LeAnn Rimes is sharing her mental health journey
The singer and actress is beginning the second season of her podcast “Wholly Human.”
LeAnn Rimes celebrated the 25th anniversary of her album “Blue” this month. But the singer and actress, who at 14 became the youngest person to win a Grammy, rarely reflects on that time in her life so she can “maintain (her) sanity.”
“I can look back and recognize, I think, how much I have survived,” she told USA TODAY ahead of the second season of her mental health podcast “Wholly Human” (out now on iHeartRadio). “The traumatic parts of it kind of outshadow and outweigh the success and all the accomplishments, so it’s nice to kind of look back and have a have a balanced view of both sides of things.”
Rimes, 38, is “still dealing” with the mental health struggles of achieving stardom at such a young age.
“I always joke about this, but it’s not really funny . ... There was never anyone for me to really call on and say, ‘Hey, how did you get through this?’ Because most all of us that start at that age are dead or still really shaken by the whole experience.
“I feel like probably one of my greatest accomplishments has been surviving childhood stardom and thriving past it.”
Rimes also has overcome her personal drama playing out in the public eye. She and her husband, Eddie Cibrian, made headlines when they went public as a couple in 2009. The pair met while they were both married to other people, and her husband’s ex, Brandi Glanville, aired details about their family dynamics as a cast members on Bravo’s “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.”
When family situations get stressful, Rimes believes it’s important to have open, honest conversations: “(Try) to do it from a place of loving kindness and understanding and not communicating when we’re triggered and in such a heightened state of arousal,” she says.
She hasn’t always been a “boundary queen,” but with time she has come to understand the importance of setting firm lines. “Really knowing when to walk away and give people space and take space for yourself ... those are all key pieces to family unit survival and communication.”
A “healthy kind of selfishness” also is OK, she says.
“One of the biggest things that I’m learning for myself is that selfishness is not selfish,” she says. “No one is served from you putting everyone else’s needs before yours.”
Rimes practices self-care in a variety of ways, including a morning routine that involves lymphatic drainage techniques including gua sha on her face, meditation and workouts.
“I think probably one of the biggest pieces for me is really getting into my body lately, like moving and dancing and just finding ways to kind of be uninhibited and enjoy movement.”
She’s also exploring new wellness topics in her podcast. While Rimes has gotten personal through her music for years, “Wholly Human” allows her to use her voice differently, she said.
“Every time I do it I feel like I’m opening up more and more and I’m allowing that space to be a place of humanity,” she says. “(It) was important to me for people to be able, after all these years, to connect with me in a new way and to share my journey for myself, to really kind of discharge the shame of my journey for myself, to discharge the shame of everyone else’s journey by sharing my own.”
This journey continues in her upcoming album, “God’s Work,” out later this year.
“This album is a real call to action not only personally but for the collective,” she says. “I feel like I’m really writing music that is part of my own expression and awakening, but calling people to join me on that, too.”