A Year in Review for Wild Awake Hearts

A Year in Review for Wild Awake Hearts

From Rebel Buddhist by Ana Verzone

December 19, 2025 · 31 min · Episode 291

About this episode

This episode offers a reflective approach to year-end reviews through a Buddhist lens, encouraging listeners to embrace their true selves as they enter the new year.

We’re ending this year with a deep reflection: a year in review for wild awake hearts. You know it’s the end of the year when there you are, just trying to drink your tea in peace, and your feed is full of “Optimize Your 2026,” “New Year, New You,” and shit like that. Meanwhile, the Buddha is somewhere looking at all these color-coded habit trackers like, “Beloveds… you know you’re still going to die, right?” So let’s try something different. Something with a Buddhist flair. Something that lets you walk into the new year not as a “better project,” but as a freer, truer, more alive version of you. You will learn: // Why conventional year-end reviews often turn into spiritualized self-attack, and what to do instead. // How to use Buddhist teachings like impermanence and not-self to soften, not harden, your reflection. // A simple way to honor both heartbreak and beauty, inspired by Mark Nepo’s “Adrift.” // How to bring a social justice lens into your inner work so your practice isn’t separated from the world’s pain. // Questions that reveal where we abandoned ourselves this year, and where we showed up bravely. // How to recognize your own moments of aliveness and decolonize the…

People in this episode

Host: Ana Verzone

Topics covered

  • year-end reflection
  • Buddhist teachings
  • self-acceptance
  • social justice
  • intentions
  • personal growth

Keywords

  • year in review
  • Buddhism
  • self-reflection
  • impermanence
  • social justice
  • intentions
  • personal growth
  • heartbreak
  • beauty
  • decolonize dreams

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