Welcome to Living Well Daily, the newsletter serving up a daily dose of care designed to support you, cheer you on and remind you, always, just how wonderful you already are.

In Today’s Edition:

🥰Well-Being & Self-Care: Monday Healing Moment: Letting Yourself Matter
💖Longevity & Wellness: These Two Tests Can Signal How Long You’ll Live
✨Daily Affirmation & Daily Prompt

You have an incredible capacity within you to do and create such beauty and good in this world.
Keep going, you CAN!

Happy Monday 💛 Before this week begins asking things of you, let’s pause for a moment and reconnect with something deeply important: you matter.

Take a slow breath in. And a soft breath out. Feel yourself arrive here.

Gently, turn your attention to you.
Release any need to fix or force perfection in yourself.
Softening tension from your muscles and noticing your heart beat.

You are here. And that matters. You matter, in so many ways.

Your needs matter. Your feelings matter. Your exhaustion matters. Your joy matters too. All of you matters. 

So many people move through life minimizing themselves. Shrinking their needs. Pushing through. Caring for everyone else while forgetting they are also worthy of care.

But you are not an afterthought in your own life.

Take a moment to imagine what it would feel like to move through this week remembering that. To make choices while holding the quiet truth: I matter too.
Breath in that precious truth.

What does mattering ask of you?
Maybe it looks like resting before burnout. Speaking more kindly to yourself. Taking your feelings seriously. Allowing yourself to take up space without apology.

You do not have to earn your importance through productivity, perfection, or sacrifice. Your existence carries value already.

Take one more slow breath.
Let yourself feel the steadiness of your own presence.

You are worthy of care.
You are worthy of love.
You matter.

^{Love, Lola Graham}

A recent study led by researchers at the University at Buffalo followed more than 5,000 women between the ages of 63 and 99 for eight years.

The researchers found that muscle strength was significantly linked to a lower risk of death, and it was independent of physical activity levels, cardiovascular fitness, and inflammation markers.

Their research measured muscle strength via grip strength and a sit-to-stand chair test. Every additional 7 kilograms of grip strength was associated with a 12% reduction in death risk. Every 6-second improvement in chair stand speed was linked to a 4% lower mortality rate. These associations held even after accounting for how active participants were, their cardiovascular fitness, and their body size.

One of the more striking findings was that women who did not meet the standard 150 minutes per week of aerobic activity still had significantly lower mortality if they had greater muscle strength. Strength offered a meaningful protective benefit regardless of how much cardio they were doing.

These findings make sense because muscle strength is what makes movement and independence possible, and without it, everything becomes harder.

If you want to improve your muscle strength, then aim to get in at least 2 full-body resistance training sessions per week, and you don’t need a gym; bodyweight exercises, resistance bands, and dumbbells can give an effective stimulus.

✅ Action Step: Try five sit-to-stand repetitions from a chair without using your hands in a row and notice how it feels. If it is easy, that is great! If it is a challenge, then that can be a signal to integrate more resistance exercise in your life.

^{By: Joshua Graham | Source: PMID: 41686437}

^{A gentle prompt to help you create small feel good moments of beauty, appreciation, and delight.}

Let yourself romanticize a tiny part of your day (a sip, a pause, a view).

Before you go, let us know what you thought of today’s edition and if there are any subjects you would like us to cover in the future reply to this email and let us know!

If you find our newsletter helpful, we’d love for you to share it with a friend! If you’re that friend, you can subscribe here. Thanks for spreading the word! xo

With love and care,

Lola & Joshua | The Living Well Team

^{Living Well Daily is for educational purposes only and is in no way a substitute for professional medical and mental health advice and diagnosis. Please consult a qualified professional for care unique to your needs.}

^{Remember: It’s okay to ask for help. Crisis Lifeline: call or text 988 (Canada & US).}