Welcome 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: Social Anxiety & The Liking Gap
💖Longevity & Wellness: Fitness Friday: The Perfect Tripod Row
🌱Trauma Healing: Cultivating Safety: Creating Anchors in Your World (Day 5/5)
☀️Journal & Joy Prompts
🧠 Inner Reps: Mental & Emotional Well-Being Interval Workout
👇And more good stuff, like lots of love from Lola & Joshua, the LWD creators xo
Today’s Edition
You are like a candle in a dark room, illuminating the world around you, adding warmth and light! You are truly spectacular!
Social Anxiety & The Liking Gap
After social interactions, many of us replay conversations and assume we came off awkward or uninteresting. But studies show most people underestimate how much others like them, a phenomenon called the liking gap. This is especially important when it comes to making new friends. Studies show people rate our likability much higher than we rate ourselves when it comes to having conversations with new people. Our self-criticism speaks louder than reality. Remembering this truth can ease social anxiety and open the door to more genuine connection.
🌟 Ways to ease social anxiety with truth:
🧠 When self-doubt hits, remind yourself: “They probably liked me more than I think.”
💬 Focus on curiosity: ask questions, listen, connect; people remember warmth, not perfection.
🤝 Practice exposure: start small and build comfort through repetition.
🌿 Reframe nerves as care: it means connection matters to you.
🪞 After interactions, reflect on one thing that went well.
✅ Action Step: This week, after a social moment, catch your inner critic and replace it with truth: “The liking gap is real, they likely enjoyed our conversation more than I think.”
Fitness Friday: The Perfect Tripod Row
Rows are one of the best exercises for developing a strong, stable and healthy back, which supports posture, core strength, and shoulder health.
They primarily work the following muscles: latissimus dorsi, rhomboids, and trapezius, while also engaging your biceps. A strong back can also improve spinal alignment, provide support for better breathing, movement efficiency and help to counteract the effects of sitting.
You can do rows with dumbbells, a kettlebell, a barbell or on a machine as well. You can do rows in a variety of ways to target different parts of your back. For example, tucking your elbows in as you go back will target your latissimus dorsi (lats) more, while letting your elbows flare further out to the side will hit your upper back and rear delts more.
🏋️♀️ How to Do Tripod Row :
Place your right knee and hand on a bench for support, holding a dumbbell in your left hand.
Keep your back flat, core engaged, and shoulders level.
Imagine you’re squeezing a lemon under your armpit the whole time
Let the dumbbell hang straight down, letting the weight pull your shoulder forward.
Then pull the weight toward your hip (not your chest), squeezing your shoulder blade at the top.
Lower the weight slowly with control.
Remember to keep juicing the lemon throughout the movement. This will help keep your upper trapezius out of the movement and help keep your lat engaged.
✅ Action step: Try tripod rows out for yourself and see how it goes! You can use many of these same tips to improve your other types of rows, like cable rows or machine rows.
Cultivating Safety: Creating Anchors in Your World
This week explores how to intentionally create “anchors” that help you feel grounded, secure, and supported in daily life.
Day 5: Internal Safety Anchors
Safety is something you can also create within. Think of safety practices as a way of building sacred relationship with yourself.
🫁 Use breath and grounding practices to reassure your body: ex. Long slow breaths, feeling of your feel on the ground, awareness of your heart space.
🪞 Develop a calming mantra: “I am safe in this moment.”
🫂 Visualize a safe place inside your mind and visit it often.
🌟 Each time you anchor safety internally, you strengthen your resilience against outside stress.
Darling, don’t give up on yourself, you’re so worth it. Sending love 💕
The way you talk to yourself becomes the way you feel about yourself. Be gentle. You deserve kindness from within.
📖Journal Prompt:
Building a Caring Relationship with Yourself
What’s something you love about your personality and why?
🌟Spark of Joy:
Let Little Things Move You
Savor a moment of temperature change… if you’re chilly, explore the warming embrace of a blanket, a cup of tea, or a shower. If you’re hot, take a cooling sip, run your hands under cold water, or loose a layer.
Today’s Mental and Emotional Workout:
This interval workout will increase your ability to:
Tap into self-compassion to boost self-confidence, self-esteem and self-worth
Build and reinforce neural pathways that nurture a positive self-image
Cultivate mindfulness to manage stress and anxiety
In under 8 minutes, you’ll strengthen positive neural pathways for long-term well-being and end the workout feeling better than you started! (Click on the photo below to access the workout)
Thank you for being here!
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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).