The end of 2025, the Chinese year of the Wood Snake, fast approaches. It is tempting to look ahead and start planning all of the fabulous things you want to do in the more dynamic, exciting-sounding 2026 year of the Fire Horse. But hold your horses! If you really want to feel grounded, organized and create a lot of clarity for the year ahead, stay in the moment and continue the last bits of 2025 snakeskin-like shedding.
There was a Foster the People song out around 2017 called “Are You What You Wanna Be,” that I blasted in my car as I drove to and from a client’s home in Sacramento. The song reminded me several times a day to make choices that reflected what kind of person I want to be and since it played in my mind on a loop, it was really easy to choose behaviors that got me closer to my goals. In other words, I didn’t take that first bite of (fill in your favorite binge food), I got to the gym and did a workout, I gathered the trash from my car each evening, I snapped a rubber band on my wrist when I was tempted to gossip or complain, et cetera.
The snake symbol, which has been everywhere this year as we collectively yearn for symbols to help us make sense of these chaotic times, can also remind us to keep shedding. If you identified some behaviors or thinking patterns that you wanted to change last New Year’s, check in and see how it’s going. There is still time to work on making those changes and edging closer to the best version of yourself.
With regards to organizing, what would the best version of yourself do? What would you be able to let go possessions-wise? Plan an afternoon to just review your rooms and within the rooms, your cupboards, closets and drawers. What are at least three things that no longer serve you? Bring a box with you room to room and when it’s full, take it directly to consignment or donation. Almost everyone can find three pieces of clothing, three pieces of paper, three books, three (or a collection) of DVDs or CDs, three old games that are no longer played, three dried out pens, three items of food in the refrigerator or cabinets, three kitchen utensils that “someday, maybe” you thought you might use, etc. And before you protest, let me say “yes you can!”
Do you need to shed some physical weight before the next big holiday meal? Do you need to shed some negative feelings about person X or Y before the next office party or family gathering? Schedule the nutritionist, therapist, personal trainer, time with a pastor, or 12 Step sponsor or tarot reader or (name your spiritual advisor) ASAP.
It becomes fun to think about what we can shed, partly because, guess what?? The universe abhors a vacuum—remember that old science chestnut? When we create a void, it is filled with something new, be it a sweater on the lower vibration side or increased mental clarity and opportunities to be helpful to others on the higher side. The most useful tool to call in something new to your life is to let go of—shed—something old.
And sometimes the most incredible shedding is super literal. Brave the rat poop and spiders, put on a warm coat and gloves and clean out a storage shed. Add a little music to motivate—maybe Foster the People?—and before you know it you’ll feel brighter, shinier and ready to take on some new year Fire Horse action