Soul Guide 2026

On trying new things in the new year

January is named for the Greek god Janus, whose name (Wikipedia tells me) means “arched passage, doorway.” In the new year we pass through one year to another!

This week I’m sharing my “2026 Soul Guide.” I’ve shared some version of this questionnaire for the past five years as a way to help myself find closure for the past year, and turn toward the new year with hope and intentionality. I don’t remember why I called it a Soul Guide, which honestly seems cheesy. But I’m nothing if not a sucker for tradition! You can scroll straight to the Soul Guide which is at the bottom of this post.

Dear Friends,

Happy new year! Last year, I flew home from Colorado on New Years Eve and arrived in London on Year Years Day. I remember going to get a coffee on the day we got back and seeing city workers methodically taking down Christmas lights (I guess London doesn’t celebrate all twelve days of Christmas after all!). It was sort of depressing, foreboding, I could help but feel, of what January held in store. And you know what? I was right. January last year was deep, dark, cold, and somehow very, very long. Between you and me, I struggle with winter. Until January, I can just about hack it: the Christmas lights and festive spirit carry me through the darkest days of winter. But once the metaphorical (and actual!) Christmas lights come down, I struggle to rally. Last year was particularly a struggle.

Writing in depth about radiators is probably not a Substack approved reader retention strategy, but last winter made me rather passionate on the topic, so bear with me while I opine on our radiators. The previous inhabitant of our London flat had, for some reason, removed four radiators from the flat. And all the remaining radiators were about forty years old and single paneled. The result was that no matter how long we ran our heater, our house was almost never about 16 degrees Celsius (60 degrees Fahrenheit) and was often colder. Only electric radiators (which cost a pretty penny to use) could bump up the temperature meaningfully. This resulted (I believe) in one morning the external glass of my oven simply exploding, and me running to my husband in tears saying “the oven exploded!!” to his great confusion. On top of this (perhaps relatedly), we both had numerous colds, and even a stomach bug (or something). It was rather miserable.

This year, things are looking up. We got all the radiators flushed and replaced (T22 model, should you care to know), including the ones that had been ripped up, and our flat usually hovers around a temperate 19-20 degrees Celsius (68 degrees Fahrenheit). We have not (cross fingers and toes, knock on wood) caught whatever dread disease is going around London, and I like to think our immune systems have adjusted to the public transit system. I still haven’t fixed the oven (fun fact: ovens can still work without the front layer of glass!), but overall, I feel— gently, tentatively— optimistic about January. Still, January is two-faced, and so this year, having a little more time and resources, I have approached it warily, with a plan.

During Black Friday, I discovered and then rather impulsively purchased a two-night getaway for myself and my husband, with the intention of celebrating the end of a very busy term and planning the year to come, which we did in December. It was in a place I’d never heard of, but it was cheap, reachable by train from London, and included most of our meals. Before we set off, I hastily typed up a version of my Soul Guide for us to think through, and packed books and readings if I had time to work on my book. The hotel where we stayed was a restored thirteenth century Augustinian Priory. Apparently, most of the original building was destroyed after the dissolution of monasteries, but very lovingly restored during the Victorian era in neo-gothic glory. There were beautiful stained-glass windows and lovely carved paneling, and the dining area overlooked the rolling fields of a local farm, still speckled with what I think were pumpkins in a field. My favorite part was the library, where I spent some time writing.

The library, overlooking lovely rolling fields.

Despite the building being rather grand, the hotel itself was mediocre. But you know what? That was absolutely fine! It didn’t give us food poisoning! Nothing was dirty! And while nothing was particularly glamorous either, it worth it to me to have someone else cook (and clean up the dishes) for two nights. This little release from ordinary life and responsibilities (and reminders of things we need to do around the house) gave us (or at least me) the mental clarity and relaxation to think a bit more about how we’re finding life at the moment. On the second day, we took our pieces of paper and went on a long walk through the countryside and talked through the different parts of our lives, and we were both pleasantly surprised at A) how happy we are with many areas of life B) how quickly we came up with some things we want to try or change. It was nice to have a time to just remember over our past year, be thankful for making it together, and to scheme and dream about what we might like to do (change, save, try, stop) in the next year.

The names of the rooms in the hotel were named after British lit authors. Amusingly, I think they spelled Elliot wrong as most of the famous Eliots (T.S. and George) are one L one T. Somehow, this was indicative of the vibe of the hotel to me. Almost there!

This year, I’d say that my Soul Guide is the most practical and least romantic (and aesthetically pleasing!) that it’s ever been, which is probably a reflection of the fact that I didn’t have very long to write it up! Nevertheless, we found it helpful, and I hope you might as well, whether you do it alone or with a friend or with a spouse of partner. I won’t bore you with all our answers, but in the interest of mutual encouragement, here were a few of the aspirations we came to:

- Trying a veggie box subscription: This one came up both under “health” and under “life at home.” In general, we’d like to eat more vegetables (and fiber… as all the influencers are telling me to do…). In addition to this, we identified a lack of efficiency in how we grocery shop and meal plan. Not having a car, we rarely do “big shops” which means lots of little trips to the store which is just tiring! We wondered if maybe trying out a veg box delivery (there are lots of options in London) might take a little stress off shopping and meal planning and make us more intentional about integrating veggies and fruit in our diet. We’ll probably try the “Odd Box” program, where you can get seven types of veggies and three kinds of fruit for £15 a week. It’s one of the more affordable schemes because it saves “odd” (read: wonkily shaped) but perfectly good fruit and veg from being thrown away, and it has the added benefit of being good for the environment (less waste).

- Planning to save more: We’d like to be a bit more cautious in what we are saving this year (is this a recession indicator? probably! who knows!). In view of this, this year I’d like to take on a few more writing jobs when I can get them, and try to only save that money, not spend it. It also means dedicating ourselves to bringing lunch into work more often. One of the ironies of two spouses working is that you can end up spending more because neither of you have time to cook! This related to one of our other goals: more freezer batch food that we can just pull out and heat up! Not romantic, but effective!

- Praying together more often: Perhaps this sounds very small, but we decided we want to begin our days in prayer together more often. Nothing elaborate or long, just praying for our lives, the world, the people we love, and the day ahead.

There were other things we talked about too, but those were a few I can decipher from the scribblings from our walk. If you’d like to share them, I’d love to know anything ideas that came up for you! And for what it’s worth, we treated our “changes” as experiments not resolutions: things we’d like to try, not commit to. For example, the veg box his may not work! We may just end up wasting the veg, or feeling overwhelmed by it! But it seems worth a try for a month!

So, there is my most “self-helpy” post of this Substack for the year. I hope it might be helpful to some of you as we begin 2026. I’d love to know what you’re dreaming of and trying out this coming year. Please tell me in the comments!

And a very happy new year to you all!

Warmly,
Joy

Some spectacular (and probably illegal) fireworks spied from my flat. All London was alight on New Years Eve!