Monthly Archives: June 2025

Naturally, dyed-in-the-wool travellers are aghast at this touch-and-go method of holidaying. In April, content creator Kevin Droniak went viral for taking a day trip from New York to Cairo—ten hours each way—with followers in the comments calling it “impressive”, “unhinged” and “diabolical”. “I think it beats the whole purpose of travelling somewhere,” says Shivya Nath, an award-winning travel writer and author of The Shooting Star. “This sounds like a very tick-mark kind of travel. Almost like the peer pressure or internal pressure of ticking as many places off your list as possible.”

Dr Nabila Ismail, founder of South Asian travel club Dose of Travel, believes that when it comes to travel, something is better than nothing. “I think it’s pretty amazing that people are travelling in a way that fits their schedule, rather than not travelling at all. A surface-level snapshot of a place is better than no snapshot of a place.”

On her way to Portugal, Ismail made a 24-hour pit stop in Milan for the sole purpose of eating pizza and shopping. “Novel experiences are priceless because it’s so easy to get caught up in the day-to-day routine. Even with extreme day trips, it’s possible to learn something new, slip outside your comfort zone, learn about a different culture and shock your system,” she says.

Earlier this year, Racheal Kaur, an Indian-origin assistant manager in finance operations at AirAsia, revealed that her commute to work involes taking a flight from Penang to Kuala Lumpur five days a week, racking up a grand total of 700km each day. The mother of two wakes up at 4am to catch the 6.30am flight to Kuala Lumpur, returning by 8pm to spend time with her children before turning in for the night. Kaur claims that not only has this arrangement allowed her to strike a better work-life balance by allowing her to see her kids more often, but it has also reduced her overall expenses by knocking off the rent she would have to pay to keep her Kuala Lumpur accommodation.

Still, just like our eyes are first drawn to the most visually appealing item in a store, we must inevitably—even if reluctantly—turn our gaze to the price tag of these extreme day trips. While these adrenaline-fuelling experiences are no doubt soul-enriching—and in Kaur’s case, life-affirming—the cost of booking flight tickets solely to spend a single day across the ocean can make us, well, less rich in the monetary sense. Proponents of ‘travel math’ may argue that the money saved on accommodation balances out these expenses, but there are no reassuring arguments to take care of the climate cost: short-haul flights are more carbon-intensive than long-haul flights due to the significant fuel consumption during takeoff and landing.

Last year, I endured a particularly tough stretch of time where everything that could go wrong did go wrong. A handful of my editors got laid off, which meant I was getting less work (and money). My dog developed pesky, hard-to-treat allergies; I moved to a new state; my health insurance refused to pay for some steep medical bills; and then a truck smashed into our car and took off in a classic hit-and-run (to name just a few terrors).

I was suddenly stressing out about something pretty much every second of the day. After a few months of this, my therapist suggested I create a “worry window,” or a scheduled chunk of time during which I could, well, chew over my problems. It felt unnatural at first—after all, my brain was accustomed to panicking at will—but within a couple of weeks, I was feeling way less unhinged and much more like myself.

Claudia Giolitti-Wright, MA, LMFT, the founder of Psychotherapy for Young Women in New York City, commonly recommends this technique to her clients who struggle with anxiety or find themselves, like me, perpetually overwhelmed. Why? “A worry window gives your anxious thoughts a seat at the table, but not the whole house, so you can acknowledge them without letting them take over your entire day,” says Giolitti-Wright. Here’s how it changed my life—and how it could help you too:

What happens when your worries run wild?

This probably won’t come as much of a shock, but worrying incessantly can wreak havoc on your physical and mental health. When you’re stressed out, your body pumps out stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline (you might know this as the fight-or-flight response). While this physiological reaction energises you in the short-term so you can tackle whatever threat or problem is in front of you, excessive and long-term exposure to these stress hormones can trigger inflammation in your body and contribute to fatigue, difficulty sleeping, muscle tension, digestive issues, a weakened immune system and chronic diseases, according to Giolitti-Wright. “Constant worry really wears your body down,” she says.

Mentally, perpetually panicking about your problems can trigger feelings of anxiety or depression, irritability, and make it difficult to focus, pay attention and make decisions. It can also sour relationships, causing some people to isolate and withdraw and others to lash out at their loved ones. “Stress definitely impacts our ability to connect with others,” says Giolitti-Wright.

Why worry windows can be so helpful

When your worries don’t have any boundaries or limits, they can run the show, says Giolitti-Wright. I can attest to this—when everything was going wrong in my life, I spent every minute of my day puzzling over how to fix things. When I would be in a yoga class, for example, I was physically moving through the poses, but mentally, I was elsewhere, desperately trying to problem-solve.

Is the microbiota—the trillions of bacteria and yeast that live with the intestinal flora of your gastrointestinal system—on its way to becoming our best wellness ally?

Thanks to fairly recent research into gene sequencing, we now have a better understanding of this astonishing bacterial population living within our gut. According to André Burckel, a French scientist and pharmacist-biologist, the microbiota can “send messages to the brain, with an impact on neurotransmitters which then act on mood.”

We’re in a period of increase gut health awareness, but it can also be pretty overwhelming to know where to start to nurture your microbiome. Should you really be on a super-push for protein? Are probiotics the answer? Or prebiotics?

The signs of an unhappy gut range from bloating and lethargy to insomnia, reduced immunity, depression, and constipation. When your gut isn’t best pleased, it’s throwing the rest of your body off. So how can we optimise our microbiota? Below, three simple rules for having a healthy gut.

Focus on the right foods

Directly influencing mood, sleep, and both the locomotor (musculoskeletal) and circulatory systems, as well as the body’s defense system, the effects of microbiota extend far beyond the intestines and their impact on digestion. You have to take the utmost care of it to feel good and keep a healthy gut.

In his book The Burckel Diet, for Microbiota Health, Burckel recommends incorporating five key components into your daily diet. First, resistant starches like wheat, beans, or bananas to nourish the good intestinal bacteria. Secondly, beta-glucans, a type of soluble fiber that naturally occurs in things like oats and barley, and which increase the number of good bacteria, kills the bad, and lowers cholesterol levels at the same time.

Then, Burckel suggests fructans, which are a type of carbohydrate that naturally occurs in certain cereals, legumes, and fruit and vegetables like asparagus, chicory, and melon, all which help balance the microbiota. He also emphasises the importance of fibre—like kale, figs, or almonds, which increases gut diversity and is used by your gut bacteria to create short-chain fatty acids—good for brain health and metabolism. Finally, polyphenols, found in plant foods like dates, tea, spices, and cocoa, which can act like a prebiotic and benefit gut bacteria, or can be converted by the gut bacteria into beneficial fatty acids.

Eat raw

It’s a fact: Our hectic, stressed lifestyles, combined with an industrialised diet and reliance on antibiotics, put the functioning of the microbiota to the test. We now know that intestinal dysbiosis can lead to autoimmune pathologies, degenerative diseases, and even depression…The good news? We can take preventative measures, and optimize the functioning of our microbiota with the help of dietary prebiotics—another unsung hero of gut health.