Welcome to Living Well Daily, the newsletter serving up tips to help you live a healthier, happier life.
In today’s edition:
😊Mental / Emotional Well-Being: Dopamine Questions: Rewiring Your Inner Story
💖Longevity & Wellness: This Simple Tool Can Improve Your Brain Health!
🧠 Inner Reps: Guided Meditation: Somatic Release to Let Go
☀️Self-Care & Connection
🌱Trauma Healing: Building Self-Trust After Trauma (Day 3/5)
👇 And more good stuff!
Today’s Edition
There is so much good in you and in the world. Keep looking for it and letting that good inside you out. The world is grateful for you and what you have to share!
Dopamine Questions: Rewiring Your Inner Story
Gorgeous, this can help get your brain off the negative auto-pilot and into the good. The questions we ask ourselves can help shape how our brains filter the world. “Dopamine questions” spark curiosity, hope, and joy, nudging your mind toward positive possibilities instead of stress spirals. With practice, these simple questions can shift your inner dialogue into a source of energy and encouragement.
✨ Why it matters
🔄 Questions guide attention, and attention shapes emotions.
🎉 Builds anticipation for good things, which lifts mood and motivation.
🪞 Helps reframe tough days into opportunities for growth and learning
🌈 Trains your brain to spot joy, meaning, and possibility.
🌟 Examples of dopamine questions
🌞 “What am I excited about today?”
✨ “I wonder what great things will happen today?”
❤️ “What was my favorite moment of the day?”
📖 “What lesson and growth can I take from this challenge?”
💪”Even though it was tough, what did I do well/ how am I proud of myself?”
🌙 “What did I love most about today?”
✅ Action Step: Pick one dopamine question and use it every day this week. Try asking it first thing in the morning or last thing at night, and notice how it shifts your mood. You can put the question on a post-it or as a reminder in your phone to help you stick to it!
This Simple Tool Can Improve Your Brain Health!
Meditation offers robust benefits for brain and emotional health as you age. Mounting evidence from peer-reviewed studies shows its positive impact on brain structure, cognitive function, and emotional resilience.
Long-term practitioners display less age-related loss of gray and white matter, especially in areas crucial for memory, attention, and emotional regulation. In fact, neuroimaging shows meditators’ brains appear years younger than non-meditators, suggesting meditation can slow age-related degeneration.
Emotionally, meditation is linked to lower stress, anxiety, and depression, and a higher quality of life. Mechanisms include reduced inflammation, lower cortisol, improved telomerase activity (cellular aging marker), and increased neuroplasticity which supports both your brain and emotional health.
Meditation’s benefits:
🧠 Preserves gray matter and brain structure
🤓 Improves memory, attention, and overall cognition
😁 Lowers stress, anxiety, and depressive symptoms
🤸 Enhances emotional regulation and well-being
Regular, sustained meditation provides significant neuroprotective and emotional resilience benefits for healthy aging.
✅ Action Step: Do today’s guided meditation with Lola further down in this newsletter!
Today’s Guided Meditation:
Somatic Release to help you let go of energy that no longer serves you.
If it isn’t a clear yes, try a graceful “not now.” Space invites clarity.
📖Journal Prompt:
Building a Caring Relationship with Yourself
How do I know when my body is asking for rest and how can I better honor these cues?
🌟Spark of Joy:
Let Little Things Move You
Look at an old photo — like when a happy memory comes rushing back all at once.
🦋Weekly Connection Challenge:
Kindness Creates Ripples
Compliment a Stranger 🌱
Offer a genuine compliment to someone you don’t know once a day this week (in a shop, on a walk, or online). Mini positive connections uplift you and the receiver, making the world a more friendly place.
Rebuilding Self-Trust: Small Actions to Show You’ve Got Your Own Back
Trauma can damage your sense of trust in yourself. This week is about rebuilding it step by step and reclaiming your power.
Day 3: Keep Small Promises
Take back your power deliberately. Start with commitments you can realistically meet and celebrate every completion. Yes, even the small things and watch how they grow.
💧Brush your teeth or drink a glass of water when you wake. Celebrate: “I did that, and it matters.”
🐝Step outside for 5 minutes each day. Nature is healing and grounding. Celebrate: “I arrived and I can trust myself to show up for me.”
💬Tell someone how you’re feeling or write it down (If you don’t think the people in your life will understand, try a helpline.). Celebrate: “I can communicate my truth and my voice matters.”
🎊Make a list of little things you already do and start acknowledging them as they happen. Celebrate: “I have power.”
Follow through builds self-confidence’ however, even if you are struggling to follow-through you can still build self-trust by using compassion: “I’m not there yet and that’s okay. Healing isn’t always easy and isn’t always linear but I have my own back and I can try again.”
Darling, don’t give up on yourself, you’re so worth it. Sending love 💕
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.
Remember: It’s okay to ask for help. Crisis Lifeline: call or text 988 (Canada & US).