For a moment, visualize an old tree and its roots. The roots are gnarly. Tangled and untidy. They take messy, nonlinear paths deep underground and across the surface, tethering the tree firmly to the past while also shaping its future. They provide the tree with the stability necessary to withstand storms, floods, and winds.
Roots teach us many lessons: Strength is often invisible, and growth is gradual. This month, we’re thinking about our own roots—grounding ourselves in values, routines, and priorities to nourish a year full of life and possibility.
Your task: Take a real-life stretch break with this 20-minute Yin yoga flow. Many Yin poses are close to the ground, reinforcing a physical connection to the earth. Long, passive holds help you root down and slow everything—your body, your breath, your thoughts. Lean into the stillness and notice where you’re holding tension. Where can you soften one breath deeper? Can you carry this sense of inner steadiness off the mat and into your day?
From here, explore activities, prompts, and words of wisdom to begin your year with connection, grounding, and reflection. Onwards and upwards!
Mood Board: Roots
Recreate this Mood Board for yourself:
- Pivot your bed rotting skills into a career with growth potential
- Nourish your body with immune-boosting meal prep recipes and tea blends
- Daydreaming about a different path in life? Take PTO days to live out your fantasy
- Complete these mini assignments to set January in positive motion
- Embrace friction-maxxing to build up tolerance for inconvenience
- Curate neuroprotective decor in your safe place
- Resurrect the landline for a good cause
- Strengthen your roots with a sense of community
- Soothe your nervous system with these somatic exercises
Life, unplugged
🧺 Create an anti-doomscroll basket
Analog is back. Not as a trend, but as a lasting relief. Average daily screen time continues to increase year-over-year, and many of us are feeling fed up with the mental fatigue that comes with constant scrolling. The antidote for better screentime habits? Creating an anti-doomscroll basket: a small collection of tactile, low-effort activities you can pull out instead of defaulting to a screen.
Grab a tote bag or basket and fill it with things that help your mind slow down and your hands stay busy. You might include:
- Magazines or newspapers you enjoy
- Puzzle or activity books
- Sketchbooks or coloring books
- Fiber arts supplies (knitting needles, yarn, punch needle kits)
- A junk journal or collage materials
- A book you’ve been meaning to start
Ask yourself: When do I reach for my phone most often? After work? Before bed? Place your bag or basket near the areas where you tend to scroll, making it a simple, physical alternative you can reach for instead.
❤️ Ground your root chakra with red
Red is the color traditionally associated with the root chakra, the first of the seven energy centers, connected to grounding, stability, safety, and belonging. Symbolically tap into those themes by selecting a favorite everyday red item to carry with you: lip balm, socks, a pen, a notebook, a scarf, a pair of ballet flats.
Before moving forward with your day, hold the item for 30-60 seconds. Notice its weight, temperature, and texture. Let your attention land in your body, on something physical and real.
Ask yourself: What feels solid or supportive in my life right now? As you head out the door, keep this thought with you: Stability starts small.
Familiar comforts
🌳 Plant your 2026 roots
Remember the family tree project you made in elementary school? It’s time to do it again…with a twist. Instead of names and birth dates, this time you’ll be building a living vision board rooted in who you are and what you want to grow in 2026.
There’s no right or wrong way to do this. You can draw your tree freehand, collage images and words, write everything out in fun handwriting, or mix mediums. Use the prompts below to guide each section of your tree:
Roots: What keeps you grounded?
These are your core values, non-negotiables, and inner anchors—the things you want everything else to grow from.
- Examples: Quality time with family and friends, embracing creativity and hobbies, faith and spirituality, caring for your physical and mental health, building community
Trunk: What supports you day to day?
The daily or weekly routines that help you live out your values build your tree trunk.
- Examples: Morning walks, meditation, mindful eating, logging off work at a set time, therapy, exercise, screen-free time
Branches: Where do you want to grow this year?
Each branch represents a key area of your life that deserves more attention in 2026.
- Examples: Career, physical or mental health, relationships, hobbies, rest and recovery, money and security
Leaves/fruit: What do you want to grow or experience this year?
These are all of your specific goals, intentions, or desired feelings. They can change with the seasons or be evergreen.
- Examples: Feeling more confident speaking up at work, taking a creative class or finishing a personal project, building an emergency fund, traveling more, feeling less rushed day to day
When you’re done, tuck your tree into a journal (or place it somewhere else visible) as a physical reminder that January goals don’t mean instant results. You’re sowing seeds to grow a strong foundation for the year ahead.
Help desk
📚 Book recommendations for self-discovery
New year, new opportunities to connect with your innermost self. If you’re seeking more intentional self-discovery and life planning this year, these three books will set you on the right path by helping you ask better questions, rethink assumptions, and find higher purpose.
As you read, pause and reflect on the prompts below to connect the ideas to your own life:
101 Essays That Will Change the Way You Think by Brianna Wiest
- Is there a truth you’ve been avoiding that this book gently named?
- Where in your life are you mistaking comfort for happiness—or fear for intuition?
- Which essay stayed with you the longest, and why do you think it struck a chord at this point in your life?
Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert
- If you removed the pressure to succeed, what would you feel called to create?
- Where are you waiting for permission? What would it look like to give it to yourself?
- What small, low-stakes step could you take toward a creative habit this week?
Designing Your Life by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans
- What assumptions about success, careers, or timelines are worth questioning?
- What does “good enough for now” look like in your current season?
- How can you approach uncertainty with curiosity instead of pressure?
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Reader insights
💡 Words of wisdom from women who crush self-doubt
Imposter syndrome, the belief that your success isn’t deserved or legitimately achieved, can feel especially heavy at the beginning of a new year. We all deal with moments of self-doubt, but how we respond when negativity surfaces matters most.
More than half of women in our audience (66%) say imposter syndrome impacts their career more than any other area of life. We asked them how they talk themselves through those lower moments.
Their advice: Stay grounded in reality, lived experience, and self-trust:
“I ask myself what proof I have that I’m incapable or not good at whatever it is that I’m feeling like an imposter of, and 9 times out of 10, the proof does not exist.”
“I remember every time I’ve ever struggled. Been fired. Failed. All those moments set me up to understand and measure my current success, and I realize it’s been wholly earned.”
“I remind myself my skills are valuable, and that everyone had to first learn how to do what they do and also most likely doubted themselves as well.”
“I tell myself just because I don’t understand why people see me as more capable and successful than I FEEL I am, it doesn’t mean I’m not exactly who they see. If I just keep doing things the way I have been, keep learning because it’s important to me, and keep my morals, I can be happy about who I am and where I’m at.”
“It’s impossible to know everything at once, and just because I don’t know something now doesn’t mean I’m not capable of learning it.”
“Remind myself that I deserve to be everywhere that I am. I've worked hard, if not harder than most, to be where I am.”
