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

“Experience is not what happens to you; it’s what you do with what happens to you.”
— Aldous Huxley
Some moments matter more than they look.

I hopped off a call yesterday and walked downstairs. My dad was taking measurements. He’s helping me replace the hood over the stove. Most people would see that as a small, everyday thing. But for me, it’s everything I hoped for when we packed up and moved home.

I’m realizing that this kind of ordinary feels more and more extraordinary these days. Especially when you understand how fast time moves. Playing catch at the bus stop (last school year to do that). Picking them up from practice. Watching SportsCenter in the morning. These are the moments I’ll hold onto.

I say it often, but life really is just a series of moments stacked up. How you create, engage with, and experience them…that’s what your story becomes.

Physical Wellness

I was standing in my kitchen, half a cup of coffee left, getting ready to head out for a run when an ad slid across my screen promising “better sleep, brighter mornings, optimized life.” I’ve seen a hundred versions of it now. Almost daily. Fix this, enhance that. It made me think about a paper I read a few weeks ago by Colleen Derkatch.  In our culture, wellness sells itself by pushing us back and forth between restoring what’s wrong and enhancing what’s right. If one doesn’t hook you, the other will. And there is never an end in sight.

I thought about clients, friends, myself. The weeks we chase a new supplement because we’re “off,” then stack another because we’re “fine, but could be better.” Wearables, green powders, cold plunges, nervous system tune-up, red lights. None of them are bad but strung together they are a prescription for the disease of never enough.

Wellness, especially exercise and nutrition, shouldn’t have a finish line. They should be philosophies, not fast fixes. Anchors we return to throughout our lives, not things we’re endlessly optimizing. Because when you strip it down, it’s usually simple.

So this week, before you add anything new, reflect on these questions.

• What’s the aim: To restore or enhance? Name it honestly.
• Does it fit my life and have real evidence? Not Instagram or TikTok evidence.
• What will I stop to make room? Addition without subtraction usually creates clutter.
• Can I treat it like a 30-day experiment? One clear metric, then keep or cut.

And here’s the move: pick one thing that already works—a sleep window, strength session, a 30-minute walk, breathwork, reading before bed. Do it with boring consistency. Then write one line: “Wellness, for me, feels like ___ when I ___.”

Wellness should improve stress…not add to it.

Mental Wellness

There’s a small coffee shop I stop at every morning called Heartwood. Literally every morning. Coffee for me, latte and pastry (scone or breakfast cookie) for my wife. It’s become part of my routine. Clockwork.

I found it right after we moved back home, and through COVID it gave me something I didn’t realize I needed. A reason to get out, to see familiar faces, to feel part of something again. Community.

Over time, it stopped being just a coffee shop. It became a feeling that I noticed when I didn’t make my morning run. Sociologist Ray Oldenburg called these our “third places.” Not home. Not work. But the spaces in between where connection happens without an agenda.

Now compare that to where things are headed: The CEO of Starbucks says 90% of new U.S. stores will have drive-thrus. They won’t even consider one without it. The faster, the better.

But what we gain in convenience, I believe we lose in connection. And I think that’s the part we’re missing most.

It’s not really about the coffee. Even though it is really good. It’s about the people. The conversations.

The five minutes that remind you we’re all part of something bigger.

Financial Wellness

I saw this week that the Shiller CAPE ratio, a long-term measure of market valuation, just crossed 40 for the first time since the dot-com bubble burst in 2000. It hasn’t been this high in over 25 years and never hit this level, even before the 1929 crash.

That number makes headlines because it signals something rare: the market is stretched. But what it really highlights isn’t fear or euphoria…it’s discipline and consistency.

When everything looks expensive, people start searching for answers and explanations what to sell, what to buy, when to move to cash, when to buy back in. But the truth is, the best allocation isn’t the one that beats the market in any single moment. It’s the one you can stick with through every moment.

Markets go through cycles, just like we do. There are times of calm, growth, volatility, and reflection. But the investors who build real wealth are the ones who stay aligned to their plan, not their emotions. They understand that consistency beats cleverness.

So as valuations rise and headlines flash, take a breath and check your plan.

Because whether the CAPE is 15 or 40, the right portfolio is the one that reflects your priorities and not your predictions.

It’s not about timing the moment. It’s about trusting the process.

Spiritual Wellness

I read something this week that reinforced and idea I found 20 years ago: doctors are now writing prescriptions for nature. Literally.

Dr. Robert Zarr, a physician and nature guide, founded Park Rx America, where doctors talk with patients about what they enjoy outdoors. Things like walking, sitting under a tree, just watching the leaves fall and then prescribe it. Patients even get reminders, just like they would for medication.

At first, it sounds almost funny…do we really need a prescription to go outside? But then again, maybe we do.

Somewhere along the way, we started treating nature like a luxury instead of what it is. A baseline for being human each and every day. Something that is woven into our DNA. The air, the green, the sunlight, the breeze. These aren’t nice to haves. They’re medicine for both body and soul.

When Dr. Suzanne Hackenmiller said, “It’s almost like granting permission to do something they may see as frivolous,” it made me realize what we have lost the last few decades. We’ve turned access to the outdoors as just something we do getting from point A to point B. But maybe the most powerful act of wellness is the simplest: stepping outside and remembering we’re part of something bigger.

So, this weekend, consider writing your own prescription. Step outside. Take a deep breath. Look at the leaves changing. Watch the current in the river.

Because sometimes the most healing thing we can do is start experiencing.

And In The End

From all of us at The 9:03 Collective: thanks for reading. Keep showing up. Stay curious. And never forget that the clock is running, so make it count.

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Until next week — keep building your moments.

The Journey Team & The 9:03