The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in major restructuring of routines and protocols in universities across the globe. The pandemic has disrupted the long-established routines of academic’s everyday life, shifting from on-site teaching and supervision to remote teaching, thus confining academics to a two-dimensional world where work life happens almost entirely without human contact. To date, little is known in regard to activities that academics do outside the university; activities that focus on rest, renewal and family structures, centring care for the private sphere. In this chapter, we share a collection of autoethnographies that focuses on self-care strategies which we implement to create a sense of wellbeing during this time of world crisis. We transcend culture and context as we offer our narratives to encourage other academics to protect the reflective practice that is essential to personal wellbeing as well as quality research and education. © 2023 selection and editorial matter, Narelle Lemon, Heidi Harju-Luukkainen, and Susanne Garvis; individual chapters, the contributors.