“Transparently, my initial interest in embody as my word for 2026 didn’t have anything to do with that definition. In fact, it was more related to something I was thinking about a lot in 2025, which is that I’ve spent much of my thirty-five years on this planet not feeling especially connected to my physical self. Glennon Doyle has talked about this quite a bit in relation to her ongoing eating disorder recovery, which really got my wheels turning. How much of my own disordered patterns about food, exercise, and body image are rooted in a general tendency toward disembodiment? Maybe a lot. Like Glennon, I’d like to learn how to better integrate my physical self with the way I experience my life. I’d like to stop keeping it at such a distance.

When I looked up the actual meaning of embody, though, I was even more convinced that it was the perfect word around which to build my 2026. I loved the idea of finding ways to confidently give a tangible form to the many roles I fill in my life. I want to feel good about the way I embody writer, mom, friend, partner… the list goes on. I want to stop feeling like I’m pursuing some version of those things that works for me and instead own that I already am those things.

I recently read a quote somewhere about how imposter syndrome isn’t real and that it’s actually just something that women have branded because we’ve been handed this idea that lacking self-confidence makes us more likable. If the concept of imposter syndrome has been helpful for you, great, but as someone who’s never quite been able to make it sit right, I found this framing really resonant. This is another reason why I’m aspiring to embodiment in 2026. It’s an alternative, I think, to fighting so hard against imposter syndrome.”