Goodbye 2025
My Favorite Year-End Ritual + Reflection Prompts (and the Lessons 2025 Taught Me)
A warm and sunny ‘hello’ from Miami!
It’s 8am, I’m sitting on my best friend’s balcony, looking at the ocean, writing this. I feel deeply grateful to be closing the year in Miami. I flew back from Lisbon for Thanksgiving to spend some time with my closest friends. Funny to think that most of them live in Miami. Now that I’m here, I’m recognizing how much I missed it and how much of a paradise this place is. I guess it’s true what they say - you recognize how much you appreciate something once you don’t have it anymore.
The last two months revealed a lot - most importantly, that Europe isn’t for me. My whole system shifts being back in the US and truly feels like home. I have a suspicion (and was told by a couple of intuitives) that I had lived on this land in past lives. I’ll take that :)
I love this holiday season for many reasons, but mostly because for me, this time is more about turning inward, taking stock and envisioning what I want to experience in the new year. I get cozy, I journal a lot and cast lists and visions of the things I most desire.
I use a couple tools for that - of course - my journal, and a card deck my friend Kelly gifted me last year. I loved it and I want to let you in on the Christmas ritual. (I know it’s already 24th, so see if you can overnight it, or find in a local store and if not - next year)
The 13 Holy Nights (my yearly ritual)
The deck is called “The 13 Holy Nights” and it presents a map to the future, a doorway to the mystical, spiritual and magical that we have very much disconnected from. I love ritual and this one couldn’t be performed at a better time of the year, truly. The practice kicks off on Solstice night (Dec 21st - the longest, darkest night of the year) - with preparation. You’ll gather items to create a space you can come to every night starting on the 24th. These might be candles, incense, your journal and any other objects you find meaningful to have.
The first Holy Night begins on the 24th and carries through sundown on the 25th. These first 24 hours represent the year ahead, so make sure you pay attention to everything you experience, open your senses for messages, dreams, thoughts, synchronicities, and anything else that comes up. (you can do that even without the cards). You’ll pick a card each night. The first one represents the whole year and the the remaining 12 nights correspond to each month. You will read the messages and make notes in your journal each night. Write down all that comes through and don’t forget to also envision, dream up and share all your desires (a little help on that further down) Plant the seeds you’d like to water next year, set your intentions and open to the magic of the unseen. We are not alone and the presence of our guides is palpable in this time. Once you close on January 6th, you’ll have a map for the next year you can refer to during each month or right before next Christmas. It’s beautiful how accurate the themes of the month are when you look back in your journal! Magic ;)
And in case you don’t have the deck or you can’t get it this year, you can still create time to reflect. One of the ways I do that is going through my phone and journals to bring up memories of each month, starting January.
Year-End Reflection Prompts (save this):
Look back (2025):
What were the bigger themes of the year/season/months?
What word would you pick for each month?
What were you going through? What was happening?
What were the milestones, unexpected turns, big moments?
Lessons + identity:
What did 2025 teach me?
How did it change me?
Who did I become?
What new rules or beliefs did I adopt?
Energy audit:
What in my life has been draining?
What is taking away from my vitality and joy?
Where am I spending time that feels like a waste?
What relationships aren’t working?
How have I not taken care of myself?
What needs changing or tending?
How have I not taken care of myself?
Release:
What am I not wanting to carry over to the new year? What am I leaving behind?
What feels complete?
What have I carried that isn’t mine?
Remember you create space for something new, only when you honor what’s finished and let it go.
Now based on all that, look ahead!
What experiences you’d like to have next year?
What brings you joy that you have neglected?
What is something new you’d like to introduce to your life?
I like to make a big and a small list. A big one contains bigger desires - meeting the love of your life, buying a home, getting pregnant, getting a dog, changing your career, starting a business…and your smaller one might include things like dance classes every week, visiting the Greek islands, hiring a coach, deepening a friendship or meeting more people that inspire you, hosting community events…
After putting that list together you’ll have your desire map. Seeing the list might bring up both excitement and inspiration and feelings of inadequacy, doubt and even anxiety. Check what comes up for you. It’ll show you where you might need to do some inner work or where you feel less worthy. We all have blocks around big desires and dreams and the way to overcome them is to become aware of our subconscious early life conditioning. I wrote an article about this process and I believe this is the fundamental work we all need to do, in order to meet true essence, values and authentic desires. Opening the door to this process could be truly life-changing.
Once you have your desire map, you can think about how would you take some steps forward to meet that desire. I have a saying - “meet the universe halfway” - do whatever is in your power to do and let life take care of the rest (that which isn’t in your control). We like to think that we’re the ones charting our path, but I believe it’s a co-creation. It’s never “on our timeline”, rather we need to learn how to work with life. We need to learn to attune to what wants to happen, and not necessarily what we want to happen. This helps us let go of what’s not meant for us, instead of forcing it into existence.
Once you’re clear on what you truly want (coming from your authentic self and not conditioned self) then it’s much easier to create it. When you’ve worked through your blocks and have gotten into inner alignment it’s much easier to call in anything. That’s because you’re anchored in your worth, have developed your inner resources and are clear on your boundaries - all key ingredients to building a life that feels amazing. You can say “no” to what isn’t working and orient towards what is, which makes it inevitable to move closer to all that you desire.
You can close the process with a letter to your future self. “Dear future (name), it’s 2025 and I’m currently in (town/place). I want you to know that I…
I hope you enjoy this process, if you decide to answer the prompts. Let me know if you do, I’d love to hear about your experience :)
Now, here are my biggest lessons and main theme of 2025:
The main theme for me this year was HOME. I still haven’t found the place I can feel at home, but what’s become clear is that I would like to own vs rent, live in a house vs apartment and be mainly based in the US vs Europe. Part of the challenge was that I felt torn between where most of my friends are (Miami) and being immersed in nature, which aren’t the same place. I crave looking at the mountains, being among trees and wide landscapes. This would be possible and feel much better when I have a family. Now, I have come to settle into knowing that the nature home is coming, but it’s one I get to create with my husband. As of now, it’s more important to build a home for myself in this current life, which calls for community, routines and warmth - big resources for me.
The first 3 months of the year, I learned a lot about trust. I documented the lessons in two parts in previous articles. I learned to build what is called a “second naiveté”. We’ve all had our trust broken in life and most of us have a hard time rebuilding it. As a result we become more self-reliant and adopt beliefs such as - "If I need anything done right, I have to do it myself". We control and force and feel isolated, fighting alone. I see trust now as an act of courage. A “second naiveté” speaks to being just as open as before, but now knowing that no matter what happens, you are capable of taking care of yourself. There is always a risk, but you’re not afraid to take it.
This whole period was incredibly magical and full of synchronicities, which felt as if life was giving me a wink, validating I was moving in the right direction…read “Second Naiveté” and see how magical it was! A few more lessons:
You create based on what you believe - The situations and people in your life mirror your inner beliefs. If you believe “I have to do it myself,” you’ll keep creating situations that reinforce that.
Your nervous system runs the show - When stress takes over, conscious strategies fail. Inner work and nervous system work are non-negotiable.
Life is fundamentally good, even when hard things happen. You’re always in the right place at the right time (even when it doesn’t look like it)
My only job is to declare my desire, do what’s mine to do, and trust the rest will unfold as it’s supposed to.
March through May was all about family dynamics and childhood. I went into Primal in March and then landed in Sofia for about 3 months. How “perfect” to be around my mom, being majorly triggered, while working with my inner child. Life orchestrates the ideal conditions to support our growth. Always! There are no random circumstances, it’s an intelligent design. Pay attention - you’re always shown what needs to shift and where your work is.
June, July and Aug brought the huge realization that my body needed safety and grounding. I woke up one morning in late June, had a sip of my morning drink and felt a lump in my throat. I’ve never experienced anything like that before. It lasted for about a month until I healed it. Every time I ate or drank anything, it would trigger this reaction. It felt as if a pill got stuck in my throat and I can’t wash it down. So strange, right? I started researching and talking to people, most of who told me I probably had hiatal hernia. Turns out it was really a nervous system overload, which had my diaphragm contracted and my breath shallow. The low grade stress from not having a place was finally catching up with me. (even though consciously I wasn’t feeling stressed). This is how physical symptoms manifest. Always from something beneath the surface - an inner conflict (doing something, while your body and psyche knows it’s not good for you - so a split gets created) When we’re in a low grade constant fight-flight response, our system braces and tightens. I healed it by a lot of body work, osteopathy, breathing, inner child work (another Primal in Aug) and active, intentional full-body scans, where I allowed myself to fully let go and relax. Sauna, floating in water and being in nature helped a lot too.
The end of the year was about clarity, integration and gratitude. I’m proud of the way I committed to my growth in 2025. I led a founder retreat with my teacher, I’ve added a new modality to my tools (Primal), which allows me to offer more to my clients, spoke at a panel at a conference, which led to launching monthly IRL Salon series, started writing more consistently on Substack and already have paid subscribers (wow - thank you). I feel expanded and excited for what 2026 has in store! For all of us!
Happy holidays everyone! Appreciate you all and hope to connect even deeper in the new year!
xx, Vanya-Sofia
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And finally, is there anything specific you’d be curious to learn about in the new year? Anything you’d like me to write more about?
I love how this blends intention with trust instead of trying to control every outcome. There’s a softness in letting desire exist alongside patience. The idea of meeting life halfway feels both empowering and calming. It allows movement without forcing anything.
Life orchestrates the ideal conditions to support our growth. Always! So so true.