2025: The Year I Shed My Skin (Even When It Hurt)
2025 has been called the Year of the Snake, according to the Chinese zodiac. Even though the symbolism officially began in late January, I felt its energy long before the calendar confirmed it. Snakes are known for shedding, transforming, and emerging renewed. When I look back at my year, I can’t help but see how much of my own life mirrored that process.
This was the year I shed old skins… even the ones I thought I’d stay wrapped in forever.
This was the year truth found me… gently at times, painfully at others.
This was the year I stopped surviving and slowly, cautiously, started to rebuild myself from the inside out.
Shedding What No Longer Fit
There’s a moment when a snake’s skin becomes too tight. Not because the snake did anything wrong, but because it simply outgrew the place it once belonged.
That was me this year. I outgrew dynamics that were draining me. I outgrew the version of myself who tolerated chaos to keep the peace. I outgrew silence. I outgrew survival mode. I outgrew the old cycle, even when part of me still wanted to hold on.
Getting a divorce, enforcing boundaries, limiting contact, and navigating custody were all forms of shedding. Painful, unfamiliar, and exposing; but necessary. The truth didn’t just reveal itself… it demanded to be acknowledged.
And once you see clearly, you can’t unsee.
Transformation Through Truth
Snake years are known for bringing things buried to the surface. For me, 2025 was filled with revelations, the kind that sting first but heal later. Mediation forced me to face financial truths, caregiving realities, and patterns I had overlooked for years. Old messages resurfaced. New behaviors confirmed what my spirit already knew.
It was exhausting.
It was clarifying.
It was a turning point.
I learned that clarity is a form of protection. And protecting myself, my peace, my mental health, and my children, became non-negotiable.
Quiet Strength and Strategic Movement
One thing about snakes:
They don’t waste energy.
They move with intention.
This year required a quieter kind of strength from me. Not the yelling-from-the-rooftops kind (though I had days I wanted to). But the steady, strategic, observant kind.
Documenting what mattered.
Responding (or ignoring) instead of reacting.
Letting the truth speak for itself.
Being intentional with my communication, my boundaries, and my decisions.
I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was learning to move differently—more grounded, more confident, more aware of my own power.
Protecting What Matters Most
Snakes protect their territory fiercely, quietly, and without apology. Motherhood brought out the same in me this year.
Navigating my kids’ emotions.
Creating stability in a split-home life.
Understanding my toddler’s meltdowns through a lens of connection rather than frustration.
Co-parenting through challenges I never prepared for.
Choosing healing so my boys don’t inherit wounds that aren’t theirs.
I became a protector in ways I didn’t expect. Not just of my children—but of myself.
Rebirth, Renewal, and Returning to Myself
Shedding is only the beginning. The real transformation happens in the soft, vulnerable period right after. The moment when you’re raw, exposed, and learning how to grow into the new layer. That’s where I spent most of 2025. This was the year I:
Launched this blog
Started telling the truth about my journey
Stepped into the identity of a single mother, not by force, but by choice
Reclaimed my voice in ways that still surprise me
Learned that I don’t have to be who I was to become who I need to be
Every post, every reflection, every moment of honesty became another step into my next chapter.
What I’m Carrying Into 2026
If 2025 was my year of shedding, then 2026 will be the year I step fully into my new skin. I’m manifesting a year of:
clarity
calm power
grounded confidence
emotional stability
new routines
new boundaries
new beginnings I actually get to choose
The snake year wasn’t gentle, but it was transformative. It stripped away what wasn’t meant for me so I could finally see what is. I didn’t just survive 2025. I shed. I grew. I became.
And I’m walking into 2026 with a softer heart, stronger boundaries, and a version of myself that finally feels whole.
Snake Year Reflection prompts
Shedding • Truth • Rebirth
1. What Skin Did I Shed This Year?
Identify behaviors, patterns, relationships, or beliefs you’ve outgrown.
2. What Truth Emerged for Me in 2025?
What did you finally see clearly?
3. What Did This Year Teach Me About Boundaries?
Where did I learn to say “no”?
Where did I learn to protect my peace?
4. How Did I Move More Intentionally This Year?
Moments where you acted with calmness instead of reactivity.
5. What Did I Learn About Myself as a Mother?
How did motherhood guide or ground your decisions?
6. What Strengths Emerged From My Shedding Season?
Confidence, clarity, emotional strength, resilience, etc.
7. What Am I Carrying Into 2026?
Set intentions for the next chapter.
