Stories Link Copied 10.13.22

We Asked 17 Celebrities for Their Favorite Mental Fitness Tips

More proof that we’re all out here just doing our best ByShannon Barbour

Photo Credit: Wondermind

Maybe the last time you were filming a TV show or winning professional tennis tournaments was exactly never, but you definitely have something in common with those very famous people who do it on the regular: We’re all just humans here. 

As fellow people, both you and your fave notables have a lot of emotions to deal with. That’s why it felt appropriate to ask them to share the routines or habits that help them stay grounded, semi-chill, and able to deal with all the wild things life throws their way (aka what we like to call mental fitness).

Anyway, as you peruse their wisdom, feel free to take any of these for a test drive. Take what you need and leave what you don’t.  

1. 1. Serena Williams on curbing anxiety:
   

   Photo Credit: Serena Williams

   “I do have a tendency to become anxious, but I’ve really learned that, first of all, for me, prayer works a lot. And also just realizing the bigger picture has really helped with my anxiety. I’m just like, You know what? At the end of the day, in 10 years, in 5 years, in 3 months, is this going to be super important? And then I kind of work backwards from there.”

   Read the full interview here.

2. 2. Troian Bellisario on the easiest way to recharge: 
   

   Photo Credit: Courtesy of Troian Bellisario

   “Honestly, [I love] baking. And since I have young kids, crafting. Don’t overlook coloring! Don’t sleep on coloring, everybody. It’s a cheap, great hobby. Meditation is a really big one for me, and that goes back to not trying to push away the feelings of frustration or depression or anger or whatever’s coming up for you, but really just accepting them and taking a few minutes to sit with them and be like, Oh, wow, that’s where I am, because you can’t wish feelings away. You have to actually integrate them and understand that you’re feeling them in order to ever hope to feel something else.”

   Read the full interview here.

3. 3. Tom Stoltman on the joy of chillin’ out:
   

   Photo Credit: Joe Martinez/World’s Strongest Man

   “My support base is my house. I try to be with my wife as much as I can, and she just kind of makes me forget about what’s just happened or if it’s been a bad day. I just try and chill out and put on a movie or just chill out and talk to her. As soon as I walk into that house, I’m already comforted. Then I just sit down with her and just talk and just laugh and vibe off each other.”

   Read the full interview here.

4. 4. Tia Mowry on her favorite one-word response:
   

   Photo Credit: Felisha Tolentino

   “You know what, one of the best things I’ve done is I have learned how to say no! Saying no is okay. When you burn the candle at both ends you will inevitably exhaust yourself.”

   Read the full interview here.

5. 5. Lana Condor on a solid decompressing routine: 
   

   Photo Credit: Jonny Marlow

   “When I go home, I’ve created practices for myself. The [excitement] comedown is real, and [this] kind of grounds me back into my body, makes me feel like a human being again: Usually, when I come back from work, I’ll cook a dinner. And I might be up two hours longer than I should have [been], but just the act of doing something like an everyday thing, like making yourself dinner, cleaning the dishes—all of that stuff grounds me and reminds me I’m still a human that has a life, and my life isn’t just my job.”

   Read the full interview here.

6. 6. Justin Baldoni on his best self-confidence hack:
   

   Photo Credit: John Russo

   “The thing that’s helped me the most has been honestly looking in the mirror and as uncomfortable or weird or awkward as it sounds, making eye contact with myself and saying, ‘You’re beautiful. You’re handsome. You’re awesome. Your shoulders are big enough. You don’t need to have bigger shoulders. Having bigger shoulders is not gonna make anybody like you more. Look at all the things your body can do.’”

   Read the full interview here.

7. 7. Allyson Felix on a peaceful way to start the day:
   

   Photo Credit: Courtesy of Saysh

   “I’m a big believer in therapy. That’s really a way that I feel like I pour into myself and I take care of myself. I also like to set aside time at the beginning of my day for me. I love if I can get at least 20 to 30 minutes before the house is awake where I could either meditate or journal or just do a little bit of something that brings me some peace to start my day off with the right kind of intention.”

   Read the full interview here.

8. 8. Camila Cabello on being straight-up:
   

   Photo Credit: Camila Cabello

   “I think the best mental health advice that I’ve ever received is that faking or pretending is the worst thing for my mental health, personally. Saying the truth and being vulnerable and talking about it is basically what my therapist says to me in every session. Obviously, the therapy works because I do these things, I end up having the conversations or whatever. Just telling the truth about how you feel, like, ‘I feel f*cked up today. I feel super sad today. I feel depressed. I’m feeling a little panicky.’ That really helps so much, and finding people that you feel safe to say that around is the most relaxing thing.”

   Read the full interview here.

9. 9. Laurie Hernandez on tapping into her subconscious:
   

   Photo Credit: Courtesy of Laurie Hernandez

   “I love fiction writing and screenwriting. When I’m really stressed out, I’ll open a Google Doc and I’ll just start writing. And, typically, my subconscious is writing for me. By the end of the scene or the plot, I end up answering the question to a really big feeling or emotion that happened recently. And then I’m like, Oh, I didn’t know I was feeling that way. I’ve also been going for walks lately, which is a bit uncharacteristic of me. I’m quite the homebody but the walks work.”

   Read the full interview here.

10. 10. Selena Gomez on trying a different kind of therapy: 
    

    Photo Credit: Courtesy of Selena Gomez

    “I totally believe that animals are healing. I did equine-assisted therapy and that was fantastic. It was fascinating to be able to work with a horse. There are techniques to disarm an animal that is so majestic and rooted in the ground. It just feels so real, and they can sense your emotion. If you’re feeling really anxious, they can feel that. It’s a practice within yourself to take deep breaths and to put your mind somewhere and work on these little exercises and see if you can get through to them. It’s weird but it works!”

    Read the full interview here.

11. 11. Cody Rigsby on the power of a good ’fit:
    

    Photo Credit: Courtesy of Peloton

    “It’s so funny, I literally just journaled a little bit about this this week. I was like, ‘What does self-care look like for me?’ And one of them for me was giving myself enough time in the day to pick out a cute outfit and do my hair and feel cute. That is self-care to me, and it has such an impact on the way that I show up the rest of the day. It makes me feel confident and powerful when I step out, and it makes me feel like I’m taking care of myself.”

    Read the full interview here.

12. 12. Ginger Gonzaga on breaking bad habits:
    

    Photo Credit: Sequoia Emmanuelle

    “I’ve had my apartment look like a self-help crime scene before. I’ve got index cards with dumb shit all over my walls. I think it’s good if people who have low self-esteem, at a certain point in their life, collect compliments that they’ve received and kind of recheck and look at them every day to be a good anchor or reality list. But don’t worry about doing things that look ‘crazy’ that are actually quite helpful. If you need to tape some dumb shit on your mirror every morning, like ‘you’re great,’ ‘you can do anything,’ you know, really bad clichés … get it done. [Do] whatever you gotta do to break whatever little cycle you’re trying to break in your brain.”

    Read the full interview here.

13. 13. Brandi Rhodes on disconnecting:
    

    Photo Credit: Matt Pluz

    “For me, a lot of mental wellness is making sure there’s plenty of time for things that just make me happy, that fill me up—things that have absolutely nothing to do with work, nothing to do with anything judgmental, [and things] nobody has to know about. Lately, a lot of the things that I do for my mental health are with my daughter. She and I get out and do things, and it’s like seeing the world from a whole new set of eyes, so it’s like I’m a 1-year-old once again. And a lot of times, mental health for me is turning off all the social channels, just kind of pretending they don’t exist anymore and getting to them at another point in time.”

    Read the full interview here.

14. 14. Jimmie Allen on doing what feels good:
    

    Photo Credit: Chris Beyrooty

    “Sometimes I need to be around people. Sometimes I just need to shut off. And a lot of times I’ll fly to Delaware [where I was born] and go fishing by myself. Or sometimes I come bowling by myself. I had a weird day today, so I was like, ‘You know what? I’m going bowling!’”

    Read the full interview here.

15. 15. Brandee Evans on taking time outs:
    

    Photo Credit: Courtesy of Brandee Evans

    “It is so important to care for yourself so you can be able to care for someone else. Literally, I’m just sitting here taking this interview in the bed right now, breathing, because I know when I get done, I have to start training another caregiver. So just trying to take this time for myself. I don’t think I really knew how important self-care was until I started caring for someone else.”

    Read the full interview here.

16. 16. Adam Rippon on shutting down negative self-talk:
    

    Photo Credit: Aaron Jay Young

    “One thing that did help me was the last four years, I had the opportunity to coach a little bit on the ice, and when I’m speaking negatively to myself, sometimes I take a step back and say, ‘I would never talk to anybody else in this way, so I should stop talking to myself that way because if I don’t think that would motivate somebody who’s literally paying me to help them be motivated, why would I—for free, pro bono—give myself a beatdown?’”

    Read the full interview here.

17. 17. Rupi Kaur on compiling a mental health toolkit: 
    

    Photo Credit: Nazih Ilyass

    “For me, there wasn’t any one thing. I had to try a combination of things, like exercising a lot, combined with meditation, combined with therapy, combined with seeing my family and friends—and actually seeing them, not just canceling at the last minute—and medication. A lot of things came together.”

    Read the full interview here.