Serena Williams says she has “serious boundaries” when it comes to taking time for herself and looking after her mental wellbeing.
The tennis superstar, who recently revealed her plans for retirement, sat down for a candid conversation with Selena Gomez’s wellness platform, Wondermind.
In the short clip, shared to Gomez’s Instagram account, the actor asks Williams what “mental fitness” means to her.
“Mental fitness for me is just really learning to shut down,” Williams said.
“I did this years ago before mental health was a topic among everyone’s mind. It was more just like, alright I’m shutting myself down today. Subconsciously it was something I’ve always done.”
Williams said this has become increasingly important to her as she has realised the importance of putting her mental health first.
“I have serious boundaries and I don’t let anyone cross those boundaries with time,” she said.
She explained: “For me, it’s so important to make sure that every day I have a period of, like...it’s so bad, because I really don’t do anything for me, I’m terrible at that.
“And I’ve said it time and time again, I’m working on it. But more or less, at least prioritising what I need to do. And then when I’m turned off, I’m turned off.”
In a personal essay for Vogue, published earlier this month, Williams revealed that she is “evolving away from tennis” to focus on growing her family.
The 23-time Grand Slam champion said the decision had not been easy to come to terms with, and that she had struggled to even speak about it with her parents or her husband, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian.
“Believe me, I never wanted to have to choose between tennis and a family,” Williams said.
“I don’t think it’s fair. If I were a guy, I wouldn’t be writing this because I’d be out there playing and winning while my wife was doing the physical labor of expanding our family.”
