Who You Are When It Storms

Welcome back to The 94 Method.

Issue #19 of The 94 Method, your 4 minute read to help you move better, feel better, & live better this week.

One habit, one deep dive, what’s moving in wellness, and a thought to carry with you.

This week: a habit you can do while brushing your teeth, what a storm does to your energy, and how to act like yourself on the gray days.

Let's get into it.

One Leg, Two Minutes

This week, brush your teeth standing on one leg.

One minute on the left. One minute on the right. That's it.

Balance is a skill. And like any skill, it fades when you stop using it. Most of us haven't trained it on purpose since we were kids. It shows up later in life as a slip on the stairs or a misstep off a curb.

Standing on one leg is a simple test of where you are. Research has linked struggling to hold it for 10 seconds in midlife to worse long-term health outcomes. The good news: it trains fast. A few minutes a day adds up.

Stand close to the counter. Keep a hand hovering if you need it. Once it feels easy, close your eyes. Harder than it sounds.

You're already brushing twice a day. Now it's doing double duty.

What a storm does to your energy

If you're in the Northeast, you felt it this weekend. Gray skies. Wind. Rain that doesn't quit. And an energy that feels a little off.

Part of that is physical. Part of it runs deeper.

Light runs your clock

Your body keeps time with light. Cells in your eyes read brightness and send it straight to your internal clock. Bright morning light tells your body the day has started. Melatonin, your sleep hormone, shuts off. Serotonin, which helps steady your mood, gets a boost.

On a storm day, that signal comes in weak. Melatonin lingers. You feel heavy and foggy, like the day never fully started.

Here's the surprising part. Even a dark, stormy sky is usually brighter than your living room. So when we hide inside, the light drops even further. The weather dimmed the day. We dimmed it more.

The other kind of energy

Then there's the energy you can't measure. The one people call spirit, or soul, or just how you feel inside.

Storm days test that too. Plans get cancelled. You're stuck in. The restlessness builds. It's easy to feel trapped.

But storms also hand you two things most weeks never do.

Stillness. No commute. No schedule. The world slows down whether you want it to or not. Most of us spend all week running. A storm is permission to stop. Use it to sit with your thoughts, not hide from them.

Awe. Stand where you can see the ocean during a nor'easter and you feel small in the best way. Researchers who study awe find it quiets the stress response and makes everyday worries feel smaller. It also makes people feel more connected to each other. The waves don't care about your inbox. That's the point.

It passes

Every storm clears. The air after a nor'easter feels different. Cleaner. Lighter.

Your inner weather works the same way. Heavy days come and go. You don't have to fix every gray mood. Sometimes you just ride it out and wait for the light.

What to actually do

Get outside early. Ten minutes on a covered porch counts. Your clock needs the signal more on gray days, not less.

Go watch the storm. From a safe spot, not the water's edge. Let it make you feel small for a minute.

Move before you decide how you feel. Energy usually follows movement. It rarely leads.

Be still on purpose. No phone. No TV. Just rain on the window and your own head.

See someone. Storms are better shared.

The bottom line

You can't control the weather outside. You can choose what the storm gives you.

Oura is going public. Oura launched its IPO Monday, aiming to raise up to $2.2 billion at $40 to $44 a share under the ticker OURA. Revenue hit $1.2 billion in the nine months through June, up from $697 million a year earlier, and ring sales more than doubled to 4.1 million.

Bird&Be raises $13M for fertility care. The Toronto brand closed a $13 million Series A for its fertility supplements and test kits. It's profitable, grew nearly 100% year over year, and gets about 75% of its direct-to-consumer revenue from subscriptions. It's also bringing men into the conversation, with male and female products side by side on shelves.

Peloton is going all-in on running. Peloton launched three new treadmills, including its first folding model, ranging from $2,195 to $6,695. It's also adding AI running analysis and a Whoop integration. After years of cost cutting, the bet is that runners and walkers can bring growth back.

Nike teams up on race fuel. Science in Sport is now the official fuel and hydration partner of the Nike After Dark Tour. It's the first time Nike has made a co-branded nutrition line with a partner. Every runner across the seven night races gets a race pack, including recovery formulas built with female athletes in mind.

Bad days feel permanent while you're in them. The stress. The doubt. The heavy mood that shows up for no clear reason.

But those moods aren't your identity. They're weather. They roll in. They roll out.

Who you are stays.

The mistake is letting the weather decide for you. Skipping the workout because you feel off. Snapping at someone because the day's been heavy. Acting like the storm instead of acting like yourself.

Epictetus had it in the right order. Decide who you are first. Then act from it.

Your identity is what you believe and how you carry yourself through the storm. Every choice either reflects who you are or pulls you away from it.

So be true to it. Not when it's easy. Especially when it's not.

Who are you? And are you acting like it, even on the gray days?

Move better. Feel better. Live better.

The 94 Method.

-SW