Welcome Fellow Humans!

In today’s edition of Well Wired, we’re serving up a bunch of digital wellness hacks that are hotter than a sauna in Seoul.

First up: From Monk to Machine—how to use AI to loosen your ego’s death grip and find a little calm in the code 🧘‍♂️. Then, we’re unmasking the dark side of AI beauty filters and Barbie-fied avatars—because not everything shiny is sacred.

Plus, I road-tested 5 AI hacks for sleep, stress and gut health—the results? Let’s just say my bowels are blissed out. And don’t miss the 5-minute ChatGPT trick that might actually make you want to work out again 🏋️‍♀️🤖.

And of course, remember that Well Wired ⚡ ALWAYS serves you the latest AI-health, productivity and personal growth insights, ideas, news and prompts from around the planet. We’ll do the research so you don’t have to! ❤️‍

Well Wired is constructed with AI and created by humans 🤖 👱

Todays Highlights:

🗞️ Main Stories AI in Wellness, Self Growth, Productivity

• The Dark Side of AI Beauty Filters and Doll Avatars 🤖

• I Used These 5 AI Hacks to Support My Sleep, Stress & Gut 🧘‍♂️🤖 

• HPV Vaccine Uptake Soars Thanks to AI Chatbot's Silver Tongue

• Fired? Here's How AI Can Help You Bounce Back Stronger

💡Learning & Laughs AI in Wellness, Self Growth, Productivity

• 💡AI Tip of The Day (From Monk to Machine: Using AI to Loosen the Grip of Ego)

• ⚡Supercharge + Optimise 🔋 (AI tools & resources)

• 📺️ Must watch AI videos (Who’s Driving the Creative Bus—You or AI? 🧠)

• 🎒AI Micro-class (5-min ChatGPT Hack to Love the Gym Again 🏋️‍♀️🤖)

• 📸 AI Image Gallery (The Tao of Healing Hands—Bruce Lee Style)

Read time: 6.5 minutes

💡 AI Idea of The Day 💡

A valuable tip, idea, or hack to help you harness AI
for wellbeing, spirituality, or self-improvement.

From Monk to Machine: Using AI to Loosen the Grip of Ego 🧘‍♂️ 🤖

In Zen, ego death isn’t about disappearing—it’s about waking up.

It’s the quiet collapse of the identity you’ve been polishing your whole life: the achiever, the fixer, the people pleaser who must be liked, needed, or right.

In everyday life, ego shows up when you take things personally, react out of fear, or obsess over how you’re perceived.

It’s the voice that says “I am this role, this story, this status.” 

Letting go of that voice?

That’s freedom.

And AI, oddly enough, can help you get there—one insight at a time.

Here are four ways that AI can help you gently question the identity you've been dragging around:

1. Create an Ego Journal Buddy

Use ChatGPT as a mirror.

Share your thoughts, doubts, or reactions to recent events with it.

Then ask:

Given what I just shared about [insert situation, thought, or recent event], what assumptions might I be making here—especially around [worth/control/identity] that I might not be fully aware of?

Let it surface blind spots—beliefs about worth, control, or identity you didn’t know were running the show.

2. Simulate Role Reversals

AI can play you or someone else—your partner, boss, or inner critic.

Ask it to respond as that person would.

This helps you see how much of your ego is tied up in defending, proving, or performing.

How?

Try this prompt:

Play the role of [person’s name or role, e.g. my partner, boss, inner critic] and respond to what I just said: [insert your message, action, or thought]. How would they likely react, and what does that reveal about how I might be defending, proving, or performing in this situation?”

3. Strip the Story

Ask AI to retell your biggest fear or recent conflict with all emotions and identities removed.

What’s left?

Usually just facts.

The rest?

Ego padding.

Here’s how…

Here’s what happened: [describe your fear or recent conflict]. Now retell this story with all emotions, judgments, and identity labels stripped out—just the bare facts. What’s left when I remove the ego padding?

4. Rewire with Reflection Questions

Ask ChatGPT for daily reflective prompts that challenge identity:

– “Who am I without my achievements?”
– “What part of me is trying to be right?”
– “If I dropped the story, what would remain?”

What happens when you try these four ideas:

You stop identifying with thoughts.

You see patterns instead of problems.

And slowly, ego stops being the driver and becomes just another passenger.

Remember, Ego death isn’t about vanishing—it’s about seeing through the mask.

And while monks sit with silence, you can sit with… your keyboard.

#EgoUnplugged #AIAsMirror #PromptedPresence

🗞️ On The Wire (Main Story) 🗞️

Discover the most popular AI wellbeing, productivity and self-growth stories, news, trends and ideas impacting humanity in the past 7-days!

AI Wellbeing 🌱 introspection

AI Beauty Filters and Doll Avatars: Crafting the Perfect Illusion at the Cost of Reality

“These Apps are Ruining Your Self-Esteem—And You’re Still Using It Every Day" 🧠

Imagine gazing into a mirror that doesn't just reflect but enhances—smoothing skin, sharpening jawlines and brightening eyes.

Welcome to the realm of AI beauty filters on platforms like TikTok and Instagram, where your new digital self will always outshine your less sparkly real version.

And now the latest craze?

AI-generated dolls.

Yep, you can now turn yourself into a hyper-glam doll with glowing skin, glassy eyes and AI Barbie doll accessories.

It’s part nostalgia, part new-tech chic and 100% addictive.

But here’s the catch: every airbrushed filter comes with a hidden side effect—a tiny whisper that says, “This is what you should look like.”

And the more you scroll, the more you filter, the more plastic you create, the louder that whisper gets... until it’s practically shouting in your brain like a Love Island contestant reciting Shakespeare—loud, confusing and weirdly convincing.

No surprise then that 3 in 4 kids as young as 12 already dislike their bodies and wish they could unsubscribe from their own face. By 21, that number jumps to 8 in 10. 🫣

According to a major new study the results are grim: social media is body-slamming self-esteem harder than a seagull dive-bombing a falling chip.

And it’s not just a passing fad—it's a verified trend.

Research shows 80% of girls have tweaked their appearance online by age 13, fuelling “Snapchat dysmorphia,” a growing urge to surgically match their filtered selves IRL.

Welcome to the age of digital beauty dysphoria—where your mirror is lying and your avatar gets more compliments than you do.

This Dove commercial, portrays the phenomenon best…

What’s more, these AI tools often promote a narrow, egocentric standard of beauty, sidelining diverse appearances and fostering unrealistic ideals.

“It’s like living inside a dream someone else is editing in real time—if you don’t know what’s real, your self-esteem becomes a character in someone else's Photoshop fantasy.”

The constant exposure to this plastic, perfected imagery can distort self-image, erode self-esteem, and, in severe cases, contribute to mental health issues like body dysmorphic disorder.

For some people this distrotion is like staring into a funhouse mirror every day until you forget what your real face looks like.

So, while it's amusing to see yourself as a flawless doll, it's vital to consider the psychological toll of perpetually comparing yourself to a digitally perfected version of yourself.

“Doll Me Up: The AI Trend That’s Not So Pretty Inside”​

Key Takeaways

• Digital Distortion: AI beauty filters and doll avatars can warp your self-perception, leading to increased body dissatisfaction.
  

• Narrow Beauty Standards: These tools often reinforce limited and unrealistic ideals, marginalising diverse appearances.
  

• Mental Health Risks: Overuse of these filters is linked to conditions like body dysmorphic disorder and heightened anxiety.

Why It Matters 🧠

In a world where the line between digital and reality blurs, understanding the impact of AI-enhanced images on your psyche is crucial. It’s the psychological equivalent of eating plastic fruit every day and wondering why you’re still starving—polished, seductive and completely void of nourishment.

The allure of a flawless digital self can create a chasm between your real appearance and your online persona, leading to acute dissatisfaction and a smorgasbord of mental health challenges with big names.

Recognising the potential harm of these tools will help you craft a more authentic self-view and cultivate healthier mental well-being. After all, being authentic in a world driven by AI will become the new currency—so embrace your uniqueness—warts and all!

“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken"

—Oscar Wilde

What’s Next? 🔮

Consider moderating your use of beauty filters and AI avatars.

Embrace and share unfiltered images to foster your authenticity. Don’t compare yourself or go out looking for a successful personality, or AI you, to emulate.

Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself.

Because as Hunter S Thompson famously put it, you are…

So cheer on the creators flaunting freckles and frown lines like limited-edition NFTs. Then wade into the comment section and raise the chat, not the pitchforks.

Think of your input into this global conversation as digital composting: turning filtered rubbish into something more nourishing.

Now be a doll and be your true unfiltered, real self!

How will you flirt with filters without ghosting yourself?

Further reading

• Social media triggers kids to dislike their own bodies

• What are the psychological pitfalls of the new AI doll trend?

• AI Filters, Self-Perception, Body Image and Self-Esteem

• Why are people creating a Barbie doll version of themselves?

Like what you’ve read?

Share this peek into the advent of AI dolls and filters by inviting your mates to subscribe to the Well Wired newsletter.

Wellbeing 🌱

I Used These 5 AI Hacks to Support My Sleep, Stress & Gut—Here’s What Happened! 🧘‍♂️🤖 

5 AI Wellness Hacks That Actually Work

Your inbox may be immortal, but you’re not.

Which is exactly why you need to spend less time doomscrolling and more time on your digital health. Because while your unread emails multiply like gremlins after midnight, your body's quietly waving a white flag.

Time to hit pause on the ciggies and chaos and plug into some AI-powered life support for your wellbeing.

Here are five AI-powered wellness ideas I unearthed while deep diving into health tech for this newsletter that might help…

Each one popped out at me while surfing the digital highway—helping me enhance my sleep, reduce stress and understand my gut health in ways that I can’t wait to try.

As someone who spent years fighting tech neck and algorithm-induced anxiety, I've personally tested most of these hacks over the past year.

Here’s what happened…

The Eight Sleep pad reduced my chronic insomnia after the first week (work in progress), while the ChatGPT breath coach got me through a minor panic attack during a delayed flight to Berlin.

I'm sharing these not just as a tech enthusiast, but as someone whose blood pressure readings and sleep scores have the data to prove their effectiveness.

Remember, while AI excels at crafting cat videos and polishing résumés, its true superpower might be to keep you alive and able to thrive. Dive into these five beauties from the AI wellness underground and revolutionise your health.

Trust me, it’ll be like discovering a secret gym in Narnia run by a cybernetic centaur 🦄💪

Your High-Vibe, Low-Effort Wellness Arsenal:

1. The Sleep Whisperer: Eight Sleep's AI Mattress Pad 🛏️

This is not just another sleep tracker—this genius pad learns your body's patterns and adjusts temperatures throughout the night like a weatherman with a PhD in your REM cycle.

Spooning optional, deep sleep guaranteed.

This one definitely helped me with my insomnia by cooling down my bed to a temperature that matched my body. Worth a try if you suffer from a lack of Zzzsss…

🔗 eightsleep.com

2. The Mini Zen Master: ChatGPT Breath Coach 🧘‍♀️

While dreaming up prompts for Well Wired readers, I asked my partner Jade, a breath work coach, to give me some insights into her practice. And voila, here is what we came up with—enjoy!

Simply prompt:

Guide me through a 5-minute breathwork session to reduce anxiety. I am currently feeling [describe your emotional or physical state], and I’m in a [describe your environment, e.g., quiet room, public space]. Use a [tone: calming/motivational/neutral] and incorporate [choose a breathing technique: box breathing, 4-7-8 breathing, alternate nostril breathing, coherent breathing, or the physiological sigh]. Include gentle prompts to help me stay focused and grounded, optional visualizations or body awareness cues, and begin by helping me set an intention such as [e.g., feel safe, regain control, let go of stress]. If my mind wanders, gently bring me back with supportive reminders.

Instant monk-in-a-box, minus years of meditation practice and sandalwood!

Now isn’t that a breath of fresh air.

3. Mind Expander: "AI is a Game Changer for Mental Health” by Dr John Grohol 📚

Dr. John Grohol, a pioneer in online mental health, explores how AI tools are transforming mental health care. He discusses the potential of AI to provide accessible support, especially for individuals hesitant to seek traditional therapy.

The article delves into the benefits and limitations of AI in mental health, emphasising the importance of integrating these tools thoughtfully. Technology won’t make you lose your mind, but it might help you find it.

🔗 Read on Medium

4. The Emotional Detective: AI Mood Tracker Ritual 💡

After six weeks of documenting my moods—from "celestial joy" to "spiritual hayfever – that persistent, itchy sense that nothing means anything"—I fed the data to ChatGPT.

What emerged was nothing short of revelatory: apparently, my Wednesday evening slumps coincided perfectly with my partners insistence on an emotional check-in, while my creative surges peaked between 29 and 73 minutes after my daily power nap.

This DIY emotional analytics has transformed my self-awareness from vague hunches into actionable patterns, all without the $200/hour therapy price tag.
Actually, I’d have to pay a 24-hour therapist to work these things out, so…

It's as if I now have a psychological detective, productivity coach and biohacker on 24 hour call—awesome!

So how did I do it?

→ Evening: Log your mood into Notion or Google Sheets (or use a AI emotion tracker like InTruth)

→ Weekly: Feed your emotional data to ChatGPT and ask it:

I’ve been logging my emotional states daily. Here’s my data: [paste your mood log]. Analyze this and tell me:
– What emotional patterns or cycles do you notice?
– Are there any specific triggers or time-based trends (e.g. certain days, evenings, or events)?
– What suggestions do you have for emotional regulation or self-care based on this data?
– Optionally, can you present this with basic categorisation or color-coded summaries?"

→ Result: You can now get personalised therapy insights with the bonus feature of color-coded charts your real therapist will envy.

5. The Gut Psychic: AI-Powered IBS Prediction 🧬

After my second conference call abandoned for an emergency bathroom sprint, I embarked on a desperate deep-dive into managing my own IBS nightmare. That's when I discovered this interesting gut research.

German scientists have engineered an AI-powered researcher that is the digestive equivalent of a psychic hotline—without the vague prophecies. By feeding AI your microbiome data and food diaries, this digital gut whisperer can now predict your IBS flare-ups before your intestines get the memo.

I would love to test this with my own embarrassingly detailed food journal (yes, I logged that midnight cheese incident) and see if I get a warning before my next business lunch.

According to researchers, their gut AI can predict your oncoming flare-up with such accuracy that it could give your bowels a courtesy call before they even think about staging a rebellion. 📞💩 

Bye bye mortifying poo moments!

You may not give a crap about this one, but I can’t wait to hear more!

🔗 The potential use of AI in IBS management
🔗 Making IBS medicine with artificial intelligence

There you have it—five wellness boosters straight from the AI health playbook, and medicine cabinet, of the not-to-distant future.

Remember, you don’t need to morph into some quantified-self cyborg who sips algae protein shakes while calculating sleep efficiency to three decimal places.

All you have to do is think strategically!

Start sprinkling just enough intelli-tech into your chaotic human existence to feel close to superhuman on Monday mornings, think with laser precision when it actually matters and perhaps—against all odds—discover that tofu isn't just edible but occasionally delightful.

The future of wellness isn't wearing a robot exoskeleton to work; it's wearing your favourite sweatpants while a code quietly optimises your health in the background.

🫶 Got an AI wellness hack that's changed your life?

Drop it in the inbox or tag us @wellwireddaily.

Quick Bytes AI News⚡

Quick hits on more of the latest AI news, trends and ideas focused on wellbeing, productivity and self-growth over the past 7 days!

Key AI Wellbeing, Productivity and Self Growth AI news, trends and ideas from around the world:

Wellness: HPV Vaccine Uptake Soars Thanks to AI Chatbot's Silver Tongue

Imagine an AI chatbot so good at answering parents' HPV vaccine questions, it's like having a digital Mary Poppins—practically perfect in every way. 🧚‍♀️💉 

In a trial across China, parents who chatted with this bot were three times more likely to schedule their daughters' HPV jabs. Like a dodgy used car salesman, this AI’s vaccine wisdom made needles suddenly seem less scary to parents.

Even in rural areas, where healthcare info can be as scarce as a hen's dentist, the bot's charm worked wonders.

Wellness: How 'Fill-in-the-Blank' AI is Revolutionising Health Monitoring

Your smartwatch's data can often seem like an incomprehensible riddle crafted by a jittery otter. Now researchers have trained a new type of AI to play 'fill-in-the-blank' with your fitness stats, turning health gibberish and random heart rate spikes into actual insights.

Finally—a wellness translator fluent in both Fitbit and Human. 🕵️‍♂️⌚

Human vs AI: Forget Killer Robots—Beware the Coders Behind Them

If you think AI's the villain, you're missing the plot. The real mischief-makers? It’s the humans behind the curtain. They're the ones programming AI with the subtlety of a sledgehammer, embedding biases, crashing code and letting shadows AI’s run amok like toddlers with a chainsaw.

Don’t fear the machines. Fear the puppet masters pulling the strings. 🤖🎭​

Additional reading: AI just passed the Turing test, but is it as smart as humans?

Productivity: Meet The AI That Plans, Cooks, and Organises Your Life

AI's now your personal concierge, chef and life coach—all rolled into one. Planning a trip? AI's got your itinerary, bookings and the local slang covered. Hungry? It suggests recipes based on what's in your fridge.

Feeling lazy? It manages your chores and playlists. You now have a digital octopus juggling your life's chaos with eight arms of efficiency. 🐙🤖

Self Growth: This AI Doesn’t Think—It Feels. Here’s Why It’s Worth $19B

Emotion AI’s blowing up like a balloon animal in a microwave—set to leap from $2.9B to $19.4B by 2034. 🧠💥 It’s teaching machines to read your face like your nan reads tea leaves—only creepier and way more lucrative.

Mental health, call centres, even cars are getting emotional AI. Now your iPhone may soon judge your mood swings.

Self Growth: Fired? Here's How AI Can Help You Bounce Back Stronger

If you’ve ever been kicked to the curb by an evil employer, there’s someone, or something, that has your back. AI’s now your unlicensed life coach—slashing bills, planning meals, drafting tear-jerker letters to banks and tuning up your CV.

You now have access to a battle tested butler in your browser to help you get back on your feet when you’ve been given the boot. The job market might be chaos, but you? You’ve got codes and attitude.

Fired? Good. Now let’s plot your comeback. 💥 🧠⚔️

⚡ AI Tool Of The Day

Your weekly AI tool extravaganza starts here. ✨ We’ve curated tools to boost your productivity, growth and wellness. Tested by us, loved by you. Efficiency just became easy peasy.

Wellness: Bearable 🩺

Imagine a mood journal and a data analyst went on a silent retreat together, then came back whispering insights about your gut, grief and garlic intolerance. Bearable tracks everything from your sleep to your serotonin levels.

Use: Mood, symptom, medication, sleep and diet tracking
AI Edge: Detects patterns and visualises what’s messing with you
Best For: Anyone juggling chronic illness, new meds, or life itself
🔗 bearable.app

Productivity: Akiflow 📅

Imagine your calendar and your task list got locked in a therapy session and came out finally speaking the same language. Akiflow fishes for your scattered tasks from a dozen apps and calmly schedules them—like a project manager with zero tolerance for your nonsense.

Use: Task and calendar integration across apps
AI Edge: Auto-captures, merges and schedules tasks from multiple tools
Best For: Workflow addicts, time-blockers and control freaks with ambition
🔗 akiflow.com

Self Growth: The Tarot Bot 🔮

Imagine a robot donning a velvet cloak, shuffling cards with mechanical precision and whispering cryptic wisdom into your digital ear.

The Tarot Bot offers AI-generated tarot readings that are as enlightening as they are delightfully uncanny. Perfect for those seeking daily divination without the need for incense or crystal balls.​

Use: Provides tarot readings via a chat interface.
AI Edge: Delivers intuitive card interpretations and spreads.
Best For: Individuals exploring daily tarot rituals or seeking spiritual insights.
🔗 thetarotbot.com​

AI wellbeing tools and resources (coming soon)

📺️ Must-Watch AI Video 📺️

🎥 Lights, Camera, AI! Join This Week’s Reel Feels 🎬

Creativity: Who’s Driving the Creative Bus—You or AI? 🧠

Imagine if Salvador Dalí, a teenage TikToker, and a bored LLM coded a ballet together, it’d look like this.

Elizaveta Bersteneva dives into a world where AI paints, writes and “dances”—but forgets to feel. From digital pirouettes to copy-paste creativity, this video asks the real question: can code catch goosebumps?

• What it’s about: Explores the tension between human imagination and AI-generated content—and who (or what) holds the real creative spark.
  

• AI Edge: AI can remix, replicate and recommend—but lacks lived experience, emotional depth and the sweaty uncertainty of true creativity.
  

• Best For: Teenage dreamers, analogue artists, curious educators and anyone who’s ever yelled, “That’s not art, it’s code!” while admiring a Midjourney illustration.

🎒  AI Micro Class  🎒

A quick, bite-sized AI tip, trick or hack focused on wellbeing, productivity and self-growth that you can use right now!

This 5-min ChatGPT Hack Will Make You Love the Gym Again 🏋️‍♀️🤖

⚡ What You’ll Learn:

You’ve got gym dread—like a cat faced with a bath. Same playlist.

Same treadmill.

Same existential sweat.

But what if your phone could moonlight as a personal trainer with good taste in music?

This 5-min AI hack builds fun cardio sessions and drops beats way better than your Spotify list 🎶💦

What 🧠

You're tired, uninspired and considering “cleaning the kitchen” as cardio. You don’t need more discipline—you need dopamine.

So ask ChatGPT:

Act as a certified fitness coach and music curator. Create a 15-minute, fun and energising cardio workout tailored for someone who is [fitness level, e.g. beginner / intermediate / advanced] and is working out [location, e.g. at home / in a small apartment / at the gym] with [equipment available, e.g. no equipment / resistance bands / treadmill]. Design the routine to match their goal of [goal, e.g. boosting energy, burning fat, improving endurance] and pair each workout segment with a high-energy song from their preferred music genre: [music preference, e.g. pop, hip-hop, EDM]. Include quick instructions for each exercise, suggested duration, and end with a short cooldown and a feel-good track to wrap up the session.

(Yes, fun. It’s legally allowed.)

Why 🤷🏽‍♂️

Because dragging yourself through a boring workout is self-punishment disguised as health.

This hack swaps willpower for wantpower.

How ⚙️

Open ChatGPT. Type that magic line.

Boom: 15 minutes of creative sweat with a soundtrack that kicks ass.

You're back in love with movement—and this time, it’s mutual.

Time for a selfware upgrade.

Quick Takeaway: ⚡

Workout dread?

Outsource your motivation.

ChatGPT’s your new gym coach.

🎧 Move. 🥴 Laugh. 🧠 Repeat.

🤖 Bonus AI Tool:

🔗 Fitify – For when you want AI to show the moves too. Your own gym in your jeans.

Will you let AI DJ your next workout and coach your comeback? 🎧💪

#AIFitnessHack #MoveWithTech #ChatGPTWorkout #DigitalDopamine #WellnessUpgrade #SmartSweat #AIForHealth #FitTech

📸 AI IMAGE GALLERY 📸

AI Art: The Tao of Healing Hands—Bruce Lee Style

He walks like a ripple through jasmine and chrome, a healer who kicks where the virus calls home. His herbs hum softly with delectable grace, while quantum-tonics realign time and space.

Each strike is a question, each pause is a cure, a kung fu of kindness—eternally pure. Muscles remember what language forgets, as his healing hands balance planets in meridian sets.

Want to create these images yourself?

Go to Midjourney and plug this prompt into the editor.

Advertising poster for a [add type of person here i.e. yoga instructor] in the style of Bruce Lee, enter the dragon, artwork by Neal Adams + Tetsuo Hara --ar 16:9

• Poem and digital artworks created by Cedric The Ai Monk.

👊🏽 STAY WELL 👊🏽

Join us every Tuesday & Friday for more dopamine detours and existential snacks. Until then: hydrate, meditate and don’t talk to your plants about bitcoin.

Until then stay wired and stay well! 🌱
Cedric the AI Monk - Your guide in the silicon wilderness.

Ps. Well Wired is Created by Humans, Constructed With AI 👱🤖 

🤣 AI MEME OF THE DAY 🤣