Shedding Old Skins: A Happy New Year from the Happy Neurotics

2025 has been one hell of a ride for so many people, myself included.

I recently read that according to Chinese astrology, we’re about to wrap up the year of the snake. Symbolically, the snake represents wisdom, intuition, transformation and shedding old skins. I loved this explanation I came across: “In Snake years, everything that’s false, expired, or outgrown must fall away. The Snake strips you down to your honest self—not to punish you, but to prepare you. Shedding is the medicine.”

This definitely felt true to me. What rang especially true was the idea of shedding old identities. It felt like life had been forcing me to clearly see what was no longer working so I could make new choices and embody new ways of being.

For instance, the people pleaser in me has slowly been dying. Life pushed me to stand up for myself and my worth, have difficult conversations, and ask for what I needed despite how uncomfortable that felt to my old pleasing and accommodating self.

One of my most recent wins was pausing a project midway and renegotiating my rates to much higher ones. The project was considerably more work than I’d expected. Old me would have done the job without saying anything and felt resentful afterwards. I would have chosen the comfort of not rocking the boat. I would have caved to the fear of disappointing people, of being too demanding or too much.

But new snake-shedding me decided to think like someone who knows her worth. And trust me, it wasn’t easy. I was a ball of nerves when I made that call to understand the level of quality and precision they needed, and then explained how that required much more of my time and therefore asked for an hourly rate instead of a fixed one.

And you know what? My worst fears never materialised. They totally understood and immediately agreed to the better rate. Quality mattered to them and they valued my work. But here’s what matters more: I finally valued it enough to ask for what I needed, even if that meant potentially losing a client. That’s the shift. Not that self-worth magically makes people respect you—but that it makes you stop accepting conditions from people who won’t.

I definitely think a prerequisite for lasting change is being prepared to acknowledge how old ways of being have led us astray. And if we’ve become too set in our old ways, life will sometimes take drastic measures to force us to confront our own incoherences and inconsistencies (like, in my case, undervaluing what I do while complaining I earn too little money).

This might come in the form of a crisis, a job loss, an illness, the ending of a relationship. No one asks for crisis. But when it comes—and it does come—we have a choice in how we meet it. We can stay stuck asking “why me?” or we can shift to “what for?” or “what now?” What is this trying to teach me?

So as we’re about to embrace 2026, a question worth reflecting on is: What identity did 2025 force you to outgrow, even if you’re still fighting it? And what might become possible in 2026 if you finally let it go?

New beginnings are so much better when we acknowledge the lessons that came before.

And last but not least, thank you so much for being part of the Happy Neurotics journey. Your support means the world and we hope to continue adding value to your weeks in the years to come.

Happy New Year from the bottom of our hearts! 🎉🎉

Dannie & Todd

P.S. 2026 is supposed to be the year of the horse, building on the foundation of the snake to create anew!