John Legend says stepping away from social media is “really better for my mental health.”
Relaxation is Yahoo Life’s wellness series where experts, influencers and celebrities share their approaches to wellness Mental healthfrom self-care rituals to setting healthy boundaries to the mantras that keep them afloat.
Like many others, John Legend has found that sometimes he needs to step away from social media.
“I used to be on social media a lot more than I am today. In general, I post more on Instagram and some on TikTok, but I’ve kind of stopped posting on Twitter,” he says Agree star tells Yahoo Life, noting that the platform now known as X has become “a little too toxic.” “After a while, there’s so much transparency between you and your audience – not just you, but yourself – everything that comes in [discourse], it was just a lot. After a while I just thought, “You know, I don’t need this.” And it’s actually better for my mental health. I just found it better for my mental health to stay away.
Legend describes himself as “pretty unflappable” and says there isn’t much in his daily life that stresses him out. “It’s not because I’m a master meditator or anything,” he adds. “I’m built like that. I’ve been like that my whole life and I’m probably calmer now just from the experience.”
Of course, staying calm when you have four children at home is not an easy task. Legend and his wife Chrissy Teigen are the parents of Luna, 7, Miles, 5, Esti, 8 months, and Wren, 4 months; Their youngest child was delivered by a surrogate just months after Teigen gave birth to his older sister. But Legend is quick to point out that chaos at home is the happy kind.
“We have four children and two babies. So at our house it’s always an adventure, but it’s just more fun. There’s just a lot more energy and excitement at home,” he says, noting that it was always Teigen’s dream to have four children. “Chrissy loves chaos. And it’s not just us, we also have friends in the house all the time. We have people working with us, nannies, all sorts of people who are constantly in the house. We love cooking for them.” People, we love being sociable and we love entertaining. We like that kind of chaos.”
In addition to making a concerted effort to maintain his mental health, Legend also works hard to care for himself physically by eating healthy and exercising. “I do a little cardio and some weights, nothing too crazy or innovative,” he shares, adding that he likes to work out in the family’s garage gym every morning before dropping the kids off at school. With a long family history of high cholesterol and high blood pressure, Legend also makes sure to keep both things in mind while maintaining an “everything in moderation” perspective on food and alcohol.
Another way the EGOT winner stays healthy is by getting the latest COVID-19 vaccine. The legend has has partnered with Pfizer before the holiday season to raise awareness of the Shot.
“Some people feel like it’s controversial to talk about vaccines,” he says. “It’s just intuitive to me.”
Legend’s motivation for getting vaccinated is simple: “I want to protect my family and encourage other people to do the same.” However, he acknowledges that some people are skeptical.
“There’s a lot of misinformation out there,” Legend notes. “I think a lot of people have a general distrust of the authority, the mandates or the establishment, and I understand that. I tried to rely on the fact that I was talking to my doctor, not some random person on Facebook. I believe that if you listen to the experts, the evidence and the recommendations of the medical community are very clear. And I’d rather listen to them than to a random average person on the internet.”
