The Duchess of Sussex is one of the healthiest members of the royal family thanks to a mix of meditation, yoga, healthy eating and exercise.
WATCH: Meghan Markle’s rigorous Suits workout
Before she married Harry, Meghan Markle was on her way to becoming a wellness guru and often discussed her lifestyle choices in her blog – The Tig.
Here’s how the 39-year-old keeps fit and healthy – one yoga pose at a time.
CARDIO FOR THE MIND
Meghan committed to a daily meditation practise in 2014 at the height of her Suits fame.
A year later she wrote about how at the beginning she’d initially found her twice-daily, 20-minute routine “daunting”, but that it soon became what she described as “the quietude that rocked my world”.
“I can’t put my finger on the why or the how, but I will tell you this much, for me … I am just happier. And meditation has much to do with that,” Meghan explained.
The duchess is a devotee of Vedic meditation, which involves sitting comfortably with one’s eyes closed and repeating a mantra or phrase out loud or internally. “I was sceptical for years, but it truly does wonders,” Meghan said.
HEALTHY POSITIVITY
As well as meditation, Meghan believes in keeping a healthy sense of perspective in all areas of her life.
“There are so many things I remind myself on a daily basis,” Meghan wrote for a blog piece on The Tig. “My best friend Lindsay [Roth] and I remind each other to “choose happiness”. Not complaining, not wallowing, not looking at the bad side of things, but to truly make a choice to choose happiness.”
She has also spoken in the past about how she prioritises downtime in the midst of her busy schedule. “I always take an hour to just decompress,” Meghan once explained.
MINDFUL MOVEMENT
While Meghan always makes time for exercise, she sees it more as a way to keep her body and mind healthy, rather than focusing on physical achievements. “Being active is my own moving meditation,” she once explained.
But her main physical exercise comes from practising yoga. “Yoga is my thing,” Meghan said. Thanks to her mum Doria being a yoga teacher, Meghan has been fine-tuning her downward dogs since she was seven years old.
Explaining that the daily habit is “in my blood”, Meghan adds that when she was working on Suits she also took hot yoga classes several times a week.
She’s credited the ancient Indian ritual with giving her greater flexibility, muscle strength, happiness, better mental focus and sleep.
GLOW & FLOW FROM FACETIME
Meghan is a fan of the “inner facial” which combines massaging the face from inside the mouth with lymphatic drainage and is said to increase blood flow and to stimulate toxin release.
Back in 2014 she explained: “I do facial exercises taught to me by one of my favourite aestheticians – Nichola Joss, who basically has you sculpt your face from the inside out.
“I swear it works, as silly as you may feel. On the days I do it, my cheekbones and jawline are way more sculpted.”
FEED THE SOUL
Meghan’s always been very open about adopting a balanced view on eating. In the past she ate a mostly vegan diet during the week but was always mindful about encouraging her fans to indulge a little when they wanted or needed to splurge occasionally.
As with all her wellness tips, when it comes to nutrition, Meghan is a fan of mindfulness and moderation. “I don’t ever want to feel deprived. I feel that the second you do that is when you start to binge on things. It’s not a diet; it’s lifestyle eating,” she explained in the past.
She also likes to think of her food choices as a way to help her heal. “Green juice is a food-as-medicine philosophy for me,” she explained.
