Choosing Your Weather — Emotional Control in 2026

 

Some years arrive quietly. Others show up like a houseguest who knocks once and then lets themselves in.
2026 feels like the latter.

Everywhere I look, people are talking about “taking control” of their lives this year — their schedules, their finances, their health. But the real frontier, the one that actually changes how we move through the world, is something quieter and far more personal: choice over our emotional responses.

Not the events themselves. Not the chaos, the curveballs, or the people who seem to have a PhD in pushing our buttons.
Just the response.

The myth we were sold

Most of us were raised to believe that emotions “just happen.”
Someone says something hurtful → we feel hurt.
A plan falls apart → we feel frustrated.
A loved one scares us → we feel fear.

It’s a tidy little equation, but it’s wrong.

What actually happens is this:

Event → Interpretation → Emotion → Response

That middle step — interpretation — is where our power lives.
It’s also the step we tend to skip right over.

2026 as a turning point

This year, I’m thinking a lot about emotional agency. Not emotional suppression, not pretending everything is fine, and definitely not bypassing the hard stuff. I’m talking about the quiet, steady skill of choosing how we want to show up.

2026 is already shaping up to be a year where the world will try to yank our attention, our peace, and our sense of stability in a dozen directions. But here’s the truth I keep coming back to:

We don’t control the weather.
We do control the coat we put on.

What choice actually looks like

Choice is not a lightning bolt of enlightenment.
It’s not a New Year’s resolution.
It’s not a personality transplant.

Choice is:

• Taking one breath before reacting
• Naming what we’re feeling instead of becoming it
• Asking, “Is this mine to carry?”
• Deciding whether the moment needs fire or calm
• Choosing dignity over reactivity
• Choosing clarity over panic
• Choosing boundaries over resentment

And sometimes, choice is simply saying, “Not right now. I’ll respond when my brain comes back online.”

Control is not domination

Control gets a bad reputation because people imagine it means white‑knuckling your way through life. But real emotional control is spacious. It’s gentle. It’s the opposite of force.

It’s the moment you realize you can feel fear without obeying it.
You can feel anger without weaponizing it.
You can feel grief without drowning in it.

You can feel everything — and still choose your next move.

A small practice for a big year

Here’s the one thing I’m carrying into 2026:

Pause → Name → Choose

• Pause: interrupt the automatic reaction
• Name: “This is fear,” “This is overwhelm,” “This is old conditioning”
• Choose: “How do I want to respond?”

It sounds simple. It is simple.
But simple is not the same as easy.

The invitation

As we step into 2026, I’m not trying to control the world. I’m not even trying to control other people (a losing battle if there ever was one). I’m just practicing control over the one domain that actually belongs to me:

My interpretation.
My response.
My emotional weather.

And that, it turns out, is enough to change everything.

post includes some AI content and generated graphic

a post inspired by Learning to Feel (Girrell).

Book Description: 

Learning to Feel, Second Edition, teaches readers how to gain choice and authority over their emotional states. Feelings and emotions are reactions to the deeply held beliefs and experiences of our lives. In order to become fully emotionally intelligent - that is, to be able to know what is yours, what comes from the others, and how best to respond to those others - we must connect first to those core experiences and often re-interpret the meaning they have held for us. Learning to Feel is such a journey, intended to be a set of trail blazes for anyone who wishes to up their game in the realm of emotional intelligence. (Edition 1 was selected for the Independent Press Distinguished Favorite Award and a Literary Titan gold award.)

First Edition Book Awards
Literary Titan Gold Award
Independent Press Award Distinguished Favorite/Psychology

For more posts about this book and its author, click HERE.

CONTACT editor@msipress.com FOR A REVIEW COPY

MSI Press, a veteran-owned publishing house based in California, United States

best known for turning new writers into award-winning authors,
has gained mass recognition for releasing highly acclaimed books of varying genres
that are distributed internationally.

To purchase copies of any MSI Press book at 25% discount,

use code FF25 at MSI Press webstore.

Want to read an MSI Press book and not have to pay for it?
(1) Ask your local library to purchase and shelve it.
(2) Ask us for a review copy; we love to have our books reviewed.

VISIT OUR WEBSITE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT ALL OUR AUTHORS AND TITLES.

Sign up for the MSI Press LLC monthly newsletter: get inside information before others see it and access to additional book content

(recent releases, sales/discounts, awards, reviews, Amazon top 100 list, links to precerpts/excerpts, author advice, and more)

Check out recent issues.

 

 

Follow MSI Press on Twitter, Face Book, Pinterest, and Bluesky. 

 

 

MSI Press welcomes submissions that reflect legacy and lived experience. Learn more about our publishing process on our website.

We help writers become award-winning published authors. One writer at a time. We are a family, not a factory. Do you have a future with us? Find out at www.msipress.com.

Turned away by other publishers because you are a first-time author and/or do not have a strong platform yet? If you have a strong manuscript, San Juan Books, our hybrid publishing division, may be able to help. Ask us. Check out more information at www.msipress.com.

 

Planning on self-publishing and don't know where to start? Our author au pair services will mentor you through the process. See what we can do for your at www.msipress.com.

Interested in receiving a free copy of this or any MSI Press LLC book in exchange for reviewing a current or forthcoming MSI Press LLC book? Contact editor@msipress.com.

Want an author-signed copy of this book? Purchase the book at 25% discount (use coupon code FF25) and concurrently send a written request to orders@msipress.com.

Julia Aziz, signing her book, Lessons of Labor, at an event at Book People in Austin, Texas.

Want to communicate with one of our authors? You can! Find their contact information on our Authors' Pages.

Steven Greenebaum, author of award-winning books, An Afternoon's Discussion and One Family: Indivisible, talking to a reader at Barnes & Noble in Gilroy, California.

   

MSI Press is ranked among the top publishers in California.
Check out our rankings -- and more -- HERE.