A very happy new year to you. I hope you had a lovely Christmas and it's that time of year

when everyone talks about New Year, New Year, New You. But that premise is all wrong because

it's not about becoming someone new.

It's about removing the things that obscure the real you.

Because the truth is who we are is totally enough, is really magnificent beyond comprehension.

And all the things that we want, love, peace, happiness, fulfillment, abundance,

all those things are not outside us.

They are our true nature.

And so the art is in removing the blockages to that, removing the things that obscure that.

But the reality is, most people are totally unaware of this fact.

And so invariably, we at least to begin with,

seek satisfaction outside ourselves in other people and the outside world. And that is a

quest that is ultimately always doomed to fail. So rather than trying to become your best self,

as they say, in 2026, I've got a much more potent suggestion for the year ahead, which is about learning to

stop abandoning yourself. Now self-abandonment is defined as, in my view, ignoring what you feel,

know or need in order to cope, please, perform or survive.

So it's about when we stop listening to our intuition and instead act from fear.

We try to control other people, situations, and end up leaving ourselves, not being true to

ourselves.

So let me give you a few examples of what this could look like.

It could mean people pleasing instead of telling the truth.

So someone asks something of us and we go, yeah, that's fine, even though we don't really want to say yes.

...