By: Natalie Johnson
Jan Raeder spent 35 years building resilience on the mat. Now she is taking on the wellness industry with science, a 139-page book, and zero tolerance for bubble baths as a coping strategy.
There is a version of self-care that arrives in a gift set. It smells like lavender, it comes with a face mask and a candle, and it promises to restore and replenish. Jan Raeder is not interested in that version.
“I have nothing against massages or going out with your friends on a Friday night,” she said. “But those are not true self-care. They are fleeting. True self-care is getting to the root of who you are and showing up as the best version of yourself in every situation.”
Known to her students and followers as the SelfCare Sensei, Raeder, 60, is a martial artist, a master’s-level wellbeing educator, and the author of Strive for M.O.R.E.: What Wellbeing Really Means and How You Can Achieve It, a 139-page book rooted in peer-reviewed positive psychology that she is officially launching after selling more than 400 copies without a single formal campaign. She spent 35 years running a karate school in upstate New York, training students from age four to 84, and watching people discover something about themselves that no face mask could deliver.
The Difference Nobody Is Talking About
Wellness, Raeder says, is what your doctor measures. Well-being is everything underneath it: your emotional state, your psychological state, your sense of meaning. The wellness industry has spent decades getting fluent in physical metrics while largely ignoring the interior work that she believes drives everything else.
Her answer to that gap is the M.O.R.E. framework, an adaptation of Martin Seligman’s PERMA theory built around four pillars: Meaning, Optimism, Relationships, and Engagement. Seligman, the former president of the American Psychological Association, has spent more than 30 years building the research base that Raeder translated into something a person can use on a Tuesday morning.
“The science exists,” she said. “I just wanted to make it accessible. My job is to help people use it.”
No Finish Line
The wellness industry does not want to tell you there is no finish line. Not for the ab machine, the meditation app or the journaling habit you picked up in January. Sustainable wellbeing is a daily practice, and the moment you treat it like a goal you can complete, you have already misunderstood it.
“You do not turn 65 and say, I have brushed my teeth enough,” Raeder said. “You brush your teeth because it matters. You work on your wellbeing because it matters. It does not end.”
The M.O.R.E. framework is her answer to that drift. Each pillar reinforces the others. Work on meaning and optimism tends to follow. The framework is not a checklist. It folds back on itself, the same way a single technique in the dojo, practiced well, strengthens everything else.
The Exercise That Actually Works
Of the eight exercises in the book, Raeder is most evangelical about one. It costs nothing, takes five minutes, and is, she argues, more useful than the gratitude list that has become a fixture of the wellness conversation. It is called What Went Well.
The practice, developed by Seligman’s research team, asks you to identify three things that went well each day and examine why. That’s why there is a difference.
“With a gratitude list, people write down the same five things every day and stop looking,” she said. “What Went Well adds meaning to the equation. You start to look for the good because you are looking for the explanation. That is where the rewiring happens.”
The exercise comes out of published positive psychology research, part of the evidence base Raeder drew on when she wrote the book. The appeal, for her, is how little it asks. Five minutes, a notebook, and a willingness to look for the explanation behind a good moment rather than the moment alone.
From the Dojo to the Page
Raeder went back to school at 48, earned a bachelor’s and a master’s in wellbeing education in four years while running two martial arts locations, designed a higher education certificate program, taught a university course, and converted that curriculum into Strive for M.O.R.E. during the pandemic. In 2025, she delivered an 18-minute keynote at MIT. The book sold 400 copies before she ever ran a campaign.
A physician and PhD who read it left a public note saying it worked for him the same way it would work for someone who had never set foot in a lecture hall. That, Raeder said, was the whole idea.
“Wellbeing is not out of reach,” she said. “It is not for a specific kind of person or a specific kind of life. It is for everyone. You just have to decide to strive for more.”
Strive for M.O.R.E.: What Wellbeing Really Means and How You Can Achieve It is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and at SelfCareSensei.com.
Disclaimer: The content of this article is for informational and educational purposes only. It reflects the opinions and experiences of Jan Raeder and the author and is not intended as medical, psychological, or professional advice. Readers should consult a qualified professional before making any decisions related to their health, wellness, or self-care practices. Results and experiences may vary.
