- 2 days ago
Kerry Washington has a yoga session and talks with MoAna Luu about empowerment and preservation.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Hi, everybody. I hope that you are enjoying the Essence Festival of Culture. I'm so excited
00:11to be here with you in partnership with Neutrogena to talk to you a little bit about my time
00:17in quarantine and how I'm cultivating wellness and self-care. You know, Audre Lorde talks
00:25about how for us as Black women, self-care is not a luxury. Self-care is self-preservation.
00:33And therefore, it is a political act where I get to affirm my worth and my value. So I am here to
00:41affirm your worth and your value and to help you breathe a little bit, which I feel like a lot of
00:47us need at this time. I'm so grateful that Neutrogena is allowing me or helping me to bring
00:54you this time. So come on.
01:01Let's start here with some breathing. So just try to do some what's called Ujjayi breathing.
01:07And that means that you're making kind of a Darth Vader sound when you breathe. To find it,
01:12you can try to fog up your hand with an imaginary mirror. So that sound that you make, that's kind
01:20of the placement of your throat, but you keep your mouth closed and breathe through your nose,
01:25teeth apart, mouth closed. And just try to inhale on a count of four and pause and exhale, two, three,
01:36four. Close your eyes and inhale, two, three, four. Through your nose and exhale, two, three,
01:46four. You can put your hands on your lap. Just continue to breathe, two, three, four. And
01:53exhale, two, three, four. Imagine a string on the very top of your head and it's just gently
02:01tugging you toward the heavens so that your spine can be nice and stretched. And try to
02:08relax your butt muscles. Let your sits bones, those muscles in the middle of your butt, just sink into
02:13the ground. Beautiful. And just keep breathing. And no matter what sounds you hear around you,
02:25whether it's your kids laughing or a garbage truck or the phone is ringing, maybe you're getting
02:30alerts, just stay with yourself and breathe. Put your hand on your heart and feel the air coming in and
02:44out of your lungs. And try to let the air go a little bit deeper all the way to your belly.
02:56And your lungs start all the way up here in your collarbones. So let the air come high and low.
03:11Beautiful. So I'm going to ask you to come to all fours, but stay with your breath. Keep your mouth
03:17closed. Oh, my dog is in the background. She's visiting us, which is amazing because we're about
03:21to do cat-cow. So you can say hi to Josephine Baker, the amazing wonder dog. But come to all fours
03:30and you're going to inhale, gently stretch your spine and exhale, curve your spine. And just move
03:41with your breath. Inhale. And exhale. And push through your hands to inhale and push through your hands to
03:58exhale. Really try to wake up your spine. And let your breath be part of the movement.
04:07Now inhale, take your right arm up and stretch. Let your eyes gaze toward your hand. Keep inhaling and
04:19exhaling. Good. Reach a little bit more. Reach all the way through your fingertips. Let your heart shine
04:28out. Imagine there's a bright light in your heart. And exhale. You're going to curve your arm through.
04:34So I'll spin around so you can see. You're going to curve your arm through and relax your head
04:41on the ground. Beautiful. Come back to all fours and do a little bit more cat and cow. Just let
04:52it be like a massage now for your spine. Let the air wake up your spine.
05:03Now your left hand reach up. Again, you're pushing through the hand that's on the floor.
05:17You're reaching through the sky. Keep inhaling and exhaling through your nose. Gaze up. Relax your face.
05:27Don't scrunch your face. Try to relax your eyes. Relax your face. Exhale. And again, reach through.
05:34And I'll turn around for you again. Reach through and rest your head on the ground. Inhale, exhale. Let that be a nice stretch for your back and your shoulder. Maybe even for your lower back, your upper back, your shoulder, your neck. Try to relax into the floor as you reach these fingers. Don't let these fingers get lazy. Let them reach out.
06:04Reach as they stretch, create space. Beautiful. Come back up. And we're going to sit. So you can sit comfortably. We're going to sit crisscross applesauce. So one leg in front of the other. If you want to put a towel under your knees to support you, you can do that. That's fine.
06:27We're going to bring our hands to prayer pose, which is also Anjali Mudra. This means offering. So we're offering our breath and our bodies today to our highest self, to self-love. Inhale. Reach up.
06:42Inhale. And exhale. Spin around. You're going to get a spinal twist. So with this pose, it's really important that you inhale again. That idea of a string at the top of your head. Inhale. Up. And then exhale. Twist your body around.
07:00And you can use this hand. And you can use this hand pressing against your knee to push you around. Spinal twists are so good. It rings out the spine. You can imagine wringing all the toxins out of your organs. Making space for more breath. Inhale.
07:15Inhale. And exhale. And exhale. And inhale back to prayer pose. Inhale. And exhale. Twist. So just keep breathing. We're doing a lot of work with the spine today because, you know, I've said this before on Instagram, but if somebody is spineless, it's as if they have no inner strength.
07:45No moral code. No moral code. So we want our spines to be strong, flexible, alive, so that we have real strength. Remember, inhale. Up. And exhale. Twist.
08:04Bring your hands back to prayer pose. And then switch your legs. We're going to do the same thing again. Just one more time. Each pose with your legs now. Switch so the other one's in front.
08:15And this time, I want to talk less so that we can all just breathe more. Just follow your breath. See what comes up. Push yourself, but be loving and gentle. Inhale.
08:26And exhale.
08:35And so what does that mean to push yourself past your comfort zone, but also be loving about it?
08:42To not force yourself, but to not force yourself, but to be gentle as you explore going a little bit past your comfort zone and encouraging yourself, come back to the front, encouraging yourself to be the best version of you today in this moment.
09:02And inhale.
09:04Inhale.
09:06And exhale.
09:28Beautiful.
09:28Inhale. And for our last pose for this sequence, we are going to bring your feet to butterfly
09:35pose. And I like to add a little bit of a foot massage in this moment because for us
09:43to stand up in life and whether it's standing poses or just standing in our kitchens, whatever
09:48it is, our feet need to be awake for us to be able to have really strong, healthy posture.
09:55We don't want to forget our feet. They are our base. They are how we interact with the
10:00earth. So you want to wake your feet up. You want to show your feet some love. And then
10:07we're going to bend over. Now for this pose to be most relaxing for you, maybe you want
10:12to get a book or a block or a towel or a blanket, or you can take both fists and put them on
10:19top of each other so that you're not reaching to rest your head. You have a little bit of
10:23a platform to hang over. And just let your head be heavy. So don't look at me. Look
10:33down. Let your head be heavy. Let your legs be heavy. I know it's a, it's a stretch, but
10:41try to just release with every exhale, release. Let your lips be heavy. Let your eyes be heavy.
10:49Let this curve in your spine just feel restorative and relaxing.
10:56Beautiful. And roll up. Let's do one more sort of cat and cow in this pose. So use your hands
11:18to pull your spine forward. Try to open your heart. Inhale. Stay here. Really shine your heart
11:24out. Really stretch your spine and exhale. Push again. Use your hands to push yourself
11:31away and curve your spine. One more time. Inhale. And exhale. And then come back to seated pose.
11:47And I like to end every series. Oh, I kind of want to roll my head around. So if you want
11:54to release your neck a little bit, you can roll your head. Oh, that's nice. And sometimes
12:00I wind up doing this and sort of giving myself a little bit of a massage, feeling where I'm
12:05tight. So that when I go into my final breathing or prayer time, whatever it is, I'm really released.
12:12So namaste. Thank you for joining me. Hi.
12:19Hi. Oh, my God. That was amazing. I feel relaxed. I have my yogi pose. You don't see it, but I have my yogi pose.
12:27Did you do it? Yes. Yes. And I breathe and I feel relaxed. And this is so important.
12:33You know, thank you so much for being part of this year festival. You always come to festival.
12:38But this moment is really special because we have a close time with you. And this is something really unique.
12:44Why now is self-care is so important for Black women right now?
12:49Such a great question. You know, first of all, I think we as Black women, we have always been people
12:56who get it done. You know, we've never had the luxury of being folks who don't work, who don't
13:04have to really be at the forefront of taking care of our families, our communities, our cities, our states.
13:12I think sometimes we put ourselves last. And it's really important that we put ourselves first.
13:20It's that old idea of putting your own oxygen mask on that you can't really be present for the people
13:27in your life or for that matter, for the movement if you aren't taking care of yourself.
13:33I also think like I think about movements like Say Her Name, you know, the amazing work that Kimberly
13:40Crenshaw is doing that we have to really struggle to get people to acknowledge the deaths of Black
13:47women who have been victims of police violence. And what that says to me is that we're not valuing
13:53the lives of Black women in our culture. The fact that Breonna Taylor's murderers are still
13:59out there means that we are not valuing the lives of Black women as a society, as a culture.
14:06So we have to at least be valuing ourselves. We have to at least be affirming our own value
14:13and our beauty and care so that we can sort of model that to the rest of society to care for us.
14:21This is so important to care and this is our role at essence to really remind Black women they need
14:29to take care of themselves. And this is as well as the goal of this wellness house. And talking about
14:35taking care of ourselves, right? How does mental health play into that?
14:40Oh, mental health is everything. I mean, I think it's really important that we not undervalue
14:45what we need to do what we need to stay feeling good. You know, there are things I do to take care
14:51of myself on the outside so that I stay feeling good. Um, and also on the inside, taking care of
14:57our breath is one of the easiest ways or let's say one of the most effective ways to take care of
15:04our nervous system. So when we remind ourselves to breathe, when we create space and time to breathe like
15:10we did today, um, we're really letting our nervous system know that we are ready to slow down and that impacts
15:19our physical well-being and our emotional well-being. So mental health is so important. I'm a firm believer
15:24and in my therapist, I'm very grateful for my therapist, but wherever it is that you need to get help
15:30and resources, you know, please go out there and make sure that you, that you have somebody you can talk to
15:37so that you never think you have to be doing this alone, particularly in these unprecedented times.
15:45You know, you're talking about taking the time, but for example, me, I'm a mom of a five years old,
15:50so it's very hard to find the time.
15:53The clue. I'm three and 14.
15:56Oh, you see. So how did you find the time and the routines that work for you?
16:01You know, it's different. It's different all the time. I try to carve out little spaces, um,
16:06to be able to take care of myself, but sometimes it means also multitasking, right? So it's funny,
16:13but one of the reasons why I love the products that we make at Neutrogena,
16:17every foundation we make is doing double duty, whether it's reversing or treating wrinkles,
16:23anti-aging or treating acne or extra hydration, like we're always on double duty and that's the nature
16:30of women, right? And I think that's part of how sometimes we have to work smarter, not harder,
16:36so that we can take care of ourselves when we're moms or running companies or both or doggy moms.
16:43I can see that. And when you follow a consistent self-care routine, what's the outcome? How do you feel?
16:50I think you feel great. You know, it's interesting for me, in particular with skin,
16:54like I've had eczema my whole life. So I've had to think about the health of my skin really my whole
17:01life. And I've gone to dermatologists my whole life in order to find routines that work for me.
17:07But I think when I'm doing that, like, that's my, my, that's sort of my minimum. That's my bar.
17:14That's, that's my flag. If I'm not taking care of my skin, like washing my face, moisturizing my face,
17:20cleansing, moisturizing, like making sure that that my skin is healthy, then I know that I'm not putting
17:27myself first. So I think, you know, exercise, drinking water, skincare routine, giving, making time
17:35for friends and family, making time for mental health. These are all ways that we can really feel
17:39good in this marathon, you know, because this is, it's clear that the world has changed. We're in a new
17:46moment. And we need to learn how to take care of ourselves in this new world. So what would be the
17:52one self-care tips that you can give us, share with black women right now? What will the one, just one?
17:58So one thing I'm super passionate about, which is another reason why I'm happy that I'm doing this
18:03with Neutrogena is, is sunscreen, right? SPF. Because I think often we, as black women, think that we are
18:10immune from skin cancer, from the need to be protecting our skin. But for me, I'm out here
18:15doing yoga. Every time I'm out doing yoga, because I do it in my yard, I make sure that I'm, I mean, I put
18:21on my sunscreen because I don't want to be doing something that's good for me and then be hurting
18:29myself in the process, right? So I'm going to take care of my lungs. I'm going to take care of my
18:33system, but I also want to take care of my skin. So putting SPF on moms, your kids, the best thing
18:40you can do for your kids' skin health and skin cancer is preventable. The most important thing
18:45we can do is putting SPF on ourselves because our kids, they're watching what we do, not what we say.
18:50So it's, you know, also putting SPF on is something I feel like I do for my health, for the health
18:55of my family. So that's a big one. And then I have to say washing my face. I am like religious
19:01about washing. I will tell you a secret. How do you do it? Like, I'm a big double cleansing person,
19:09but I would joke like when I first became a mom, these wipes, like the, these are actually the new
19:16hydro boost wipes, but any of the Neutrogena wipes, these are amazing because they multitask with
19:20hyaluronic. But I used to call my wipes, my Neutrogena wipes, my shower when I first became a mom
19:25because sometimes that was all I could do. It was like wipes from head to toe. So even now, if I'm
19:32super exhausted, I cleanse my face. It may just be with the wipes on a good day. It's double cleansing.
19:37It's the wipes. And then additionally washing my face, but whatever you can do, like no judgment,
19:42just make sure you're clean before you get in bed because you, I want my skin to breathe.
19:48So that will be the new thing. So I will put the wipes in my bag and like this, I can anytime
19:53because sometimes you feel so tight. You feel so tired. You want to bed and you're like,
19:58should I, should I? Yes.
20:00Put it on your bedside, right? So even, you know, when there's times where you're so tired,
20:03you wind up, you're on your pillow and you're like, I don't know if I can go up and brush my
20:07teeth and wash my face. I just don't know. But the wipes are there. You know, you have your book
20:12that you're reading. I have my, what's on my night table, my, my water, my book I'm reading,
20:16my, my nighttime supplements and my wipes and myself.
20:20Oh my God. That will be the good tips that I will use because when you have no time,
20:25you still have the time for the wipes. You just put the wipes after that on the side.
20:29Thank you so much for this moment of peace, actually. This is what we need now, Black women.
20:34We need this moment of peace and taking care of ourselves. That was just magic.
20:39Thank you everybody for joining. Thank you Essence Fest. Thank you. I hope you guys continue to enjoy
20:44the festival. Thank you to Neutrogena and take care of yourself, ladies. We need you. Namaste.
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