Keke Palmer On The Importance Of Self-Care On The Road To Success

Keke Palmer knows that keeping a healthy body and mind is the key to maintaining her busy schedule, but she hasn’t always prioritized her health.

The actress spoke with Women’s Health for their September cover story about how she learned to practice self-care.

“I’ve learned over the years that to keep my sanity, and to physically keep this machine running, I have to pour into myself as often as I can,” she explained.

The actress has spent her time preparing for the “Nope” promotion tour, for example, by recharging at a healing spa.

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“We’re doing a lot of traveling for ‘Nope’. Korea, Germany, London, Paris, so many different places, which I’m excited about. But I also know it’s going to be extremely physically taxing,” Palmer shared. “I’m going to be expending so much energy, talking, laughing, and engaging. And I don’t do anything half-a**ed. So if I’m talking, I’m talking; if I’m laughing, I’m laughing; if I’m engaging, I’m engaging.”

Palmer stars in the thriller movie from Jordan Peele alongside Daniel Kaluuya and Steven Yeun.

One of the big challenges for the 29-year-old, and one of the ways she’s maintaining her regimen of self-care is by making sure she’s making healthy dietary choices.

“It’s trying to find the right things—to make sure I’m not always eating garbage because I’m getting too tired, or I forgot. I want to make sure my body is at its best,” she said.

A decision that made a big change for the actress, however, was in learning the power of saying “no”.

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“I realized it’s hard to say no because we don’t trust. We don’t trust that if we say no the opportunity will come again. Or we don’t trust that if we say no we’ve made the right choice,” said Palmer. “Or we’re scared that if we say no we’re going to offend somebody. But I realized that saying yes to too many things was stressing me out the most. I’ve learned not to be afraid to rearrange things and to accept that I’m not going to be able to do it all without hurting myself.”

Making decisions to protect herself from the hustle culture of the industry has given her more space for clarity.

“It’s been two years since I embarked on this whole ‘saying no’ thing. And I must say, I’m getting really good at it now,” she continued. “That’s the grace and the silver lining. Everything I’ve been through has taught me how to love myself more.”

Read the full interview at Women’s Health.