Iskra Lawrence is mixing business with pleasure! In her latest Instagram post, the model and influencer makes a splash in her swimsuit, showing off her curves while on the beach. "How to find a work / play balance? I knew this chapter being a mommy first and business owner second would require a whole new mindset and one that is unique to me and what fuels my joy in life. So I've figured out a few things over the last 2 years…" she wrote. "I need alone time," she continued, adding that "little 1-3 day trips" mixing business with fun help her reset and return to "mommy mode" revitalized. "For me a trip like this (probably sans clubbing that might need to be semi annual🤣) every other month brings me joy and I refuse to feel guilty when I know it enables me to be a more present grateful mom too." What other ways does she take care of herself mentally and physically? In a recent interview with Celebwell, she revealed all of her secrets. Read on to see 11 of Iskra Lawrence's top tips for staying in shape and loving yourself and the photos that prove they work—and to get beach-ready yourself, don't miss these essential 30 Best-Ever Celebrity Bathing Suit Photos!
A few years back Iskra did a show for Facebook dubbed "The Mirror Challenge," a simple practice that promotes self-love. "I do a lot of work in front of the mirror and I've worked with people who have had, loss, close people dying, people who've gone through infertility, people who have had gone through severe weight loss, and then they've got excess skin, people who have been bullied, people who have experienced racism, and I've done the mirror challenge with all of them," she explains. "It's the same thing that comes up every time: People are struggling with how they feel about themselves and don't even realize that they're playing a negative narrative." So, she tells them to look in the mirror and come up with just three things that they love about themselves. "A lot of people can't come up with anything. A lot of people cry, or a lot of people say I'm really stuck. And then I say to them, 'What are you currently saying to yourself? What's the first thing that you think when you look at yourself in the mirror?' Literally the first words that come to your head, most of them aren't very nice. They're usually unkind or they're maybe the things that bullies called you in high school and you're still holding on to them. So I do a lot of work with people to offload that and obviously talk about where that came from." Then, she tells people they can change their narrative. "That is very, very powerful. A lot of people never give themselves eye contact. Even if you think you're looking in the mirror, you're looking at your breakouts, your hair, you're quickly looking at your outfit, you're not looking at yourself with direct eye contact. And it can be kind of jarring at the beginning. But it's a really good way to actually be very honest with how you're feeling about yourself. So I would always encourage people to do that as a starting point. It will be a complete reset, you'll figure out, 'Oh wow. I have actually been saying to myself some unkind things. Let me try and challenge that."
Iskra also encourages daily journaling. This can come in the form of gratitude list, lesson journaling, or affirmations. "Gratitude lists for me are a great way to challenge your mindset if you are feeling down, stressed, or anxious," she says. However, it might feel uncomfortable at first. "I remember when I first got my Louise Hay [affirmation book], and I was with my friend Frankie, who lived in London, and we just thought it was so silly, like getting in front of the mirror and just saying like, 'We are powerful.' We were just giggly you know, 21 years old and giggly and we didn't really take it seriously. We were going through our own challenges of figuring out who we wanted to be what we wanted to do with our lives. And we really needed to get something that empowered us. So we just started to say to each other, 'Why don't we take this seriously, what's the harm?' We did a lot of vision boarding and we worked on affirmations.'" And guess what? They worked. She suggests everyone try activities like this, even though some people may view it as "surface level" stuff. But, if you put the time in, eventually it will work. "You do have to put the work in, you do have to believe it, and you do have to continue using the tools over and over."
Find someone to help you achieve your goals. "I think an accountability buddy is really helpful," says Iskra. "I've done it before with a friend where we would text each other something we're grateful for every morning. Just that quick little message, something as simple as 'We were in New York and the train was on time' or 'I had my favorite coffee.' You just feel really uplifted and it's really sweet to do that with someone," she adds. You can also use your accountability when it comes to exercise. "Sometimes it's hard to do things on your own, ao accountability buddies are always a really, really good tool."
Iskra also encourages openly discussing your journey of self-love. "Just saying, 'Hey, I'm trying to love myself a little bit more,' and asking them about their self-care journey. 'How much time do you spend on it? Do you want to sit down and plan something together?' I think that's a really great way of implementing it into your friendship group or into your partner's life."
Iskra maintains that nature is another great self-care tool."Just going outside, ideally not taking your phone if you feel safe, or keeping your phone in your pocket," she says. "Going outside and just breathing." She adds that this was particularly helpful for her during postpartum, when she felt "trapped" inside of the house. "I felt like I was trapped as being just a mom and nothing else. I couldn't do the extra things I used to do. But just walking outside in nature. It just does something, gets you back in tune with the flow and your breathing."
Iskra hasn't always had a healthy relationship with exercise. "As someone who's had an eating disorder and had body dysmorphia, I used to see exercise as punishment, and I used to simply see it as a means to burn more calories, so I could be in calorie deficit," she told Celebwell. It wasn't until she found "that joy in movement" and realized that exercise didn't have to be "all or nothing" that she started to enjoy it. "Now I know that there are so many different ways I can move my body," she said.
Iskra suggests challenging yourself. "When I do find a new challenge. I then feel really accomplished when I do something that's either unexpected or I know is empowering." This could be in the form of setting a high number of reps or weights.
Iskra weights trains because it makes her feel strong and empowered. "I like to view my body as something that's strong and something that's able, something that's taking me around the world enabling me to do things," she continued. "I love going on hikes running after my little one." She adds that this has helped change her mindset of how she views her body, "it's like it's my home, I want it to be strong. I want it to be built out of brick, not straw."
Iskra revealed that she isn't exactly comfortable in gym settings. "As a woman I feel like I'm never taken seriously when I want to use a piece of weight equipment," she said. "I get interrupted a lot, even during reps and sets. I've been interrupted multiple times, tapped on the shoulder trying to talk to me about form. And for me when I want to work out it's like I only have this much amount of time allotted to move, and I just want to be in it. I want to forget that I'm in the real world. I'm just in this zone."
Maintaining variety with exercise is key, per Iskra. Her partner, Philip Payne, can do the same cardio workout every night of the week, but she needs to mix up her routine. "That would drive me bananas," she told us. "I need to switch it up."
Iskra, an ambassador at OxeFit, an at-home connected fitness platform, is a big fan of the workout, which can be done on the brand's XS1, an AI-powered total body at-home gym offering over 200 workouts and includes everything needed from weights and cables to a built-in pilates reformer and rowing machine. It fuses together cardio and strength training in an easy to operate at-home workout experience. "I need a foolproof way to be able to squeeze in a 15 minute workout because I just don't have time," she said, adding that the creative machine enables you to "almost forget that you're working out" and describes it as a "breath of fresh air," compared to other methods. "Our aim is to educate people on how movement should be joyful," she added.
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