How A Week In Greece Made Me Reconsider What It Means To Be Well
"Your main aim this week is to just exist." My mum and I smiled when a member of staff told us this shortly after arriving at KOIA All-Suite Wellbeing Resort in Kos. It sounded lovely in theory but I wasn't entirely sure I remembered how.
The months leading up to the trip had been some of the busiest and most emotionally draining I'd had in a long time. Work deadlines, personal stress, early alarms, late nights and the constant mental juggling act that comes with being self-employed had left me running on empty.
The strange thing was, from the outside, I probably looked perfectly healthy. I exercise regularly and I eat well. Yet despite doing all the things that are supposed to support wellbeing, I'd never felt more out of balance. My sleep has been atrocious, regularly waking at 3am with a racing mind, mentally working through deadlines and to-do lists before I'd even opened my eyes. I felt permanently switched on. Tired, but wired. Exhausted, but unable to properly relax. I was constantly checking my phone, creatively stuck and unmotivated in a way that felt very unfamiliar. Even downtime had started to feel difficult. If I wasn't working, I felt like I should be.
As someone who writes about wellness for a living, there's an irony there that isn't lost on me. Every day, I'm researching health, interviewing experts, testing products and learning about the latest ways we can supposedly optimise ourselves. Somewhere along the way, I'd started treating wellbeing like a checklist rather than something I was actually supposed to feel.
I was so focused on movement, nutrition and healthy habits that I'd stopped paying attention to how I actually felt. Rest. Not just sleep, but proper rest. The kind that allows your mind to slow down and your nervous system to stop behaving as though every day is an emergency. Deep down, I knew another supplement wasn't going to fix how I was feeling. I needed a reset.
The wellness paradox
Every year, I'm incredibly lucky to spend a week away with my mum. We've been doing it for seven years now and it's become one of the highlights of both of our years. We both love Greece for many of the same reasons. The slower pace of life, the long days of sunshine, the beautiful sunsets and of course the Mediterranean food. Entire days seem to stretch out in front of you rather than disappear before you've had a chance to enjoy them.
This year, though, I wasn't looking for adventure, sightseeing or even sunshine. More than anything, I wanted to feel like myself again. I wanted uninterrupted sleep. I wanted to stop waking up anxious. I wanted my brain to stop feeling as though it was constantly running in the background. Most of all, I craved a break from the feeling that I should always be doing something.
KOIA couldn't have been a more perfect place for it. Perched above the Aegean Sea, the adults-only resort is built around the Hippocratic Principles of Living, inspired by Hippocrates himself, who was born on Kos. At the heart of the philosophy is the idea that nature is the greatest healer.
At first, I dismissed it as the kind of wellness chat that sounds lovely on a brochure. By the end of the week, I found myself wondering if they might be onto something. Everything at KOIA encourages you to slow down. The architecture sits quietly within the landscape rather than competing with it. The minimalist design feels calm rather than stark. The views stretch endlessly across the sea, making it difficult not to pause for a moment and take them in. Most importantly, there was no sense that you should be squeezing more into the day. After months of every day feeling pretty non-stop, that felt like a radical concept.
Learning to listen
Like many people, my default response to stress is often to keep pushing. To keep going and not slow down. I packed my running trainers expecting to head out most mornings like I usually would on holiday. I didn't run once. A year ago, that probably would have bothered me but this time, it felt like the right thing to do. For the first time in a while, I started listening to what my body was actually asking for instead.
My body was tired. So instead of running, I walked a lot, we did yoga and I did a few low-intensity workouts with some dumbbells in the hotel gym. There was movement, but there was no pressure.
Most evenings ended with a visit to the sauna which, admittedly, sounds ridiculous when it's already 30 degrees outside. Around 6pm, we'd head there before dinner (with a hydrating hair mask in of course), before emerging calmer, sweatier and ready for an ice-cold shower. It became another ritual that marked the transition from doing to simply being.
The more I relaxed into the rhythm of the week, the more I realised that sometimes the healthiest thing you can do is stop fighting what your body is trying to tell you.
Returning to natural rhythms
One of the things I loved most about the week was how connected it felt to nature. We spent most of our time outdoors. We woke naturally around 7 or 7.30am rather than to the sound of an alarm. Breakfast followed some kind of gentle movement. The rest of the day was spent by the pool, the sea and a shaded sunbed with a book.
Food was a huge part of the experience too. Breakfast was always a highlight, with colourful plates of fresh fruit, chia puddings, thick Greek yoghurt, local honey and made-to-order omelettes. Every meal seemed to celebrate the ingredients themselves rather than overcomplicate them.
Dinner was often centred around fresh fish, generous amounts of olive oil of course, seasonal veggies and salads picked from the garden. Even the menus reflected the resort's wellbeing philosophy, highlighting ingredients and explaining some of their nutritional benefits. It never felt preachy, just a gentle reminder of how closely food, nature and health are connected.
One of our highlights was joining a tour of KOIA's garden with the head chef. We wandered through rows of herbs, vegetables and fruit grown on-site and used throughout the menus. It gave a completely different appreciation for what ended up on our plates later that day.
Looking back, I suspect part of the reason I felt so different by the end of the week was how closely our days aligned with natural rhythms. We woke with daylight rather than alarms, spent most of the day outdoors and ate meals at regular times. By evening, I felt genuinely tired rather than overstimulated. It was a reminder that our bodies are designed to respond to light, movement and routine in ways that modern life often makes difficult.
Perhaps the biggest surprise, though, was my sleep. At home, I can't nap. Even when I'm exhausted, my mind will not switch off during the day. Yet in Greece, I found myself retreating back to our air-conditioned, dark room most afternoons and falling asleep within minutes. I napped almost every day. That alone told me everything I needed to know about how tired I'd really been.
What struck me most was how quickly my body responded once it felt safe enough to slow down. The naps, the deeper sleep and the reduced urge to constantly check my phone all felt like signs of a nervous system finally coming out of fight-or-flight mode.
Connecting and disconnecting
One of the things I value most about these trips is the time I get to spend with my mum. It’s become way more than just taking a holiday together. She's one of the few people I can talk to about absolutely anything, and being around her has always made me feel calm, grounded and completely myself.
We spent hours talking over breakfast, by the pool and across long dinners as the sun disappeared into the sea. We laughed a lot, played cards most evenings and never ran out of things to talk about.
That sense of connection was just as restorative as the sunshine, the sleep or the slower pace of life. Some people have a way of making you feel calmer just by being around them. My mum has always been one of those people for me.
At the start of 2026, reducing my screen time had been one of my goals. For a few weeks I did well. Then life happened, work got busy and old habits crept back in. Here, it felt surprisingly easy to let go of the constant checking. My phone stayed on silent. I set an out-of-office (which as a freelancer is much harder than it sounds), and for the first time in months, I didn't feel glued to a screen or the need to constantly be checking my emails, Slack and WhatsApp.
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The book that found me at the right time
One of the unexpected highlights of the week was reading Healthy Isn't Supposed To Be This Hard by Sarah Macklin. This couldn't have arrived at a better moment and after the very first page, I felt like it was talking to my soul.
Every few pages I found myself folding down another corner. Its main message is that self-compassion is the foundation of lasting health and happiness. This landed in a way it probably wouldn't have done a few months earlier.
When I reflected on the things that had helped me most during the trip, they all came back to that idea. Not running when I was exhausted. Napping when I needed sleep. Switching off my phone. Taking time away from work. Allowing myself to rest without feeling guilty. They're all acts of self-compassion.
I do think this really is something we don't talk about enough when it comes to wellness and the art of being well. There's a quote I've come across recently that has stayed with me: you can take all the supplements in the world, but if you aren't dealing with what's going on in your head and your heart, you'll never truly be healthy. That hit a nerve. Because if I'm honest, I'd spent so much time focusing on physical health that I'd stopped checking in with myself emotionally. I knew how to train, how to eat well and how to tackle a to-do list. What I wasn't doing was giving myself enough space to process, recover and come up for air. This trip and this book reminded me that wellbeing is emotional and mental too, not just physical.
Redefining what a holiday truly is
There's been a lot of discussion recently about redefining what a holiday actually means. For years, travel seemed to become another thing to optimise with more experiences, more plans and more places to see. This trip was the opposite. There was nowhere I urgently needed to be and nothing I needed to achieve or tick off. There was no pressure to make every second count which is probably why it was so restorative.
Of course, I'm fully aware how fortunate I am to be able to take a trip like this. The setting was beautiful. Spending uninterrupted time with my mum in a setting so beautiful is something I never take for granted. When I think back on the week now, it's not the massages or even the beautiful setting that stand out most. It's the conversations with my mum, the card games after dinner, the afternoon naps, the sunsets, the garden tour, the simple pleasure of reading for hours and the feeling of not being in a constant rush.
Before we left, the team gave us a cutting of basil from the garden along with a small KOIA pot to grow it at home. A reminder of a week that taught me more about wellbeing than any wearable, supplement or wellness trend has in a long time.
By the end of the week, I realised that what had initially sounded like a throwaway comment on arrival was actually the lesson I needed most. For a few days, my only job had been to exist and it turned out I was far more in need of that than I realised. Not because it offered a quick fix, but because it reminded me of something I'd forgotten… Being healthy isn't just about looking after your body, it's about looking after your mind, your nervous system and your capacity to rest too.
I came home feeling lighter, calmer and noticeably more energised than when I left. My gratitude journal is back. I've signed up to Stuart Sandeman's Breathpod app and have been making time for the wind-down sessions before bed. I'm trying to be more present, more aware of my limits and better at listening when my body and mind are asking for a pause.
Will I suddenly become someone who never checks their phone, never overworks and always prioritises rest? Probably not. But a week in Greece did make me reconsider what it means to be well. For the first time in a long time, that definition has a lot less to do with doing more and a lot more to do with knowing when to slow down.
The habits I'm trying to hold onto:
Keeping my gratitude journal by my bed
A short breathwork session before sleep
More yoga and walking, less pressure to train
Protecting genuine downtime
Remembering that not everything requires an immediate response
Words by Samantha Nice for The Well Edit.
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