We are almost at the end of March. Which means we are a quarter of the way through what numerologists are calling a "Year 1" in the spiritual growth cycle. A cosmic reset. New beginnings. Bold action. Personal rebirth.
I'll be honest: I have not felt a cosmic reset yet. But I suppose the year is young, and the cosmos presumably works on its own timeline.
What I have felt is this: the world is very loud right now. Chaotic in ways that are hard to metabolize, let alone act on. Most of us are ingesting news from distant places, feeling the weight of things we can do very little about, and then wondering why we feel depleted before noon.
I did this for too long. Many of us do.
In my years of peacebuilding work, I kept coming back to a phrase that helped me locate myself when the bigger picture felt crushing:
"If the world feels like a hot fire, every one of us needs to be a drop of water."
Not a flood. Not a hero. A drop of water.
The question I am sitting with this spring is: what does that actually look like in practice? Because I don't think it looks like scrolling for two hours and then throwing up our hands. I don't think it looks like trying to fix what is broken from a place of depletion.
I think it looks like groundwork.
The foundational practices that build real capacity, not just temporarily relieve the pressure:
Daily meditation (presence when everything is chaotic, so you are not just reacting) Regular movement (reconnecting with the embodied wisdom your thinking mind can't access) Authentic community (you genuinely cannot do this alone, and trying is costing you something) Creative practice (the doorway to insight that lives beyond analysis)
Small. Daily. Unglamorous. But this is how capacity is built.
As I move further into 2026, I keep thinking about the kind of people the future actually needs. Not necessarily the loudest ones, or the most optimized ones, or the ones with the best productivity systems.
People who can hold complexity without collapsing. Navigate uncertainty without losing themselves. Sustain meaningful contribution over the long term, not just until year three when they hit the wall.
Your groundwork matters. Not because it fixes the big problems immediately. But because change does start from the bottom up, and depleted people cannot build what we need to build.
So this year, I am inviting us into something more intentional. A different kind of space.
I am glad you are here. Let's build something that lasts.
If you want to be the first to know when The Groundwork Foundations Course launches mid-2026, you can join the waitlist here.
With gratitude, Rebecca
P.S. P.S. The latest Groundwork video is on Movement, and why the best thinking I ever do happens on a walk in the woods, not at my desk. Sound familiar? It's over on Substack whenever you're ready.
Groundwork Tools: What's Actually Helping Me
Dr. Richard Davidson on the Huberman Lab Podcast If you want the science behind why meditation actually works, this is the conversation to listen to. Dr. Davidson is one of the world’s leading researchers on the neuroscience of contemplative practice, and he does not disappoint. What I love about this episode is that it is not about convincing you to meditate. It assumes you already know it matters and goes deep on what is actually happening in your brain when you do. Put it on during a walk. You will not regret it.
Red Light Glasses for Evening I resisted these for longer than I should have. They look a little ridiculous, but wearing blue light blocking glasses in the evenings has genuinely changed the quality of my sleep, and sleep is the most foundational piece of your essential ecosystem. If you are doing all the practices and still waking up exhausted, this is worth trying before anything else. Your body cannot build capacity on depleted sleep. I use Roka glasses and love them.
ION Gut Support: Gut health is not glamorous but it is infrastructure. A friend recommended ION Gut Support when I was getting chronic colds for almost a year. I was skeptical, but this stuff really works! It works at the level of the gut lining rather than just adding probiotics, which is a different approach than most supplements. Worth a shot if you are someone whose is chronically getting colds or nervous system feels chronically dysregulated despite doing the work.
The Groundwork Collective
Meditation, movement, and contemplative practices for people navigating complexity, uncertainty, and change.