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: The Empathy Gap: Escaping Thought Traps for Better Mental Health
💖Longevity & Wellness: Fitness Friday - 10-minute full-body workout
✨Daily Affirmation & Daily Prompt

We hope your day is astoundingly sensational, you majestic being!
You’ve got this!!!

We tend to underestimate how much our emotions, physical states, and urges influence our behavior. This is called the empathy gap: the disconnect between how we think we’ll act (or how others will act) and how we (or others) actually behave when we’re in a heightened emotional or physical state.

When we’re calm, it’s easy to believe we’ll make rational, grounded choices. But when we’re overwhelmed, exhausted, anxious, in pain, or craving something, our behavior can shift in ways we didn’t expect. Another way to explain this is that we often develop expectations when we’re “cold” (not emotionally charged) and see different behaviours when we’re “hot” (emotionally heightened).

This gap doesn’t make you weak, it makes you human. It’s about learning to anticipate that emotions have an effect on us all, and slowly developing the skills to work with emotion (instead of getting mad that we didn’t live up to our expectations.

Common ways the empathy gap shows up:
• 😤 Judging yourself for reacting differently than you “should have” in the moment
• 🧠 Believing you’ll stick to a plan without considering and planning for future emotional states
• 🍫 Underestimating cravings, stress, or fatigue when making decisions
• 😬 Thinking others are overreacting instead of recognizing their internal state
• 🔥 Making commitments in a calm moment that don’t match real-life conditions

Ways to gently work with (not against) the empathy gap:
• 🧭 Plan for real you, not ideal you (consider energy, stress, emotions)
• 🫁 Build in pauses before reacting when emotions are high
• 💬 Practice compassion for yourself and others in difficult states
• 🔄 Reflect: What might I be feeling or needing right now?
• 💙 Adjust expectations to match your current capacity
• 🥰 Practice emotional regulation and mindfulness to help with different states

You’re not inconsistent, you’re influenced by your state. The more you understand that, the more you can support yourself through it.

✅ Action step: Think of one area where you’ve been hard on yourself or someone else. Ask: What might have been influencing behavior in that moment (emotion, stress, fatigue)?

^{Love, Lola Graham}

Looking for a good, quick workout? I’ve got you covered.

This will hit your full body and leave you feeling like you just conquered the world. You don’t need any equipment, just you and some room to move.

Set a timer for 10 minutes and go through as many rounds as you can. Try to keep good form throughout and move as quickly as you can without sacrificing your form.

12 Squats (scale down with chair squats, scale up with goblet squats)

10 Push-ups (scale down with knee or wall push-ups, scale up with feet elevated)

8 V-ups (scale down with sit-ups)

A workout doesn’t have to be complicated; it just needs to challenge you and get you moving.

✅ Action Step: Try this workout out or do something else physically challenging today.

^{By: Joshua Graham}

^{A gentle invitation to integrate lived experience with kindness, perspective, and care.}

What effort deserves recognition, even if it wasn’t “perfect”?

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.}

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