Believe in being courageous, compassionate, caring and pickle juice

It’s almost hard to believe that a year has passed, since I sat down to write my first blog of 2024. This is blog No. 856. Although I don’t really make New Year resolutions, I am resolved to try and carry on writing and posting my weekly blogs, every Sunday, for the next 12 months. So, thank you to all of you, who have supported and read my blogs, and I hope you will continue to do so. Amongst all the celebrations, carol singing, eating and drinking and family and friends catch ups, there has certainly been much to read and think about over the Christmas period.

One of the stories I read came from a long-standing NHS colleague, and pioneer of the #earlyrisersclub, Kenny. He told the story of him and his late husband Phil, in particular their last five years. Back in 2020, Phil was diagnosed with T6 spinal cancer, and early treatment had left him with permanent paraplegia. Together, they developed #TeamBelieve as a way of telling the story of their journey. Phil died in September last year, but it was only as 2025 was ending, that Kenny felt it was the right time to share one last post of the #TeamBelieve story. Apologies for the alliteration, but theirs is a story of courage, compassion and care.

Kenny and Phil had been together for 34 years. Like everyone who experienced the loss of a loved one last year, Kenny is now facing a future that will be very different from his past life. My mother died last year. My parents had been married for nearly 69 years. Although my father has done remarkedly well since her death, the change in his life has been profound.  

Kenny had no choice about where he found himself at the start of 2026, but January is traditionally a time of the year where people do make choices, sometimes referred to as resolutions, about how to live their life. Now we enjoy the presence in our lives of not one, but two, Gen Z young ladies. They do make resolutions, and goodness they are organised in how they frame these. One has created an eight-themed set of resolution categories. It was the stories of how many Gen Z folk are looking to improve their lives in 2026 that provided me with much amusement over the Christmas break.

You will, I’m sure have seen of the stories as well. I particularly liked the notion of gargling with the pickle juice from a jar of pickles. Apparently, it’s a great source of electrolytes. I just want to know what they do with the pickles. It also appears that beetroot juice is making a bit of a comeback too (it is meant to reduce high blood pressure).

Of course, we can’t neglect the Nootropics (yes I had never heard of the these before). These are supplements, which allegedly improve your cognition, concentration and reduce stress. They come with some great names too. However, I don’t think your local Tesco will be stocking ‘Lion’s Mane’ or ‘Ashwagandha’ any time soon. Call me cynical (or just an old grump), but I’m not sure a daily dash of ‘Lion’s Mane’ is actually going to help someone understand, and deal with, whatever is causing them stress in the first place.

However, I may be a little frivolous in my observation there, as there is lot we can all learn from the Gen Z folk. They are, after all, a generation whose mental health and wellbeing has been adversely impacted by the consequences of global turbulence, wars, a very sustained cost of living crisis and of course, a disruption to their education resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic. Against this often-challenging backdrop to their lives, Gen Z folk have clearly recognised the critical importance of building and sustaining healthy relationships with others, as a way of protecting and maintaining their mental health and wellbeing.

They actively work at nurturing such relationships. Emotional intimacy is as important as physical intimacy. Easy words to write, but I think more difficult to translate into practice. It is also easy to see why. Gen Z are ‘digital natives’. They are the Instagram, Tik Tok generation. Navigating an online persona and online interactions with real world ones, can be challenging. However, they are showing us it’s possible to do so. And it’s not just about beetroot juice or Lions Mane supplements. It’s about holding on to, and living lives that promote those values and behaviours that were so evident in Kenny and Phil’s story: being courageous, compassionate and caring within all our relationships, and of course, being kind. Kindness matters, always. Wishing everyone a wonderful start to the New Year.