Shadow Work, Winter Rituals & A Vision For 2026

The year opens with a quiet dare: what are you willing to release so the real you can breathe? We invite Kali’s fierce compassion into the room and let winter do what winter does best—slow us down, sharpen our hearing, and make honest space for shadow work. Instead of sprinting toward resolutions, we choose reflection, ritual, and seasonal timing, so our plans feel human and our progress holds.

We explore how Capricorn’s grounded drive can pair with January’s incubation energy without tipping into burnout. You’ll learn why seasonal goals beat rigid deadlines, how vision boards and playlist “audio boards” translate dreams into sensory anchors, and the simple home rituals that mark the threshold between years. From simmer pots to smoke cleanses to a humble day book, we build a toolkit that turns intention into practice. We also talk candidly about aligning health habits with the calendar—why spring is kinder for new routines, and how winter can still carry momentum through writing, planning, and gentle resets.

Affirmations take center stage as a practical brain hack. We share why “I am” statements work, how to record them in your own voice, and ways to stack them onto daily routines so they stick. To seal the container, we offer four reflection prompts: identify rising shadows, name your 2026 vision, define how you want to feel by year’s end, and write a vivid future page as if it already happened. It’s not about a new you by Monday; it’s about a truer you by December, guided by clarity, compassion, and a little divine edge.

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Chapters

• 0:23 Welcome And 2026 Check-In
• 0:41 Meet Kali Ma And Shadow Work
• 2:55 January Theme: Illuminate And Coven Invite
• 3:44 Capricorn Energy And Seasonal Manifesting
• 5:04 Rituals: Vision Boards And Playlists
• 6:12 Dormant Seeds And Winter Planning
• 7:35 Seasonal Goals Over Deadlines
• 8:45 Writing Season And Gentle Resets
• 9:44 Affirmations That Rewire The Brain
• 10:41 Reflection Prompts And Blessing

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:12

Welcome to another Cozy Coven Chats. I am your host, Jenny C. Bell, and we are officially in 2026, and this is for the week of January 4th, which is absolutely crazy to me. Um, but here we are. Our card I pulled again from my Oracle deck, the Cosmic Creator, this week is the Kali Ma, which let me tell you a little bit about the Kali Maw. So she's a Hindu goddess, she's usually depicted as blue with wearing a bunch of skulls around her neck, and her tongue's often out, and there's often blood dripping from her face. And um, she's here to just destroy your ego, because that's what she does. And so she is here for shadow work, she's here for ego death, she's here for getting rid of the negative. She is fierce and beautiful, and I'll never forget, I can't even remember the museum, but when my husband and I were in college, there was an ex a museum, I want to say it was the LACMA, but they had an exhibit on the collie, and I got to stand in arches, and I just remember I wore like a little skull bracelet. I just was in awe. Like I would just look at all the art pieces and like send love to them, be like, I love you, collie. Because I've always loved her, never been afraid of her. She's so beautiful and fierce and wonderful. So January's coming in with a little strength, right? Like, we're in winter. It's shadow work time, you know. Winter is about resting and mending, but it's also about facing shadows and reflecting. And the collie is like, I got you. Let's let's crush some skulls, let's kick some ass and take some names, right? Like, um, such a you know, I love I love her because we just often, you know, in the 90s, growing up in the 90s, all the goddesses were so soft that everyone was into or that they were creating art with. And it was like, no, where's Kali? Like, give me the blood and the skulls. Like, I need the dark feminine rage. Give her to me, you know. So yeah, she's coming in, and what do I do with that? That to me is like a sign that I need to do some journaling. So whenever I get shadow work uh cards, it's journaling and it's meditation. Meditation's listening, journaling's listening. Like I need to do acts of listening because it's the only way I'll know what is coming up for me. I want to remind you that if you are not already in our coven, I have a little sale going on right now for our coven. Um, it is the code is CozyCoven, which is here what our chat is, C-O-Z-Y-C-O-V-E-N, and that takes 50% off the monthly price. Um, and that's$11 then. So you're gonna pay$11 to join our coven. You can join our coven at jennycbell.com. Our coven is a mighty network, so it's a private social media, which means no trolls, no bots, no AI, and no commercials, no ads, no selling stuff. Just people communicating and learning. And our theme for January is illuminate, which I love. So Kali's here to illuminate those shadows. Right? So we're in January and we're in Capricorn season, which I shared in a couple previous episodes about how that energy is like boss babe, hardworking energy. It's get shit done energy, um, which I don't love at Christmas time, but I love at New Year's, right? Like, I'm ready. So for me personally, how I manifest throughout the seasons is January, I think about like what is the key energy I want to bring into the rest of the year. And I often will have a word, so it's like a theme, a word. I'll do a vision board maybe. Lately I've been doing my vision boards digitally, so I do like a digital collage, and this doesn't have to be right on New Year's, that's why I'm sharing. So there's some things you can do just in January. I often like to start a day book, I like to start new habits, I just like to have all this fresh start kind of energy. Um doing a simmer pot, doing a smoke cleanse at the house, just really trying to start the year off on a reset, trying to delineate 2025 from 2026, like not just acting like it's all just rolling in. I like to really mark the difference as a ritual, right? So if you haven't already done that, I suggest doing that, right? Vision boards are super fun, it's fun to get together with friends and journal ahead of time. I like to do vision boards for different sections of my life, so maybe you're focusing on like three, like health, joy, and spirituality. And then, you know, what are your goals? What are you manifesting? What symbolizes that? And you can do vision boards, like I said, digitally on Pinterest, you can cut them out, you can do them on Canva, you can do playlist vision boards, so it's like an audio board, right? So I like to do that every year. I make a 2026 playlist, they're usually private, and I just put songs on there. So the year I wanted to become a writer, and the years after that, which you know took me a while to get published, every year a paperback writer from The Beatles went on there. It was like, that's the only song I knew about, like about becoming an author, right? And it I loved it ever since I was a little kid. So, you know, manifest. This to me is like dormant seed planning energy. So, like, right now I'm planting my garden, I'm buying seeds, but I'm not starting them. And it's the same for like metaphorical gardens of manifesting. I'm coming up with key energy, I'm coming up with ideas, I'm coming up with goals, but I'm not necessarily planting those seeds yet. I'm in the formulation stage, right? And so that to me is January energy. It's fresh start energy, it's new habits, it's getting healthy. I like veganary. I think that's such a cute little thing that's mainly done in the UK, but other places too. I just love this idea of trying to start the year off fresh and different from the previous. And that's where I'm at. Like, this is right now I'm still in reflection phase. Like, I'm like, okay, what do I want? Like, what what do I want out of 2026? Like, that's what I'm thinking right now. I am in this incubation of winter. And it's like, okay, well, if I want to do this and I want to accomplish this by the end of 2026, what does that mean now? And what are goals? And I like to goal set um every year seasonally. So I have winter goals, spring goals, summer goals, and fall goals. So I just kind of like take a piece of paper and I draw like a cross and I have four squares, and I like to do goals that way because then it's not like a set time, like, oh, I'm gonna have this done by January 10th of 2026. Instead, it's like this is a winter goal. It just kind of makes it more witchy, it makes it more seasonal, it takes some of the pressure off. And then it also makes me see are my goals aligned with the season. So, like, if my like the thing is, and not to put anybody down if you're doing this. I was a personal trainer for a while as a young adult, and you know, everyone's like, New Year's, weight loss, this and that. It's really hard to do that in a year because it's winter and it's dark and it's cold and we want to eat more. So, when's the best time to really start a new health trend? Spring. Summer, fall and winter, it's hardest. So if you're doing it, good for you and keep going. But if you're looking at aligning things seasonally, it would be more of those times. You know, if you're like, oh, I've thought about a gym membership and I'm not sure. Try one in the spring, you know. You're more likely to want to do it then because it's warmer and it's easier to get out of bed and there's more light, you know, things like that. Um, so winter is usually for me, it's like mending things. It's like winter is mending, it's resting, it's writing. I do most of my writing in winter. It's why these podcasts have been a little shorter. I'm deep into writing book number three, and winter is my favorite time to write because I'm cozy and it's quiet, and I want to be cuddled up anyway, doing quiet activities such as writing. So, you know, that's some things to think about. You don't need a new New Year's resolution, you don't need to do huge shifts and change, you know, like new year, new me. No, like new you by the end of this year for sure. But right away, absolutely not, and not necessary, right? Be tender with yourself, be kind to yourself, nourish yourself, love yourself, do all those things. The other thing I like to do in January is write affirmations. So if you're not an affirmation person, just try it. Try it for 21 days. I swear by affirmations, especially ones that start with I am. Very powerful because your brain can't tell whether you're lying or not. Our brains can't tell the difference. So if you just keep saying I am something, your brain's gonna be like, Yep, you are, and eventually it shifts, right? So I like to write affirmations. Sometimes I'll record them on my phone and just listen to them when I'm getting ready if I don't want to say them, but there's something powerful about hearing it in my voice. Um, someone in our coven once shared that they say their affirmations while getting dressed, and I loved that because it's like we're putting on our clothes and putting on our affirmations all at the same time. Like, really, really fun. And there's lots of affirmation ideas out there. There's decks, there's um Spotify has like affirmation collections, like you don't have to think of your own. So January, vision boards, affirmations, dreaming, winter's a dreaming time. Not necessarily a doing time. So keep that in mind so you don't put so much pressure on yourself. But if you're out there doing it, carry on, Sally Forth. Um, our card was Kalima. So a couple things I'm gonna ask you. One, what if any shadows are rising? And you might want to ask that to yourself and just free write and see what comes up. It's also a really good card question, you know, get some tarot and ask that question. So talking about January instead. Two, what is your vision for 2026? And three, by the end of 2026, how do you want to feel? And four, I want you to envision yourself at the end of 2026. Like what have you accomplished? And maybe write that up very rich and full of detail as a form of manifesting. Happy 2026! May we all have a beautiful year. Blessed be witches.