Feeling the urge to do some goal setting amidst all this fresh start energy of the new year? Anna Trubuhovich, a Breathwork & Kundalini expert and founder of The Freebird Project, is currently in New Zealand for two retreats taking place this weekend, and says before you go setting yourself a list of new goals, there’s one thing you really should check in on first…
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This time of year always carries a particular energy. I can feel it in my own body, and I see it in the people I work with every day. There’s a natural pull toward vision, goals, and forward momentum. Questions start to surface almost instinctively: What do I want to grow? What do I want to build? What do I want more of this year?
As we move out of a period of deep shedding and internal transformation and into a phase of expansion and creation, the focus shifts outward. There’s an excitement around possibility. But there’s also something crucial that often gets overlooked in this process, and it’s the one thing I believe you need to understand before you set a single new goal.
Your nervous system needs to have the capacity to hold what you’re asking for.
Most goal-setting happens from the mind. We decide what we want intellectually, based on desire, logic, comparison, or external expectations. But the body is rarely consulted. And yet, it’s the nervous system that ultimately determines whether those goals feel inspiring or overwhelming, sustainable or exhausting.
Before we can truly create more, hold more, or expand into more, there needs to be space within the nervous system to receive it. Expansion without regulation doesn’t lead to fulfillment, it often leads to burnout, self-sabotage, or a quiet resistance we don’t fully understand.
Most people I meet are already holding a lot.
They’re holding mental to-do lists that never end. They’re holding responsibilities, pressure, expectations, unspoken emotions, and future planning. This holding doesn’t just live in the mind, it lives in the body. Tight jaws, shallow breathing, tense shoulders, a constant sense of urgency. When the system is already at capacity, adding more goals, routines, or discipline doesn’t feel motivating. It feels threatening.
From a nervous system perspective, “more” is not always perceived as a good thing. If your system is already stretched, more can register as danger. This is why so many people consciously want success, health, abundance, or growth, but subconsciously resist it. The nervous system is saying, I’m already full. I can’t hold any more. This is too much.
This isn’t a mindset problem. It’s a capacity problem.
This is where breathwork becomes such a powerful and accessible tool. Intentional breathing patterns send direct signals of safety to the body. When the body feels safe, it can soften. When it softens, it can release. And when it releases, space is created.
Breathwork isn’t about forcing change or pushing yourself into a new version of who you think you should be. It’s about allowing the system to exhale what it no longer needs to carry. So much of what we’re holding isn’t even ours anymore, it’s old stress, outdated survival patterns, or emotions that were never given space to move.
As the nervous system begins to regulate, people often notice subtle but profound shifts. There’s less mental noise. Thoughts feel clearer and less frantic. Emotions that were stuck begin to move. Presence in the body deepens. This clarity doesn’t come from adding more practices or strategies, it comes from emptying what was never meant to be carried indefinitely.
Energy work and activation support this process by helping move patterns that the nervous system alone can struggle to release. Many of our blocks around success, responsibility, or worthiness live beneath conscious awareness. When energy is allowed to move, the system becomes more adaptable, more responsive, and more open to change.
True expansion only happens when three things are aligned: the conscious mind wants it, the subconscious feels safe with it, and the nervous system has the capacity to hold it. When this alignment is missing, people procrastinate, stall, or sabotage, not because they lack discipline, but because their system doesn’t feel safe enough to move forward.
Creating more in the year ahead isn’t just about strategy or effort. It’s about tending to the unseen layers: the nervous system, the emotional body, the subconscious, and the energetic field. When safety is present, the body stops resisting growth and starts supporting it.
So before you set your next goals, pause. Create space first. Regulate your nervous system. Because growth that comes from safety doesn’t need to be forced, it becomes a natural response.
