S3E01 with Eric Nicoll - Turning the Page

Hello friends, Happy New Year! 

As we turn the page on 2025, I wanted to speak about something honestly: last year was really hard. Not just busy or challenging, but emotionally heavy. For those of us who live with anxiety — and especially for our beautiful LGBTQ+ community — last year asked a lot of our nervous systems, our hearts, and our sense of safety in the world.

Today’s episode isn’t about rushing into an expected “new year, new you” energy or pretending that everything is "fine." It’s about slowing down, telling the truth about what the past year has taken from us, and honoring what we’ve survived and how we are going to step into 2026 with intention and clarity.

Together, we’ll reflect on the year behind us, release what no longer serves us, and step into a new season with care, compassion, and connection — not pressure or perfection.

If you’re tired, anxious, or unsure how to close out the year we just had, how to get back into your own body and actually create a powerful new year, you’re not alone. This one's for you.  Welcome to the conversation.

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Thank you for joining us and we can't wait to welcome you back again next week! New episodes drop every Thursday and can be found wherever you find your favorite podcasts!

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To follow us on Instagram, visit: https://www.instagram.com/justdoyoupod/

Want to learn more about our host, Eric Nicoll? Visit: https://ericnicoll.com

Transcript

0:06

Hello everyone, and welcome to season three of the Just To You podcast. I'm Eric, Nicole, your host, and I'm so glad you decided to join us today. Whether this is your very first time joining in on the conversation or you've been listening along since the beginning, thank you for being here. This podcast exists because of you. Your stories, your courage and your willingness to keep choosing yourself even when it's not easy. The Just To You Podcast is a safe space for authentic, unscripted conversations that connect us, inspire us, and remind us of who we are at our core. Together we're gonna explore confidence, voice, truth, and what it means to step fully into what I call the just do you sweet spot, that place where you are living honestly, intentionally and unapologetically. This new season is about growth, reflection. Possibility in community. I'll be sitting down with friends, colleagues, community leaders, and influencers who are willing to share their journeys, the wins, the challenges, and everything in between. We'll laugh. We may shed a few tears, but in the end, we're gonna continue to remind one another that none of us is walking this path alone. So are you ready? Great. Let's do this. Welcome to season three of the Just You Podcast. Hello my friends and welcome back to the podcast and happy New Year. It's January 1st, 2026, and I'm truly honored that you're here with me today. Before we do anything else, I want to say something plainly and honestly. 2025 was really hard. And when I say hard, I don't mean busy. I don't mean inconvenient. I mean emotionally heavy. I mean exhausting in ways that didn't always have a language for many of us, especially those of us who live with anxiety. It wasn't just a challenging year. It was really loud. It lived in our nervous system. It was the kind of year where even on good days, there was this constant low hum of worry in the background. It was the kind of year where rest didn't feel restful. Where sleep didn't always restore us, and where silence didn't always feel peaceful because our minds were still racing nonstop, and for so many of us, simply making it through the day sometimes felt like a major accomplishment. For those of us in the L-G-B-T-Q community, that weight has been even more complicated. Anxiety this year hasn't lived only inside our minds. It's lived in our bodies. It's lived daily in the headlines. It's lived in ongoing conversations about our safety, our rights, and even our humanity. It's lived in the constant awareness of when it feels safe to speak, to show up, to be visible, and when it doesn't, it's lived in the quiet calculations we've had to make every day often without even realizing it. That kind of stress doesn't stay abstract. It settles into our shoulders, our jaws, our breath, our sleep, and over time, it can make, even the simplest things feel exhausting. So if you're coming into this episode feeling a little tired, maybe a little guarded, emotionally spent or unsure how to wrap up a year like this, I want you to know something. You're exactly where you need to be. If you found yourself more withdrawn this year, more emotional, maybe a little bit more irritable, more tired than usual, listen, this wasn't you failing. This was your body doing its best to protect you in an overwhelming world. And if you're listening right now thinking, oh, Eric, this is exactly how I felt. I need you to hear this. You're not imagining it, you're not being dramatic, and you're not alone. One of the reasons I wanted to start this new year together is because I don't believe in rushing past what we've been through. I don't believe healing comes from pretending everything is fine or slapping a resolution on top of an unresolved exhaustion. I believe healing starts when we actually tell the truth kindly, compassionately, and without judgment. So today I want to invite you to slow down with me. Wherever you are right now, whether you're driving, walking, sitting quietly, or just needing to take a moment, I want you to take a breath. Listen, you don't have to fix anything today. You don't have to have the whole year figured out already. You don't even have to feel hopeful yet. You just have to be here. And if that idea of a new year feels heavy instead of exciting, that's okay too. For some of us, January doesn't even feel like a fresh start. It feels like pressure. It feels like expectations. We're not sure we can even meet. So instead of asking you to reinvent yourself, I want to offer something different. I want to offer permission. Permission to enter 2026 exactly where you are. Even if it's tired. It could be hopeful, guarded, curious, unsure. You know what? It's all welcome here again, it's why I wanted to spend time with you today as we step into this new year. Not to tell you who to be or what to do, but to sit with you. To reflect with you and to remind you that surviving a year like that is already saying something really powerful about you. This episode is not about forcing optimism or rushing into a new year, new you attitude. It's about reflecting, honestly, releasing gently, the conversations, expectations, people, and beliefs that no longer serve us. It's about stepping into this next season of our life with care and with intention. When I look back on this year, I see moments of joy. I see moments of pure connection, amazing conversations on this podcast with extraordinary people from around the world. That reminded me why community matters so deeply and why I'm so honored to have you spend some time with me. Each week. I actually see growth. I see tremendous courage and I see a real shift, but I also see days where anxiety has showed up. Really strong days when the world felt unsafe, days when the news cycle made it hard to even breathe. Days when being visibly queer felt heavier than usual. Like we had to carry not only our own emotions, but the weight of other people's opinions about our very existence. This is something we've had to deal with for decades, but we do it with a glimmer of hope that one day we can just simply wake up and be ourselves. And if that resonates you. I want to say this clearly, that response makes sense. Queer anxiety doesn't come from nowhere. It's a nervous system that's responding to a world that often asks us to defend our right to simply belong. When you reflect on your year, don't just ask yourself, what did I accomplish? Ask yourself, what did this year ask of me? What did I survive? Where did I show up? Even when it was hard? What did I have to push through or overcome? If all you did this year was simply survive, you know what? That still counts and you should be really proud of yourself. I need you to give yourself a hug and some love'cause I'm proud of you. Really proud. One of the biggest lessons this year taught me is that anxiety is not a personal failure. It's information. It's your body paying attention to the world around it. It's there for a reason and it's an opportunity to connect with someone and to share your life because trust me, we're all going through it as well. We may just be waiting for someone else to make that first move and open that conversation. Change only happens within a conversation with someone not in our own head. Another lesson is that strength doesn't always look like pushing through. Sometimes it looks like slowing down. Sometimes it looks like canceling plans. Sometimes it looks like choosing rest over resilience. Another lesson, and probably the most impactful is just how much connection matters. Anxiety grows in isolation, so community, even if it's imperfect, helps regulate us. A single text, a simple phone call, a familiar voice, someone who understands your queerness without explanation. Listen, you don't have to be brave every day to be worthy. You don't owe anyone your resilience. You do, however, owe yourself some grace and acknowledgement. So I invite you to take some time today to do just that, and I promise you, you're going to see a shift. Give yourself some grace and acknowledge yourself for the things that you did this year that make you happy. Before we step into a new year or a new season, we need to release some things, not aggressively. Not dramatically. Although I gotta be honest, there's times when I want to throw things out the window or drive over'em with my car, but I do it with compassion. Maybe you're ready to release the belief that you should have handled things better, or maybe you need to release the guilt you feel for needing rest, or the shame you're feeling simply because of who you are. It might even be the pressure to always have to be okay. I want you to take a breath with me, and then I want you to ask yourself, what's the one thing you're willing to set down, even if it's just, for now, healing doesn't come from forcing ourselves forward. It comes from giving ourselves permission to soften. Rest isn't quitting, it's choosing yourself. Letting go of something or even someone, no matter how difficult that can be, is a pivotal moment in our path to authenticity. Things, or people who no longer serve us or weigh us down need to be released in order for us to find our true joy, our happiness, and our authenticity. If anxiety has been loud for you, I want to offer a few general ways to cope. Listen, these aren't fixes, they're just options. When anxiety spikes for me, I need to get grounded. I get quiet, I get comfortable, and I name five things that I can currently see in front of me. I name four things that I can actually feel inside of my body right now, and I name three things that I can hear. This practice brings yourself back into your own body, back into the now, back into the present moment. While you do this, just remember to breathe. If you do this consistently, I promise you, you will see a shift. If the news or social media heightened your anxiety this past year, guess what? It's okay to create boundaries. It's okay to create those boundaries around the time you spend scrolling. Staying informed does not require you to stay flooded. Protecting your peace is not disengagement. It's self preservation. And if you can lean into community, like I said, anxiety will thrive in that isolation each and every time. So even a short check-in with someone who truly sees you can remind your nervous system that you're not alone. We are so disconnected these days, and I know for me, connecting with a friend or loved one makes the world of difference, and I promise it'll do the same for you. Sometimes coping looks really small. I hug the dog. I take a walk on the beach. I light a candle, I listen to a familiar song or hear a familiar voice. Safety doesn't have to be dramatic. It just has to be consistent. As we look ahead, especially as L-G-B-T-Q, people having to navigate this uncertain world, I want to offer a reframe. This doesn't have to be a year of fixing yourself or fixing the world. It can simply be a season for supporting yourself. Instead of asking, what do I need to change? Try asking yourself, what do I need more of? Do I need more rest? Do I need to set more boundaries? Do I need to source more joy, more community, more connection, more softness? For me, this new season is going to be about joy, community authenticity. This is not about perfection. It's not about overwhelm. It's just about alignment. And if you can only commit right now to taking care of your own nervous system, then trust me that's more than enough and we will fully support you. If this year felt heavy, I want you to hear this. Clearly, you didn't fail, you adapted, you shifted, you pushed through, you pivoted, and you survived. You should be really proud of yourself, and again, I want you to give yourself some love. And now it's my turn to give you some love. I love hearing from all of our listeners and would love to hear from you. I'd love to know what you're willing to release from this past year. What are you setting down? And equally important, what kind of season are you hoping to build or step into in 2026? You don't have to have it all figured out yet. Naming it is enough. Putting it out into the universe is enough, but you have to take action and you have to speak it out loud. So it's my commitment to bring you a new season full of stories that will move, touch and inspire you. Stories of resilience, stories of joy, and stories that remind us that we are all each powerful on our own, but as a community, watch out. We're a force to be reckoned with and we are unstoppable. As we close out this year, I want to do it honestly. So let's honor the hard parts. Let's really celebrate the resilience and let's walk into this next season without any unrealistic expectations. We're going to reflect on what was we're going to release. We no longer serves us, and we're going to reclaim the parts of ourselves that deserve care, safety, joy, and love. Remember, you don't have to harden to survive. You're allowed to soften. You're allowed to rest, and you're allowed to simply take up space exactly as you are. I'm so grateful to all of our season two guests for taking the time to share their remarkable journeys with us, and I'm equally grateful to all of you are listeners for making the time to tune in each week. Our global Just Do You community is growing at a rate I can't wrap my head around and it's because of you. That said, I would love it if you would reach out and share the podcast with people you care about this year. Let's make a commitment to spread these inspiring conversations even further, and let's create a world where everyone can live their truth. Celebrate being who they are a hundred percent unapologetically. I love you all so much, and I thank you for allowing me to be a part of your lives each and every week. I want to wish you a happy 2026. I want you to go out and do you, but do it proudly and confidently. Until next time, see you soon. All right, everyone. Thank you again for joining us on today's episode. I hope our conversation resonated with you like it did me, and I cannot wait to sit down with you all again next week. Remember to subscribe to the Just You Podcast on your favorite platform so you can make sure not to miss a new episode, which drop every Thursday. If you like what you hear, you could easily share the podcast and episode directly with your friends. And if you would rate us and leave us a review, we'd love to hear from you. You can also follow us on Instagram at just Do You pod as you go out back into the world today. Remember to just do you. Alright, talk next week.