“2026 isn't a comeback year—it's a rise-of-the-phoenix year”

“Confirmed what I was already becoming” The 7 Sacred States Challenge About eighteen months ago, I hit rock bottom. On the outside, my life still looked intact—but internally, everything I had built my identity around was falling apart. After more than a decade in Special Forces and later working on Wall Street, I was disciplined, capable, and functional, yet deeply misaligned with who I was becoming. I was operating from identities that had once protected me but were no longer sustainable. My health started to give way. Relationships faded through isolation. What most people would call rock bottom wasn’t dramatic—it was quiet, humbling, and lonely. Looking back now, I see that this wasn’t a failure; it was a necessary shedding. Something was forcing me to let go of old versions of myself I had been gripping long past their usefulness. At the time, I didn’t have language for what I was going through. I thought of it as the Holy Spirit, intuition, or inner guidance—something steadying me when nothing externally made sense. The real work wasn’t about fixing my life. It was about stabilizing my nervous system, shifting from constant doing into being, and learning how to show up with devotion without attaching to outcomes. Receiving meant learning to stop blocking what life was already offering. I had never actually tried to see if what I was experiencing was already in the ether, which led me to Mind Valley – two days later, I received an email to join this 7-day challenge. In my head, I was reluctant and thought, “Oh great, more work – more doing!” Thankfully, a gentle nudge from the universe led me to sign up. I wasn’t looking for a breakthrough or a reset, but what I experienced was the biggest confirmation yet. The language and framework helped me understand that what had felt like a collapse was actually a recalibration. Before this Challenge, I thought I was slowly entering a comeback season. After it, I know something different. 2026 isn’t a comeback year—it’s a rise-of-the-phoenix year, not because everything is suddenly fixed, but because I’m finally operating from the right state. Ultimately, my takeaway of this 7-day journey has been about learning how to live in flow—from my most authentic self, without ego. Day 5, Non-Attachment, helped me see that real healing comes through forgiveness: releasing resentment, releasing identity, and letting go of who I thought I had to be. That detachment has created space for something quieter and more honest to take root—and that has changed how I move through life. Marvin Mikle Coach United States