We hope you had a happy and mentally healthy festive period. For our first email of 2023 we’re actually going back in time, so bear with us.

Have you made any New Year’s resolutions? Did you make any in 2022, and stick to them? Some people swear by New Year’s resolutions, others don’t bother.

It’s quite difficult to pin down where this practice originated. The historical sources are thin. But there’s some evidence that people were making resolutions back in Tudor times. Interestingly, this often took the form of advice printed out on a pamphlet.

Going back further in time we discover the Peacock Vow, a New Year’s tradition associated with knights, chivalry, and a long vanished age.

Knights of old (yes, think of some of the stereotypes) swore the Peacock Vow at a feast commemorating the start of the new year. Placing their hands on a live or roasted peacock (which was supposed to represent the magnificence of the king and his realm), they vowed to uphold chivalric standards.

Values such as honour, courtesy, loyalty, and fair play.

In short, a behavioural code.

Well it’s fair to say that New Year’s resolutions, however well meant, tend to be rather inward looking, with the focus on ourselves. What can we do to make our lives better – improve our diet, drink less, exercise more, learn a new skill, etc.

The Peacock Vow is outward looking, with tones of social responsibility (given the very hierarchical society of the time) and care for others. Of course not everyone kept to the vow – just as we don’t often keep our resolutions – but that doesn’t detract from its intent.

And that intent – celebrating loyalty, mutual support, and provision of help to those who need it – is just as relevant today, especially when it comes to looking after our mental health and the mental health of others.

So why not try taking your own Peacock Vow this year? Ask a friend if they’re ok, being there to listen when they’re not, volunteer for a local charity, and being kinder to and more tolerant of others in our day to day lives.

Being kind is such a soft target, open to cynicism. But it need not be that way. It shouldn’t be that way.

Team Thrive