A New Story for a New Year

If the story of humanity were written as a thousand-page book, the first 999 pages would tell a similar tale.

People gathered around fires. Small tribes surviving through co-operation, care, and vigilance. Other tribes were both neighbours and threats. Within these early communities, there was tenderness and belonging, but also fear and violence toward outsiders. Survival depended on the safety of the immediate group and staying alert to differences. Strangers were a potential threat, likely to be a raiding party.

On the very last page of that book, cities would appear, and only in the final few lines would we encounter machines, screens, and the relentless noise of modern life. In the briefest blink of evolutionary time, we have built a world that moves faster than our biology can easily cope with because our nervous systems are still reading from those earlier pages.

We are wired for connection, community, safety, and touch.  We still long to know we belong, but we no longer live in tribes; we live in a fast-paced, multicultural, ever-changing, diverse world where there is still a massive fear of ‘others’—a fear which gets heightened by a sense of scarcity and lack. 

A New Chapter

It is time to write a new chapter in the story of our evolution and find a way to help us regulate our nervous systems, restore trust, and learn how we can all be human together.

In 2017, Minouche Shafik, Director of the London School of Economics, said: “In the past, jobs were about muscles, now they’re about brains, but in future, they’ll be about the heart.”

This year marks the beginning of a new story, and it starts with Gentleness Awareness Day, when the myth of what is publicised as ‘Blue Monday’ is rewritten. 

19th January 2026 is now the UK’s first official Gentleness Day dedicated to bringing connection, presence, joy, and peace back into the heart of society through a deeper understanding of gentleness and everyday acts of care.

This day invites us to remember that how we meet one another, and ourselves, matters, and that gentleness offers a compassionate way for us to do this.

Exploring What Gentleness Looks Like in Practice

To mark the day, A Touch of Gentleness will be hosting a series of free online sessions, open to everyone and suitable for all abilities. These include yoga, qigong, massage, art, sensory exploration, and inner enquiry. Each session offers a different doorway into gentleness and will be led by practitioners who embody gentleness in their lives and work.

The day will conclude at 7.00 pm with a keynote talk by martial arts expert, artist, and teacher Ray Carbullido, titled The Power of Gentleness. 

Organisations, schools, communities, families, and individuals are all invited to take part in their own way.

Participation can be as simple as:

• Having a conversation about what gentleness means to you
• Sharing a story of a moment when gentleness changed something
• Meeting a friend or colleague with the intention to listen without fixing, rushing, or preparing your reply
• Noticing something in your day that feels like gentleness in your body

Between now and the day itself, people are invited to share stories and images through the #gentlenessday Facebook page and to take part in a photo competition from 2nd to 16^th January #gentlenessphotocomp. For more information, click here.

For too long, we have talked about resilience, strength, and survival. But survival has never been a solo act; it requires others. It is gentleness that enables us to engage with others in a supportive way.

• Gentleness creates safety.
• Safety creates connection.
• And connection is where healing, creativity, resilience and co-operation begin.

“The fittest may also be the gentlest, because survival often requires mutual help and cooperation.” Evolutionary biologist Theodosius Dobzhansky

The more ripples of gentleness we create, the safer, more connected, and more compassionate our world becomes.

Surely this is the story humanity most needs now.  

To join the online events and embark on the journey into gentleness, click here.

Please share this article far and wide. 

“‘In a gentle way you can shake the world”. Gandhi

Helen Prosper – Founder of A Touch of Gentleness