How I Thrive takes an inside look at founders, entrepreneurs and leaders and the behind-the-scenes self-care work they do to in order to live balanced, happy lives. Today's edition is with Actor Francia Raísa, who's all about the eight-minute nap and lavender oil.
Name: Francia Raísa
Age: 32
City: North Hollywood, California
Role: Actor
Beyond the role: Dancer, professional food and wine connoisseur, professional napper, yoga sculpt teacher — health and fitness light up my life!
Morning routine:
I always set my alarm to go off 30 minutes before I actually need to get up because I lose my battle with snooze every morning. It’s a constant debate in my mind about actually getting up. When I do finally get up, my dog is waiting with his tail wagging by the front door for his morning walk, so I take him out for about 15 minutes. When I get back, I make my morning warm lemon water with apple cider vinegar and cayenne pepper, listen to worship music and journal.
Midway through journaling I switch to coffee and then get ready to work out, which is from home these days. After my workout I start my day.
The first thing I do after work:
Eat. It really depends on what time I finish up for the day, but more than likely I eat, have a glass of wine, and wind down in front of the television with my heating pad on my back.
Dinner ritual:
Nighttime routine:
Self-care guilty pleasure:
I'm huge on this. I literally have a week where everyday I schedule something if I can’t do it all in one day. My nails, eyebrows, massage, then facial (I try to do that in the same day), and cupping
Self-care hack during the workday:
Naps. I get 30 minute lunches when I'm on set, so I’ve learned to eat really fast. That way I can squeeze in a snooze. I can take a good eight-minute min nap in between takes, too. Little naps here and there go along way. Also, lavender oil is amazing and I rub it on my temples.
How I define self-care:
Being selfish and taking care of your own personal needs first. I love the release of adrenaline when I work out, so I make sure to do that every morning to get my day going. I feel beautiful when my eyebrows and nails are done, so I make that a priority. I get tired really easily, probably because I push myself so hard, so I’m good at listening to my body when it's saying stop and sit.
Listening to your body is a lot harder than it sounds because it usually tells you to stop when you don't feel like you have the time, but we also can’t afford to get sick. You will always hear me say, “I just need a second” and go into hiding in the bathroom or anywhere I can be alone and sit down and breathe for a bit. Oh, and my Apple Watch constantly reminds me to breathe, so thats another self-care trick i have.
Favorite childhood toy or hobby:
Reading. I loved to read when I was a kid. My parents were super strict and didn’t let me go out with friends or anything, so if I wasn’t at school or dance class I was home reading romantic novels. I grew up watching novelas with my mom and grandma, so I became a bit of a hopeless romantic and loved reading love stories and daydreaming.
During the summer when we were off from school, my sisters and I loved staying up all night watching Nick At Nite, which usually had marathons of "Happy Days," "I Love Lucy" and "The Brady Bunch." Old shows like that. We stay up all night playing the card game "speed" and drinking hot chocolate. We literally wouldn’t go to sleep til 6 a.m.!
State of your (email) inbox:
I mark “unread” on everything! I only delete junk mail, so I currently have 21,671 emails in my inbox. Crazy? Maybe, but you wont catch me without receipts. I’ve seen too much and I like to be ready.
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Illustration by Megan Behrendt