You are not going crazy.
You are going through the fire.
7 Things You Must Know About the Fire Cycle.
Hello everyone!
Welcome.
I am so glad you are here.
Today,
I want to talk about something that very few people are naming out loud,
Yet so many are quietly feeling.
Have you been feeling different lately?
Not dramatically different,
Just slightly off,
As if you are no longer quite yourself?
Perhaps there are too many unexpected things happening at once,
Arriving faster than you can process them.
Or maybe you are hovering somewhere between tired and borderline sad and you cannot fully explain why.
Perhaps the job you used to love is quietly irritating you.
Maybe it is your relationship Maybe it is your health.
Or perhaps there is simply a low hum of something missing.
A feeling you cannot name.
But that follows you anyway.
And what makes it so confusing is that on the surface,
Everything looks the same.
The same house,
The same people,
The same routines.
Yet,
Something inside of you feels completely different.
What about money?
Does it feel harder to hold on to lately?
Are unexpected expenses appearing out of nowhere.
Do you feel an increasing pressure to make changes you were not even considering a year ago?
If any of this sounds familiar,
I want you to take a slow,
Deep breath.
You are not going crazy.
You are not imagining things.
You are not falling apart.
You are going through the fire.
And so is the rest of the world.
2026 and 2027 are fire years.
We are all being touched by this energy.
Some more intensely than others,
And understanding what is happening can make all the difference between fear and trust,
Between resistance and grace.
My name is Ana Barreto.
I am an author,
Meditation teacher,
Feng shui consultant,
And a student of ancient wisdom traditions.
For more than two decades,
I have guided women through seasons of change.
The quiet ones,
The loud ones,
And the ones that arrive without warning.
Before we go further,
I want you to do something.
Get a pen and a notebook.
Silence your phone.
Close your email.
Close your door if you need to.
Tell the people around you that you need less than 30 minutes.
This is your time.
And what I'm about to share with you has the power to change how you move through,
React,
And embrace the next two years.
Today,
I want to share seven things you need to know about the fire cycle.
Not from theory,
But from lived experience,
Because I have been in it right alongside you.
But first,
Let me tell you a story.
For many years,
I wanted to write full time.
I wanted to teach women and help them transform their lives through spirituality,
Mindfulness,
And the ancient wisdom of feng shui.
But for a long time,
I could not see a clear path forward.
I had a good corporate career.
The salary was comfortable.
The benefits were solid.
And truthfully,
Much of the material and inspiration for my writing came from the people I worked with every day.
So while my heart was pointing one direction,
My practical mind was firmly planted in another.
In 2018,
During a coaching session,
A message rose up from somewhere deep within me.
I would leave my job in 2023.
It sounded impossible.
I still had almost five years to go,
And I had no idea how.
Then 2023 arrived,
The year of the water rabbit,
A year of tranquility and thoughtful decision-making.
And I still had no plan.
In February of that year,
I spent two weeks in Italy for work.
I met extraordinary women,
Talented,
Accomplished,
Driven.
But only one of them had the confidence they needed to go to the next level.
Granted,
They were all top performers in their regions.
On the flight home,
Something shifted in me.
I realized that I was spending my talent on a comfortable job when I was meant for something else.
I had to leave,
Even though I still did not know how.
I already had books and classes,
But I was not yet earning enough to rely on them.
Fear had its usual questions.
How will you make money?
What about your future?
What if it does not work?
Then,
In May of 2023,
My company changed a policy.
Employees over 50 who had been with the company for at least 10 years could leave with their stock options immediately without waiting for retirement.
It was as if a window had opened.
I decided I would leave in October.
But in July,
My husband was laid off.
My first instinct was to stay in my job another year or two,
To play it safe.
But by August,
My husband encouraged me to continue with my plans.
He became self-employed.
And over the next two years earned more than he had before.
When I left my corporate position,
I became obsessed with replacing my income quickly.
I spread myself too thin,
Said yes to everything,
And felt more scattered than free.
In 2024,
The year of the wood dragon,
A time of expansion and new beginnings,
I still was not earning enough.
Yet somehow I spent two months writing in Paris,
Living a lifelong dream.
I wrote my first feng shui book from there and experienced firsthand the kind of bedroom energy that can derail your clarity entirely.
That experience redirected my career in ways I could not have planned.
Then came 2025.
The Year of the Wood Snake.
The snake teaches us to shed our skin.
And that is exactly what happened.
I released expectations,
Timelines,
And old stories about what success was supposed to look like.
I focused on joy,
Writing,
Creating courses,
Recording meditations,
And serving women through a non-profit I joined.
I stopped performing and started living.
In January 2026 for the first time,
I could fully support myself through writing and teaching without drawing on my investments.
The firehorse year had arrived,
And with it,
A kind of freedom and speed I had only imagined.
I am a fire horse myself.
This is one of the most powerful years of my life,
With the challenges and all.
Once every 60 years,
This fire year is very transformative.
Today,
I wake up without rushing.
I meditate.
I write in the mornings.
I build in the afternoons.
I travel.
I teach.
I help women find their way through seasons just like this one.
I am living a life that once felt completely impossible.
So when I tell you that the fire cycle is transformational,
I am not speaking from a book.
I am speaking from the bones of my own experience.
And that brings us to the first thing you need to know.
As I said earlier,
2026 and 2027 are fire years.
2026 carries the energy of the Fire Horse,
Fast-moving and revealing everything you have hidden.
And 2027,
The Energy of the Fire Goat,
A period of artistic and heart-centered energy full of passion and intensity.
During these years,
There are many things you need to know and do.
However,
The seven pieces of wisdom will make a huge difference in your life once you understand them.
Number one.
The things that must go will go.
Fire is a force of transformation,
And transformation sounds beautiful until it arrives at your front door wearing the face of uncertainty.
A relationship shifts.
A job no longer fits.
A friendship quietly ends.
Your priorities begin to reorganize themselves without asking permission.
The things that once excited you fall flat.
The life you carefully constructed suddenly feels too small.
When this happens,
Many people believe something is wrong with them.
I do not.
I believe the fire is simply illuminating what has already run its course.
When something has completed its purpose,
Holding on becomes exhausting.
And the exhaustion itself is a message.
Perhaps this is why so many women are quietly questioning their careers,
Relationships,
Habits,
And choices.
Not because they are broken,
But because they are growing.
Because they have outgrown the version of themselves that fits so neatly into the life they built.
If you are feeling uncomfortable right now,
That discomfort is not a sign that something has gone wrong.
It is a sign that something new is trying to emerge.
My question for you is this.
What is your life quietly asking you to release?
Number two Everything intensifies.
Fire amplifies.
It magnifies.
Whatever is already present,
Fire makes larger.
If there is joy,
It grows.
If there is stress,
It grows too.
If there is love,
It deepens.
If there is conflict,
It gets louder.
Have you noticed how people around you seem more reactive lately?
More impatient.
More emotional.
More easily overwhelmed.
You may have noticed it in yourself as well.
Things that once rolled off your shoulders now follow you home.
Small frustrations feel disproportionately large.
This is not weakness.
This is the magnifying glass of fire doing its work.
And because everything becomes louder during this cycle,
Self-awareness becomes one of the most powerful tools you can develop.
The question is not,
What is happening around me?
The better question,
The one that will change everything,
Is what is happening within me?
Number three.
The horse rarely stands still.
The horse energy is movement.
The horse is freedom.
The horse wants to run and it will not wait for you to be ready.
You had the previous year for that.
Life may feel faster than usual right now.
Changes that once took years are happening in months.
People are relocating,
Reinventing,
Releasing,
And beginning again.
Opportunities appear and disappear quickly.
Relationships evolve at speeds that feel disorienting.
But here is what I need you to hear.
There is a shadow side to all that movement.
It is burnout.
Many women are already exhausted,
And during fire horse years,
The temptation is to run faster.
To do more,
Produce more,
Push harder,
Keep up.
I am asking you,
No.
I am begging you,
Please don't.
Rest is not a reward you earn after the work is done.
Rest is maintenance.
It is what keeps the machine running.
Plan your rest before you need it.
And for the next two years,
Give yourself more rest than feels reasonable.
One of the subtle traps of firehorse energy is that it makes you feel stronger than you actually are.
There is a real surge of stamina.
But it comes at a cost that rarely shows up until later.
Women already carry enormous to-do lists.
Many of us work twice as hard to prove we belong in rooms that should have welcomed us long ago.
So do yourself and every woman watching you a favor.
Rest visibly.
Rest without guilt.
When you give yourself permission to slow down,
You give every woman around you that same permission.
Number four.
Your nervous system is paying the price.
This is something I want you to sit with for a moment.
Take the deep breath so you can hear it with your heart.
Many women believe they are tired because they are busy.
I think something more nuanced is happening.
I think many women are exhausted because they are overstimulated.
And there is a real difference.
Your nervous system was never designed to process the volume of information,
Decisions,
Demands,
And emotional labor that fills an average day.
Before breakfast,
Most of us have already checked emails,
Social media,
News headlines,
Text messages,
And a cascade of notifications.
The nervous system never gets a chance to settle.
It never fully exhales.
And fire makes that challenge even greater.
If you have been feeling anxious,
Restless,
Scattered,
Unable to focus,
Or unable to sleep,
Your body may not be asking for more productivity tools.
It may be asking for less input.
For quiet,
For stillness.
True rest is not sitting on the couch scrolling through your phone.
True rest is creating enough silence for your nervous system to remember what calm feels like.
Turn off notifications,
Reduce the noise,
Listen to soft music.
Walk in green spaces.
Reduce artificial light in the evenings.
And please spend time doing nothing.
Not productive nothing.
NOT MINDFUL TASK NOTHING Just nothing.
Close the door.
Sit in the dark.
Let your nervous system breathe.
When you protect your nervous system,
You are protecting something far more important than your schedule.
You are protecting the essence that runs your life.
Number five,
In fire years,
Your heart requires more protection.
When most people hear the words heart health,
They think of cholesterol levels and blood pressure.
And yes,
Those things matter.
Please get your checkups.
Know your numbers.
But I want to talk about the other heart.
The one that carries grief and hope,
Disappointment and love,
Joy and longing all at once.
In Chinese medicine,
The heart is the organ associated with the fire element.
When fire becomes excessive,
The heart can become overwhelmed.
It begins to feel everything.
And I mean everything.
A story about a stranger halfway across the world can land like a personal loss.
You feel it in your chest,
In your sleep,
In your nervous system.
And this,
My friend,
Can lead to physical heart problems.
This is not weakness.
This is the fire working through your emotional heart.
Be intentional about what you consume.
Not just food,
But conversations,
Conflict,
News,
Drama.
And the emotions of others.
Pay attention to what you carry that does not belong to you.
Many women spend their entire lives taking exquisite care of everyone else.
During the fire cycle,
I want to invite a different question.
Who is taking care of your heart?
Number six.
Emotions can become louder than the truth.
One of FIRE's greatest gifts is passion.
One of its greatest challenges is intensity.
During fire years,
Emotions do not whisper.
They shout.
Anger becomes hotter.
Fear becomes louder.
Frustration becomes harder to move through.
Years ago,
I noticed something about myself.
Whenever I felt overwhelmed,
I was drawn toward water.
As a child growing up in Rio de Janeiro,
I loved watching rainwater flow toward the sea.
I could sit there for long stretches of time just watching.
At the time,
I had no idea why.
Years later,
I understood.
Water balances fire.
Without knowing what I was doing,
I was seeking the medicine my system needed.
If emotions feel intense during the cycle,
Spend time near water.
Visit the ocean.
Sit by a river.
Listen to rain falling.
Take a long slow bath.
Also spend time with earth energy.
Walk in gardens,
Touch the soil,
Sit beneath trees,
Go hiking.
Nature knows how to calm a nervous system that has forgotten how to rest.
It is among the most ancient medicines available to us,
And it is free.
Plus,
It helps calm down the fire energy.
When emotions feel bigger than the truth,
Step outside.
Let the elements remind you of what is real.
Number 7 your home becomes more important than ever.
In Feng Shui,
We understand that your environment influences you.
And you influence your environment.
The relationship flows both ways.
During fire years,
That relationship becomes even more charged and significant.
If your home feels chaotic.
Your mind often mirrors that chaos.
If your home supports peace,
Your nervous system benefits in ways that are both measurable and felt.
Pay special attention to three areas.
The main entrance The bedroom.
And the kitchen.
The main entrance is where Qi,
Life force energy,
First enters your home.
If your entryway is cluttered,
Dirty,
Or disorganized,
That is the energy you greet every single day.
Clear it.
Clean it.
Let it welcome you.
The bedroom is where your nervous system recovers.
A restful,
Intentional bedroom will help you recharge deeply enough to face whatever fire brings your way.
And of all the nine areas of your life,
Health,
Relationships,
Finances,
Career,
Family,
Creativity,
Recognition,
Helpful people,
And knowledge,
The bedroom has the most direct influence on all of them.
The kitchen represents nourishment,
Abundance,
And the energy of your finances.
Do you carry expired food in your refrigerator?
Do you leave dirty dishes sitting in the sink?
Do you actually use your stove,
That powerful symbol of prosperity?
Are all the burners of your stove working?
Do you cook with burned broken pans?
Your attitude in the kitchen,
The care or carelessness you bring to it,
Will be amplified during fire years.
What has been manageable may now demand your attention.
Look around your home with fresh eyes.
What are these three spaces reflecting back to you about your life?
What needs care.
What needs clearing.
What is ready to be released.
A final word.
The fire cycle is not here to punish you.
It is not here to dismantle everything you have built out of cruelty or randomness.
Fire is not destruction for its own sake.
Fire is medicine.
These fire years are medicine for humanity.
It illuminates.
It clarifies.
It burns away what no longer belongs so that what is real can finally be seen.
The world is changing.
And many people are feeling that change in their bodies,
In their relationships,
In the quiet moments when the noise dies down and something deeper surfaces.
But change is not always something to fear.
Sometimes change is the very thing that sets us free.
So if life feels different right now,
I want you to trust the process.
Listen carefully to what your body is telling you.
Pay attention to what keeps surfacing.
Care for your heart.
Protect your nervous system.
Spend time in nature.
Be honest with yourself about what is no longer working and be willing to release it.
If you are still listening,
It is not by accident.
There is a part of you that already knows it is time to grow.
And that part of you is ready.
The world needs you whole,
Not perfect,
Not endlessly productive.
Whole.
The fire cycle is not happening to you.
It is preparing you for something you have not yet been able to imagine.
Take your fire medicine.
Trust the transformation.
And know that you do not have to walk through it alone.
This is Anna Barretto.
Thank you for spending this time with me.
