Beyond Quick Fixes: Why Lasting Wellbeing Can’t Be Hacked
- Helen Braddock
- 4 days ago
- 3 min read
At the start of a new year, the wellbeing conversation often gets louder.
More supplements.
More tools.
More techniques promising calm, focus, resilience or energy — fast.
A recent BBC article on wellbeing trends for 2026 highlights what’s gaining traction right now: recovery over hustle, JOMO instead of FOMO, brain-boosting supplements, vagus nerve “hacks”, wearable tech, and ever more ways to optimise ourselves.
On the surface, much of this sounds positive — even sensible.
And yet, many people I work with arrive feeling more overwhelmed than ever.
They’ve tried the magnesium.
They’ve downloaded the apps.
They’ve learned the breathing techniques.
They know what they’re “supposed” to be doing.
So why don’t they feel calm?
When wellbeing becomes another performance
For many capable, conscientious people — particularly in midlife — wellbeing quietly becomes another thing to get right.
Another area to monitor.
Another standard to meet.
Another way to fix what feels wrong.
The issue isn’t that these tools are useless. Some are genuinely supportive.
The issue is when they’re used as sticking plasters, layered over a nervous system that never truly feels safe.
You can stimulate your vagus nerve ten times a day.
You can say no to social plans and call it JOMO.
You can optimise your sleep, nutrition and supplements.
But if your system is still running on pressure, hyper-responsibility, overthinking, or the belief that rest has to be earned, anxiety simply finds another way to surface.
Anxiety isn’t a failure of discipline — it’s a signal
One of the biggest misunderstandings about anxiety is the idea that it’s a mindset problem.
That if you could just think differently, try harder, or apply the right strategy, you’d finally feel at ease.
In reality, anxiety is far more often a nervous-system response, shaped by long periods of responsibility, emotional load, identity shifts, and environments where slowing down didn’t feel safe.
When that’s the case, quick fixes don’t fail because you didn’t do them properly — they fail because they never addressed the root.
Why “back to basics” still isn’t enough
The BBC article also points to a return to basics: sleep, movement, nourishment, rest.
These matter — deeply.
But even these foundations can become another form of self-pressure if they’re approached from a place of fixing rather than safety.
I often meet people who are doing all the “right” things, yet still feel wired but tired, emotionally brittle, unable to switch off, or calm one moment and flooded the next.
What’s missing isn’t effort.
It’s internal safety.
The difference between coping and changing
Coping tools help you get through the day.
Lasting wellbeing comes from learning how to recognise when your system is activated, respond rather than override, regulate rather than push through, and rebuild trust with your body instead of battling it.
This is where long-term change lives.
Not in hacks.
Not in trends.
But in understanding how your nervous system works — and having a personalised, repeatable way to support it through whatever life brings next.
From trends to transformation
Wellbeing trends will always come and go.
Some will help.
Some will fade.
Some will return under new names.
What lasts is the ability to meet stress, uncertainty, loss and transition from a place of inner steadiness rather than survival.
That’s the difference between managing anxiety and no longer being run by it.
Between short-term relief and long-term resilience.
True wellbeing isn’t about adding more to your routine.
It’s about inhabiting your life differently — with presence, self-trust, and a nervous system that knows it’s allowed to rest.
And once you have that foundation, you don’t need the next fix.
You already have what you need.
This reflection sits at the heart of my work — supporting people to move beyond short-term fixes and develop a deeper sense of calm, clarity, and self-trust that lasts. If this resonated, you’re warmly welcome to explore my work further.
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