The Wall Street Wellness Newsletter: February 2025
My response to "work-life balance" and a healthy dose of IG vs. reality...
Hi friends,
Welcome back to the second edition of the Wall Street Wellness newsletter. If you’re new here—hello and welcome!
As a refresher—I’m Sophia, founder of Wall Street Wellness (WSW). This monthly newsletter gives you a behind-the-scenes look at what’s happening at WSW, which includes:
Community – where we connect over realistic well-being on social media and at in-person events.
Consultancy – WSW LLC is the corporate wellness consultancy bringing well-being programming and advisory services to high-intensity industries.
I will also be sharing my personal musings on wellness, career development, and entrepreneurship as well as current wellness books, podcasts and products I’m loving.
So with that, I’m really grateful you’re here and let’s get into it!
February Happenings
Tired of constantly chasing “work-life balance”? That’s because it doesn’t exist.
I wrote an article for Fast Company on the Wall Street Wellness concept of Intentional Intensity© (link). I developed this framework over my decade-long career on Wall Street in an effort to balance being a top performer with my overall well-being.
In short, our time management is fluid depending on the day and stress management is not a conversation about removing all the stressors from your life (ie. a pipe dream).
Instead we must learn to more mindfully manage our energy by exerting it only as it’s truly required. If you read the article, I’d love to hear your thoughts!
Instagram vs. Reality.
February was a tough month. I was sick on and off for three weeks (#iykyk because I think we all caught the same never-ending head cold) which led to a cascade of not being able to work out regularly, poor sleep quality (no amount of mouth tape was going to cover my congestion) and energy levels that were nowhere near what I needed to tackle my founder to-do list.
On a particularly grim day, my iPhone notified me that my step count was clocking in at 40% of my average in prior months while I was already spiraling about looming tasks and deadlines.
I say all of this for 2 reasons.
I’m feeling much healthier now and I’m genuinely excited to return to my wellness routines with more gratitude. “You truly don’t know what you have until it’s gone”, health is wealth, etc.
When I shared with friends that my month wasn’t going great, most were shocked because of how WSW is progressing online. “Really? It seems like you’re crushing it!” was a common response. This was a big reminder about the “highlight reel effect” of social media. Yes, WSW has a lot of momentum and I am extremely grateful for the receptivity it has received across the board. Yes, I’ve had some fun, aesthetic moments with family and friends over the past few weeks. BUT I also spent most of this month not feeling my best health-wise while also being handed some hard lessons that led me to re-evaluate a few things personally and professionally.
I don’t share any of this for pity. I share it to highlight the duality of the life we are all living. Life is beautiful and terrifying and energizing and exhausting all at the same time.
Given the realistic wellness ethos and mission of WSW, it felt irresponsible not to share the full story of my February with you. That being said, I think March is gonna be a good one for all of us. 🙂
Wellness-themed networking is the future.
I’ve been thinking a lot about how the way we network is evolving. Earlier this month, I attended a Milken Institute event at Reserve Padel and it was truly one of the best industry events I’ve been to in a while. We got to know one another during a padel clinic overlooking Biscayne Bay and had snacks and juices from Pura Vida Miami afterward. The vibes were impeccable.
This week I was at a finance conference happy hour in South Beach and multiple attendees mentioned how they wished the conference agenda included more well-being events. If you’ve ever been to an industry conference before you already know that most of the mingling and business gets done at the peripheral networking events. But bopping to multiple happy hours every night is exhausting, especially for multiple days in a row.
These instances reinforced something I’ve believed for a while—wellness-themed networking is the future. Traditional happy hours have their place, but let’s be honest - they’re usually not worth the headache and fogginess the next day. Connecting over movement, on the other hand, brings a completely different energy. There’s something about engaging in play—whether it’s padel, yoga, or a group workout—that makes interactions feel more organic. No forced small talk, just real conversation fueled by endorphins and shared experience. It’s a refreshing shift, and I’m confident we will see more of it in professional circles moving forward.
Speaking of events, some fun things are brewing in NYC and Miami for Spring 2025 🙂 I’ll be sharing upcoming WSW Community events in this newsletter going forward so be on the look-out if you’re interested!
New website, who dis?
WSW has a new site and branding that perfectly captures our aura. Special thanks to my friends at About Town for helping me map out the creative vision, and shout out to the WSW CMO (me) and CTO (also me) for building out the site!
Currently Reading:
The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins - In short, it’s like a sigh of relief in book form. The theory has really helped me with releasing control in areas of life I didn’t even realize I was clenching, better understanding the dynamics of adult friendship, and ultimately not taking things nearly as personally as I’m naturally inclined to.
Pro-tip: listen to the audiobook version because it’s read by Mel Robbins herself and feels like one long marathon of a podcast.
Podcasts:
Speaking of podcasts, I LOVED this episode of On Purpose by Jay Shetty.
He lays out a very clear method for overcoming fear and taking action based on his days in an ashram as a monk. I’ve revisited this framework a few times this month when I was feeling overwhelmed and found it helpful!
Products:
I recently shared this video of the four wellness items I’ve kept on my work desk for years. Although they’re all great, my top two are:
My blue light blocking glasses - I wear them whenever I’m working past sunset and they’ve drastically reduced my eye strain.
My wired headphones - These don’t give me a headache like my airpods do and they also give off less EMFs. Win-win.
(Honorable mentions: my ergonomic keyboard and eucalyptus essential oil)
If you’re still reading this, I want to take a moment to express my sincerest gratitude for your ongoing support.
In the early days of a business, every subscription, like, comment, and share really moves the needle on success.
I’m sure this newsletter will evolve as time goes on, but your feedback and early buy-in across platforms truly means the world to me as I continue building Wall Street Wellness (Community, Consultancy, and beyond).
Please feel free to respond directly to this post/email with any thoughts. I’m so happy you’re here and look forward to chatting again soon!
With gratitude,
Sophia
Founder, Wall Street Wellness
Putting it into the universe 🙏
If you know any companies who may be interested in Wall Street Wellness LLC workshops, training or advisory, please reach out!
I’m calling in more public speaking this year. If any podcasts or speaking opportunities (panels, conferences, events, etc.) come to mind, I’d be very grateful if you passed them along.
I am always open to hearing ideas for WSW events and collabs. Have a suggestion? I’d love for you to share it with me!
Love this, Sophia!! ❤️
Always love your honesty and candor. Love the recs too!