Your weekly guide to thriving in every aspect of life—Physical, Mental, Spiritual, and Financial Wellness.

This Week’s Quote:
“Rest and self-care are so important. When you take time to replenish your spirit, it allows you to serve others from the overflow.”– Eleanor Brownn

Physical Wellness

Growth rarely happens in comfort. One of the most powerful ways to create a “9:03 moment” for yourself is through intentional challenge…a misogi (Micheal Easter talks about it in much more depth in The Comfort Crisis).

A misogi is a practice rooted in doing one thing each year so hard and so outside your comfort zone that there’s a 50/50 chance you might fail. It’s not about winning or losing. It’s about finding out who you are when things get uncomfortable.

In those moments, you learn resilience. You learn commitment. And you discover that you are capable of far more than you thought possible.

Pick something big. A marathon. I hike. A workout. Whatever it is..it must be something big.

Sometimes we need these disruptions, these chosen hardships, to remind us what’s inside. That’s the gift of a misogi, it forces us to stop, to struggle, and to see ourselves differently.

Mental Wellness

In Spark, Dr. John Ratey explores the powerful connection between exercise and the brain. His research shows that movement isn’t just good for the body: it’s one of the most effective ways to boost mood, sharpen focus, improve learning, and protect against stress, anxiety, and depression.

Ratey highlights how physical activity increases levels of BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor), essentially acting like “Miracle-Gro for the brain.” From classrooms to boardrooms, the evidence is clear: consistent movement rewires the brain for resilience, creativity, and long-term health.

Before you even pick up the book, here are 3 small actions you can take to feel its message:

1. Start your day with movement — even 10–15 minutes of walking or stretching can prime your brain for focus.
2. Use exercise as a reset — when stress builds, take a quick break to move your body instead of pushing through.
3. Make it social — combine activity with connection: a walk with a friend, a workout with a colleague, or a family bike ride.

The core insight: exercise is not optional if you want to thrive it’s foundational to how you think, feel, and live.

Financial Wellness

One of my favorite research papers is If Money Doesn’t Make You Happy, Then You Probably Aren’t Spending It by Elizabeth Dunn, Dan Gilbert, and Tim Wilson.

The big idea: money can buy happiness, but most of us don’t spend it in ways that actually maximize well-being. It’s not how much we have, but how we use it.

The authors outline eight principles for spending that lead to more lasting happiness:

1. Buy experiences, not things – memories and shared moments outlast material goods.
2. Spend on others – generosity and prosocial spending boost happiness more than self-focus.
3. Buy many small pleasures, not just big ones – frequent small joys outweigh rare splurges.
4. Buy less insurance – we overestimate regret and waste money on unnecessary protection.
5. Pay now, consume later – anticipation often brings as much joy as the experience itself.
6. Think about what you’re not thinking about – small daily details often matter more than big features.
7. Beware of comparison shopping – endless choices shift focus to trivial differences.
8. Follow the herd – rely on others’ experiences to predict your own satisfaction.

It’s a reminder that happiness isn’t about accumulation, it’s about alignment. How we choose to invest our resources, especially time and money, determines the return we get in meaning.

Spiritual Wellness

Football season is starting, and my kids couldn’t be more excited. Last year we took them to their first Ohio State game. They sat among 100,000 people…cheering, riding the highs and lows, and feeling the energy of a stadium that seems to breathe as one.

Later in the season, as Ohio State made their run, we watched those games together at home. Like any Cleveland or Ohio sports fan knows, there are the heartbreaks and the rare, sweet wins. But at the perfect age, my boys got to feel something more and understand what it means to be part of a collective moment.

With two boys, that lesson comes through in what they love: the Browns, the Guardians, the Buckeyes, the Cavs. Teams that bring both joy and heartbreak. But win or lose, they carry the power of belonging. The experience of thousands of people feeling the same thing at the same time.

Is it spiritual? Maybe. What I do know is that these experiences matter. They teach us that being part of something bigger than ourselves is essential: that connection, community, and shared energy are as much a part of life as any individual achievement.

Sometimes it’s not about the score on the field. It’s about who you’re with, and the feeling you carry forward. That when we look up and realize the world is much bigger then we often think.

O-H-I-O…

Here’s to Living Richly,
The Journey Team & The 9:03