Hello, my Love, and welcome back to Midlife by Design: Curating Your Next Chapter Podcast.
This is our final episode of 2025. And I want to take a moment to let that land. Because before we rush toward what’s next, before we start naming intentions or dreaming up a “best year yet,” I want to tell you the truth about the year that’s ending.
I didn’t have the year I wanted. I had the year I needed. And for a long time, I didn’t know how to sit with that without feeling disappointed, impatient, or quietly bruised by it.
This year didn’t unfold the way I imagined it would. There were no neat timelines. No glow-up arc. No clear before-and-after moment where everything suddenly clicked into place.
Instead, it was messy. Stretching. Quietly demanding. It was the kind of year where simply getting through the day sometimes felt like work. The kind where you hold yourself together in public and unravel gently in private. Where strength stops feeling admirable and starts feeling heavy.
There were moments I felt behind. As if everyone else was moving forward with certainty while I was standing still, trying to catch my breath. Some days, I was tired of being strong. Tired of explaining myself. Tired of pretending I was okay when I wasn’t.
There were nights I questioned myself in ways I hadn’t for years. Wondered if I was enough. If I were failing at life altogether. If all this inner work was actually leading anywhere… or if I was just standing in the messy middle longer than I should.
And yet… here’s the part that surprises even me. This was also the year I came home to myself. Not loudly. Not dramatically. But steadily. Honestly. Irrevocably.
Somewhere along the way, I realised I didn’t need a new life. I just needed to notice the one I was already living. I needed to stop rushing past it. Stop postponing myself. Stop believing that meaning lived somewhere “after.”
I learned how to show up for myself even when no one else could. How to stop chasing what wasn’t choosing me. How to rest without guilt. How to set boundaries without turning my pain into an explanation.
I learned to celebrate the messy middle. The parts of growth that don’t photograph well. The days when progress looks like staying. Like listening. Like not abandoning myself when things feel uncomfortable.
And I learned to look for glimmers. Those small, nervous-system-soothing moments that reminded me that life was still good. The warmth of a cup in my hands. Light moving across the room. A conversation that landed. A quiet sense of safety returning to my body.
And yes, I want to hold this truth too, because it matters.
This year did come with milestones. Real ones. Meaningful ones.
Being a finalist for the Bedfordshire Chamber of Commerce SME Awards.
Being named The Most Dedicated Female Health Coach 2025 by SME News.
Launching The Sattva Collective CIC, supporting South Asian women through midlife and menopause.
Receiving Women’s Life Coach of the Year.
Being honoured with a Centre of Excellence Contribution Award.
Seeing Midlife by Design ranked 14 out of 70 on Feedspot’s Top Lifestyle Design Podcasts.
And being recognised by Spotify as a 2025 Rising Star, a Binged Show, and a Marathon Show.
These mattered. I’m proud of them. I don’t minimise them. But they weren’t the point. Because the real work of this year didn’t happen on stages or in announcements. It happened quietly. Beneath the surface. In the way, I stopped abandoning myself. In the way, I softened without collapsing. In the way, I became less willing to settle, for crumbs, for noise, for versions of myself I’d outgrown.
I didn’t lose myself this year. I found her. More honest. More anchored. Less performative. More at home in her own life. And somewhere inside all of that, something else happened, too.
I entered what I now lovingly call… the no-f**ks era. Not the reckless kind. Not the burn-it-all-down kind. But the grounded, spine-intact kind. The kind that looks suspiciously like a glow-up, just not the one Instagram prepared us for.
I didn’t wake up one morning feeling powerful and free. I woke up tired. Tired of abandoning myself. Tired of shrinking to keep the peace. Tired of explaining my boundaries like they were inconveniences.
For a long time, I thought something was wrong with me because I couldn’t go back to who I was. Turns out, I wasn’t meant to. I wasn’t breaking down. I was shedding.
Midlife stripped things back. Not neatly. Not dramatically. But honestly. My body asked me to listen louder. My nervous system refused to survive on adrenaline and pretending.
Choosing HRT wasn’t just a health decision. It was a line in the sand. A moment where I stopped proving how strong I was and started asking how supported I wanted to feel.
And slowly, the no-f**ks era began. It looked like choosing environments that felt alive instead of familiar. Celebrating the messy middle. Beginning exactly where I was, instead of waiting for a cleaner starting line.
And here’s what surprised me most: the less I cared about being liked, the more I liked myself. Menopause didn’t end me. It introduced me.
And that’s why this episode is sponsored by Harriet Hills Nutrition, because Harriet’s work aligns so deeply with this season of recalibration, nourishment, and support.
Harriet is hosting the Re-Set | Re-Nourish: Luxury Wellness and Detox Day at the beautiful Sopers House, a space designed for women who are ready to pause, recalibrate, and tend to themselves properly. Not as punishment. Not as a fix. But as an act of devotion.
If this year taught me anything, it’s that we don’t heal by pushing harder. We heal by creating the right conditions. And sometimes, letting yourself be held in the right environment is the beginning of everything.
As this year closes, I’ve also been sitting with another truth. Most women don’t lose themselves. They postpone themselves.
We say later so often that it becomes a habit. Later, when things calm down. Later, when there’s more space. Later, when we’ve earned it. Midlife arrives to remind us that later isn’t guaranteed. And this chapter isn’t a winding down. It’s a reckoning. A reclamation.
Choosing yourself doesn’t have to be dramatic. It can be quiet. Consistent. Intentional.
And that’s why I’m not rushing into my best year yet. I’m dreaming gently. Planning softly. Building from presence, not panic. I want a future that feels spacious, not pressured. Grounded, not performative.
I want 2026 to feel different. Not louder. Not busier. But truer. I want a year that feels like oxygen, not effort. A year I don’t have to recover from. A year that meets me with the same softness I’m finally offering myself.
So if you’re ending this year exhausted, confused, or quietly proud that you’re still here, please hear this:
You didn’t fall behind. You survived the year that shaped you. And the woman walking into the next one isn’t broken or late or lacking. She’s wiser. She’s braver. And she’s already standing on ground that feels like home.
Thank you for walking this year with me. Thank you for listening. Thank you for staying.
Here’s to the next chapter. One honest conversation at a time.
Before I close, I want to gently thank Harriet Hills Nutrition for sponsoring this final episode of 2025.
Harriet’s work is rooted in nourishment, recalibration, and supporting women through seasons of change, not by pushing harder, but by creating the right conditions to soften, restore, and reset.
If this year has asked a lot of you, Harriet is hosting the Re-Set | Re-Nourish: Luxury Wellness and Detox Day at the beautiful Sopers House, a space designed for deep care, reflection, and renewal.
I’ll share the details in the show notes. Consider it an invitation to begin the next chapter feeling supported, not depleted.
See you in 2026!
Happy New Year!
Kiran x
