It’s a harsh reality: the wellness tools designed to help us switch off are the same ones keeping us constantly switched on. The five-minute meditation becomes another box to tick. The hydration tracker makes you second-guess whether you’re actually thirsty or not. The step counter celebrates your 10,000 steps but quietly shames you for not doing 12,000. What started as gentle guidance has turned into a digital supervisor, watching, scoring, nudging.
And here’s the kicker: for all the charts, graphs, and neatly packaged insights, most of us don’t actually feel better. We feel busier. The more we optimise, the more there is to optimise. For everything, there’s an app. And maybe, that is the real problem. Sure, they come with a promise to simplify our lives. But, what they’ve really done is complicate them in prettier fonts. And while they can be useful tools, they’re still just that—tools. Not life-changing miracles with a monthly subscription plan.
The illusion of control
There’s a comforting logic to tracking. The idea that if you can measure something, you can master it. Log your moods daily and voilà!, a tidy graph will reveal your emotional triggers. Wear a sleep tracker and suddenly you’ll know the exact percentage of “deep sleep” you’re getting. On the surface, it feels empowering.
But here’s the truth: tracking often amplifies the very issues it’s meant to solve. Studies show that people who monitor their sleep obsessively can slip into “orthosomnia”—a kind of anxiety caused by worrying about not sleeping well enough—a topic deeply discussed by Author Rob Hobson in his book, ‘The Art of Sleeping’. These apps affect our minds to such an extent that it starts dictating our emotions. A slightly restless night becomes a “bad score,” which then keeps you awake the next night. The same goes for mood apps: naming your anxiety can be helpful, but constantly logging it can turn into a ritual of worry, keeping the emotion alive rather than letting it pass.
What was meant to make you feel in control often leaves you more aware of how little control you actually have. You stop listening to your body’s cues and start waiting for an app to interpret them.
When living becomes logging
The constant recording creates a subtle but exhausting shift: life becomes less about living and more about proving you lived it, even to yourself. Instead of noticing how refreshed you feel after a walk, you’re annoyed that your app didn’t capture the exact route. Instead of enjoying your meal, you’re calculating its nutritional accuracy. Instead of sinking into a meditation, you’re wondering whether it’ll affect you if you don’t follow the exact instructions on the app. The rules pile up: drink this much, move this often, sleep exactly this way. Well, your relaxation shouldn’t come with more instructions than your actual job.
Balance is offline, messy, and personal
The part no app wants to admit? Balance isn’t neat. It doesn’t come with graphs, charts, or push notifications. It’s messy, subjective, sometimes contradictory. It looks like logging off before you’ve hit your “screen-free hours” goal. It feels like ignoring your hydration reminder because you’re not actually thirsty. It might mean skipping the 10,000 steps in favour of lying on the grass for an hour.
True balance is less about tracking and more about trust. Trusting your body when it says it’s tired. Trusting your instincts when they tell you to rest. Trusting that not everything has to be measured to matter.
Sign up to HSBC Premier Banking for insider access to leading wellness experts.
