Photo: Alicia Keys/Instagram
Alicia Keysis finding her happy medium.
The mom of two, who also happens to be a 15x Grammy Award-winning artist, opened up to PEOPLE about balancing motherhood and her music career – while still finding time for herself.
“Everything with me is about wellness,” Keys tells PEOPLE exclusively while chatting about herrecent collaboration with Athleta. “That’s what all of this is about, taking the everyday and turning it into a small bit of a ritual so that you can have a moment for yourself.”
In addition to herworkouts and yoga, Keys finds doing self-care for her mental state is just as important as her physical health. She says “a little bath” is one of her go-to rituals, “with some salt, some bubbles. 20 minutes, 10 minutes,” she adds.
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Alicia Keys/Instagram
“I found that like for me as a writer, I really needed to get back into my journaling because I was getting all backed up in my head, and I was feeling all these things but I wasn’t really able to express them,” Keys explains.
This practice was not only an opportunity to openly express herself freely, but it further stimulated her creativity as a singer-songwriter.
“Getting back into my journaling really opened a space for me, and it made me become more creative too because I was kind of stuffing that down,” admits Keys.
Courtesy Athleta
In a world that is so loud and fast-paced, the artist is a big proponent of tuning into herself and her needs. “As a woman, I really found my grounding with my own kind of wellness rituals,” says Keys. “I’m very attracted to rituals and creating opportunities to be connected to your inner voice.”
She adds, “I think the world is so loud and everything’s so noisy – and a lot of times we feel like we have to be like everybody else or do what everybody else will approve of, and it’s really hard to find your own within you.”
swizz beats / instagram
“It’s also such a beautiful way to be with your family because so many times everybody’s doing everything in different directions, so it’s really nice to have something that you do together,” she continues.
Although Keys confidently says she “loves skiing,” the New York native wasn’t always a fan of the sport (or the cold!), admitting, “I never thought that I was going to like skiing. I was like, who wants to be in the cold all day?”
“Like that doesn’t sound appealing to anybody,” she adds. “But as I discovered how to layer up and how to actually do it, I just fell in love with it.”
While Keys has now figured out a balance between her career, kids, and self, she says that it was during the COVID-19 lockdown where she first learned many lessons – the main being, “create time for yourself.”
Keys continues, “I think that that was probably the most hectic part, kind of balancing between the kids on Zoom and just keeping the circle small and making sure that you were just kind of handling your business from home, and also handling the family stuff and the home stuff and all of those pieces.”
source: people.com
