Health, Wellness: The New Essentials of Looking After Yourself in a Busy World
- Details
- Category: Haute This Issue
- Published on Friday, 18 September 2026 12:48
- Written by Ella Taylor
We have a very skewed perception of what taking care of ourselves should look like. Modern self-care needs to be much more practical and much more centered on practices that soothe the inner world, not the physical one.
Is it because of all the TikTok routines or clever marketing? Well, those certainly play a role. But looking after yourself isn't all about buying expensive candles and taking a bath with a viral essential oil. That can be nice, but it doesn't solve much when you're close to burnout. And if you feel lost or disconnected from yourself, here's a guide on how to return and look after yourself in a busy world.
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Make Your Home Do Some Of The Remembering
Your brain likes to juggle multiple things, but at some point, it reaches its capacity. You don't have to think of everything and then suffer the consequences if you fail to do so during a stressful or busy day. Put the bin bags in the bottom of the bin cupboard or keep your charger beside the bed. If something gets used constantly, its storage spot should be almost embarrassingly obvious. You need to turn your home into an ally.
You can do the same with health and household jobs. Keep sunscreen near the door if you regularly forget it, and put your water bottle beside your laptop before you start work. The goal isn't to become extra meticulous and organised. The goal is to remove five decisions from your day, and therefore to remove friction and unnecessary stress. Five fewer decisions can be valuable when you're already making approximately nine thousand others.
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Stop Treating Every Tired Evening Like A Failure
Sometimes you're tired because you've had a stressful day. That's it. You don't need to turn that tiredness into a moral investigation. It might not be about your sleep schedule, productivity or character. If you get home and can only manage toast and a quick shower, that's still a respectable evening.
A useful trick is having a low-effort version of your life ready for these days. Keep a few meals in the freezer and find some clothes that can be washed without special instructions. You aren't giving up on your goals if you decide to play your life on easy mode when you can. You're making room for the fact that you're a person, rather than an office computer.
Deal With Small Health Problems Before They Become Big Ones
Panicking over every ache is never productive or good for your health. Still, you also shouldn't make a hobby out of ignoring things. That tooth you've been avoiding because it only hurts when you drink something cold is still your tooth.
People are very good at negotiating with themselves about teeth. If you need an appointment, make it before your calendar prevents you from doing so. Searching for an emergency dentist in Penrith might become necessary when severe pain or an injury can't wait, but routine problems are much easier to handle when they're still routine.
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Keep One Meal That Requires Almost No Thought
You don't need to cook something new every night. Elaborate dinners are a good hobby. Instead of cooking and cleaning, pick one meal you like and make it easy to prepare. If you want to cook, you can do meal prep.
Sometimes, ordering takeaway looks like the only possible solution, but it's not. Having a reliable meal doesn't mean eating the same thing forever. Plus, you can experiment with food when you have the energy for it.
Make Errands Match The Places You Already Go
Stop creating separate journeys for every task. That is, if you can combine them. If the supermarket is beside your gym, do the shop after training. If the chemist is near your workplace, pick up what you need on the way home. Sometimes this does require more involvement and planning, but the goal is to save time and energy, even if that means investing some of it beforehand.
Every separate errand has a hidden cost. You have to remember it, travel somewhere, find parking or catch transport, and then get yourself home again. Combining jobs gives you some of your time back, and then you can spend those chunks of time doing something more interesting.
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Have A Default Answer For Invitations
Busy people often get into trouble because they answer invitations before checking whether they actually have the capacity for them. You can make this easier by having a personal rule. Perhaps you don't accept plans on two consecutive weeknights, or you keep one weekend day mostly free. The exact rule doesn't matter as much as having one.
It also helps to stop treating every invitation as something that requires a complicated explanation. You can simply say that you can't make it this time. Your friends aren't entitled to a PowerPoint presentation about your calendar. Protecting your free time means you can actually enjoy the plans you do accept instead of arriving exhausted and silently calculating how soon you can leave.
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Keep A Tiny List Of Things That Make A Bad Day Better
Write down the useful things that help when you're having a rotten day. Sometimes, a list can fix a lot of things because we tend to forget that certain things are an option. When you're stressed, you forget about tiny details that make your day brighter. That could be a takeaway you like, a walk around a certain park, or calling someone who makes you laugh.
When you're already stressed, your ability to invent solutions leaves the room. A short list means you don't have to. You can pick one thing and do it. Some days, looking after yourself isn't about fixing your whole life. It's about making the next three hours noticeably easier, then letting tomorrow deal with tomorrow.
Conclusion
There are plenty of things you can do perfectly well without doing them perfectly. Dinner can be nutritious without containing twelve ingredients and exercise can be worthwhile, even if you only have twenty minutes to spare. We live in a busy world, and you can't always dive all in and do everything perfectly. But you can show up and continue to take care of yourself the best way you can.
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Bio: Ella Taylor, a freelance writer specializing in business, technology, fashion, home improvement and lifestyle hails Sydney, Australia.
