Lea Michele is Taking Her Own Advice While Social Distancing—And It’s Good

Under normal circumstances, staying in the house every day could be described as monotonous or boring. Not so much when a global health crisis is imploding outside. “I feel like every day is different,” Lea Michele recently told STYLECASTER. “But it’s reassuring because a lot of people feel the same way, where one day it’s like, ‘Okay, we can do this. We’re home and we’re making this work.’ And then the next day it’s like, ‘This is so scary.'” Still, Lea Michele’s wellness expertise—specifically, tips from her “Wellness Wednesdays” Instagram highlight—is a goldmine of ways to protect your sanity and make healthy decisions while adjusting to a new normal.

(And if you live for beauty product recommendations like me, it’s especially gratifying.)

“It was an opportunity for me a couple of years back…to slow down and really start taking care of myself. It was about connecting with myself on a deeper level and exploring new and holistic ways to not only look my best but to truly feel my best on the inside,” she said. Now, she’s quite literally taking her own advice and sharing it with others because let’s be real: self-care is more important than ever.

Source: Instagram

“What I’m trying to do right now as much as possible is encourage as many people who can stay home to stay home. It’s what we have to do,” she said. “And I’m now relying on these self-care rituals I’ve used for over the years to help me get through, and sharing with people to help make their time at home maybe a little more peaceful.”

Like most of us, Lea takes social distancing very seriously and continues to follow stay at home orders with her mom and husband [Zandy Reich]. Spoiler alert: they aren’t sick of each other (yet), thanks to a sense of humor and steady routine. In fact, I’d say she’s got this whole “self-distancing” thing figured out. Ahead, and in her own words, here’s how she’s pulling it all off, including a steady transition to clean beauty products.

Stay Connected

It’s really hard right now because my father’s on the East coast, so me and my mom are making sure to FaceTime at least twice a day to check in with him. I think what we’re going through right now is absolutely horrific, but I have found that I’m connecting with friends more than I maybe ever have.

We spend so much time with very brief text messages that really don’t have a lot of depth, and I think being where we are right now is such an opportunity for us to connect on a deeper level by speaking over the phone, which I don’t think people have done in a very long time. Now, these conversations aren’t just gossiping or sort of surface level. It’s, ‘How’s your family? How are you feeling? How are your emotions? How’s your stress?’

It’s been great to find creative ways to move our bodies at home and not be stuck in the same routine.

Curb Your News Intake

Just now, my husband was sitting in the living room doing some work with the news on and I was like, ‘Let’s just turn it off ’til later.’ It’s incredibly important to stay informed, but the numbers are rising so rapidly right now that it is very scary, and I think it’s important to get the information and then make sure you also take the time to protect yourself and process.

I read The New York Times every morning and then I try to not look for the rest of the day. Maybe towards the evening, we’ll put on MSNBC or CNN to just check and see what’s going on. I still have my fun little girly things that I like to read every day, but to get my information, I make sure that I stick with credible sources because we can get overwhelmed with a lot of, ‘Well, their article says this’ or, ‘That article says that.’ I think we have to go straight to the source, especially the CDC or WHO, to make sure that we’re getting the correct information.

Source: Instagram

Leave Space in Your Schedule

The most important thing for us as a family, my mom included, was that we came up with a really good schedule. So, my husband works for the first half of the day and then he’ll work out and I’ll work out as well. And then we’ll cook a nice dinner, all of us together, and then at the end of the evening, all watch a show together.

We’ve never really felt super on top of each other because we make sure that everyone has their own individual space. I could definitely find myself being someone to get very sad by all of this. And it’s very anxiety-provoking, but we’ve really supported one another and made sure that we’ve kept our spirits lifted as much as possible.

Liberate Your Skin

The only things that are important to me right now are shaving my legs and washing my hair. Those are the two things that I will do always no matter what, but other than that, I’m giving my nails an opportunity to breathe with no polish. I mean, I love a good pedicure but I’m just letting everything have the opportunity to breathe and grow; not having my hair blown out with different products and not wearing makeup. That has been a sort of nice, liberating thing in the midst of all of this.

I love every book from Hello Sunshine that Reese Witherspoon recommends.

Don’t Put Your Goals on Pause

My goal for 2020 was to transition to all-natural products; every single thing from deodorant to toothpaste to face moisturizer to face wash to shampoo. It was really hard because you don’t realize, ‘Oh, wait, my toothpaste has chemicals in it,’ and then I have to replace that, or that my deodorant has chemicals. But one of my favorite new products since doing this switch is Rahua shampoo. I can’t express enough how much I love this shampoo. I trust anything by Honest Company, especially their body wash and moisturizer. Those were the easiest, quickest swaps.

Obviously, Goop is on the higher end, price-wise, but it has a really great body wash as well. Another brand that I love is OSEA—great body oils, face oils and body scrub. Necessaire Body Wash is also amazing. And then there’s a really wonderful natural feminine line called Rael. They have everything from tampons to face masks to feminine wash and it’s so great because we don’t think about how we’re really putting a lot of chemicals into our body too.

Source: Instagram

Spice Up Your Workouts

We really want to respect this stay at home policy. I know it’s important to go out for walks and we are doing that sporadically, but we have a lovely backyard. So I’ll do a little light yoga in the backyard. We also have a Peloton in the house, which turned out to be one of the greatest purchases.

We’ve also been FaceTiming with our trainer, so it’s been great to kind of find creative ways to move our bodies at home and not be stuck in the same routine every day.

Eat Your Veggies, But Treat Yourself Too

We’re not going out to dinner, obviously. Being at home and stocking the fridge has sort of forced us to eat on the healthier side. We’re cooking our own foods and making sure that all of our meals are balanced. But outside of that, having some really good comfort food is also important. For me right now, it’ll be the occasional grilled cheese or my favorite Annie’s Macaroni and Cheese, which I had two nights in a row the other day and have no shame about. I also love Amy’s pizza.

Join a (Virtual) Book Club

I love every book from Hello Sunshine [Book Club] that Reese Witherspoon recommends. I’ve read almost all of them. I just started digging into Whisper Network by Chandler Baker.

Source: Instagram

Stick to Soothing Sounds

Keeping our minds healthy during this time is so important. We can get incredibly overwhelmed, possibly even sad or down because it’s a tragedy and it’s a huge challenge and it’s terrifying. The Calm app has been such a saving grace for me. I was never really into meditating and I still don’t even know if I’m actually meditating. But it’s just a little quiet time for me to have every single day, even if I just do a 10-minute meditation.

I’ve also just been going on Spotify and putting on relax, chill mixes. Anything that is sort of light and easy, like JOHNNYSWIM or Kacey Musgraves, is amazing.

Keep Your Netflix Queue Uplifting

We aren’t watching as much as you would think we would be right now. Our days are actually filled with working out or meditating or reading or calling friends, so that’s a really positive thing. But with that being said, of course, I’m still watching my shows. We’re trying to keep it positive and light. My mom and I watched Emma the other day, and it was so sweet and amazing.

We loved Captain Fantastic—it’s about a father and his children who live in the woods and survive in nature. There’s another great documentary called Expedition Happiness and it’s about a boyfriend and girlfriend who pack up in their bus to travel across the country. It’s really just about stripping down and focusing on each other and the world. And we got to look at some beautiful scenery while being at home. The Goop Lab is also a great thing to watch right now to focus on self-care.

Our mission at STYLECASTER is to bring style to the people, and we only feature products we think you’ll love as much as we do. Please note that if you purchase something by clicking on a link within this story, we may receive a small commission of the sale and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes.