Welcome, lovely friend, to Living Well Daily, the newsletter serving up tips to help you live a joyful, healthier life.
In today’s edition:
😊Mental / Emotional Well-Being: Building Self-Esteem (Inspired by bell hooks and Nathaniel Branden)
💖Longevity & Wellness: A Diet to Slow Brain Aging?
🌱Trauma Healing: Rebuilding Boundaries: Reclaiming Your Power & Self-Protection (Day 3/5)
☀️Journal & Joy Prompts
👇 And more good stuff, like lots of love from Lola & Joshua, the LWD creators xo
Today’s Edition
The sun is a bit upset at you because you keep outshining it with the gorgeous light you have!
We're okay with it because you think your light is stunning!
Building Self-Esteem (Inspired by bell hooks and Nathaniel Branden)
In All About Love, bell hooks wrote, “The wounded heart learns self-love by first overcoming low self-esteem” (pg. 55). While I’d argue there are many paths leading to self-love, she’s right that self-esteem is a powerful one to walk. I’ve always found the advice “build self-esteem” to be tough because when you don’t have it, it can feel hard to understand and tackle. Thankfully, she makes this advice practical by sharing Nathanial Branden’s six pillars of self-esteem. Let’s take a look at those pillars together; but first, let’s soak up a bit more of her wisdom: she shares that while understanding where fragile self-esteem comes from can help, we don’t have to wait for perfect insight before beginning to build it. We can start now, through conscious, life-affirming thoughts and behaviors.
🌟 Six Pillars of Self-Esteem
👁️ Live Consciously: Engage in conscious reflection, thinking critically about ourselves (feelings, needs, etc) and the world we live in
♥️ Self-Acceptance: Self-criticism is disenabling, by learning to affirm ourselves we learn to affirm others. Self-acceptance makes it easier to take responsibility.
💪 Self-Responsibility: Own your actions and growth. Be willing to become the creator of your life.
🗣️ Self-Assertiveness: Speak your truth with respect and confidence. Stand up for yourself.
🎯 Living Purposefully: Set intentions and take actions that give your life meaning and direction.
🧭 Personal Integrity: Align actions with values, even when it’s hard.
✅ Action Step: Identify one pillar that feels weakest right now. Take one small step to strengthen it: whether it’s speaking up, setting a boundary, or naming what matters most.
🧠 A Diet to Slow Brain Aging?
A recent study by Dafna Pachter and colleagues looked at 300 participants and how their diet affected their brain health over the course of 18 months.
They consumed one of 3 diets: a standard healthy diet, a calorie-restricted Mediterranean diet, which was low in simple carbs, high in veggies, and they replaced red meat with poultry and fish; and the green Mediterranean diet, which was similar to the calorie-restricted Mediterranean diet but additionally included green tea and Mankai.
The researchers found that those following the green-mediterranean diet had the lowest blood levels of proteins associated with brain aging.
This study is limited because it was done on only 300 participants, but we do know from other research that green tea is a great brain booster and eating a diet high in antioxidants can benefit brain health too!
✅Action Step: Try to add in more antioxidant-rich foods into your diet, like berries, leafy greens, beans, green tea, cacao, etc.
Rebuilding Boundaries: Reclaiming Your Power & Self-Protection
Trauma can blur or break boundaries. Rebuilding boundaries is not selfish, it’s self-protection and self-respect. This week is about learning to honor your edges and reclaim your right to say “this is mine, and that is not” / “I want this, and not that.”
Day 3: Giving Yourself Permission
A big part of boundary work is believing you have the right to them. When we build a habit of putting others first, we need to reclaim our agency.
💡 Remember: Your needs matter.
🫣Practice feeling into your edges: when you’ve dismissed boundaries for a long time, it may be hard to feel where they exist. Give yourself the grace to imperfectly explore what it feels like to be in and out of alignment with your boundaries.
🙅 Practice saying a small no (e.g., declining a call, choosing rest).
📜 Affirmation: “It’s not mean to protect myself. It’s healthy and loving.”
🌻 Permission is an act of reclamation: you are allowed to hold your edges.
Darling, don’t give up on yourself, you’re so worth it. Sending love 💕
Put joy in the process so results don’t carry all the weight. Fun makes perseverance easier.
📖Journal Prompt:
Building a Caring Relationship with Yourself
What parts of your life feel heavy or obligatory right now? How could you reimagine or infuse them with joy or ease?
🌟Spark of Joy:
Let Little Things Move You
Take a deep breath through your nose… the air filling not only your lungs but your cup up too.
Thank you for being here!
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!
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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.
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