The actress and author opens up about her family and how she stays happy and healthy.
1. Your new book, Out Came the Sun, and the 2013 documentary about your life, Running From Crazy, bring home the personal demons and mental illness that run deep within your family. How have you been able to face and overcome your challenges?
I think there's always a person in a family who says, "I don't want to do this anymore." Maybe not in one generation, maybe it takes two generations. But someone says, "I don't want to keep passing this on." I don't know if my kids are going to be perfect, but they're not going to have secrets between themselves and me.
By Stacy WeinerYou don't have to change much. Here, surprising ways to feel better every day I'm a nonstop happiness seeker. On long drives, I don't ask my husband, "Are we there yet?" I meditate on life and ask myself, "Am I happy yet?" Here's my happiness inventory: I have a great house, but the toilets gurgle incessantly. My 9-year-old son is adorable, but has nerve-shredding sleep habits. My husband of 21 years is worth at least his weight in Godiva, but I'm pretty sure I see my dry...
2. Was it painful bringing up all those memories as you wrote the book?
To be perfectly honest, I had help finding structure. I would write the story itself, each thing as I would remember it. It was really therapeutic. It was actually kind of fabulous, like journaling. I had to get it out.
3. You write that you stayed in an unfulfilling first marriage for 25 years. Why?
My marriage seemed OK because it was better than what I was brought up in. It took 25 years to realize I didn't have to settle and that I could be truly happy.
4. In your book, you said that one of the deepest relationships is with nature. Why is that?
I found peace, joy, and happiness by going outside. Being around rocks and mountains and horses, being outside in wind. Those things kept me alive. I felt more myself when I was climbing up a mountain and feeling everything about my body. That's how I survived my childhood.
5. Your daughter Dree is a model and actor, and your daughter Langley is an artist. How did you feel about them going into the business?
When Dree was born, she was a very showy girl. She's been the same ever since. But I didn't want to let her model until she was 17.
6. Do you worry about the genetic risk of mental illness for your girls?
I used to think about that a lot. Now, because of the things I've done, I know that I can help. It makes me sad that as a society we still fear talking about mental illness when it's far more prevalent than cancer and other diseases. Mental illness is not untenable. You can get to the bottom of this.
source : Q&A With Mariel Hemingway
