Bianca Belair Opens Up About Her Mental Health And Self-Care Practices As A WWE Star
Bianca Belair has earned her title as a SmackDown superstar within the WWE. Now, the wrestling champion is opening up about how she stays on top of her mental and physical health.
In conversation with ESSENCE, the former RAW Women’s Champion discussed the importance of prioritizing her mental health and how she maintains her mental well-being overall.
“Mental health is everything,” Belair told the publication. “I think everybody focuses so much on the physical. You go in the gym and you’re training and you’re working hard and you’re sore. You feel good about yourself. But mental health is just as important.”
For Belair, prioritizing moments of rest is a key component of her mental health practices, due in part to her demanding schedule that keeps her “on the go.” She shares how her career, coupled with the expectation to focus on performing and pleasing fans, can lead to mental exhaustion from giving so much to others.
“I’m constantly so focused, grinding, I’m constantly performing; where you go out there and you’re smiling and you’re meeting fans and you’re putting smiles on fans’ faces, sometimes you tend to forget about yourself and you become mentally exhausted or you give so much of yourself to the world,” she says.
She adds, “When you get to your home life where you have your loved ones, the ones that truly matter and that are going to be there, even when everything’s said and done, you don’t have anything for them. You don’t have anything for yourself. So I get mentally exhausted just from being physically exhausted.”
In April, Bianca Belair spoke at WWE World on how she plans to stay ahead of the competition amid her many career achievements within the wrestling industry.
“My work speaks for itself. I’ve done a lot of things that no one can ever take from me. I’ve main-evented WrestleMania, I’ve made history,” she said. “I only want to step in the ring with who thinks they are the best because that’s the only way I can be pushed to be even better.”
Belair, 35, concluded by dispelling the misconception that self-care requires extravagant activities like spa treatments, highlighting the simplicity of activities like resting and watching favorite shows in bed as valuable forms of self-care.
“I have to remember to do things that I enjoy,” she says. “I think that mental health and self-care sometimes has a misconception when people think that it’s this extravagant thing where you have to go to the spa, you have to get cucumbers and put them on your eyes and get massages. Sometimes I just need to sit down and decompress, lay in my bed and do my guilty pleasure and eat in my bed and watch all my shows.”
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Featured image by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images
Aley Arion is a writer and digital storyteller from the South, currently living in sunny Los Angeles. Her site, yagirlaley.com, serves as a digital diary to document personal essays, cultural commentary, and her insights into the Black Millennial experience. Follow her at @yagirlaley on all platforms!
Devale Ellis On Being A Provider, Marriage Growth & Redefining Fatherhood
In this candid episode of the xoMAN podcast, host Kiara Walker talked with Devale Ellis, actor, social media personality, and star of Zatima, about modern masculinity, learning to be a better husband, emotional presence in marriage, fatherhood for Black men, and leading by example.
“I Wasn’t Present Emotionally”: Devale Ellis on Marriage Growth
Devale Ellis On Learning He Was a ‘Bad Husband’
Ellis grew up believing that a man should prioritize providing for his family. “I know this may come off as misogynistic, but I feel like it’s my responsibility as a man to pay for everything,” he said, emphasizing the wise guidance passed down by his father. However, five years into his marriage to long-time partner Khadeen Ellis, he realized provision wasn’t just financial.
“I was a bad husband because I wasn’t present emotionally… I wasn’t concerned about what she needed outside of the resources.”
Once he shifted his mindset, his marriage improved. “In me trying to be of service to her, I learned that me being of service created a woman who is now willing to be of service to me.”
On Redefining Masculinity and Fatherhood
For Ellis, “being a man is about being consistent.” As a father of four, he sees parenthood as a chance to reshape the future.
“Children give you another chance at life. I have four different opportunities right now to do my life all over again.”
He also works to uplift young Black men, reinforcing their worth in a world that often undermines them. His values extend to his career—Ellis refuses to play roles that involve domestic violence or sexual assault.
On Marriage, Family Planning, and Writing His Story
After his wife’s postpartum preeclampsia, Ellis chose a vasectomy over her taking hormonal birth control, further proving his commitment to their partnership. He and Khadeen share their journey in We Over Me, and his next book, Raising Kings: How Fatherhood Saved Me From Myself, is on the way.
Through honesty and growth, Devale Ellis challenges traditional ideas of masculinity, making his story one that resonates deeply with millennial women.
For the xoMAN podcast, host Kiara Walker peels back the layers of masculinity with candid conversations that challenge stereotypes and celebrate vulnerability. Real men. Real stories. Real talk.
Want more real talk from xoMAN? Catch the full audio episodes every Tuesday on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, and don’t miss the full video drops every Wednesday on YouTube. Hit follow, subscribe, and stay tapped in.
Featured image by YouTube/xoNecole
Devale Ellis On Being A Provider, Marriage Growth & Redefining Fatherhood
In this candid episode of the xoMAN podcast, host Kiara Walker talked with Devale Ellis, actor, social media personality, and star of Zatima, about modern masculinity, learning to be a better husband, emotional presence in marriage, fatherhood for Black men, and leading by example.
“I Wasn’t Present Emotionally”: Devale Ellis on Marriage Growth
Devale Ellis On Learning He Was a ‘Bad Husband’
Ellis grew up believing that a man should prioritize providing for his family. “I know this may come off as misogynistic, but I feel like it’s my responsibility as a man to pay for everything,” he said, emphasizing the wise guidance passed down by his father. However, five years into his marriage to long-time partner Khadeen Ellis, he realized provision wasn’t just financial.
“I was a bad husband because I wasn’t present emotionally… I wasn’t concerned about what she needed outside of the resources.”
Once he shifted his mindset, his marriage improved. “In me trying to be of service to her, I learned that me being of service created a woman who is now willing to be of service to me.”
On Redefining Masculinity and Fatherhood
For Ellis, “being a man is about being consistent.” As a father of four, he sees parenthood as a chance to reshape the future.
“Children give you another chance at life. I have four different opportunities right now to do my life all over again.”
He also works to uplift young Black men, reinforcing their worth in a world that often undermines them. His values extend to his career—Ellis refuses to play roles that involve domestic violence or sexual assault.
On Marriage, Family Planning, and Writing His Story
After his wife’s postpartum preeclampsia, Ellis chose a vasectomy over her taking hormonal birth control, further proving his commitment to their partnership. He and Khadeen share their journey in We Over Me, and his next book, Raising Kings: How Fatherhood Saved Me From Myself, is on the way.
Through honesty and growth, Devale Ellis challenges traditional ideas of masculinity, making his story one that resonates deeply with millennial women.
For the xoMAN podcast, host Kiara Walker peels back the layers of masculinity with candid conversations that challenge stereotypes and celebrate vulnerability. Real men. Real stories. Real talk.
Want more real talk from xoMAN? Catch the full audio episodes every Tuesday on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, and don’t miss the full video drops every Wednesday on YouTube. Hit follow, subscribe, and stay tapped in.
Featured image by YouTube/xoNecole