2025, the best and the worst
It's the first year I actually take the time to look back and reflect.It's the first year I actually take the time to look back and reflect.
A few weeks ago, I started thinking about my year in review.
This December, it felt important to look at what happened in the past 12 months, what had worked and what had not, so I could transition into 2026 with more intention.
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I wanted this track record to include numbers and data, primarily because this year flew by even more quickly than previous ones, and I needed to make sure I didn’t just miss it !
This summer, I discovered the world of Lacy Philips ; I started following her Substack and listened to her audiobook “How to manifest” (free with Spotify premium). I don’t agree with everything she says or stands for, but I am borrowing the authentic code framework from her method to assess my year : defining 4 main sets of values to categorize the different areas of my personal and professional life.
Defining My Authentic Code
According to the TBM method, our authentic code represents the core set of values that define us, our true essence for a life lived authentically. Here’s a step by step guide to define yours, if you’re curious.
Most of us know how we spend our time and energy, but having an official filter to skim through what we’re doing, buying and consuming, helps for intentional living.
Here are the 4 pillars of my authentic code, ranked by order of priority: Loving Relationships, Exploration, Yoga & Wellness, Reading & Writing.
The first one is about nurturing real, deep and sustainable family relations and friendships, i.e. spending quality time with my favorite people, in a loving and caring manner, being present and available for them.
The second one is about keeping that sparkle of wandering and curiosity forever alive, to continue to travel and explore my surroundings, from weekend destinations to places to live.
The third is about self-care, moving my body and taking care of it as my most treasured possession, simple daily actions to feel good physically and mentally, breathing deeply and honoring a spiritual practice.
And last but not least, because words nourish me on so many different levels, books and writing are foundational to this list.
Looking at 2025 through my authentic code
In Loving Relationships, the best: the crescendo of emotions during my surprise 40th birthday weekend earlier this month (eternal gratitude to my beloved hubby for it), spending precious time with precious people, receiving so many thoughtful attentions, incredible gifts and truly feeling the love all around; the unconditional daily support and humour of my better half; the ever-growing love for my kids, watching them become their own little persons, our million of kisses, giggles and cuddles; our pancakes mornings and our 22 family picnics on weekends; our expanding circle of friends in Lisbon, the birthday invitations and holiday celebrations together, and the feeling of finally having found our people.
And the worst: losing patience and yelling at my kids more than I wanted to, my son’s 112 tantrums - especially on mornings before school, being triggered by my daughter’s whining, grieving a family friend, watching loved ones go through difficult transitional times.
In Exploration, the best: the 52 days spent at the beach, the 21 museum visits, the 5 out of town trips to Porto, Costa Vicentina, Napoli and Roma, London, and Madeira, the 18 day-trips around Lisbon.
And the worst: can’t think of any here, no major travel issues this year !
In Yoga & Wellness, the best: teaching a total of 98 group classes and 20 private classes, guiding a growing roster of students, leading 5 retreats in 2 different venues, attending 1 teacher training with a world-class instructor, selling-out 2 sound baths around the summer and winter solstices, hosting 1 kids yoga workshop and 1 women’s circle, organizing 12 corporate wellness events, launching 1 new class in the coolest studio in town, losing 2 long-due kilos by adding more protein to my diet and resistance training to my workouts, walking an average of 6,459 steps per day (up 17% from last year), being able to do 5 real pushups and 1 full pullup, feeling stronger and healthier than at 20 years old !
And the worst: hurting my low-back with a lumbago in September, having 2 retreats cancelled and 2 postponed, the lack of recurring corporate business, spending an average of 2h30 per day on my phone, among which 1 hour on social media daily (which equals to 15 days - without sleep - in a year !!), probably up 20% from 2024, and something I’d like to reduce drastically in 2026.
In Reading & Writing, the best: I read exactly 25 books in 2025 ! Those were my favorites :
2025 favorite books
I published 9 essays here on Substack, resumed my morning pages practice for about 150 days, on 4 Oxford cahier signature pink notebooks, or a total of 320 pages of journaling. To date I’ve created 363 entries on my Day One app, and almost filled 1 scrapbook.
And the “worst” (although nothing is too dramatic in this category): I bought more books than I could read, I read too many newsletters, I really wanted to like Deborah Levy’s books but I didn’t, I was disappointed by Despentes’ latest novel, I wrote 2 essays that I discarded, I started writing the beginning of a book but did not follow through… yet !
Some things did happen this year in the end ! I find it helpful to look at it that way, to recap it around those 4 main pillars and weigh the good and the bad. A few tools I used to make this list:
Flipping through morning pages, notebooks, scrapbook and journals, and Polaroid camera albums.
On my phone, checking the stats from the Health app, and Screentime (this can be both scary and humbling…) + the Photos library to relive some moments I’d already forgotten about.
Looking at random journal entries from Day One - I started using this app 10 years ago, and for the past 5 years, I’ve been religiously consigning my daily life on it (currently on a 1,865 day streak !), mostly to remember what I did and where I was, as I don’t have a great memory.
After a conversation with my inspiring friend Elise (her newsletter is great !), I added a few things to the assessment :
Going through my Google calendar where I record all my meetings, calls, main projects and to-dos to scan through who I’ve met with, where I’ve been and what my daily and weekly actions were.
Identifying a few words to sumup the closing year, and those to bring into the upcoming one. For me in 2025: alignment, financial stress and optimal physicality (before all the cheese and chocolate of the past 2 weeks…); and for 2026 : income source diversification, strong body and authenticity.
What about you, how are you ending the year ? Are you looking back or only looking ahead ? If you’re using this weird slow (and cheesy) week between Christmas and New Year to analyze your last 12 months, I’d love to know how you’re doing it !
PS: in an effort to streamline communication, I’m moving all my writing content here on Substack. If you were a subscriber of my website’s newsletter, you’ve been manually added to this one. You can unsubscribe at any time if this is no longer relevant to you, and feel free to share it if you find it helpful.
What to expect here in writing in 2026 → 2 monthly emails, as follows: on the 15th of each month, a personal essay about family life abroad (like this one for instance, always in English and in French) (loving relationships + exploration), and on the 1st of each month, a yoga/wellness related letter (like this current one, in English only).
Covering all 4 pillars of my authentic code ;)
Wishing you all a beautiful end of year and a peaceful start to the new one,
