Pause and Reflect: New Moon Meets Winter Solstice

Something rare is happening right now. On December 19, we moved through the final New Moon of 2025; the last dark moon before the year turns. 

On December 21, we arrive at the Winter Solstice. It is the longest night of the year. This is the moment when the sun appears to pause before the light begins its gradual return.

The New Moon’s energy is still active. The Winter Solstice is here. And together, they are holding a very particular kind of space.

This moment marks a threshold—a pause between what has been and what is beginning. The deepest point of darkness before the light returns.

If you’re feeling the weight of this year, you’re not alone. You may sense fatigue and the feeling of standing between endings and beginnings. Many people experience this time as tender, reflective, and clarifying.

This alignment is rare. And it’s meaningful.

The final New Moon of 2025 completes a cycle. The Winter Solstice marks a turning point. Together, they invite you into a conscious pause, an opportunity to:

• Release what no longer works or needs to be carried forward. 
• Reset your internal relationship to what you’ve been holding. 
• Rise through aligned action rooted in clarity, self-trust, and a new perspective.

And rather than rushing past this moment toward January, what if you paused here?

What if you used these final days of 2025? They are held in the combined energy of the New Moon and the Solstice. Use this time to consciously complete this year before stepping into the next.

That’s what this practice is here to support.

Why This Moment Matters: New Moon + Winter Solstice

Across cultures and centuries, both the New Moon and the Winter Solstice have been honored as natural turning points.

The New Moon represents completion and beginning; the dark phase when one cycle closes, and another quietly begins. It’s associated with planting seeds before anything is visible.

The Winter Solstice has long been recognized as the rebirth of the sun. Ancient cultures marked it as a time of reflection, rest, and renewal. They acknowledged that light returns only after the deepest dark.

These two moments overlap when the final New Moon of the year coincides with the Solstice. This coincidence offers us something rare: a pause that invites both release and intention.

Not action.
Not striving.
Presence.

Nature models this rhythm effortlessly. Seeds germinate in the dark. Animals rest before spring. The earth pauses before growth resumes.

You are part of that same system.

This moment offers permission to stop, to turn inward, and to reset—before asking yourself to move forward.

The Problem with “New Year, New You”

In a few days, the world will encourage you to set resolutions. To improve. To push. To become a “better version” of yourself in 2026. What’s often missing from that conversation is this:

Most resolutions fail because they’re built on shoulds rather than alignment.

A resolution isn’t something imposed from the outside—it’s something we generate internally, often from unexamined beliefs, patterns, and protective strategies. When those remain unseen, change relies on overriding the body, ignoring the nervous system, and pushing through with willpower alone. Sustainable transformation doesn’t work that way.

Real change unfolds through:

Release — bringing awareness to what’s been carried
Reset — changing your relationship to it through understanding and acceptance
Rise — taking aligned action from a new perspective

This process doesn’t begin on January 1. It begins here in the pause. The Winter Solstice invites you to do this differently.

RELEASE: Completing 2025 Through Awareness

Before stepping into 2026, it helps to complete 2025 consciously.

Release does not mean getting rid of parts of yourself or forcing change. Often, what’s actually being released is the resistance to the judgment, the self-criticism, the pressure to be different.

When something is brought into awareness and met honestly, its grip often softens on its own. That’s how release begins.

The Release Practice

Create a quiet space. Bring a journal. Light a candle if that feels supportive.

Ask yourself:

1. What did 2025 teach me?

Not what you wish it had taught, but what actually emerged through experience.

2. What patterns showed up this year that I’m ready to stop fighting and start understanding?

These may include:

• People-pleasing or over-functioning
• Perfectionism or proving worth
• Self-criticism or hyper-responsibility
• Saying yes when your body said no

Name them—not to eliminate them, but to see them clearly.

3. What am I no longer available for in 2026?

This is about choice, not force.

Somatic Release

Your nervous system needs completion—not just insight.

Choose one:

• Burn the page safely
• Tear and bury it
• Rip it up
• Hold it, exhale, and say aloud: “I no longer need to carry this.”

This signals to your body: This cycle is complete.

RESET: Alchemy Through Understanding and Acceptance

Reset isn’t just about calming your nervous system. It’s about changing your relationship to what you’ve just released into awareness.

Many patterns we want to “let go of” aren’t flaws. They are protective strategies learned early. These strategies were designed to keep us safe, worthy, or connected.

When a belief like “I must be perfect” or “I have to prove my worth” is met with understanding, something reorganizes. This occurs rather than meeting it with resistance. That shift in perspective—where protection is seen rather than fought—is the reset.

Regulation follows integration.

The Reset Practice

1. Assess your actual capacity right now.

Not ideal capacity. Actual capacity.

On a scale of 1–10:

• How resourced do you feel?
• How regulated is your nervous system?

No judgment. Just awareness.

2. What does your nervous system—and the part of you that’s been protecting—need right now?

More rest? Fewer commitments? Clearer boundaries? Support?

3. What would “sustainable” feel like in 2026 if you honored this truth?

Somatic Reset (Choose One)

• Grounding breath
• Gentle body scan
• Slow, intuitive movement
• Ten minutes of intentional rest

This is not preparation for productivity. It’s a recalibration of how you relate to yourself.

RISE: Aligned Action from a New Perspective

Only after release and reset does intention-setting truly land.

Rising doesn’t mean leaving parts of yourself behind. It means moving forward from a new orientation—one shaped by awareness, acceptance, and choice rather than protection or proving.

This is where New Moon energy becomes essential. Seeds are planted in the dark—quietly, invisibly, without force.

The Rise Practice

1. What wants to emerge or take shape in 2026?

Not what you think you should want—but what actually feels aligned from this regulated place?

2. What support or conditions will help you move in this direction sustainably?

Consider structure, boundaries, pacing, support, or permission—what will help you stay aligned rather than push or perform?

3. What intentions will guide how you pursue what you want to create or achieve in 2026?

Intentions don’t replace goals. They shape how you move toward them—so action comes from alignment rather than pressure or proving.

Write 3–5 intentions that feel possible from where you are now.

Somatic Intention Planting

Read each intention aloud.

Close your eyes.

Notice where it lands in your body.

If it feels forced—adjust it.  If it feels true—breathe it in.

Your body knows.

Tending What You’ve Planted

Seeds grow with care, not pressure.

Tend what you’ve planted by returning regularly:

• Monthly: New Moon (planting new seeds), Full Moon (illuminating what’s growing)
• Seasonally: Spring Equinox, Summer Solstice, Fall Equinox, Winter Solstice
• Whenever you feel called: There’s no perfect schedule—just presence

When you return, notice:

• Where are you aligned? (Celebrate this!)
• Where are you forcing? (Adjust with compassion)
• What no longer fits? (Release without judgment)

This is responsiveness, not failure.

Seeds need tending. Some will sprout quickly. Some slowly. Some won’t grow at all—and that’s information, not inadequacy. You can plant new intentions (seeds) anytime.

The Light Is Returning

From this day forward, the light increases. Slowly. Steadily. What you planted during this final New Moon of 2025 is already germinating, even if you can’t see it yet. Growth happens in the dark first.

Trust that.

Choosing Differently at the Threshold

The world may ask you to hustle into 2026. But what if you didn’t? What if you:

Released resistance instead of forcing change
Reset your relationship to old patterns through understanding
Rose through aligned action rooted in self-trust

You don’t need to have it all figured out. You only need to meet this moment honestly.

That’s enough.

And from there, you rise.

💙🌙☀️

Keep Going

If this practice resonated with you, you don’t have to do it alone.

A Tool for Tending Your Seeds

The Soulprint Journal offers 90 days of guided prompts to help you reflect on your identity, values, and story—so you can redefine your purpose with clarity and intention.

Why 90 days?

If you begin this journal at the Winter Solstice (December 21), 90 days brings you to the Spring Equinox (March 21)—the exact moment when seeds planted in winter begin to visibly sprout.

This isn’t about perfection. It’s about having a dedicated container to tend what you’ve planted:

• Daily prompts to explore who you are and what you value
• Weekly reflections to integrate insights and notice patterns
• Monthly check-ins to track what’s shifting and where you’re growing

The seeds you plant today during this New Moon + Winter Solstice won’t sprout overnight. They need the dark, quiet winter to germinate.

The Soulprint Journal gives you a structured way to stay present with that process—exploring your identity, clarifying your values, and redefining your purpose as you move from winter into spring.

By spring, you’ll see what’s grown.

[Explore the Soulprint Journal →]

Want to Go Deeper?

📚 Inner Child Freedom – Somatic practices and nervous system tools for deeper inner child healing
📚 Holistic Vagus Nerve Reset – Nervous system regulation techniques for daily practice

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Happy last New Moon of 2025. Happy Winter Solstice. Happy threshold. Happy planting. Happy returning light.

May your seeds grow strong. May 2026 bring you more alignment, more compassion, and more trust in your own rhythm.

💙🌙☀️✨

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Myriam Gareau is a Certified Meditation Teacher, Coach, and author of Inner Child Freedom and Holistic Vagus Nerve Reset. Through her Release, Reset, Rise methodology, she helps people release blocks and limiting beliefs, reset their mindset and nervous system, and rise into aligned action and authentic purpose.