Anchoring Strength: How We Stay Steady in Uncertain Times
Weekly Dose of Work Recovery Vol. 1.7.26
Are you seeing what I'm seeing? Our weekly Wednesday drop (formerly the Stress Less Newsletter) just got a design upgrade, but it's still me sharing insights to power your week.
This year, we're dialing in weekly topics to include change management, emotional regulation, the future of work, and what it means to be a woman in today's evolving workplaces. Light topics, no doubt…
But today, I want to offer a single question to sit with if the usual New Year’s resolution cycle felt out of reach this year:
What is the energy or emotion I want to anchor this year?
For me, it’s strength.
Not the performative kind. Not pushing through. The kind of strength that steadies you when external conditions are uncertain and outcomes are out of your control.
Right now, there’s a visceral sense that global, political, and economic forces are shifting in ways that will touch all of our lives directly. In a year that already promises turbulence, strength for me feels less like a goal and more like necessary armor. And I'm okay with that.
Much of my work with clients in 2025 centered on helping them build this armor for their own intentions of peace, stability, and growth: the inner skills, mindset shifts, and work recovery practices that allowed them to feel capable even when circumstances were beyond challenging.
And for many, 2025 delivered its lessons without restraint.
I watched leaders grieve the quiet loss of work projects that didn't return anticipated outcomes, realizing that no one ever taught them grief is not weakness, but preparation for what comes next.
I facilitated countless breathwork sessions and workshops where women felt uninspired or stuck in a rut but left ready to reclaim their careers on their own terms.
I cried alongside a family member navigating a work wound for which there is no legal remedy, only emotional reckoning.
There were so many bright spots too.
Breakthroughs. Relief. Cleansing pauses made possible by a regulated nervous system that created more clarity than constant motion ever could.
What I’ve come to understand, bearing witness to both rupture and repair, is this:
We are only as steady as our coping mechanisms.
If the safety net we rely on is external first and internal last, the foundation cracks more easily. And when loss or disruption comes, rebuilding takes far more from us than it should.
Anchoring into a single energy or emotional intention changes that.
It gives us something to organize around. Something to return to. A reason to keep placing one foot in front of the other when momentum disappears.
Because 2026, like every year before it, will hold both heaviness and joy. And how we meet it will depend less on what we plan and more on what we choose to anchor.
This week's did you know…Friction-Maxxing are we now?
Many are calling 2026 the year of friction, meaning they are setting a goal to seek out more friction and less convenience. It looks like saying no to AI drafting emails, brewing your own espresso, and putting the scroll device down. While I'm all for staying grounded in the moment, it seems a little risky to call in more friction given, well, everything that's happening these days…but what do I know.
Source: In 2026, We Are Friction-Maxxing, The Cut
Stuff We Couldn’t Gatekeep
Feeling midwinter blues? Find warmth and fresh energy at The Creative Reset, a free event Sat. Jan 17 in St. Paul, MN. Free ticket here.
A New Trend focusing on “joyspan” rather than lifespan, emphasizing more joy as an act of rebellion. Read More.
Women and AI: The future of work includes AI but why are women slower to adopt it? A nuanced perspective that considers AI’s harm to women can be found here.
TEDx Duluth: Tickets to MN’s TEDx Duluth are on sale now for engaging and big idea talks all day Fri. Feb 6th. Tickets here.
