What Does 2026 Hold for Me? How Your Word of the Year Sets the Tone for the Next Nine Years
As we approach the end of one year and the beginning of another, something much bigger is happening beneath the surface. 2026 is a brand new begining with a universal 1 year. Make the most of it by using your intention and word of the year to start out on the right foot.
This episode of Spiritual Awakening with Shaz was recorded on Christmas Eve, in the quiet space between cycles, because what we are stepping into next is not just a new calendar year. It is the beginning of an entirely new nine-year cycle.
If you have felt reflective, emotional, tired, or unsettled lately, there is a reason for that. A Universal nine-year cycle is closing, and a one-year cycle is about to begin. How you show up in 2026 will set the energetic tone for the next nine years of your life.
This episode explores what that means, why your Word of the Year matters more than goals or resolutions, and how choosing identity and intention now can change everything moving forward.
Why the End of a Nine-Year Cycle Matters
A nine-year cycle is about completion.
Whether you follow numerology or not, nine energy asks us to release, grieve, reflect, and clear. It brings closure to lessons that have run their course and highlights what cannot be carried forward.
This is why the last year can feel heavy, emotional, or physically draining. The body and nervous system are shedding old energy. Illness, fatigue, emotional sensitivity, and unexpected pauses often appear during this phase.
If unfinished emotions or unresolved patterns are not consciously released, they do not disappear. They get carried into the next cycle and repeat themselves in different forms.
This is why conscious closure matters. Make 2026 different.
Before receiving your Word of the Year, the invitation is to ask yourself:
What am I leaving behind?
What habits or behaviours no longer serve me?
What emotional weight am I still carrying?
What relationships have ended or shifted, and what did they teach me?
Honouring what has ended allows you to step into what is next without dragging the past with you.
Signs and Messages from the Body
During this closing cycle, the body often becomes the messenger.
In the episode, I shared a simple but powerful moment. I was rushing to fit in self-care between meetings, not fully present, not grounded, and I literally tripped over a grass root.
It was not bad luck. It was feedback.
The message was clear: slow down, ground, and make self-care a priority rather than something squeezed into the margins of life.
Your body communicates with you constantly. Accidents, fatigue, pain, and repeated patterns are often invitations to pay attention, not punish yourself.
When you listen, life flows differently.
Letting Go with Grace
As this nine-year cycle ends, relationships also come into focus.
Some connections grew with you.
Some stretched you.
Many fell away.
Letting go does not mean resentment or blame. It means gratitude, acknowledgement, and release.
There are lessons you did not ask for, but the version of you standing here now has already outgrown them. Honouring the past does not require you to stay attached to it.
If you feel emotional, reflective, or raw right now, you are not imagining it. You are shedding an old layer of identity.
Stepping Into a Universal One Year
A one-year cycle is about initiation.
It is fresh and clean.
It is about identity, leadership, and new beginnings.
This is not the year for endless healing or self-analysis. A one year asks a simple but powerful question:
Who are you choosing to become?
You do not erase the past. You bring forward the wisdom and leave the baggage behind.
This is where identity matters more than effort.
Why Your Word of the Year Matters More Than Goals
Most people set goals from the logical mind.
They want to do more, be better, or fix something about themselves. Those goals often collapse by February because they are not embodied.
A Word of the Year is different.
It is not chosen mentally.
It is received intuitively.
That is why the meditation matters.
Your word is not a trend or a buzzword. It is an energetic decision made by your soul, higher self, intuition, or God. It sets your emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual frequency for the year ahead.
When you embody a word, it shapes:
How you respond
How you lead
How you choose yourself
How you move through challenges
This is why your word holds power long after resolutions fade.
My Word and the Power of Identity
In the episode, I shared my own word for 2026: Restitution.
It was not something I would have chosen logically. It arrived through the meditation, and when I looked it up, it made perfect sense.
Restitution is about restoration, balance, compensation, and receiving back after trauma and loss.
The past nine-year cycle for me included homelessness, loss, deep trauma, and a complete breakdown of identity. There was a time when I hated myself, lost purpose, and could not see a reason to exist.
What shifted everything was not willpower. It was surrender.
I stopped asking why life was happening to me and started asking:
How can I be of service?
What is this teaching me?
Those questions changed my life.
Identity returned. Purpose returned. Trust returned.
This is the power of a word. It shapes who you become and how you move forward.
2026, the 1-1-1 Portal, and Energetic Leadership
January 1, 2026 carries a powerful energetic alignment.
A one year.
A one-one-one frequency.
And a collective reset.
This energy will move through the world whether you consciously engage with it or not.
You can ride the wave, or you can be knocked over by it.
Leadership in this context does not mean controlling others. It means becoming sovereign in your own life. Making decisions from alignment rather than fear. Trusting yourself instead of outsourcing your power.
This is emotional leadership.
Energetic alignment.
Identity anchored in truth.
How to Work With Your Word
Instead of asking:
What should I do?
What should I be?
What do others think?
Ask:
How would someone who embodies my word move through this moment?
That single question rewires behaviour at the deepest level.
Your word becomes a compass.
Why the Meditation Matters
The Word of the Year meditation is not about visualisation or manifestation tricks.
It is about listening.
In the meditation, you are guided to receive your word intuitively, activate your base chakra, throat chakra, and third eye, and anchor the frequency into your nervous system.
You then work with the numerology of the word and your life path to deepen understanding.
This is clarity that sticks.
Claiming Your Leadership in 2026
You do not need a full plan.
Nor do you need everything figured out.
You just need a grounded inner guidance system you trust.
Your word is a gift from yourself.
If you are ready to start 2026 without repeating old patterns, reacting from wounds, or carrying emotional weight forward, this is your invitation to choose differently.
Let your word find you.
Honour it.
Live it.
? Listen to the full episode of Spiritual Awakening with Shaz
? Word of the Year Meditation on YouTube
? Explore SHINE if you are ready to anchor identity, leadership, and self-trust in a one year
Everything you need is already inside you.
You are not broken.
You are remembering who you are.
