New Year, New Brew
Happy New Year! Wishing you a peaceful and positive start to 2026. I know that the new year is a time for cultivating new intentions and gathering resources for living well.
To help you get started, I have gathered some inspiration that you can use to pour joyful energy into your year.
The new year often has so much hustle and bustle attached to it.
Setting new expectations for your energy and output seems to be attached to becoming something new—reinventing yourself. It’s a wonderful thing to brew new energy for your life, but it’s not something that has to happen under pressure. You don’t have to change to start exploring your year.
I saw this quote from We The Urban on Instagram, and it really resonated with my 2026 intention for joyful living:
You don’t have to wait for everything to be perfect to be happy, to start, to choose joy, to live your life.
Give yourself the freedom to live the joys you’re waiting for.
Pour in a Fresh Perspective
Blend creativity with gratitude to savor all the joys in your life, large and small.
To explore joy in your life, it takes pouring in a fresh perspective.
For my life, a fresh perspective has brought a whole new approach to my wellness. I have been recovering from the effects of a viral illness for almost two years. It’s affected my ability to exercise the way I used to, the types of self-care I enjoy, and even my ability to drink coffee for the time being.
It’s taken a lot of out of the box thinking to figure out how to live the lifestyle my podcast champions: Making life an adventure. Exploring everyday adventures. Sipping rich blends over soothing conversation.
It took some time to figure out how to explore everyday adventures, but I’m proud to say I am even more empowered to embrace the joyful living inspiration I blend for my community.
I have rediscovered the joy of movement, trying practices like Qigong and ballet on lunch breaks at home. Exercise can be fun, not intense like the more power-packed routines I did in the past.
Over the past year and a half, I have sampled all sorts of restorative practices from supporting lymphatic drainage to strengthening vagal tone and calming the parasympathetic nervous system. Just little rituals I never even realized had a profound impact on the body like enjoying an evening puzzle or humming along to the radio, do wonders for your body. I look forward to sharing all these fun tips in future podcast chats.
But yes, I share these tidbits of my life to highlight how all it takes is fresh appreciation to start living joyfully. A relaxing hobby, a little afternoon stretch, a soothing beverage becomes so much more meaningful when you pour appreciation into your mindset.
Explore Joyful Living
Take little steps toward joyful living. Bring new energy to your personal activities, downtime, and self-talk.
Create a joy-focused New Year’s resolution and vision board
Write a journal entry about a day in the life of living your joy
Say yes to fun opportunities that cross your path
Try joyful journaling prompts and activities for daily reflection
I created a Joy Journal printable for one-line-a-day reflections on your personal joys.
Download the Joy Journal Printable
This printable is available through my Substack club, where I share weekly coffee-break reflections, podcast episodes, and cozy resources. You can download it there and join the club for inspiring content straight to your inbox.
Live your joy. Set intentions to start a new hobby, learn something new, connect with your community, or refuel your energy. Weekly commitment to joyful living goes a long way in making life brighter.
What’s on our café bookshelf?
This month, I’m recommending Year of Yes by Shonda Rhimes.
Read about her experience saying yes to fresh opportunities for an entire year. It’s a motivating read that left me feeling all sorts of inspired to pursue life with this intention.
If you’re interested in buying the book, you can use my affiliate code to get the book on Bookshop.com to support independent bookstores.
Sit down for a podcast chat to dive deeper.
Listen to Exploring Over Coffee’s New Year, New Dreams podcast episode below for ideas to step into your dream life. There are lots of mindful prompts and visualization activities to set the tone for your year.
Another inspiring episode for savoring peaceful activities in the New Year is the Soft Living podcast episode. Gather 20 simple ideas and a fresh mindset for embracing softer living.
Warm Wishes
I hope this letter brings more warmth and light to your 2026. We have the power to brew positivity, cultivate joy, and blend adventure into our daily experiences. By taking a minute to think outside the box, we can uncover new ways to savor life.
Thanks so much for reading! If you loved this story, keep the good vibes going. Subscribe to my Substack club for more stories like this straight to your inbox.
This post was originally published on exploringovercoffee.substack.com.
