Embrace a Happy New Year with Positive Beginnings and Fresh Perspectives

Welcome to 2026 and a positive new start

Several new beginnings have happened for me. I am well and pain free most of the time. My self care is priority. I am more confident about letting go of negativity and toxic connections. I am sure this is making space for new relationships and self-appreciation. I continue to notice kindness from strangers and new connections. My family continues to grow and I am now a proud grandmother of 6 and great-grandmother of seven, and looking forward to my youngest granddaughter to increase this to 8 by June 2026.

My Relationship with the Reiki community is deepening and I am broadening my connection with the wide world and re-evaluation Co counselling community.

The first book discussion meeting went very well and I felt encouraged by the questions and interest that people engaged with. The theme was about ‘colour blindness’. It's not a term used often, but I had taken the risk in my book to use it as a title to address times when the skin colour aspect of anti-black racism is dismissed. The review below was encouraging.

Dear Dr Isha,

Thank you so much for holding the session on the first chapter of your book this evening. Listening to the other participants’ responses to, and questions about, your writing and having the opportunity to ask a question myself, was both moving and very helpful in strengthening my understanding and compassion. I will be inviting more of my white colleagues to attend future sessions, as this space, and your black empathic approach, is exactly where white practitioners need to engage if we are to practise with a deeper consciousness of racism and do more genuinely compassionate and attuned work with our Black clients and trainees.

An opportunity to discuss my work and recently published book: 'A Black Empathic Approach to Psychotherapy' - 'Growing from Rage to Compassion'. Each session explores a chapter from the book. Session 2 - Chapter 2. The Context and Quality of Empathy, will be on Monday 9^thFebruary 2026, online. Time 7 - 8.30PM.GMT. 

You can connect with others interested in working relationally to address the impact of Anti-black racism, share what you'd like to learn more about, and ask questions that support your CPD and satisfy your curiosity. This platform is for individuals training and working in helping professions. To join, you must be reading the book. Contact writeandheal@btinternet.com www.ishmm.com Click the link for registration: 

https://www.ishamm.com/events-1/an-audience-with-dr-isha-no-2

One of my self-care themes this year, is ‘letting go and I'm beginning to feel the benefits of that. I'm consciously letting go of worries and concerns and toxic relationships, that do not serve me. This is essential to my self-care. Another theme I am building is trust. Mainly trusting myself to risk new connections and continue asking for help. Also trusting my solitude and the signs and messages that come to me from the ancestors

I have always been a confident swimmer but several times I was knocked down by waves while coming out of the sea, and I notice that although I love swimming in the ocean I was giving up on sea bathing, because of my fear of falling, due to my weakening legs. One day I summoned my courage and asked a lifeguard to watch out for me and please help me when I'm coming out of the sea. I found the lifeguards very willing to do this and now I feel safer within this amazing element that we have been blessed with. This is all part of showing my vulnerability as an senior.

Noticing my small successes is what helps me continue building confidence in my work and in my writing. This year I seriously want to commit to creating a poetry collection that I've been promising for too long. Saying it out loud is one thing, but I need to get on with it now.

Our Tobago writers support group met for the first time last week and we sat in a cafe and chatted about this and that. It was a good way to catch up and reconnect after months or meetings online. I am positive about more in person meetings in future.

In my next blog I will be able to say some wonderful things about book discussion 2.