Holistic Health Sisters Podcast

First full moon of 2026: Cancer Full Moon (Ep 50)

• Hannah Carr

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Welcome to the first Full Moon of 2026  the Cancer Full Moon  a deeply nourishing, emotional and reflective moon that invites us home to ourselves.

Sarah gently guides you through the themes of emotions, nervous system safety, boundaries, family healing, and self-nurturing, all through a trauma-informed, holistic lens. 

Cancer is ruled by the Moon herself and connected to home, belonging, emotional memory, and the body’s wisdom. Under this full moon, you may notice heightened sensitivity, emotional waves, vivid dreams  or even numbness. All of it is welcome.

In this episode, we explore:

  • Why Full Moons are times of illumination, release, and emotional truth
  • The Cancer archetype: sensitivity as strength, not weakness
  • Feeling your feelings  without force, pressure, or re-traumatisation
  • Nervous system safety, numbness, and why “not feeling” is still information
  • Empaths, emotional overwhelm, and learning to hold boundaries with love
  • The body’s yes, no, and maybe — and how to listen beneath the mind
  • Boundaries as containers, not walls
  • Emotional memory, cycles, and reflecting back to the Cancer New Moon
  • Chest, heart, diaphragm care and the power of breath
  • Gentle Full Moon cleansing rituals and self-care practices

Resources & Invitations:


✨ Sensitivity isn’t weakness.
✨ Boundaries are an act of love.
✨ You’re allowed to go at your own pace.

If you would like our free moon download to get the list of the 12 astrological signs and how they impact your body parts and emotions, grab that here: https://holistichealthc.kartra.com/page/moondownload

If you are looking to balance your hormones naturally, then try our free 5 day hormone balance challenge, back to balance. Register here: https://holistichealthc.kartra.com/page/Backtohormonebalance

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https://www.holistichealthcollective.co.uk

Where you can find out more about of women's health retreats, our healthy products. our online health membership for peri-menopausal women, online courses and our in person events.

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Yes. Welcome to the Holistic Health Sisters podcast of Wellness and Real Life Sisters Hannah Carr and Sarah King from the Holistic Health Collective. In this podcast, we're going to be sharing our passion for, of course, holistic health, but also spirituality, healings, hormone, plant medicine, seasonal living, our love of nature, and our love of community. So we are gonna invite you to take a pause and take a nice deep breath. And join us on a path of healing, of self-discovery and self-love, and of stepping into the brilliance of who you really are. This is a podcast for the seekers out there. Those of you who know there's more to life than just surviving or going through the motions, and you want more, more health, wealth, happiness, love, compassion, connection, trust, surrender. And more faith. And you want that for others too. So we can make this world a better place for us all. So go and grab a cup of ceremonial grade cacao and join us as we explore what moves through us, that which is divinely led, so we can all move from fear to walls. More faith. Thank you so much for being here with us today. Welcome to This Cancer four Moon episode with me. Sarah, welcome to the first four Moon of 2026. How have you been? How was your festive period? And let me just start by warming, welcoming you in with a couple of breaths. I'm going to be sharing around emotions and feelings and family healing. So we're gonna delve into some really big subjects, things that can really help you to feel more happiness and bliss, or actually just feel what it is that you desire to feel more of in 2026. And a really good place to anchor is through the breath. So if you could notice your exhale. Just following it right to the end, the very last drop of your outbreath, and then following your breath in notice if you feel in a rush to get all the information about this moon or if you feel ready, just to allow surrender. So we are moving into full moon cancer, which is also known as Moon Child this time. It is happening in London on January the third at 10:02 AM. In New York at 5:02 AM and in LA at 2:02 AM some good numerology there. So I'll just remind you that full moons are often described as time of illumination because there's so much light around a moment when light is cast on what's been hidden for the rest of the cycle, quietly growing or waiting for our attention. Traditionally, full moons are supportive for cleansing, hydrating, releasing, and also celebrating. This is, something that we don't do a lot in our culture. And within this episode, just invite you to take what resonates and just leave the rest. There's always a lot of information and we, we often try and let that Virgo perfectionist quality come in and know it all and do it all. But, just take what resonates and maybe take one action step here as well. Your body knows what it's ready for. So cancer is a water moon. We know that the moon has a powerful relationship with water. We see this clearly in the tides, the moon's gravity pulls and releases the oceans, and our bodies are largely made of water. 70%, but molecularly more than that. So we can really experience this subtle or obvious push pull effects during the Full Moon Will. Probably feel it more on a water moon emotionally, but also mentally and physically. We are all of these things. We can't really separate them, each astrological sign is ruled by a planet and cancer's ruled by the moon herself, so she's very at home here. You really might notice heightened sensitivity changes in your sleep, vivid dreams or emotional waves, and you may also experience nothing, and that's completely valid. I'm gonna go into feeling your feelings later in the episode, and sometimes we can't feel our feelings, so I just wanna validate that. If your nervous system already carries a lot of fatigue, stress past trauma, full moons can sometimes amplify what's already present. This is why I love the moon practice because it was present for me. I just wasn't tuned in. I just thought. Life got really hard sometimes and it was just unfair. But now that I'm tuned, switched on living cyclically, I know what potentially could come up. Especially if I'm not looking after my self-care in a seasonal way. If we are in balance, if we are in homeostasis, then these waves of change can be really easy. They can be much easier. So if you're feeling a lot, it doesn't mean anything's wrong with you, it just means you are alive, you are human, and your body is communicating. Hydration, mineral, balance, and rest can be really specially supportive at this time. Not as a rule, but as an offering of care. And, I'm just back from India I'll have to talk about it on another episode because it was completely life enhancing and. It's preventative healthcare, the system of Ayurveda, which, I've done some training in but have taken a much deeper dive into. And it really recognizes our individuality. It doesn't try to prescribe and put us into a system of medicine or self-care that might not suit our lifestyle or suit our body type, known as a dosha type. Really honoring your individuality. So. Back of the symbology and the themes present for this moon. As I mentioned, cancer is a water sign ruled by the moon herself. So she's at home, and home is one of the themes here. Cancer is often described as the great nurturer of the zodiac. I really love this sign. She's the protector, the mother, the one who holds what is precious, close to the heart. Cancer remind us that feelings matter even when the world teaches us otherwise. And this sign is really deeply connected to home, family, emotional safety, foundations and belonging, and it's important to name for many people, home or family may have not felt safe. If that's true for you, you are welcome to reinterpret these themes as inner safety chosen family or the ways you learn to care for yourself. now, cancer teaches that sensitivity is not weakness, it's strength. Perception, it's wisdom. Does anyone resonate with me? I used to perhaps feel strong feelings and find them totally inconvenient. I just wanted to get on with my day, get into my work or whatever else I was doing. And I didn't want to feel these heavy waves of emotion. But now it's very welcome in my experience.'cause I know it guides. It is the emotions of the soul. The symbology for cancer is the crab. And let's think about the crab. The crab carries its home with it, a shell that protects its soft, vulnerable interior. And this shell is such a powerful metaphor for boundaries. Boundaries aren't walls that shut the world out. They're containers that help us decide what we let in, what we share, and when. Without a shell, we can leak our energy into the world and feel depleted with a shell that's too rigid. We may feel isolated or stuck or boxed in. So under this full Moon, we can really gently explore boundaries where things might need softening and where they might feel like they need strengthening in him. And we'll speak to this a little bit more, but I wanted to speak about feeling your feelings first.'cause boundaries and feelings can go hand in hand together. So that phrase feel your feelings I wouldn't say I don't like it, but it's not fully informed. Why this advice is well intentioned, it is not actually always accessible, especially if you are carrying high stress or trauma. From a polyvagal point of view, if the body is in freeze, shut down, numbness or apathy, you might not be able to feel a lot. Forcing yourself to feel more can actually feel unsafe or impossible because when you come out of shutdown, you might find yourself in a lot of anger or a lot of anxiety. So if this is you, please know that you are not blocked. You are not broken. Our body's always working for us. Your nervous system is just trying to protect you because it doesn't think it's safe yet. Sometimes the most loving work isn't feeling more, but tending gently to what is. So if there is numbness, if there is exhaustion, if there is nothingness, that's still feedback. That's still a feeling and it's really valuable. So I want you to maybe ponder or reflect under this moon, what do you desire to feel? Maybe you wanna feel excited about the year ahead. Maybe you wanna feel safe in your own skin, or less pressure. Maybe you really desire to feel pleasure from food, feel desire in the bedroom. Feel energized, not tired anymore. So what you get to do is you can feel a little, or if you're in a really stressful situation where you can't feel all the feelings, you can feel later. And you can feel through the body, not the story. The story is often, it's always on me. I have to do everything, I'm not really coping, and that's a very stressful mindset. So you can feel through the body, not the story if that feels safe for you. So a lot of the work in my trauma informed containers is about helping people to feel safety first, and safety is connection. We're not always gonna feel safe in the world because we can't control what is happening outside of ourself, but we do get to control what's going on within us and we can feel, we can connect with parts of us that do feel grounded, that do feel stable, that might feel that it's a lot, but know that we can look after ourselves as we go through this, intense period. On the other end of the spectrum of not feeling is, hi my empaths, feeling too much. My highly sensitive people heightened empathy, heightened, amplified emotions absorbing the moods and the needs of others. Because cancer is the nurturer, like the mother of the zodiac, a lot of you, most women, they do. Have, natural nurturing within them. We do love to take care of others, don't we? We get, most of us feel a lot of satisfaction out of that feeling, but what happens is we completely deplete ourselves, in our quest to serve others, to help others. So if you are feeling a lot, this sensitivity is a gift, but it can become really overwhelming without boundaries. So coming back to those boundaries, this full moon, reminds us that we don't have to carry the weight of the world. We don't have to feel everybody else's feelings. If someone's having a hard time, we can be there with them. We can be there for them, but we don't have to feel their feelings for them. You allowed to put things down. That's why full Moon practices are great because you can look at what you're carrying and you can do some releasing and some cleansing techniques, and we guide you through this in our online Full Moon Circle. We work with six months cycles. Actually, let me just go back slightly about boundaries. Our mind gets conditioned into thinking that we need to act a certain way, be a certain way, show up as a certain identity. Now, especially as we move through perimenopause and beyond, our boundaries might really shift. But the culture kind of says that we need to be a certain way. This is often why we find women feeling suffocated in relationships and wanting to leave their partners, leave their jobs and, be alone.'cause the system's not really set up for us to change. Boundaries are so important and knowing our inner boundaries. So what I help women to do when I work with them one-to-one or when we work within group containers, particularly through feeling wholeness, is to tune into their body's way that it says yes and no. How does your body say no? Because your mind might be going, well, I should say yes, I should show up. I should be there. But the body is clenching and holding and gripping. The body say no. So I also help people to find their maybe or their, I don't know yet, I'm not sure. And what we wanna do is get used to tuning into the body. When someone asks us a question, maybe tune into the body, what's the body saying? And it might be so stressed out. Anyway, you can't get to it yet. But it's a practice and you re tune in and perhaps you'll just say, just take a breath, tune in. I'm not sure. Can I get back to you Now? That's the boundary. That's setting a new boundary. Now the moon practices tend to work on six month cycles. So if you cast your mind back to summer, that was when we had the new moon in cancer. Cancer is connected to emotional memory and cycles. So without judgment, simply notice what shifted for you emotionally. How do you respond to your feelings now compared to then? And have your boundaries changed? Are there places that you've become more anchored or more porous? And there's, again, there's no right answer. There's just awareness and most of us really weren't taught healthy boundaries. Many of us weren't, but some of us were. And this is a skill that we can develop and practice, not something we perfect. One powerful practice is tuning into that body's yes or no, and. If the mind is, automatically reacting, I can really recommend, connecting with breath work practices, or yoga, meditation, journaling, so that you can work with your mind. So when we work with the mind, we're automatically going to be working with the emotions as well. But the body does speak more quietly, often through sensations, tension, expansion, or contraction. So this full Moon really is about tuning in, tuning into your emotions and how the body listens to them, and the stories that the mind just go on automatically. Now each mean have a body parts which are under the influence that may feel like they need some extra self-care. We've got that free download, what I mentioned most episodes. So if you haven't got it yet, go and get it. It's, beautiful printout. It's about three pages. It tells you what emotions are under influence and what body parts. So under this moon we've got. The chest. If you think of the mother energy here, the nurturing energy, the breast and the chest, they do feed the stomach and the diaphragm. Diaphragm is a huge muscle connected to breathing. So in this moment, if it feels safe, you might place a hand over your heart or belly and just breathe. Bring awareness. Just notice. And in the full Moon ceremony online, which has happened on the 2nd of January at seven 30 live, a lot of people get it on a replay and just practice it in their own time as well. We are going to be going through some deep dive into natural holistic healthcare practices for the chest, breast, and diaphragm. And we are also going to be taking time out to practice them in that ceremony as well. So we do share a lot of information, but we give you time to practice them. Every full moon is a really good time to cleanse. So whether you wanna just, you know, maybe things have got a bit cluttered over the festive period. Maybe there's a few things you'd like to donate, to somebody in need, or a friend or a charity. It might just be having a little cleanup, smudging your space, opening windows. Taking a salt bath can be really good. And, coming back to your intentions and just seeing where you might want to apply more of your efforts and what you might want to let fall away. The full moon shines light on what's been hidden. So remember, things can feel very bright and intense, so it's really important to take some time out. So we'd love to invite you to that four moon circle on January the second at seven 30 UK time. It is a really gentle, supportive, nurturing space. There's no pressure to show up a certain way, no need to perform, and we would love to see you there. So as I close the episode, I just wanted to give you some soul inquiries. Are you nurturing the relationships that have got your back? How secure do you feel in the world right now? And how are you building emotional resilience? So we don't need all the answers right now, but they're certainly time worthy. Soul inquiries. Awareness alone is really powerful. And just to remind that sensitivity isn't a weakness and boundaries are a form of love. You're allowed to go at your own pace. So let's close with a gentle breath. Breathing in, maybe breathing into the heart space, the chest space, and breathing out. And just notice one thing that you can see around you that let your nervous system feel connected to the world that you are living in. As I look up, I've got bamboo, which is really gently swaying in the breeze outside my window. And so thank you so much for being here and I love it when you reach out and you tell me what's moved you this episode and I'll see you soon. Thank you a million times, Ava, for joining us on this podcast episode. You can support the show by giving us a follow on any podcast platform you're listening to this on. If you already follow us, then thank you so much and maybe share this episode. If you think of someone, someone comes to mind where you think they'd really benefit from listening to this. This is one way that we like to spread the love with our friends, is sharing podcasts or playlist. So let them know that we are thinking about them. So just send it on to them with a few words about why they might enjoy it. And if you'd like to check out any of our in-person events or retreats or our online offerings, head over to our website, www.holistichealthcollective.co.uk. We'll see you in the next episode.