Wellness Star Sara Quiriconi’s Genius Feel-Good Hacks
To celebrate thelaunch of her new Live Free Renew 28 day program,she sat down for a chat about her philosophy, the ingredients she uses in her pampering routine (hello,CBD and coconut oils!), and the one thing you can do to change your mindset and make every day a little bit healthier than the last.
Q:
You wear a lot of hats, but thecommon themes in your work center around wellness and living a happy, healthy life. What got you interested in that?
Sarah:
I grew up with the typical American lifestyle—you have mom’s cooking, but you also have junk food like Pop-Tarts. I didn’t know about wellness. I developed an eating disorder at a young age 14 or 15 and then also later struggled with alcohol,which went into my 20s. And then along that path I was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma at 19. So all those things combined together made me decide to develop a healthier lifestyle to live longer andbe happier and to do what I’m passionate about. Aroundthe age of 25,I started to take better care of myself again. I started to eat better. Around age 27,I started to do yoga, which really changed things. So those all tied together,and I got really, really curious about how we can heal ourselves. Now herewe are.
Q:
Speaking of, you have your new Live Free Renew program coming up. What led you to put that together?
Sarah:
The origins of it started from my book “Living Cancer Free”, which hasmore to do with the “cancers” we allow into our lives, like the jobs that take us nowhere, the terrible thoughts we tell ourselves, the limiting beliefs. It hasa workbook of 52 tips, tools, and exercises for detoxing—from things like social media, junk emails, and bad relationships—andthen nourishing. What are we adding into our lives? Then it goes into connecting the mind and body with exercises of meditation. And then there’s the fourth part, and that is about livingfree.
I combined that into the Live Free Renew 28-day program. It has checkboxes for morning activities and each day has an exercise that is manageable. There is movement every day, like 10 to 15 minutes of yoga and stretching. It’s very manageable and approachable, and it’s for everyone. It puts you on your own structure, and it holds you accountable to do it.
Q:
Can you give an example of the kind of steps you urge in the program?
Sarah:
In the morning, you’re making your bed and keeping a clean space, you are drinking two cups of water, you are meditating or visualizing yourself in a successful day ahead.
It’s about small actions that make life easier. If you look in your inbox, how many emails do you get a day that you just hit delete, delete, delete, delete? If you sit for 10 minutes and unsubscribe to 10 of those, it cleans out your life, so you feel freer and lighter.
Q:
You seem very conscious about what you put in and on your body. What’s your philosophy on that?
Sarah:
Certainly you are what you eat. You can exercise all you want,but if you’re not eating properly as well, your body is going to be off and eventually it will show with time.
So what you’re putting into your body matters, and what you put on it matters the same way. You want high-quality products that are clean. Your skin is the biggest organ, so if you wouldn’t putsomethingin your stomach, why should you put on your skin?
Q:
You also are a fan of CBD oil. How did you start using it?
Sarah:
For the longest time I thought, “Oh, I don’t think it’s for me.” Then one morning I woke up with terrible neck pain and I put on Miraflora’s Recovery Balm—I had received a package to try—and I did someof my stretches.The pain was gone. I thought, “Wow, this really works. That’s incredible.” It’s a great tool that can amplify recovery when used properly.
Q:
On a more shallow note, what products do you like for your skin and hair?
Sarah:
I don’t think that’s a shallow thing at all—it’s all interrelated! For my skin, I’m a big fan of mixing moisturizers with coconut oil. I will also do a dry-brush routine and a lymphatic massage. And I try to minimize sun exposure. I live in Miami, so we do our best here, but a little bit of vitamin D is good for you too! And right now my hair is pretty dry—I haven’t gotten it cut in months—so I use Moroccan oil on the ends.
Q:
If you have one piece of advice for someone about to start a self-care journey, what would it be?
Sarah:
It took me many years, but the shortcut version is to visualize yourself as who you want to be. Every morningwhenI wake up to do my meditation, I say “I am a successful actress and talent director inspiring millions of people to be healthy, to be their best self, to never settle, and to be authentic.” I see that for myself.
