Guiding Word for 2026 How to Create a Year That Feels Aligned|Blog 107
- muktisantos
- Jan 24
- 7 min read
Discover how a guiding word for 2026 can create clarity, intention, and a year that feels aligned and true to you.
Introduction
At the start of a new year, many of us feel that familiar pull. A quiet invitation to begin again. Not with resolutions that fade by February, but with something gentler and more meaningful. A guiding word for 2026 helps you move through the year with clarity and intention.
A guiding word or a few words that become a compass when life feels full, decisions feel heavy, and days feel busy instead of intentional.
For me, my words for 2026 are Safe, Supported, Spacious, and Unstoppable. These are not just pretty words on a vision board. They are feelings I want to live in my everyday life.
If you are wondering whether choosing a word is for you, I want to walk beside you. To show why this practice matters and how you can discover the word that feels true for you.
Why Choosing a Guiding Word Matters?
Choosing a guiding word is not about getting it right or adding another goal to your list. It is about direction. A gentle guide you can return to when life feels loud. A simple way to filter choices, priorities, and how you want to feel as the year unfolds.
When things get busy, my word becomes a quiet check in.
Does this choice support the way I want to live this year?
I have seen how powerful this practice can be. One word can bring clarity when everything feels noisy. It can make decision making simpler. And if one word does not feel big enough, that is okay too. Sometimes, a few words are exactly what we need to hold all the layers of who we are.
My Guiding 2026 words and what they mean to me
Safe
I want this year to feel grounded emotionally, physically, and mentally. Choosing Safe is not about avoiding discomfort. It is about creating conditions where I can stretch without losing myself. Feeling safe gives, me space to try, fail, rest, and begin again.
I ask myself
Does this help me feel safe
And the answer guides what I welcome and what I release.
Supported
Life is not meant to be done alone. Supported reminds me to receive help and to offer it. To reach out when things feel heavy. To ask without guilt. To remember that support is not weakness. It is a shared strength.
Spacious
Spacious is my reminder to create breathing room. Less clutter in my home and my mind. More margin in my days. More unhurried moments that let joy in. Spacious is not the absence of activity. It is the presence of room to think, feel, choose, and be.
Unstoppable
With safety beneath me, support around me, and space within me, Unstoppable means moving forward with courage and showing up even when the path is unclear, trusting my resilience, pausing when needed, and continuing with integrity and alignment.
Why a Guiding Word for 2026 Matters
For most of 2025, I did not feel safe. Not fully in my body. Not fully in my relationships. I was carrying physical pain, emotional weight, and conversations that needed to happen. But I was avoiding them, avoiding conflict, and avoiding discomfort. Telling myself I was fine when deep down I knew something had to shift.
In August 2025, I was working in an insurance role that made me happy and settled. Then another opportunity came. I was headhunted for a different role and stepped into it in September, believing it was the right move.
Within weeks, my body told me otherwise. My energy knew. And for the first time, instead of pushing through, I listened. I left the role. I gave myself space to pause. To breathe. To heal. And to finally have the honest conversations I had avoided for too long.
That season was not all dark and not all light. There were ups and downs. Doubt and relief. Reflection and growth.
Recently, I felt a little sad remembering how easy life felt earlier that year. But when I sat with it, I realised that if I had not walked through that uncomfortable chapter, I would not be who I am now. I would not have learned to trust my body. I would not have chosen myself in the way I do today.
Sometimes we only understand the gift of an experience after we have lived it.
Things are settling now. My heart feels lighter. I feel more grounded, more of myself.
The point of life is not to be happy all the time. The point is to grow. To learn. To experience. To become.
And that is why my words for 2026 are Safe, Supported, Spacious, and Unstoppable.
Not because life will be perfect.
But because I am choosing to meet it differently.
A simple way to find your word
If you are still searching for your word for 2026, here is a gentle process to follow.
Reflect on the past year.
What worked. What drained you? What you wish you had more of.
Notice the themes.
Are you craving calm? Connection. Courage. Rest. Freedom.
List words that resonate.
Do not overthink. Just write.
Sit with them for a few days.
Notice which words keep calling you back.
Choose what feels true.
Not impressive. Not forced. True.
Your word should feel like support, not pressure.
How to Live Your Word(s) All Year
Choosing a word is the start. Here are simple ways to keep it alive:
Put it somewhere you'll see it, your journal, phone wallpaper, or bathroom mirror.
Check in weekly or monthly, how did your word show up this week?
Use it as a filter: when you're deciding something, ask, "Does this help me live my word?"
Be gentle with it; if your word shifts mid-year, that's growth, not failure.
Some people pick a single word, others a trio, and some (like me) choose a few that together create the tone for the year.
The Fiji chapter: I did not plan it, but it was deeply needed.
When I wasnt working, I booked a solo trip to Fiji to visit my parents. No kids. No responsibilities. Just me.
Earlier that year, I had been in Fiji for a big family reunion celebrating my mum's seventieth birthday. Beautiful. Busy. Full.
This time, I needed quiet. Softness. Space to be myself outside of mum mode.
My family found it hard that I was leaving for seventeen days. And I understood that. But I also knew this was something I needed for my well-being. So I went. Slow days. Simple moments. No rushing. Just being.
I had planned to finish uploading a blog while I was there. Packed my laptop. Ready to be productive.
But Fiji had other plans.
My laptop would not work. Not once. Not twice. It worked perfectly before I left Australia. And suddenly, in Fiji, it was useless.
I laughed. Message received. This trip was not for admin. It was for rest.
I closed the laptop. Packed it away. And unplugged fully.
When I came home, my husband opened the laptop. It worked perfectly. No issues at all. Of course it did. Fiji wanted me offline.
And I am so glad I listened.
Because sometimes the most loving thing we can do for our family
is to first take care of ourselves.
Coming home had its own welcome. My kids, who were 11 and 9 at the time, were not impressed that I had been away for so long. They decided my punishment was that I wasn't allowed to go out with my friends for three months. December, January, February. We negotiated it down to two months so I could see my friends in February. Later, we laughed about it, but in that moment, they needed to express their feelings. And I let them.
I understand why they were sad. I am their safe place. And I had been away. But I also know that the trip was exactly what I needed at that time. I am deeply grateful for the space with my parents, my family, and myself. And for my husband, carrying the full load while I was gone.
Because sometimes the most loving thing we can do for our family
is to first take care of ourselves.
One Small Thing You Can Do in the Next 24 Hours
📱 Take five quiet minutes today. Sit somewhere comfortably. Place one hand on your heart and one on your belly. Breathe slowly. Then ask yourself softly, how do I want to feel in 2026?
Write down the first word that comes without overthinking it. That is your starting point.
Small step. Real shift.
I am right here walking this journey with you.
Thanks for being here. May your 2026 feel intentional, kind, and deeply aligned.
Conclusion
If you've made it this far, I want you to know this. You don't need to have your whole year figured out. You don't need to know exactly how everything will unfold. All you need is a feeling. A direction. A word, or a few words, that remind you who you are becoming.
Your guiding word is not a rule. It is a companion. A gentle hand on your back when things feel uncertain. A mirror when you forget yourself. A celebration when you realise how far you've come.
Whether your word is calm, courage, freedom, softness, joy, or something entirely your own, trust that it chose you just as much as you chose it.
So take a breath. Place a hand on your heart. And ask yourself, how do I want to feel in 2026?
Let that answer lead.
I'll be right here, walking the journey with you.
✨ What word will guide you into 2026?
Blog 108, coming out on 8 February, where I’m sharing my 90 Day Movement from Love journey that began on 5 January over on Instagram @wellnessofmukti. Let me take you behind the scenes to see how this is unfolding so far, because you won’t want to miss it.
Sometimes the things that resonate most are the ones that arrive softly. If any part of this feels familiar, trust that nudge. It might be exactly where you need to be. 🤍
Live your Life on Purpose!
With much Love,
Mukti 💫
How do I want to feel in 2026?