Apr 23

Apr 23 When Wellness Isn’t Working: A Few Small Things That Might Actually Help

Or: A Wellbeing Prescription for People Who Are a Bit Tired of Self-Care

There’s this moment that happens, usually when you’re standing in your kitchen at 9 pm, surrounded by unopened supplements, a meditation app you never use, and a wilting bag of spinach you meant to juice.

And you catch yourself thinking:

When? And how? And maybe why?

You might even ask this: What is going on with this wellness thing anyway? Is it really helping me feel better, or has it become another thing that I feel like I’m failing at?

Maybe you’ve tried the things. The early mornings. The gratitude lists. The wild swimming trend. Maybe you have six lists in the notes app on your phone with titles like “Things That Might Help”.

And maybe none of them have really helped in the way you hoped. Or they did for a moment, but you couldn’t sustain them beyond the three days that you managed to fit them in before life took over again.

Wellness might have once felt simple. Now it can tend to feel like homework.

There’s always something new to do. Another morning routine to master. Another life hack to implement. Another hot take about gut health or cold plunging or celery juice, or which milk you should actually be drinking.

And all of it — somehow — starts to feel like work.

Which is wild, really, when you think about what wellness is supposed to be: care, comfort, restoration, return.

But this is where so many of us seem to have landed — in a place where self-care feels like another thing to get right.

So what do we do when wellness starts to feel like a chore? When it’s not that we want to abandon caring for ourselves — but we definitely want to care differently?

We look somewhere else.

We step sideways.

We get messier, softer, smaller.

We look for things that feel less like a regime, and more like a reminder — of what feels human. What feels good. What feels possible.

In this month’s Wellbeing Prescription, we curated a handful of books, podcasts, ideas, and places that won’t ask you to be better or do more.

They won’t tell you to wake up at 5 am or optimise your sleep cycle.

But they might just make you feel a little more like yourself again.

Books for Wellbeing Confusion

Real Self-Care by Dr Pooja Lakshmin — for redefining what care really means
I Didn't Do The Thing Today by Madeleine Dore — for gentle rebellion against productivity culture
I Haven’t Been Entirely Honest With You? by Miranda Hart — for humour and humanness in equal measure
Wellness by Nathan Hill — for recognising yourself (for better or worse) in fiction

Browse more of our edit of the books that can help you navigate the sometimes overwhelming world of wellness.

Podcasts to Walk With

Everything Happens with Kate Bowler — for kindness + complexity
Maintenance Phase — for myth-busting wellness culture
The Happiness Lab — for the science of what actually matters

Discover more podcasts that can help you find a more real-life approach to wellness here.

TV to Watch Without Guilt

Ted Lasso — for joy and simplicity
White Lotus— for sharp, biting wellness satire
Nine Perfect Strangers — a wellness resort offers more than it says in the brochure
Shrinking — what happens after your therapist says that’s time
Loot — for when wellness means a water bed filled with camomile tea and a koi pond filled with fish you are slightly scared of (the billionaire kind then)