Some Thoughts On 2026

It was 6 a.m. when my alarm rang. I had gone to bed late and managed only about four hours of sleep. I didn’t actually need to get up early. It was my day off, and I had no plans until later, but the idea of oversleeping made me anxious, as so many things have lately.

Yesterday, a notification popped up on my Health app: an anxiety risk questionnaire. “Feeling anxious, nervous, or on edge,” “Trouble relaxing,” and “Being so restless that it is hard to sit still” were among the questions I rated myself highly for.

I’ve always lived with anxiety, but there’s something about welcoming a new year that seems to amplify it. The older I get, the faster time appears to move and that, scares me.

When I was a child, during school holidays, I used to dread how long the break would last. I could feel every hour slowly passing by.

Now, between building a career, socialising, exercising, and experiencing life in general, I can’t tell where the time goes. Suddenly, it’s another weekend, another month, another year.

The question “Am I doing life correctly?” haunts me. Which is ironic, really, that I’m so fixated on days blurring into one another that I forget to stay present in even one of them.

Meditation and yoga do help. But perhaps what I need most is a shift in mindset, one that pulls me out of my own head and back into real life.