What if this year didn’t need a resolution - just a reset?

Busy Parent Snapshot

You’re stepping into a new year, hoping it’ll feel easier.

But life is still loud.

You’re juggling kids’ emotions, your own exhaustion, and the weight of wanting "more" - more peace, more confidence, more calm.

Maybe you’ve made promises to yourself before and watched them slip away.

Maybe you’re stuck in survival mode.

Maybe your child is struggling with anxiety or big feelings and you just want things to feel better.

💡 What if the key isn’t trying harder but starting softer?

✨ This article shares the exact five-step process I use personally and to help parents (and kids) reset their nervous systems, reconnect with their desires, and create lasting change that doesn’t rely on willpower alone.

Why Most Resolutions Don’t Work (and What to Try Instead)

Let’s be honest, most New Year’s resolutions don’t last.

We promise ourselves we’ll get calm, be more patient, get fit, get organised, get on top of it all… but by February, we’re burnt out, deflated, and stuck in old patterns.

Why?

Because we’re taught to “set goals” without first understanding the internal conditions that support change.

💡 Takeaway #1:

If we don’t heal the part of us that feels unworthy, not enough or afraid of failure, we’ll keep sabotaging our goals even with the best intentions.

Real change starts from within.

If your nervous system is in a constant state of stress or survival, it’s nearly impossible to build sustainable habits.

And when we’re constantly firefighting anxiety - in ourselves or our kids - it's easy to lose clarity on what really matters and what to focus on..

So, if your child is struggling and you feel like you’re stuck in stress-reactive cycles too…

This is your gentle invitation to step out of that loop - and into something far more powerful.

Step 1: Breathe Into Presence

Before you change anything, come back to your body.

Pause. Sit upright.
Take a few slow, deep belly breaths - in through your nose, out through your mouth.

This isn’t just mindfulness fluff. This signals to your nervous system that you’re safe.

Anxiety, reactivity, and overwhelm can only survive when you’re stuck in the past or future creating and recreating a lack of emotional safety.

Presence is where peace begins.

🧠 When you’re grounded in the now, you stop operating from panic and start leading from calm.

Step 2: Create Emotional Safety

Once you’re present, your survival brain steps aside and your thinking brain switches back on.
From this place of calm awareness, you're able to:

• Regulate your emotions

• Co-regulate with your child more effectively

• Make decisions from clarity, not chaos

🌱 This is the foundation your child needs from you - calm, not control.

Step 3: Meet the Inner Child Driving Your Life

Most of us aren’t being held back by our kids - we’re being held back by our younger selves.

Deep down, we’re still operating from the unhealed wounds of our childhood.

We carry stories like:

• "I’m not good enough"

• "I need to be perfect to be loved"

• "It’s my job to keep everyone happy"

• "My needs don’t matter"

These beliefs and conclusions don’t disappear with age. They quietly run our parenting, our partnerships, our expectations - and our energy.

🔍 If you feel stuck, exhausted, or you’re over-functioning and reactive… it might be your hurt inner child trying to keep you safe by running old scripts.

Here’s the good news: you can bring awareness to these patterns and choose differently.

Your healing isn’t about blaming the past. It’s about freeing yourself into presence.

When you begin to meet your younger self with compassion, you shift how you show up - for your child, and for yourself.

💡 Takeaway #3:

💭 Unhealed inner children can quietly run our parenting

Awareness and compassion can rewrite the story - and change your outcomes.

Step 4: Reignite Imagination (Yes, Yours)

Most parents are so consumed with managing daily stress, they stop dreaming.

We do what’s expected. We parent how we were taught.
We override our needs to meet everyone else’s.
And slowly, we lose connection with what we actually want - for ourselves and for our kids.

But here’s the truth:

Many of us had our imagination shut down in childhood and were conditioned to fit in with the way our parents or society thinks we should be.

When we don’t feel safe to dream, to imagine, to go after what we desire… we’ll always feel stuck trying to live someone else’s version of how our life should be.

✨ This year, I invite you to reawaken your imagination.

Allow yourself to imagine and ask yourself:

“What do I truly want and desire? What do I want for my child? My family? Our future?”

Step 5: Redesign Life - One Area at a Time

Let go of big, vague goals. Instead, try this:

🔍 For each area below, ask: If nothing held me back, what would I truly desire?

• Health & Body

• Wealth

• Relationships (partner, kids, family, friends)

• Work / Purpose

• Lifestyle & Daily Joy

Then ask:

“If my life looked like this… how would I feel?”

This feeling becomes your compass - not your pressure point.

Step 6: Practise Calm Confidence by being present (The Secret to Momentum)

The more often you breathe deeply…
The more your nervous system learns you’re safe.
The more your inner stories of fear and not-enough-ness begin to soften.
The more power you reclaim.

💕 This is the nervous system reset your child needs from you, too.

Because when you model calm, grounded leadership, your inner child and your child learns it’s safe to imagine, grow, and change as well.

🎯ACTION STEPS: What You Can Implement This Week

🔹 Pause and take 3 deep belly breaths often throughout your day and particularly before reacting to a stressful moment.

🔹 Write down one thing you truly desire this year and describe it in detail Eg What it will look like. What you’ll be thinking, doing, feeling and believing. Imagine this.

🔹 Notice one moment your inner child gets triggered - pause and respond with love, presence and kindness

🔹 Invite your child to imagine their “best year yet” too

🔹 Stick this on your mirror and breathe deep slow belly breaths as you read:

“I am creating safety, love, peace and joy - for me and my family.”

🌟 Ready to Make 2026 Your Calmest, Most Connected Year Yet?

If this article resonated and you’re ready to help your anxious child feel safe, confident, and emotionally secure - without yelling, fixing, or walking on eggshells…

📺 Join my free class for parents.

▶️ Watch now, learn a compassionate, practical framework to help your child feel seen, safe and heard again.

You don’t need to do it all. You just need to start.

And if you’re here, reading this - you already have.

With care,

Sue 😊