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In conversations with friends and social media, TV and more, wellness is a hot topic, and more people than ever are striving for it.

In global consulting firm McKinsey & Co.’s 2025 Future of Wellness survey, 84% of U.S. consumers cited wellness as a top or important priority. Of that group, 30% of Gen Zers and millennials and 23% of older generations said wellness was a lot more important to them compared to a year ago.

Nothing will yank you out of the smug overconfidence of deeming yourself healthy than the flu.

With our longstanding Top Doctors, Best Dentists and women’s health stories, health has long been one of HONOLULU’s pillars of coverage. This month, alongside our annual Castle Connolly Top Doctors feature, we devoted the entire magazine to the topic. We asked some of Hawai‘i’s top physicians questions about everything from hormone replacement therapy to GLP-1s, brain health and bone density. Another feature delves into longevity, a big buzzword in the health and wellness space. People of all ages are focusing on longevity, which isn’t just about living a long life, but a quality one for as long as possible.

Personally, health and wellness are top priorities for me, too. And I learned a difficult lesson this year about what happens when you lose them.

Nothing will yank you out of the smug overconfidence of deeming yourself healthy than the flu. I had a severe bout early this year that arrived, ironically, just after I drafted my 2026 resolutions, which included a prosaic “stay strong and healthy.” My symptoms started with all-over-the-body inflammation, which turned into searing muscle aches, nerve pain and fatigue. The coughing began a day later, a persistent, phlegmy cough that didn’t allow me to sleep for more than an hour at a time. The next day, things went totally amok—fever and a piercing headache to add to the body aches and cough.

The following days were like nightmarish Groundhog Days, with the same repeating cycle of terrible sleep, waking up like a zombie, neck pain, fever, nonstop headache, scary coughing. No amount of Advil or Tylenol could stop the agony, and lots of anxious Googling and ChatGPT conversations didn’t help either.

Over the years, I’ve adopted quite a few wellness and health practices—daily meditation and breathwork and lots of yoga. So what happened while I was beset by this virus? I didn’t do any of it. I just dreamed of a magical shot that would end my inflammatory nightmare.

Partial relief finally came on Day 7. When I woke up, I was soaked in sweat—my body, hair, clothes and sheets were drenched. But I felt better, like something lifted. Mari Taketa, HONOLULU dining editor, said the same thing happened to her while she battled the flu, and she recalled how classics like Little Women and Wuthering Heights depicted deathly ill characters waking up after night sweats and being OK because their “fever broke.”

But my recovery was not linear. The next several weeks can only be described as a horrible, zigzagging journey, where one day I’d feel great, the next lousy. The fever and headache were gone, but I was smothered in a blanket of fatigue, weariness and anxiety, and my blood pressure spiked. It was frustrating, scary and humbling.

Although I’m mostly recovered, the flu got my nervous system out of whack, and it’s taken months to try to regulate it. As of this writing, I’m still not 100%. So, what’s the lesson? It goes back to the “smug overconfidence” I mentioned earlier. I realized that, no matter what, I couldn’t take my health for granted. It’s not a given, no matter how many times a week you do the 4-7-8 breathwork pattern. The body is a mystery and so are viruses. We’re all playing Russian roulette living among them, never realizing when and which ones will come for you. I’m proceeding with 2026 with a more nuanced take on my “stay strong and healthy” resolution. It’s been quite a start to the new year, but here’s to all of us getting through the rest of it in good health.