Lana Condor’s new series, Boo, Bitch, came out Friday. I saw the first few episodes, it’s fun and silly. For as light-hearted as Lana’s projects are, at least the ones I know her from, I’m always pleasantly reminded how thoughtful she is in interviews. Lana talked to Yahoo for their mental health series recently. She discussed body image and body dysmorphia, which she said “is heightened in the entertainment industry.” Apparently, Lana has struggled for years with her own appearance and is currently retraining to be kinder in both how she views and speaks to herself. During the interview, Lana discussed the importance of working through what she called ‘the comedown,’ her post work routine to unwind from the stresses of the day. For Lana, tasks like making dinner and doing the dishes relax her and make her feel grounded.
Her current mental health work: I think right now positive self-image and self-talk is probably one that I’m working on the most. And that’s a practice that you kind of have to do every day.
Some of the things that you say to your image, you would never ever say to your best friend or your little sister. So, I try to remind myself of that ’cause I can be pretty hard on my physical appearance. That’s just something that I’ve struggled with all my life… I see myself all day long on cameras and monitors and super close up and far behind, and you can’t really escape yourself — and nor do I want to. But if negative self-talk is alive and well in my brain and I can’t escape myself, then I’m miserable.
Her comedown routine: The easiest thing that I do to help me unwind after a kind of stressful day is definitely a bath. It forces you to relax,” she said. “I do like journaling. I read at night. I do a lot of essential oils. Sometimes I’ll go outside and sit with my crystals. And [I] listen to sound baths in the morning and in the night.
The 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.
On opening up to others: Share your feelings with someone who feels safe for you. Don’t bottle it up.
I bottled it up a lot when I was younger about things that I was going through — and I’m still in it. It took so much time and practice to even 1. identify it, and then 2. to unlearn. I think that if I had felt more safe in terms of sharing whatever was going on with me at that time, I think that it would’ve saved me a lot of time. Of course, it’s always just a journey. It’s an everyday journey, and that’s good. That’s what a practice is.
Routine is important. Maybe not for everyone but it is a good way for many to shed the day, like Lana suggests. Doing the dishes drives me up a tree, but I could see how someone in an industry where ‘everyday’ things are done for you, mundane household chores would be grounding. Untangling my necklaces calms me down. I bought a great necklace tree that keeps them separated a few years ago and I didn’t realize how much I needed that activity. I like Lana’s advice on not keeping things bottled up. She did a good job of explaining that. It’s not easy for me to follow in general, but her steps make it more approachable.
I was really interested in her body talk. After accepting that my scale is just not budging, my trainer and I decided I was going to have to record my food again. It’s so easy for me to fall back into disordered eating but the way I’ve been attacking myself, everything I’ve worked for mentally has been undone. So it was fortuitous to read Lana’s comments about self-talk. I feel like I can do it correctly this time and I just need to remember the kind messaging. I mean, it’s not worth doing the dishes for, but maybe I’ll knock my necklaces over and have that to refocus me.
Photo credit: Avalon Red and Instagram
I work at a desk all day, so manual labor is almost thrilling for me. Not dishes, though! I dread dishes! But weeding the yard and working in my garden? That’s my jam. When I go into the office, which has been pretty rare due to Covid, I volunteer to help with non-desk related tasks just to get up and do something different. We all default to that life-is-job job-is-life thinking, so finding that thing that reminds you that life isn’t just your job, that thing that brings you back to presentness, is critical!
I love her and the new series looks fun. Will definitely watch with my daughter. Also looking forward to Kitty’s spin off of To all the boys