Idris Elba Discusses His Decision to Embrace Therapy Amid Unhealthy Habits
Idris Elba Opens Up About His Transformation from Unhealthy Habits to Therapy in a Candid Interview.
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00:00 Idris Elba has shared that he has been in therapy due to his unhealthy habits.
00:07 The actor revealed during the podcast that he sought out therapy around this time last
00:12 year.
00:13 "It's a lot," he said.
00:14 "In my therapy, I've been thinking a lot about changing, almost to the point of neuro-pathways
00:20 being changed and shifting.
00:23 It's not because I don't like myself or anything like that.
00:26 It's just because I have some unhealthy habits that have really taken hold, and I work in
00:32 an industry that rewards those unhealthy habits."
00:35 Idris said that his workaholic habit of staying busy with projects has had a negative impact
00:44 on his well-being.
00:45 "Nothing that's too extreme is good.
00:48 Everything needs balance.
00:49 But I am rewarded massively for being a workaholic compared to someone who says, 'Ah, I'm not
00:55 going to see my family for six months.'
00:57 And I am in there grinding and creating a new family and leaving them," he shared.
01:04 "Those are pathways that I had to be like, 'I have got to adjust.'
01:09 So I've been thinking about this a lot.
01:12 And oddly enough, a lot of our childhood is really at the root of it," the Luther actor
01:17 added.
01:20 One of the stars featured in the Pirelli 2024 calendar said he definitely wants to find
01:26 activities that help him unwind but admitted that the catch-22 is that he finds work relaxing.
01:32 "The thing is, the things that make me relax end up being work," he explained.
01:37 "My studio, in my house, I just love being in here.
01:42 I'll open that laptop and be like, 'I don't know what to make today.'
01:47 And it'll come out like this or that, and I am exhilarated by that and also so relaxed
01:53 by it.
01:56 I could work 10 days on a film, doing underwater sequences, holding my breath for six minutes,
02:02 and come back and sit in, and more so than sitting on the sofa with the family, which
02:07 is bad, right?
02:08 This is the part where I've got to normalize what makes me relax.
02:12 It can't be all work," he added.
02:21 you