WHEN CIRCLES CLOSE

We are all embedded in a greater, cosmic rhythm. Seasons change, days line up one after another, months merge into a larger whole. A reliable rhythm that closes into a circle after the past 365 days, only to begin anew once again.

As the year 2025 draws to a close, I become aware that my inner world moves independently of it. Not guided by a calendar – but unpredictable, fluid, and capable of change. Between the years, the landscape of thoughts feels even wilder than usual. Looking back allows a quiet sadness to rise within me. The year was marked by letting go. Of patterns, belief systems, and identities that once offered orientation and security – but no longer align with who one is today. At least in parts. Of the realization that not everyone is willing to respect the personal development one goes through in life. Let alone support it. If it does not align with their own life design. And sometimes connections are tied to a version one once was and now wishes to leave behind. At least in parts.

And yet, I keep going. Isn’t that precisely what movement within a cycle is about? No loud bang. No abrupt stop, but a conscious, quiet continuation. As if the tracks had been subtly reset. Based on the decision to make space for the new, even if it still feels unfamiliar and strange.

One could also call the process growth, even though it still does not feel fully aligned and in parts like a step backward. As if one had shed a skin that had long become too tight. Based on a movement whose depth, if at all, can only be understood by those who undertake it themselves.

At the end of the year, it is neither about defining resolutions for the new year nor about major milestones or admiring applause. Not about résumés that impress, or things that shine on the surface but, in truth, lack substance. It is about authenticity. About the gentle un-folding of one’s own truth. Layer by layer. Year after year. Like a gift that is not meant for others, but for oneself. And about, at the core, always remaining the person one has always been.

Thus, creativity will always remain a part of my identity – regardless of circumstances, as a space I consciously claim. Just like discipline, a mindful way of living, and a love for aesthetics: anchors that will lead me back to myself and my core again and again, remaining constant alongside the changes that life brings.

Perhaps this is precisely where the meaning of this recurring phase at the end of a year lies. In becoming aware that it is not about holding on to what is familiar or forging new plans, but instead: breaking out from time to time, turning left, reorienting oneself with the intention of leaving old burdens behind. As often as necessary. And in practicing self-reflection as the only regular repetition. To examine which versions of ourselves still feel true – and which we have carried out of habit or fear. Because shedding old shells does not mean becoming a completely new version of ourselves. It means choosing oneself. As an act of self-care. As self-protection that, as sad and difficult as it may be to accept, becomes inevitable at a certain point.

And yet, I trust that life is happening for me. Not against me. For me, the art of living consists above all in taking things lightly. In carrying a promising smile on one’s face, filled with confidence. In knowing that I am not missing anything that is not meant for me. Because when one trusts life and its phases, everything immediately feels lighter. It is even scientifically proven: when one focuses on the good, the brain rewires itself to seek out more good. That is the magic of neuroplasticity.¹

So here I am, in the depths of winter, realizing that an invincible summer lives within me.²

And perhaps that is precisely the quiet invitation of the turn of the year: in contrast to the largely predictable cosmic cycles, to interrupt our own and choose more consciously what we carry forward – and what we are allowed to leave behind. No people-pleasing. No guilt for relationships one did not break. No justifications for setting healthy boundaries. With the knowledge that everything is good just as it is. By choosing ourselves. Without exception.

1. https://www.instagram.com/p/DRnMkZoDGWH/?img_index=1

2. https://www.instagram.com/p/DSg_gzJiOZE/