Erykah Badu Shares How She Instills Wellness In Her Three Children Ahead Of Merasa Fest
The seven-day Merasa mind and body festival returns with Erykah Badu at the forefront.
Through the manifesto of “Good Times, Do Good,” Merasa collaborates with Potato Head to invite guests to Bali from June 1-8 with an aim to discover themselves deeper as they “grow in harmony with nature’s rhythm.” The four-time Grammy-winner was tapped as she, too, aligns with the theme of “connecting to people and nature.”
While speaking on the forthcoming wellness event, the 53-year-old shared with VIBE how she’s come to be known as a spiritual healer and also how she instills her own practices in her children.
“My earliest introduction to wellness to myself would be maybe when I was about nine years old,” she began. “I was enrolled in a summer program where we had a dance camp, and one of the drummers there in the African portion of the dance camp was teaching us about nutrition and health and wellness, and it poked a hole in the dam for me.”
As a mother of three, she also opened up about her “journey” to becoming a great example who could “demonstrate” practices about wellness.
“Wow. It’s been a journey. My oldest child is 27 now, so, for the past 27 years I’ve been their caregiver, their doctor, their nutritionist, their nurse,” she began. “My youngest is 15, so I hope I’ve instilled my lifestyle and the understanding of wellness into them. And I hope they get to use it in the world.”
“Since they were young, they had to do what I did. Then when they were all around sixth grade, I gave them the choice to do whatever they wanted to do, and they could trade in my rules for my school,” she further explained. “So, if they didn’t want to follow my rules, they still had to come to my school though, where I’d teach them still about these things. They had a choice.”
For Badu, wellness isn’t just a trendy word or something you wake up and decide to do — it’s a way of life. It’s all about “picking up what you also put down.”
“Wellness is demonstrating more than anything,” she continued. “I wanted them to see me be honest. I wanted them to see me go through my lows and highs. I think that’s wellness — without making them responsible for it. I wanted them to share in my joys, and my other births as I had more babies and brought in more members of the family.”
“I think everything that they saw was part of me instilling wellness, good and bad. Especially because we were communicating.”
This year Merasa will deliver a program that features a blend of traditional and innovative practices. Badu will lead morning talk sessions and more, joined by KT The Arch Degree, NOTEP, Fa’ Pawaka, and Waangenga Blanco on certain days.
Those interested in attending Merasa can get more information here.
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