, now is the time. I would love to welcome you into the circle of women who are choosing to stop rushing and start living radiantly rooted.

You can find the link to join us at rachelhupp.com/radiant

Come plant your seeds with us and let’s make 2026 the year that you finally come home to yourself.

Your Invitation to Reflect

Thank you so much for letting me share my heart and my word with you today.

Now, as you go into your week, I invite you to set aside some time to:

• Reflect on the past year
• Gain clarity for the year ahead
• Set meaningful intentions
• Consider choosing a word of the year for 2026
• Maybe even create an affirmation to go with it

Feel free to revisit this episode and pause it to walk through the prompts in your own time, and I would love to hear the word that you choose. If you choose a word, feel free to share it in the comments to inspire others.

Until next time, my friend, trust yourself, and I hope to see you inside Radiantly Rooted.

Rachel